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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 2, 



but if caught in the hand or hair, or otherwise, they will try 

 to sting, of course. But bees are tolerably quick in resenting 

 any disturbance that threatens injury to their homes, yet with 

 fair discretion they are wonderfully easy to get along with. 

 But if I were not familiar with bees 1 would not kick over a 

 live hive in summer tine, nor operate a heavy road-scraper 

 on dry, stony ground within three or four rods of an apiary, 

 nor hitch a team where bees were passing and repassing (even 

 tho I were one of that class whom bees never sting), without 

 taking the advice of some one skilled in the management of 

 bees. 



3rd. And last, because of a belief that bees do injury to 

 ripe fruit. 



There is no question that during times of dearth of nectar 

 in warm weather, that bees seek to gather the juices of broken 

 fruit, and some fruit-growers contend that they actually cut 

 through the skin of the grape — some are very positive, affirm- 

 ing that they know they do — that they have actually wittiest 

 the operation. I feel some sympathy for this class, since once, 

 tho familiar with the arguments against it, I was more than 

 half inclined to believe that in some way bees sometimes 

 forced open the skin of grapes. For years I have taken great 

 pleasure in raising a considerable variety of grapes, and when 

 I sometimes saw the bees crowding their heads between the 

 berries of fine, compact and apparently perfect bunches of 

 Delawares, and afterward found that many of the berries 

 were suckt dry, my faith in the bees inability weakened 

 greatly. 



Further investigation showed that while ruptures of the 

 skin of the Duchess grape were plainly seen, none were ordi- 

 narily evident in a ruptured Delaware. In short, I found that 

 grapes of different varieties varied in their manner of crack- 

 ing — some cracking lengthwise, and others crosswise or 

 diagonally. 



The cracking is, I think, caused by the crowding of the 

 berries upon each other, which is induced by their swelling, 

 owing to abundant moisture. At least so far as I have ob- 

 served, the cracking is confined almost entirely to compact 

 clusters. 



Of the many varieties I have in bearing, the work of the 

 bees has usually been confined almost exclusively to the 

 Delaware and the Lady ; but on account of the wetness of 

 the season, the Duchess and the Salem were added to the list 

 last year, and these are the ones to whichcracking was almost 

 exclusively confined. It was a significant fact that the work 

 of the bees was confined to the compact clusters of these 

 varieties, while the loose clusters neither crackt nor were 

 visited by bees. 



In all these, except the Delaware, the cracks were plainly 

 seen on the visible part of the berries. In the Delaware the 

 cracks are out of sight, being transverse, and near the stem 

 end. 



In July last, the rainfall being so great that more than 

 the usual amount of cracking was anticipated, I decided to 

 determine, if possible, whether grapes from which bees were 

 excluded, but still left on the vines, suffered in any different 

 degree from those to which the bees had free access. To 

 shutout the bees, paper sacks were used, folded over the 

 clusters and pinned. More than a thousand sacks were put 

 upon grapes of the Vi varieties I am about to mention. Many 

 of these become ripe early in September, and by the 2-ith all 

 were ripe except Jefferson and lona. 



In the case of the following, there was no damage either 

 inside the bags or out, viz.: The Agawam, Eaton, Eumelan, 

 lona. Lindley, Niagara and Ulster. Brighton suffered none 

 in the sacks, little out. The Diamond, a little in and a little 

 out. The .Jefferson, a very little in and the same out. Tho 

 Delaware, Duchess and .Salem suffered much in, and some- 

 what less out. 



In the case of the three kinds much injured, it became 

 constantly more evident that the damage to those in the bags 

 was greater than to those to which the bees had access. This 

 was especially true of tho Duchess and the Delaware. .S ) 

 evident was it that tho reason of this lay in the fact that tho 

 juice oozing from the crackt grapes in the bags was com- 

 municated to contiguous sound grapes, causing weakness of 

 skin, cracking, and incipient decay, that by the middle of the 

 month of September I hastened to remove the bags from these 

 varieties, that tho bees might gather the juice from the broken 

 grapes. 



To my mind, the conclusion Is inevitable, that not only do 

 bees not injure grapes, but that by gathering the juices of 

 crackt ones they prevent decay, and thereby the destruction 

 of sound grapes. R. L. Taylor. 



Dr. C. C. Miller — I don't believe that there Is much good 

 that can come from our discussing this paper, but it would do 



lots of good if it could be laid before the horticultural class. It 

 might be put in our home papers, or brought up at our farm- 

 ers' institutes, and do good in that way. 



Rev. E. T. Abbott — There is one more point that ought to 

 be brought out.and that is that secretion of nectar stops as soon 

 as the blossom is fertilized, the same as the extra energy of 

 a female animal is turned to the production of a new life in 

 reproduction. 



E. R. Root — If no one else does anything about this mat- 

 ter, we will get out Mr. Taylor's paper in the form of a leaflet, 

 and give it away. 



Mr. Abbott — Can't this association do something to pre- 

 vent the spraying of trees while in bloom ? 



R. F. Holterraann — We now have in Ontario a law against 

 the spraying of trees while in bloom. The outer covering of 

 the fertilizing part of blossoms is very tender, and to spray 

 when in bloom, even with water, may work an injury, hence 

 those who spray when the trees are in bloom are destioying 

 their own fruit. 



W. Helm — In Ohio the experiment stations are issuing 

 bulletins in regard to spraying, and but very little of it is done 

 out of season. 



(Continued next week.) 





Wiutering Bees in Snow-Banks. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTl.K. 



I am askt to give an article in the American Bee Journal 

 on wintering bees in a snow-bank, the one desiring this article 

 wishing to know if he can winter bees successfully by setting 

 them near a hedge that he has at one side of his apiary, over 

 which the snow usually drifts so that there Is a continuous 

 bank of snow there from early in December till the first of 

 April, or later. He says he has been advised to put them in 

 this place, but before doing this he wisht the advise of others. 



Years ago we used to hear more about wintering bees un- 

 der snow than we do of late, and from the general advice of 

 that time I was led to test the matter, as nearly every one 

 said that bees wintered well under snow. But my experience 

 was not in accord with this, however, as I found that if the 

 hives were covered from half to two-thirds of the way up the 

 brood-chamber they wintered well ; but if the hives are cov- 

 ered completely over, and stay so for any length of time it is 

 a positive damage to the bees, and worse than no snow at all. 



For several winters, when I first began to keep bees, I 

 wintered my bees in the cellar, but not attaining the success 

 which I thought was necessary, I concluded to winter them 

 on the summer stands during one winter, and as the snow fell 

 sweep it up around the hives. I did this, and by the forepart 

 of December I had the hives covered from sight. This made 

 little snow mountains all over the yard, and I was so en- 

 chanted with the thing that I wondered that I had never 

 thought of it before. At the end of about a month we had a 

 thaw, when I lookt at the bees and found that their warmth 

 had so thawed the snow that a cat or rabbit could easily go 

 all around between the hives and the snow. I was much 

 pleased over the apparent success, and concluded that I had 

 now found just the way to winter bees. The bees appeared, 

 however, to bo rather restless, for upon raising the covering 

 some fiew out and were lost in the cold air, instead of being 

 quiet, as they usually were in the cellar. As the next day 

 was fine they all had a cleansing flight, and all appeared well. 



The winter now changed so that instead of having snow 

 for most of the time as we usually do, there was little or no 

 snow the rest of the time till spring opened. At that time I 

 found that I had lost fully one-third of my bees, while those 

 that were left were not at all strong in numbers. I thought 

 this was owing to our almost snowless winter, and I believed 

 that, if I could have had snow to cover them all winter, no 

 loss would have occurred. One thing I noticed, however, 

 which was that all the hives which I opened at the time of the 

 thaw had brood in from two to three combs, while in April 

 scarcely a bit of brood was to be found in any hive. I rea- 

 soned that had the snow continued, brood-rearing would have 



