20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan 1 



the bees, and he certainly was the star witness 

 for the defense. He showed by live and dead 

 specimens of bees, and also by charts which 

 he had brought for the occasion, that in his 

 opinion it was a physical impossibility for the 

 bees to puncture fruit with their mandibles, or 

 jaws ; that the jaws of bees were very differ- 

 ent from those of wasps and other insects hav- 

 ing cutting edges or teeth. He chloroformed 

 some live bees and then passed them around 

 to the jury, after our attorneys had obtained 

 consent from the court to do so. He showed 

 them that the delicate tongue, so far from be- 

 ing a "bill" which could puncture a sound 

 peach, was more like a camel's-hair brush ; 

 that it would be absurd to suppose that they 

 could run this through the skin of any sub- 

 stance. He admitted that bees could tear by 

 picking away at fiber, but denied the possibili- 

 ty of their cutting the skin of any fruit. The 

 jaws, or mandibles, had smooth rounding 

 edges, which, he showed by charts, were dif- 

 ferent in this respect from the jaws of a wasp, 

 .that has cutting edges or teeth ; that the man- 

 dibles were made for forming plastic sub- 

 stances like wax ; and even then the wax had 

 to be brought to a temperature of about 

 90 degrees before such work could be per- 

 formed. 



The professor's testimony, so far from bear- 

 ing evidence of prejudice, was what might be 

 termed in legal phraseology " candied," the 

 kind that weighs with a jury. There was no 

 evasion, and no attempt on his part to make 

 all of his testimony in favor of the bees. 

 When asked whether he regarded the experi- 

 ment of confining a few bees in a box with a 

 peach as worth any thing to prove that bees 

 would not or could not puncture sound fruit, 

 he said that, in his opinion, it did not count 

 for much, as he doubted whether they would 

 even help themselves to honey under like cir- 

 cumstances. 



At the conclusion of the testimony for the 

 defense the prosecution called Peach Utter 

 back to the stand, and asked him whether the 

 trees, the fruit of which the bees were alleged 

 to have stung, causing the limbs to die, were 

 alive and in good order. He said yes, in very 

 good order. This testimony was produced, 

 probably, to show that the trees did not have 

 the " yellows " or "wet feet," as was claimed 

 by the defense. But Mr. Bacon, in his final 

 plea before the jury, called attention to the 

 fact that the plaintiff first testified that his 

 trees had been destroyed, and that now they 

 \v&re good a?id sound ; and yet he desired com- 

 pensation for the trees which he at first said 

 were destroyed ! Mr. Bacon made a strong 

 plea, picking up all the important threads of 

 evidence, and hurling them at the jurj' in a 

 most forcible manner. 



The attorney for the plantiff, Mr. Cane, 

 while he did not attack the testimony of Mr. 

 Benton, turned his guns upon A. I. Root, 

 shaking his fist in his face, and calling him 

 the great " poo-bah " of the West. A. I. R. 

 did not appear to relish the compliment ; but 

 the rest of us enjoyed the joke immensely, 

 though there wasn't one of us who knew what 

 "poo-bah" meant. We consoled A. I. by 



saj ing that it signified something big, and told 

 him not lo feel bad. 



Of course, no one could tell absolutely what 

 the jury would do ; but it seemed to be made 

 up, if I could judge by their faces, cf a lot of 

 intelligent, thinking men. 



The judge, in his charge, rehearsed very 

 carefully and impartially the full case, and 

 then said that the j'iry, in order to render a 

 verdict for the plaintiff, must find that the 

 bees of the defendant, and his bees alone, were 

 the trespassers ; and that it (the jury) should 

 further give very careful consideration to ex- 

 pert testimony. The jury then retired, and in 

 about ten minutes returned with a verdict of 

 " no cause for action." 



It will be interesting in this connection to 

 give a few statements from some of the news- 

 papers which, of course,, in the personages of 

 their reporters, looked on the case with an 

 unprejudiced eye. The New York Su7i for 

 Dec. 19 contains this item : 



The National Bee-keepers' Association secured many 

 expert witnesses to prove that bees will not attack 

 perfect fruit. Among them are Frank Benton, assist- 

 ant entomologist of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, and A. I. and E. R. Root, of Medina, 

 Ohio. Bee-keepers from all over the State are assem- 

 bled, and will spend much money to win. Peach Tree 

 Utter's case is tottering, so the local agriculturists say, 

 and there is much rejoicing among the bee-keepers. 



This shows that the National Bee-keepers' 

 Association was regarded as a power on this 

 particular occasion ; for it will be noticed that 

 the item goes on to state that Peach Tree Ut- 

 ter's case was beginning to totter ; and this 

 was before all the evidence had been introduc- 

 ed. On the next day this same paper referred 

 to the evidence of Prof. Frank Benton in the 

 following language : 



The star witness for the defendant, however, was 

 Prof. Frank Benton, an assistant entomologist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. He had 

 spent thirty years studying bees, and for that purpose 

 spent four years in Austria, four in Germany, and 

 several in Eastern countries, in pursuit of bee knowl- 

 edge. He said that the tongue of the bee was soft and 

 pliable, and could not puncture a peach. The inner 

 tongue of the bee is spoon-shaped, and covered with 

 hair. It can not become rigid. It laps its food, which 

 is called nectar, and is fond of rotten peaches. Its 

 feelers are soft, and can not pierce any substance that 

 offers the least resistance. They are supposedly the 

 organs of touch and smell by which bees recognize 

 each other by the odor of the body. Sometimes they 

 will meet and wind their feelers about each other. 

 This is their method of shaking hands. 



The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle for 

 Dec. 21 contained this editorial item : 



After hearing an abundance of expert testimony, a 

 jury in Goshen, New York, has decided that honey- 

 bees do not injure peaches. It was admitted by all 

 that bees are attracted to wounded or decaying 

 peaches, and get some sweets from them, but are in- 

 capable of puncturing a sound peach. The deciding 

 testimony was given by Prof Frank Benton, assist- 

 ant entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. 

 He described the organs by which the bee secures 

 food, and showed that they were soft, and unequal to 

 the puncture of the hairy skin of the peach. A law- 

 suit between brothers was based upon the unfounded 

 supposition that a bee can puncture the skin and in- 

 duce decay. Some other insect or a bird is the proba- 

 ble cause of the injury that became the subject of 

 complaint. It is well for the peach-growers of West- 

 ern New York to understand this matter. 



We have not room to give more clippings ; 

 but these are sufficient to show that the Na- 

 tional Bee-keepers' Association exerted a pow- 

 reful influence in the case, in that it enabled 



