84 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the skin has been broken by some other means than that which the 

 honey-bee possesses can she gain access to juices, even to so tender 

 skinned fruit as grapes or plums. It has been proven by experi- 

 ments that the honey-Tjee is physically incapable of puncturing a 

 sound fruit. 



In some instances redress for alleged damage to ripe fruit by 

 honey-bees has been referred to the courts. One of the most cele- 

 brated cases of this kind was that of Utter vs. Utter, having taken 

 place at Amity, N. Y. This case resulted in the unanimous deci- 

 sion of the jury to the effect that bees do not puncture sound fruit. 



Experimental tests of the ability of bees to puncture fruit have 

 been made at the Ottawa Experiment Station in Ontario, Canada. 

 Ripe strawberries were first tried and then raspberries. These 

 were suspended within the hives as w^ell as in other places of easy 

 access to bees. The fruits were exposed in at least three different 

 ways. First, the whole fruit; second, whole fruit which had been 

 dipped in honey; and third, similar fruit but with a slight pinhole 

 puncture in each. A second series of experiments was made 

 similarly with peaches, pears, plums, and grapes. "The bees 

 began to work at once both upon the dipped and punctured fruit. 

 The former was cleaned thoroughly of hone}^ during the first night ; 

 upon the punctured fruit the bees clustered thickly, sucking the 

 juice through the punctures as long as they could obtain any liquid. 

 At the end of six days all the fruit was carefully examined. The 

 sound fruit was still uninjured in any way. The dipped fruit was 

 in like condition, quite sound, but every vestige of honey had dis- 

 appeared. The punctured fruit was badly mutilated and worthless; 

 beneath each puncture was a cavity, and in many instances decay 

 had set in. The experiment was continued during the following 

 week, the undipped fruit being left in the brood-chamber; the 

 dipped fruit was given a new coating of honey and replaced in the 

 super, and a fresh supply of punctured fruit was substituted for 

 that which had been destroyed. 



" After the third week the bees that belonged to the two hives, 

 which had been deprived of all their honey, appeared to be very 

 sluggish, and there were many dead bees about the hives; the 

 weather being damp and cool was very much against those colo- 

 nies. These colonies had lived for the first three weeks on the punc- 

 tured fruit and on the honey off of the fruit which had been dipped ; 



