S84 



TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October 



or around the wine press, millions of 

 small brown gnats, the same as you 

 find around cider or vinegar barrels. 

 We call them " vinegar gnats." As 

 soon as grapes are punctured or crack- 

 ed these gnats appear. They lay eggs 

 upon the pulp and within 24 to 48 

 hours the berry is full of little grubs 

 just large enough to be seen with the 

 eye. They hatch and produce so 

 pleantifully that within a few days 

 they darken the air in the vicinity. 



We are today making wine. The 

 beams of our press house above the 

 press and the wine vats are literally 

 black with these little gnats. Would 

 it not be better if the bees could take 

 up all this juice when the berries are 

 damaged than to have a nuisance like 

 these gnats hatched and reared at the 

 expense of the grape grower ? 



But suppose neither bees nor gnats 

 worked upon the fruit after it is crack- 

 ed, what then ? Within 48 hours the 

 juice exposed to the air has begun 

 fermenting, the fermentation is first 

 alcoholic, then acetic, and you have 

 sweet grape juice, wine, vinegar all 

 upon the same bunch. Tell me, what 

 are you going to do wilh that kind of 

 mixture ? Had it not been better if 

 the bees had taken all that threatened 

 to spoil ? 



But here is another trouble and the 

 worst of all for the apiarist. Those 

 juices — grape juice, apple juice, etc., 

 — are not capable of being changed to 

 honey. If the bee harvests them in 

 any quantity so much the worse for 

 her for they will sour on her stomach 

 during the loug nights of winter. 

 Better, far better for our bees, if we 

 could keep them out of the wine grow- 

 ers' domain. Happily, there is honey 

 to be gathered usually, when the 



grapes ripen, and it is not more than 

 one year out of ten that the bees may 

 be seen upon the damaged grapes- 

 But it ts at least evident that the 

 grape grower and the bee keeper are 

 brothers, that their interests are iden- 

 tical, and it is to be regretted that 

 they do not always see it in that light. 

 Hamilton, 111. 



(From The Southland Queen.) 



BEE KEEPING INf NEW MEXICO. 



BY W. C. GATHRIGHT. 



As a field for practical apiculture 

 New Mexico has many advantages to 

 offer. I will endeavor to give, briefly, 

 some of the advantages and disad- 

 vantages. 



To begin with wintering, I will say 

 that it is no trouble to winter bees 

 here, having succeeded the past winter 

 in carrying through a number of three 

 frame nuclei in hives with walls only 

 f inch thick, and no other protection; 

 our winters here are very dry, mild, 

 and even temperature. We are never 

 troubled with too early breeding as is 

 the case with some of the more south- 

 ern localities. 



Here in the Messilla valley there 

 are no black bees, consequently apiar- 

 ists have no trouble in keeping their 

 Italians pure, and I have been told by 

 the oldest bee keepers here that there 

 has never been any disease known 

 among bees since they were first 

 brought here some 20 or more years 

 ago. The main honey flow is from 

 mesquite and alfalfa during spring 

 and summer, and from golden rod in 

 the fall. As to the honey crop there 

 has never been an entire failure, 

 though there have been some poor 

 seasons, but even during the poorest 



