THE UEE-KEEPERS" REVIEW. 



51 



that are any better than suppositions, 

 and we can have them plentifully with- 

 out the trouble of reasoning. At last, as 

 if to overwhelm me utterly with ridicule, 

 Stenog. doles out a flat and impertinent 

 jest. I would not have referred to this 

 matter again were it not for the impor- 

 tance of a serious consideration of weigh- 

 ty- things in apiculture. If the whole af- 

 fair is only a joke, and it is as well to 

 decide a point wrongly as rightly, let us 

 drop the pretence that we are writing and 

 printing to help one another to success 

 in bee-keeping. 



G.\THKRIN'G GRAPES WHEN BEES ARE ON 



THE BUNCHES. 



Referring to Dadant's discussion of the 

 bee-grape question, Hasty (American Bee 

 Journal, 71 1 ) gently apologizing for the 

 grape-man, and suggesting that it is best 

 for the bee-man not to claim too much, 

 says: "It is beyond denial that when a 

 man not inured to stings wants to pick 

 grapes it is a miserable nuisance to have 

 the bunches covered with bees. * * * 

 What does he care — the man with one 

 eye closed, and hands swollen too stiff 

 for service — whether ( theoretically ) bees 

 can puncture grapes or not? " I judge 

 there is danger of granting too nmch as 

 well as claiming too much. To a man 

 without any experience or knowledge of 

 bees it may be something of a nuisance 

 to have the bunches covered with bees, 

 but when he learns the harmlessness of 

 the bees under such circumstances and 

 the advantage the bees are in cleaning up 

 the juices of the grapes, broken either by 

 the birds or by natural bursting, he will 

 welcome them to his grapes I, at least, 

 am glad of the help of the bees in gather- 

 ing up the juice so that it may not aid in 

 hastening the bursting of the sound grapes 

 adjacent, and only regret that they can 

 not gather it more quickly. Verj' few 

 grapes are visited on any other account 

 than by reason of the two kinds of rup- 

 ture I have just referred to; and this I 

 am satisfied any one may verify by cul- 

 tivating a small variety of grapes, includ- 



ing some red grapes of high quality, which 

 the birds like, such as the Brighton, Ul- 

 ster and Lindley, and some that are liable 

 to burst from natural causes, such as the 

 Worden, Delaware and Duchess, and 

 some that neither burst nor are attacked 

 by the birds, such as the Niagara and the 

 Eumelan. With such a list of grapes in 

 bearing, with plenty of bees in the neigh- 

 borhood, any one with an unprejudiced 

 mind of an inquiring turn may quickly 

 discover, with a little observation, that 

 bees never puncture grapes. And, as to 

 closed eyes and swollen hands. Hasty 

 knows, of course, that that would be en- 

 tirely impossible unless one set out with 

 a set determination to make the bees 

 sting him, and that even to the extent of 

 holding them to his face. Away from 

 home, bees do not volunteer to sting. I 

 have gathered tons of grapes when visited 

 by bees for the reasons stated, and I can 

 not recollect that I ever received a single 

 sting while thus engaged. I am quite 

 certain that I never did. I should per- 

 haps add that if one, in gathering grapes, 

 handles them carelessly so that some are 

 broken or torn from their peduncles the 

 bees will visit them in the basket. 



\VH.\T DEGREE OF WINTER-SEVERITY 

 CAIvLS FOR CELLAR-WINTERING 

 OF BEES? 

 In reply to a question in Beginner's 

 Question Box (Gleanings, 804) E. R. 

 Root says: "I would not try to winter in- 

 doors or in the cellar unless the tempera- 

 ture outside ranges near the zero- mark 

 for six or eight weeks at a time." This 

 strikes me as a most remarkable statement. 

 Two weeks of such weather at a time 

 would be sufficient to slamp a winter as a 

 hard one, even up here in Michigan, and 

 vet many of us find it advisable to winter 

 our bees insiae. On referring to the lat- 

 est State Meteorological report I find the 

 longest period during the year 189S when 

 the temperature ranged near the zero-mark 

 was five days, during which the daily mean 

 ranged from —5-3° to +1173°. If Mr. 

 Root's advice were generally received 



