1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



245 



From your letters I judge you to be a man of 

 candor, and open to conviction ; and, if so, 

 I hope you will give some of the facts, that I 

 am able to present, some consideration. 



By our Feb. 1st issue of Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture, page 91, you will see there has just 

 been litigated at Goshen, N. Y., a case that in- 

 volved new principles in law — a case involving 

 the question whether bees can or do puncture 

 fruit. You will not only see that the case was 

 a peculiarly hard-fought one, and attracted 

 attention far and wide, but that the bees were 

 adjudged not guilty. 



I would call attention to an editorial in our 

 journal in our issue for Feb. 15, page 152, a 

 copy of which we send you ; to another edito- 

 rial on page 150 of the same issue ; also to the 

 following back numbers of our journal con- 

 taining marked articles : Oct. 1, 1900 ; Nov. 

 15, 1896; Jan. 1, 1897. 



You will find an article in the Feb. 15th is- 

 sue, from H. L. Jeffrey, detailing some exper- 

 iments that were conducted at the Connecti- 

 cut Agricultural College. 



If you will kindly take time to read the ref- 

 ferences you will see that bees have not yet 

 been caught in the act of puncturing fruit. 

 Some contend that it is a physical impossibili- 

 ty, owing to the structure of the mouth parts. 

 Again, in every case, if I am corrt ct, of alleged 

 puncture or stinging we have found that birds 

 or some kinds of insects, not bees, have first 

 made the incisions, and that bees afterward 

 helped on in the work of destruction. But as 

 we beekeepers affirm that fruit that has been 

 punctured by birds or insects is worthless or 

 practically so, and while we admit that bees 

 are annoying at times, we deny that they are 

 the original cause of destruction to fruit. 



You will see by the marked items referred 

 to above that I have personally seen the Cape 

 May warbler in the act of puncturing fruit. 

 The beak of this bird is very small and needle- 

 like, and, as a general rule, the punctures are 

 on the top side of the bunches as thev hang 

 on the vines. They will even hunt out the bas- 

 kets of grapes that have already been picked 

 and punctured them. There are about a dozen 

 other birds that are special adepts in this 

 practice. As they get in their bad work early 

 in the morning, usually before any one is up, 

 the bees come in later, run their tongues 

 down into the small holes made by the birds, 

 and suck the berries almost dry, and being 

 observed at work over the punctures get the 

 credit for doing the whole mischief. Now, to 

 convince yourself that bees do not make fresh 

 incisions, I would call attention to the fact 

 that three or four, yes, five or six, will be cir- 

 cling around one hole, sometimes standing on 

 top of each other, all running their tongues 

 down into that same hole. If they could 

 make fresh incisions, they would not crowd 

 and jostle each other as they do ; but each 

 bee would make for itself a hole where it 

 could work without being hampered in its ef- 

 forts to extract the juices. 



Believing you to be a candid man, as I have 

 stated, and open to conviction, I should be 

 very glad to respond to a telegram next sum- 

 mer or fall, when you find the bees punctur- 



ing the grapes ; and while I shall not deny 

 that they will feed upon broken, cracked, or 

 punctured fruit, I think I can show you, if 

 you will go out with me in the morning, that 

 a bird or some insect is the original cause of 

 the mischief. 



Should you desire further information, I 

 would refer you to Assistant Entomologist 

 Prof. Frank Benton, of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. He has made 

 this one subject a very thorough and ex- 

 haustive study. You will also find that all 

 of the various experiment stations in the land 

 that have gone into this matter at all have 

 completely exonerated the bees. 



NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' AS.SOCIATION. 



Objbct : — Defense of the rights of bee-keepers ; pros- 

 ecution of dishonest commission men and glucose 

 adulterators ; but only members are entitled to 

 protection. 



Officers:— E. R. Root, President, Medina, O.; R. C. 

 Aikin, Vice-president Loveland, Col.; Dr. A. B. 

 Mason, Secretary, 3-512 Monroe St., Sta. B, Toledo, 

 O.; Eugene Secor, Gen'l Manager, Forest City, la. 



Fees: — Annual membership fee $1.00 Remittances 

 may be sent here or to General Manager as above. 



We have just received notice that the father 

 of Geo. W. York, editor of the American Bee 

 Journal, died very suddenly at his home in 

 Randolph, Ohio, March 4th. We extend to 

 Mr. York our sympathies. 



The whole month of February was made up 

 of what we would call here in the North de- 

 lightful winter weather. In our locality the 

 temperature never went below zero, and sel- 

 dom did it go above freezing. If such weath- 

 er should continue till the first of April we 

 may expect an early spring. 



CANE AND BEET SUGAR. 



Wanted — an article on beet and cane su- 

 gar, from some one who is in position to tell 

 us about the relative food value to human be- 

 ings as well as to bees, and how much cane 

 sugar there is on the market as compared 

 with beet ; if it is possible to buy a genuine 

 cane sugar ; and if so, how the one may be 

 detected from the other by an ordinary bee- 

 keeper. This article must come from some 

 one who is in position to get information di- 

 rect from both cane and beet sugar factories. 



A CORRECTION. 

 By a strange oversight and an inexcusable 

 blunder on my part, I find that on page 102, 

 in giving a list of the officers of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association, I omitted the name 

 of Secretary Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B, 

 Toledo, O. When I dictated the list I sup- 

 posed I was giving the entire officiary, and 

 was utterly ignorant of the omission until a 



