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"This disease, apiphobia as many 

 call it. has affected mankind before. 

 Among some of its attending symp- 

 toms are intense bigotry (sometimes 

 leading to much persecution) and an 

 unreasoning credulity, so that all sorts of 

 horrible stories regarding these ento- 

 mological monsters are eagerly be- 

 lieved. A little knowledge of Natural 

 History is really the onl}- antidote yet 

 discovered against this fell disease." — 

 Prof. A. S. Packard, Entomologist {now 

 of Brown University) in American Nat- 

 uralist, 1869. 



"ARE BEES INJURIOUS TO FRUIT ?" 



' ' All the evidence given by botanists 

 and zoologists who have specially 

 studied the subject, shows that bees 

 improve the quality and tend to in- 

 crease the quantity of fruit. They aid 

 the fertilization of flowers, and thus 

 render the production of sound and 

 well-developed fruit more sure. Many 

 botanists-think if it were not for bees 

 and other insects, many plants would 

 not fruit at all. What is the use of 

 honey ? The best observers will tell 

 you it is secreted by the plant for the 

 very purpose of attracting bees to the 

 flowers or fruit. If all the bees were 

 to be destroyed. I for one. a farmer, 

 would prefer to go into some other 

 business. 



"Farmers know too well the injury 

 various insects do ; it is more difiicult 

 to determine the good done by hosts 

 of beneficial insects. I believe every 

 intelligent bee-keeper and naturalist 

 will assent to the truth of the above 

 remarks." — Prof . Packard in ''Ameri- 

 can Naturalist,'''' 1869. 



" Bees Ds. Fruit.— It is high time, 

 we may add. that the Peabody Acad- 

 emy of Science were in full operation 

 in Essex county when one of its towns 

 voted to abate the nuisance of bees, on 

 the ground that thev are injurious to 

 fruit." 



" As to the nectar of the i-ed clover 

 being out of reach of the honey-bee. 

 it may be asked whether this be the 

 case with the second crop, in which 

 the flowers are generally rather smaller. 

 The much better seed of the second 

 crop is thought to be owing to the 

 greater abundance of bumble-bees in 

 the latter part of summer." — Prof. 

 Gray, in ■■ American Naturalist,''^ 1869. 

 page 160. 



The Professor of Botany, Brown 

 University, W. W. Bailey, says he 

 " has no doubt of the great value of 

 bees in the fertilization of fruit and 

 other crops." 



That bees work on over-ripe or 

 bruised peaches, pears, raspberries 

 and grapes when no honey can be 

 found, is admitted. Where such fruit 

 is of value, can be saved and dried or 

 canned, there might be some loss if 



left exposed where there are large 

 numbers of both wasps and bees near. 

 The housewife saves apples from 

 further decay for a time, by cutting 

 out the soft spots ; may not bees do the 

 same in some cases by removing the 

 free juice from the soft and bruised 

 parts of the fruit ? 



It is noticeable that peaches and 

 other fruits decay most in wet seasons, 

 and these seasons are usually the ones 

 when most complaint is made against 

 bees. Prof. MeLain found that grapes 

 huug in a hive of starving bees kept 

 longer than tliose left on the vines.^ — 

 Page 338. Agricultural Beport. 1885. 



Fruit juice is a source of disease to 

 bees, and if secured in any quantity is 

 liable to cause tlie loss of the colony in 

 winter. It is for the interest of all 

 bee-keepers to exclude such stores 

 from the hives. 



the testimonies op a few practical 

 growers in our state 



might be of use here. 



Mr. James A. Budlong. of Cranston, 

 has grown cucumbers as a specialty for 

 40 years, and is of the firm of James 

 A. Budlong & Son. the largest market 

 gardeners in the State, if not in New 

 England, especially as growers of cu- 

 cumbers and pickle stock. He says. 

 he would as soon try to raise a crop of 

 cucumbers without water and manure, 

 as without bees, in a closed green- 

 house. Without them there would be 

 no crop, they all run to vines, and the 

 blossoms and small cucumbers drop 

 ofl". With open windows he would ex- 

 pect part of a crop. He always places 

 hives of bees in the greenhouses when 

 the vines blossom. Furthermore, he 

 says, for out-door crops, such as cu- 

 cumbers, squashes, pumpkins, etc., he 

 considers bees necessary though the 

 wind does some of the work. A large 

 apiary near by would not be un- 

 welcome. 



The greenhouse and garden products 

 of Dexter Asylum, Providence, are 

 probably next in extent to that of the 

 Budlong Farm. Mr. F. B. Emmons, 

 the one in charge of this work says he 

 would get no cucumbers in green- 

 houses without bees. He thinks they 

 are also of use in raising early melons. 

 He has noticed that melons under hot- 

 beds drop off until glass is removed or 

 raised, also that squashes yield better 

 since bees have been plenty about 

 there. In his opinion they do not hurt 

 fruit that is good for anything, though 

 at times they work on pears, peaches, 

 etc.. that are soft. He believes wasps 

 cut the fruit. He has noticed after 

 very hard winters that there is hardly 

 a bumble-bee to be seen, though sev- 

 eral years later they will be plenty. 

 Thinks if bees were more plenty 

 through the State the farmers would 



be the gainers. On a stand built in a 

 small walled-iu garden patch were 

 several hives of bees that had been of 

 service in llic greenhouse early in the 

 spring. 



Isaac Hazard & Son, South street. 

 Providence, raise cucumbers under 

 glass to quite an extent, and inform us 

 that they find it necessarj* to have a 

 hive of bees where they can visit blos- 

 soms in order to get a paying crop. 



Mr. N. D. Pearce, of Norwood, is 

 pi'obably the largest grower of peaches 

 in the State. He marketed 500 baskets 

 of peaches the past season, and would 

 have sold 2,000 if the wet season had 

 not spoiled most of the crop. He does 

 not consider bees his enemies, though 

 they often work on peaches unfit for 

 market. As to their importance in 

 fertilizing tlie peach bloom, or insuring 

 a crop, he could not give any decided 

 opinion from observation. 



Mr. F. H. Perry, the Providence 

 preserver of fruits in glass, and who 

 also grows and exhibits grapes, said 

 his grapes at one time were cracked 

 and covered with bees, which were suck- 

 ing the juice, and he gave them the 

 blame, but having seen it in print that 

 honey-bees do not cut or injure sound 

 fruit, he noticed more particularly, and 

 found a yellow striped insect, two- 

 thirds the size of the honey-bee. which 

 might be the party doing the work, 

 though bees were most plenty. Some- 

 thing punctured the grapes. 



Robert Cushman, of Pawtucket, a 

 prominent grower and exhibitor of 

 diflerent varieties of fruit, and es- 

 pecially grapes and pears, sajs he 

 knows honey-bees work on cracked 

 grapes and over-ripe peaches and 

 pears, but says, "whether they ever 

 break the sound skin of pears, peaches 

 or grapes, I have no knowledge." 



The Lewis Dexter Farm, near Lime 

 Rock, has produced for many years, 

 if it does not now produce, the great- 

 est quantity and variety of pears for 

 market, of any farm in the State, and 

 it is a significant fact that in Mr. Dex- 

 ter's daj', and also while Mr. Plew 

 (formerly Mr. Dexter's gardener), 

 owned it. a half dozen or more hives 

 of bees were a part of the live stock of 

 the place. 



The decision of the Supreme Court 

 of Arkansas is. that bee-keeping is a 

 legitimate business, and is not a nui- 

 sance, and that the citj' ordinance 

 against bee-keeping in Arkadelphia is 

 illegal and void. (June. 1889.) Some 

 of the points in the defense of Judge 

 Williams, who won the case before the 

 court, may be summed up as follows : 



Because people are afraid of bees, 

 they are not a nuisance. They are no 

 more liable to sting people than horses 

 are to kick, or an ox to gore them, and 

 no more of a nuisance than cows. 



