90 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Again, Prof. W. W. Bailey, of Brown University, says: ''That bees 

 work on over-ripe or bruised peaches, pears, raspberries and grapes when 

 no honey can be found is admitted. Where such fruit is of value, can be 

 saved and dried or canned, there might be some loss if left exposed where 

 there are large numbers of both wasps and bees near. The housewife 

 saves apples from further decay for a time by cutting out the soft spots; 

 may not bees do the same in some cases by removing the free juice from 

 the soft and bruised parts of the fruit?'' 



BEES OFTEN SLANDERED, 



I have quoted these men because they were not financially interested in 

 either bees or fruit and are supposed to be unbiased seekers after truth. 

 Much more evidence of the same character might be given to prove that 

 the bee is not a thief. Indeed, on several occasions the bee has been tried 

 in the courts for stealing fruit and so far as I know has invariably been 

 acquitted, I must conclude for myself, after reading the literature very 

 carefully, that it is slander pure and simple to Bay that bees injure fruit. 



Fruit growers attacked with apiphobia not only Slander the bee, but the 

 beekeeper, like other good people, is not infrequently slandered. It is 

 claimed, so- the statement goes in a case in court of which I read, that the 

 beekeeper was willfully negligent and should be liable for the injury his 

 bees had done. But as I understand it, fruit juice is a source of disease 

 to bees, and if any quantity is secured the colony is likely to be lost in the 

 winter. Thus the beekeeper is sued for damages, and at the same time 

 stands liable to lose his bees from colic brought on by eating the fruit 

 grower's rotten fruit. Truly the beekeeper is, to use a pun of Hood's, "an 

 unfortunate beeing," 



But the fruit grower is not always the complainant in tlie law cases. 

 The beekeeper has been known to take his troubles to the courts. On 

 several occasions the strong arm of the law has been felt by the fruit 

 grower who had been guilty only of spraying his plants a little after blos- 

 soms had appeared. As a fruit grower I appeal to you beekeepers: ''Is 

 it not enough that we furnish you free pasturage for your winged stock? 

 Do you realize that we cannot exclude your greedy, stinging ])roperty 

 from our orchards? We cannot forbid them the boundary line, nor im- 

 pound the trespassers, nor fence them out, and no action for trespass can 

 be brought against you. Come now, is it fair to drag us into the courts 

 should winds and rains delay our spraying a little into the blossoming 

 time? Why should we, friend beekeeper, whose interests overlap, go to 

 law? Let us recognize our mutual dependence. What we fruit growers 

 and you beekeepers need, instead of courts, is good neighborship. Instead 

 of invoking temporal laws, let us try those which the psalmist tells us 

 ''are sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb," and in the keeping of 

 which "there is great reward," 



SPRAYED BLOSSOMS DANGEROUS. 



It should be said in passing that there is no doubt but that bees are 

 killed in collecting honey from blossoms that have been sprayed. For a 

 long while there was little but hearsay on the subject, but several exper- 

 iments within the past decade have proved conclusively that bees are 



