1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



827 



A detachment of Spanisli soldiers surprised six 

 insurgents, who, however, made their escape, which 

 angered the Spaniards, and they began to raid tlie 

 houses in the neighborhood, alleging tliat the in- 

 habitiints were in sympathy with the rebels. 



The Spaniards went to the sugar-estate of Fred- 

 erick L. Craycraft, who came here from Indiana 

 about three years ago. Some of tlie soldiers enter- 

 ed the house, and two of them seized Mrs. Cray- 

 craft and she was brutally treated. The husband 

 in desperation rushed to his wife's aid, but was 

 strucK down by a sword in tlie hands of an officer. 

 Two terrible gashes were made in his back, and his 

 right arm nearly severed. The Spaniards looted the 

 house, took $850 in cash, and then raided other 

 houses on the estate. They burned eight buildings 

 and shot and killed nineteen inmates, four of whom 

 were women. 



Craycraft, when he recovered sufficiently, wrote 

 to Vice Consul Springer, at Havana. It is under- 

 stood that the Vice-Consul cabled an account of the 

 outrage to Secretary Olney. 



I am sure our readers will all join with us in 

 wishing that Secretary Olney see that full 

 reparation is made. We shall be glad to hear 

 from Mr. Craycraft direct. In the meantime 

 we trust that Mrs. Craycraft was not one of the 

 number who were slain. 



over Mr. B. Perhaps Mr. Danzenbaker's taller 

 and thinner sections weighing nearly a pound 

 would solve both difficulties. 



LIGHT-WEIGHT SECTIONS A DETRIMENT TO THE 

 PHILADELPHIA MARKET. 



We have just had a pleasant call from Mr. 

 W. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, the honey-man 

 of that city. Among other things, he called 

 attention to the fact that light weights in comb 

 honey were a real detriment to his market. 

 For instance, Mr. A will sell the combs by the 

 piece; Mr. B by the pound. The former dis- 

 plays his honey and marks it 16 cts. ; the latter 

 displays his at 20 cts. Mr. B, as a consequence, 

 is placed at a disadvantage. A customer ap- 

 proaches him and asks the price of his honey, 

 and is met with the response, "20 cents." 



"Humph!" says the customer, "lean buy it 

 down at A's for 16 cts." 



The fact of the matter is, both men sell the 

 honey at the same price; but Mr. A's way 

 gives the impression that his honey goes for 16 

 cts. a pound, when in reality he receives 20. 



"But," said I, "why can't Mr. B. sell his 

 honey by the piece ? " 



" He can," said Mr. S., "but here is the trou- 

 ble: B's honey is put up in 1% sections, and 

 weighs about 15 ounces, while A's honey is put 

 up in 1 % sections, and weighs about % lb. The 

 general public do not discriminate between the 

 light weight and the heavier honey; and the 

 consequence is, the man with the light weight 

 has the advantage." 



Dr. Miller, I know, has often called attention 

 to this matter, saying that he believed the 

 whole light-weight business was a species of 

 dishonesty, or at least something to that effect. 



There is another view we can take of this 

 whole matter; namely, that sections of thinner 

 combs are drawn out, ripened, and capped over 

 more quickly than sections of the same weight 

 but of greater thickness. If the whole bee- 

 keeping world should change over to the thin- 

 ner section, Mr. A would have no advantage 



BIRDS, bees, and GRAPES. 



In our last issue we had something to say re- 

 garding the depredations of the little bird on 

 ripe grapes — how it made little fine pinhole 

 punctures which had been hitherto attributed 

 to the bees, but which are now known to have 

 been made by a certain kind of bird with a very 

 sharp beak. Prof. Green styled the bird a gold- 

 finch; but the special markings of the little cul- 

 prit itself do not correspond with the markings 

 laid down in the Standard dictionary for gold- 

 finch; and, moreover, we are familiar with the 

 yellowbirds, and they are quite different from 

 the grape-stabber, as we will call it for want of 

 a better name. Well, whatever this bird is, it 

 seems that the English sparrow comes in for a 

 very large share of blame also. His birdship 

 needs no introduction. In Bulletin No. 1 of the 

 Division of Economic Ornithology and Mam- 

 mology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 I find this: • 



Among fruits, grapes appear to suffer most; and, 

 although many grapes are raised without protec- 

 tion in places where sparrows are considered fairly 

 abundant, there is every reason to believe that, 

 sooner or later, this bird will discover and injure 

 them wherever its increase is tolerated. It has 

 been shown that grape-buds are frequently de- 

 stroyed in the eai-ly spring; and the fact that one 

 hundred and twenty -seven observers, representing 

 twenty-six States and the District of Columbia, now 

 (1888) bear witness to injury to ripening fruit, may 

 well cause apprehension among grape-growers who 

 have not suffered any loss as yet 



Those who have watched closely the movements 

 of the sparrow when among the grapes agree that 

 he pecks many more grapes than he eats; and his 

 actions at such times, together with the fact that he 

 frequently picks off leaves and shoots, which he 

 does not eat, lend some color to the statements that 

 he willfully destroys, simply for the pleasure of de- 

 struction. 



In this locality we have not'observed that the 

 sparrow was actually puncturing the grape 

 berries. We have noticed, however, that they 

 were very numerous around our grapevines; 

 and it is possible that they have been guilty of 

 some of the mischief. I should greatly like to 

 bear from our readers as to whether they have 

 observed the sparrow puncturing grapes. While 

 we are not supposed to be running a fruit-jour- 

 nal, we are desirous of proving that there are 

 numerous birds, as Prof. Green stated, that 

 puncture grapeskins, and that it is not the bee. 



Counting what has been already observed re- 

 garding the bird grape-stabber, and what is al- 

 ready reported regarding the English sparrow, 

 I think it is clearly proven that the little pin- 

 hole punctures and other punctures are not 

 made by bees; and while we can not deny that 

 they may sometimes come in and make matters 

 worse, they are not the real cause. 



One of our neighbors, Mr. George Carringtou, 

 a fruit-grower, seeing the item in our issue for 

 Oct. 15, reported seeing just such peculiar kind 



