AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



41 



Bees and Peaclies.— It seems 

 that Mr. J. A. Pearce, of Grand Rapids, 

 Mich., has been threatened by some 25 

 of his envious or ignorant neighbors, 

 who have gotten up a petition and sent 

 , him, ordering him to " take care of his 

 bees," on account of them eating their 

 peaches, as they foolishly claim. 



The following is a letter received from 

 Mr. Pearce a few weeks ago : 



I mail you a petition sent me by my 

 neighbors — fruit-growers — just to show 

 how some people will act toward their 

 best little friends, or big ones either, if 

 they happen to "step on their toes." 



A year ago all nature was perishing 

 here for want of water, and the first 

 cling-stone peaches (that are nearly all 

 water as they can be), seemed to be the 

 only available supply for the bugs, 

 beetles and bees, and they all went for 

 them — the bugs and beetles first, mostly 

 in the night, and the bees lastly ; and 

 all the trouble was laid to the bees. 

 They were certain the bees were the 

 ones that cut open the peaches. 



The real damage, however, was very 

 insignificant, as I asked one man who 

 had 3,500 bushels, how many peaches 

 had been eaten by the bees, and he said 

 he thought about a bushel ! In my own 

 orchard, I do not think it was more than 

 that, while it would be safe to say that 

 those very bees helped this man to one 

 out of every three peaches, thus making 

 over 1,100 bushels for the one de- 

 stroyed ! 



This year (1892) there have been 

 seasonable rains, and no trouble at all. 



If any one would take the pains to 

 look at a bee going into a flower, or not, 

 and see what an elegant little brush she 

 is, with those curved hairs all around 

 the forepart of her body, and her 

 " bangs," and then to think she must 

 have this pollen to feed her young, those 

 who would thus charge the bees must go 

 and hide their heads for shame, if they 

 are fruit-men, and have been " kicking " 

 about the bees sucking the juice from a 

 few cracked grapes or peaches 1 



J. A. Peabce. 



The following is a copy of the petition 

 referred to by Mr. Pearce, which was 

 signed by 25 neighboring fruit-men : 



We, the undersigned, fruit-growers in 

 your neighborhood, respectfully request 

 you to take care of your bees, for the 

 reason that they do great damage, and 

 we have suffered until we can stand it 



no longer, and we want the matter set- 

 tled in a neighborly manner, so as to 

 relieve us from further damage. Please 

 attend to this at once, and oblige. 



Yours truly. 

 {Signed by 25 persons.) 



We would suggest that Mr. Pearce 

 send to the Manager of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union for copies of the 

 decision rendered by the Arkansas Su- 

 preme Court, declaring emphatically 

 that bees are not a nuisance, and that 

 bee-keepers must be protected in their 

 rights to keep bees. That leaflet would 

 be interesting reading for those 25 who 

 believe in having things done in a 

 " neighborly manner." 



Also, for the benefit of those "neigh- 

 bors," and others who may think that 

 bees eat peaches and other fruit, we 

 present here some testimony on the sub- 

 ject, from one who knew what he was 

 talking about. Read what Mr. B. E. 

 Rice, of Boscobel, Wis., says : 



In reading my bee-periodicals and 

 some of the local papers, I see that there 

 is considerable said from time to time 

 about bees damaging grapes, as well as 

 some other kinds of small fruit. I claim 

 that it is all " bosh," unless the fruit is 

 first injured in some way or another. I 

 make this assertion from my own experi- 

 ence in growing grapes in the same yard 

 with a number of colonies of bees, at the 

 same time using the grapes as shade for 

 the bee-hives. As my attention has been 

 called to this matter at different times, 

 I have given it much thought, and 

 watched it most carefully. 



In the last three years there has been 

 only two instances where the bees have 

 worked on grapes in the least. 



In the first instance the damage was 

 caused by the chickens picking and eat- 

 ing the lower branches, or clusters, that 

 were hanging low down within their 

 reach. The second instance was caused 

 by a very severe hail-storm, which 

 bruised or punctured the grapes enough 

 to expose their seeds, enticing the bees 

 to work on them. This lasted only for a 

 few days, until the bruises became seared 

 over. You will observe that in both in- 

 stances the fruit was first injured before 

 the bees would have anything to do with 

 it, and I do not believe that bees will 

 hurt grapes, or other kind of fruit, un- 

 less it is damaged by something else. 

 Using them as I do for shade for bee- 



