The Lancaster Farmer. 



Prof. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., NOVEMBER, i877. 



Vo!. IX. No. 11. 



NOTICE EXTRAORDINARY. 



To every new subscriber who sends in his 

 name, and the regular amount of subscription, 

 between now and the fust of .January n(^xt, 

 we will send a copy of The Fakjieh for 187S 

 and include the numbers for November and 

 December of the present year. See our 

 PiiEMiUM List in another column. 



Our patrons, and especially the members 

 of our local society, will bear in mind that 

 the "Pennsylvania Fruit-Growers' Society," 

 will nn'ct in the borough of Williamsport, in 

 ■lanuary ne.xt, and, judginj; from the spirit of 

 the place in other active enterprises, they 

 may expect a Ih'c meeting and a good time. 

 Our society should not omit to appoint dele- 

 gates at least at its December meeting. 



TO OUR DELINQUENT SUBSCRIBERS. 



There are a large number of subscriptions 

 on our list that are still unpaid, and we need 

 every cent of it to keep our chin, linancially, 

 above water. Only a trirte more than one- 

 third of the subscriptions for 1877 liave thus 

 far been i)aid. We are publishing The 

 Fai!MEk without any marginal prolit ; and, 

 if every penny now clue us was jiaid up, it 

 would do nothing more than cover our ex- 

 penses. Will our patrons be kind and con- 

 siderate enough to give heed to these things V 

 AVe need not only present help, but we need 

 an increased subscription list, to sustain us 

 through the coming year. Shall we be able to 

 make a more satisfactory record in our Decem- 

 Iier number ? 



DO BEES CUT OR STING THE SKINS 

 OF FRUIT? 



It is .said that on a certain occasion four 

 blind men desired to have a practical demon- 

 stration of what an elephant was like, and, 

 as siijkt was out of the question, they essayed 

 to have it by feeling. The first advanced and 

 happened to seize the animal's tusk, when a 

 ray of light seemed to illuminate his counte- 

 nance and he exclaimed, " Ah ! now I know 

 what an elephant is like; it is like a great 

 horn." The .second approached, and by the 

 same blind chance seized its tail, when he re- 

 marked, " Ah, brother, you are greatly mis- 

 taken, for an elephant is not like a horn, but 

 like a heavy rope." The third seized the 

 aniinal by one of its huge legs and exclaimed, 

 " No, brothers, you are Vioth most egrcgiously 

 mistaken, for an elephant is like the trunk of 

 a tree." Then the fourth approached, and 

 hat>pened to get hold of one of its great ears, 

 when he, with some feeling, alleged that they 

 were all mistaken, for an elephant was like 

 neither a horn, a rope nor a tree trunk, but, 

 on the contrary, it was like a leather apron. 

 Now, these men were all specifically right, but 

 generically wrong ; for, having demonstrated 

 the subject from difterent standpoints, they 

 were only able to render a partial judgment, 

 and this seems to to fclie category in which the 

 gentleman are who have recently been venti- 

 lating tlie subject of bees stinging fruit 

 through the columns of the New Era 

 and other newsi>apers. Although we have 

 said as much as we deemed necessary 

 to say (in the October number of The 

 Faksiek,) on this subject, yet, as it seems to 

 have become an im|)ortant one, even involving 

 the grape crop of the country, we have con- 

 cluded to place the different views of the gen- 

 tlemen we alluded to in our article, on record; 

 because we are well acquainted with all of 

 them, and believi^ them to be honest in their 

 views, and that their experience, up to the 

 present time, has just been as they say. The 

 season is now past, but another season will 



give them an opportunity to confirm their 

 views or disavow them. The matter involved 

 is a local one, and is discussed by local writers 

 and observers, and whatever ultimately may 

 be determined as "the truth, the whole 

 truth, and nothing but the truth," will be of 

 general interest to the whole country. We 

 have arranged these papers mnnerically as 

 they ai)i)eared in print from one to six, and 

 would admonish our patrons in reading them 

 not to omit our paper on the subject in the 

 number of The Fakmeu above alluded to, 

 because it contains some suggestions on the 

 subject which they do not appear to have duly 

 considered, and may assist them in solving 

 the problem. 



Do Bees Destroy Fruit? No. i. 

 As regularly as the autumn comes around 

 we are treated with long accounts of the 

 depredations committed by that industrious 

 honey-gatherer — the bee. The charges brought 

 against them are not only many, but as seri- 

 ous as they are numerous. Nine times out of 

 ten these charges aie brought by persons in- 

 capable of iironouncing an ojnnion, but who 

 swell the hearsay cry of denunciation merely 

 becau.se it is popular or in conse(iuence of some 

 unrelialjle information received at second 

 hand. The result of all this is, that the poor 

 bees have a hard time of it. It is to relieve 

 them from at least one, and that the most 

 serious of all the accusations against them, 

 that we write this article. 



No opinion seems to be more generally 

 prevalent than that liees tear open the outer 

 skins of grapes, plums, peaches and other 

 fruits for the purpose of feasting on the sweet 

 juices within. I3ecause they are found on 

 these fruits in the act of committing a tres- 

 pass, they are condemned without a hearing 

 or any consideration whatever. It is most 

 commonly said they sting the fruit. This is 

 the result of sheer ignorance. Neither the 

 bee nor any other insect employs its sting for 

 .such purposes ; they have them for other uses, 

 as a means of defense against enemies, and 

 use them solely as nature designed that they 

 slionld. It is as impossible for a bee to sting 

 open a grape as it is for it to open a walnut or 

 a shellbark by the same process. Its only 

 means to commit the deed of which it is ac- 

 cused, is the proboscis with which it is armed, 

 but this, although perhaps capable of tearing 

 open skins of ripe fruit, is never used for that 

 purpose, its functions, like those of the sting, 

 being far different, and confined exclusively 

 to tlie ends designed by nature. 



Although the charges are based mainly on 

 the fact that at this season large numbers of 

 bees arc seen on the grapes on our vines, busily 

 employed in helping themselves to the palat- 

 able juices, yet we assert very positively that 

 none of the persons who bring this charge of 

 stinging the grapes, have ever seen the Insects 

 depradating on a sound grape or attempting 

 to tear one open. They always select those 

 already injured and never perpetrate an origi- 

 nal injuiy. A rainy spell followed by warm 

 weather veiy frequently causes grapes and 

 other fruits to burst, and it is to the fiuit thus 

 injmed that the slandered bees pay their at- 

 tentions. 



At a late meeting of the Bee-Keepers' .So- 

 ciety of this county, Mr. Fleckenstein, who is 

 not only our largest apiarist, but also a most 

 intelligent and careful observer, stated posi- 

 tively and unequivocally that his hives were 

 surrounded with grape vines, and the fruit 

 hung all aroimd them, and yet his tees never 

 damaged it in the slightest degree. Surely the 

 exi»erience of such a man is worth the idle 

 declamations of a thousand theorists. 



There appeared in the Reading Eagle, a few 

 weeks ago, a most violent denunciation of the 



bees and thcii' owners in that city. The old 

 accusation of Ntiiiging fruit was revived, and 

 the opinions of various fruit growers were 

 given to add i>oint to tlie ncces-xily which it 

 inged was recpiired to put a stop to tlie nuis- 

 ance. We arc sorry that our usually sound 

 and reliable cotemporarj should have not only 

 fallen into this error, but in its uncalled for 

 indignation has indulged in several recom- 

 mendations to the citizens to rid themselves 

 of these supposed pests, that are indefensible 

 l)otli in law and morals. After saying that 

 .some persons suggest the wholesale jmisoning 

 of the bees, it adds, this method of getting 

 rid of them would also poison the persons who 

 buy and eat the honey, and is therefore not 

 feasible, but it advises methods so startling 

 and reprehensible that we cannot but denounce 

 them in the strongest terms. In advising that 

 beeswax and rosin be melted and run into 

 wide dishes into wliich the bees would crowd, 

 and where, after the composition cools, the 

 bees will stick fast, when hot water can be 

 poured over them, scalding them to death — in 

 telling fruit growers to .set but a composition 

 of honey and (lour for the supposed depreda- 

 tors, in order that the latter, after being mixed 

 with the honey in the hive, may ferment and 

 destroy the sweet store laid up — these recom- 

 mendations are simply barbarous and un- 

 worthy of the consideration of any man. 



Remembering Mr. Fleckenstein's state- 

 ment, and reading the broad charges of the 

 Eagle, we began a close investigation of the 

 question, lasting through a series of days. On 

 the grapes of a vine growing in our yard hun- 

 dreds of bees were literally swarming, their 

 home being in a neighbors's yard, not twenty 

 paces distant. We sat hour afier hour watch- 

 ing closely the proceedings of the industrious 

 insects. There was not a single raceme on the 

 •whole vine, but was visited Ijy dozens of bees, 

 who examined every grape on it in search of a 

 bursted one whose juices were accessible. 

 After a most careful search and finding none 

 such, they would immediately leave and con- 

 tinue then- search elsewhere, until the berry 

 they desired was found. On all the defective 

 fruit clusters bees were gathered, but we failed 

 utterly in detecting in a single instance any 

 thing like an attempt at trying to tear open a 

 perfect berry ; Iheir investigations were liasty 

 but thorough, and when the desired spoil was 

 not found no time was wasted in useless delaj-. 

 There can be no mistake about this matter ; 

 our observations were careful and prolonged, 

 and must certainly have resulted in detecting 

 the harm complained of had any been done. 

 That none was done we arc positively certain, 

 and we feel that these hard workers deserve a 

 good word in return for the odium cast upon 

 them by theorists and careless observers. 

 They ought not to be held responsible for the 

 harm .said to 1* done by wasps, hornets and 

 other hymenoptcrous insects, although we do 

 not know that those mentioned are more 

 harmful than the bees themselves, altliough 

 said to be so. 



About the propriety of jiersons living in 

 cities keeping bees when they have no means 

 of su|)plying them with their proper food, we 

 have nothing to say. That is a question such 

 people must decide for themselves and with 

 which we have nothing to do. But we do 

 most decidedly protest against the injurious 

 charges against these harmless friends of man, 

 and against the means recommended for their 

 dcstiiiction by persons entirely incompetent 

 to discuss the ipiestion we have been consider- 

 ing from personal knowledge. — F. R. D. 



Do Bees Destroy Fruit ? Yes. No. 2. 

 I saw an article in last week's i.ssue of The 

 New Eua headed as above. Now, I do not 

 know who the writer may be who can (ill 



