Feb. 21, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



119 



would not sell supplies, or other goods for that matter, on 

 credit at all— except where satisfactory guarantees exist. 

 And I doubt the wisdom of any exceptions at all. Some 

 individuals are small, querulous, mean, unreasonable. 

 These must be avoided. 



To ship supplies— the same to be paid for after inspec- 

 tion and approval by the purchaser— would be more satis- 

 factory than the requirement to pay in advance. Even fair, 

 reasonable, capable men might differ as to the merits of 

 goods. But if both want to do right, they will reach agree- 

 ment. 



I do not concur in Mr. Dittmer's paragraph as to pub- 

 lishers, if he means just what his language seems to con- 

 vey. 



Mr. Root's advice to deal thru a wholesale house, in my 

 own State, is objectionable because involving needless ex- 

 pense. I will prove this at another time. Questions of lo- 

 cality and local freight charges enter in. 



I demur to Mr. Falconer's remark that one who pro- 

 duces honey and sells it " is not in business." There is no 

 reason why a little class of people with names in commer- 

 cial reports should entirely monopolize the title, " business 

 men." 



But enough for to-day. A few neighborly remarks in 

 the future, perhaps. 



Do Bees Puncture Fruit? Not Their Nature. 



BV I'ROF. A. J. COOK. 



I HAVE received from Hon. Eugene Secor, general man- 

 ager of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, the fol- 

 lowing interesting correspondence : 



I'lior. A. .1. Cook— 



Dmr Hi,:-] ^ellll vou a copy of a Icttc-i- received from I'rot. Sliiiu'- 

 ei-laiui, (i£ t'oniell Iniversity. New York. I woulil like tu kni>\v Imw 

 vim eoineide witli the opinion of his senior ]>r()fessiM- ret;:irdint: tlie 

 -trneture of the bee's mouth. I have been led to think differently. I 

 liad Ijcen intending to send Prof. Siingerland as an expert witness in a 

 •ease we have in New York, but, after receiving this letter, I changed 

 my mind and did not ask him to go. I will rely on your statement of 

 I lie ease whether you agree with him or not. Yours truly, 



EriiENE 8EC01!. 



The following is Mr. Slingerland's letter to Mr. Secor : 



iTHAC.i. N. Y.. Nov. 'JO. IDlNI. 

 .\I K. EiciEXE Secor.— 



y>ur .Sic-- Yours of the 11th inst. at hand. 1 enelose a eupy of 

 my Kural New Yorker article. This is as far as I can go in tlir maitir. 

 I have no original data to offer, and I do not feel eonipitmi in tr^iiiy 

 regarding the capabilities of the mouth-parts of the hoiii\-liee to liite. 



Prof. J. H. t'omstoek. head of the Entoniologieal l)epar|nieiit. is 

 as competent as anyone in the country to testify regarding tliese 

 jioints. He has kept bees and has taught the strui-tin-e of tlieir moiitli- 

 parts for years. For me to prepare myself sullieienliy to testify with 

 knowledge would reiiuire more time than 1 can ilevote to it. With .Mr. 

 Henton, I do not think you will have any trouble to reverse llie venliit 

 of the lower court. I do not know enough about the mouth-parts to 

 help you any. 



1 have just seen Prof. Comstock, and he says that he sees im 

 reason, from what he knows of the mouth-parts, why a honey-bee 

 should not be able to bite into a grape or peach. Hence, I doubt if 

 you eould get desirable testimony from here. 



Sincerely yours, M. V. Si.iNCiEiii.ANH. 



I regret that these letters were mislaid during my ab- 

 sence from home and have but just come to ray notice. Of 

 course it is too late to be of any use in the lawsuit which 

 was then pending. It is, however, a matter of such general 

 importance that a full consideration of the subject will not 

 be "out of place. 



I fully agree with Prof. Slingerland, that no one in the 

 country is better qualified to give an opinion in general 

 matters of entomology than is Prof. Comstock. I do not 

 wonder that he made the remark that he could see no reason 

 from the structure of the mouth-parts of the honey-bee why 

 it might not be able to bite into grape or peach. I should 

 greatly hesitate to state that a bee could not puncture ripe 

 fruit. I think Mr. Benton made such a statement in the 

 suit referred to. I am rather inclined to the opinion that 

 they could do so if they only knew their ability and had the 

 curiosity to prompt the quest. I am, however, entirely cer- 

 tain that bees never do bite into fruit. They never attack 

 any fruit until the oozing juice calls them to this luscious 

 bantjuet. It simply is not their nature to do so. They at e 

 only attracted by odors in connection with color, and with- 

 out the odor they would ever leave the fruit unmolested. If 

 the skin of the fruit is intact, the odor is retained and tlie 

 bee makes no visit. It certainly is the habit of bees ever to 



leave unmolested any and every sealed vessel like sound 

 grape, cherry or peach. 



I presume I have experimented more in this direction 

 than any one else in the country, and therefore I may claim 

 with some assurance the ability to give a correct judgment 

 in the matter. I have repeatedly taken clusters of sound 

 grapes that were very ripe, and pierced certain of them 

 with pin or needle so that the juice would ooze out, and then 

 placed them near the hive, or upon the alighting-board of 

 the hive, and often upon the frames above the cluster of 

 bees within the hive. This was done when there was no 

 nectar to be gathered in the field, at which time, as every 

 apiarist knows, the bees are ravenous to gather from any 

 possible source. The bees would suck the wounded fruit 

 but leave every other grape entirely untoucht. This was 

 done over and over again, and always with the same re- 

 sults. The bee has a large brain for an insect, but, brainy 

 as it is, it seems unable to form a judgment in the matter 

 of the coveted juice if the latter be sealed up by the skin of 

 the grape. 



Every grape-grower has observed at some time when 

 the grapes of the vineyard are very ripe, and when the 

 weather is sultry and humid, that all at once the bees will 

 rush to the vineyard and commence to sip juice from the 

 grapes in great numbers. (Jf course, in such a case the 

 presumption would be that the bees had bitten into the 

 grapes. Examination proves, however, that this conclusion 

 is utterly at variance with the truth. The overripe grapes 

 affected by the sultry, humid atmosphere, were ruptured, 

 and the tiny droplet of oozing juice hailed the eager bees 

 and they rusht to the vintage with one accord. No wonder 

 the vin'eyardist blamed the bees. The truth blamed the 

 vineyardist, as he should not have allowed the grapes to be- 

 come so overripe. In such case, I have hung sound grapes 

 among those visited by the bees, and not one was toucht. 



Some years ago, I was lecturing in the famous fruit re- 

 gion of South Haven, Mich. In my lecture, I stated the 

 truth that bees never bite into fruit, and never attack the 

 fruit to sip the juice, except that bird, wasp or Nature had 

 set the latter to flowing previous to the visit of the bees. 

 Many fruit-growers present were vehement in opposition to 

 my view. 'They were certain that the bees would attack 

 and eat into sound fruit. They had already exprest the 

 wish that I would come the following summer and lecture 

 to them again. I had exprest the fear of my inability to do 

 so on account of college duties. I gave them an account of 

 my experiments as given above, and said that I was not 

 sure that bees could not eat into grapes. I was absolutely 

 certain that they did not. They said that if I would come 

 the next autumn they would prove to me that I was wrong. 

 I replied that I would surely come ; that they might telegraph 

 to me at my expense, when I would take the first train. I 

 added, however, " Look closely before you send the tele- 

 gram, for if I show you after I come that I am right and 

 you are wrong, then f shall want not only expenses, but paj- 

 for my time." Many present said, " 'V\'e'll have you here 

 next autumn." 



The telegram never came. I lectured there afterwards 

 many times, and was gratified to find that the opinion on 

 the question was entirely changed. The pomologists were 

 one with me in the matter. 



Some years later, I was lecturing in the grape-growing 

 region of Sandusky, Ohio, where there was almost an exact 

 repetition of my former experience at South Haven, Mich. 

 The Sanduskians sent no telegram, but repeated my experi- 

 ments, only to become convinced that I was right. 



It may be askt how I can be so certain that bees never 

 do puncture grapes, when I acknowledge a possibility that 

 they might be able to do so as far as the anatomy of their 

 jaws is concerned. Bees, like all other animals, not exclud- 

 ing ourselves, are creatures of habit. Our fathers, not 

 many generations since, put a stone in one end of the meal- 

 bag to balance it on the horse They simply didn't think 

 that meal as well as a stone could balance meal. While I 

 feel sure that bees think a little, they are away behind us in 

 this respect. Their every habit leads them to peer into the 

 flower-tube in search of the precious nectar. They never 

 go in quest of the sweet unless the escaping odor summons 

 their presence. It is easy to understand why, with their 

 limited thought and meagre reasoning powers, they never 

 go peering into grape or other fruit so long as the same are 

 sealed. Once let the juice ooze out of apple, pear, peach 

 cherry or plum, and they are not slow to hasten to orchard 

 or vineyard that they may stay the waste. It is not, then, 

 a practical question whether they can or can not pierce the 

 tender skin of overripefruit. They never do so. And so 



