248 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as a manure, equal for that purpose to perhaps about the same quality 

 of bran, and in no case could it amount to more than a few pounds from 

 a large farm. 



Some are so constituted that they could bear the loss with equa- 

 nimity if they knew it was occasioned by bees from the woods, but 

 would be grievously disturbed if they were conscious that it was car- 

 ried to the hives of a neighbor. But I h-ive never known a fruit- 

 grower made on that plan. 



2nd. Because of a belief that bees are continually moved by a de- 

 sire to sting. This is a great mistake. Bees absolutely never volun- 

 teer to sting when absent from their hives, but if caught in the hand 

 or hair, or otherwise, they will try to sting, of course. But bees are 

 tolerably quick in resenting any disturbance that threatens injury to 

 their homes, yet with fair discretion they are wonderfully easy to get 

 along with. But if I were not familiar with bees I would not kick over 

 a live hive in summer time, nor operate a heavy road-scraper on dry, 

 stony ground within three or four rods of an apiary, nor hitch a team 

 where bees were passing and repassing ( even though I were one of that 

 class whom bees never sting), without taking the advice of some one 

 skilled in the management of bees. 



3rd. And last, because of a belief that bees do injury to ripe 

 fruit. 



There is no question that during times of dearth of nectar in warm 

 weather that bees seek to gather the juices of broken fruit, and some 

 fruit-growers contend that they actually cut through the skin of the 

 grape — some are very positive, aftirming that they know they do — that 

 they have actually witnessed the operation. I feel some sympathy for 

 this class, since once, though familiar with the arguments against it, I 

 was more than half inclined to believe that in some way bees sometimes 

 forced open the skin of grapes. For years I have taken great pleasure 

 in raising a considerable variety of grapes, and when I sometimes saw 

 the bees crowding their heads between the berries of fine, compact 

 and apparently perfect bunches of Delawares, and afterwards found 

 that many of the berries were sucked dry, my faith in the bees' ina- 

 bility weakened greatly. 



Further investigation showed that, while ruptures of the skin of 

 the Duchess grape were plainly seen, none were ordinarily evident in 

 a ruptured Delaware. In short, I found that grapes of different varie- 

 ties varied in their manner of cracking — some cracking lengthwise, and 

 others crosswise or diagonally. 



The cracking is, I think, caused by the crowding of the berries 

 upon each other, which is induced by their swelling, owing to abund- 



