38 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March, 



not only of killing all weeds and seeds 

 that may be in the soil, but also the 

 noxious insects near the surface — no slight 

 consideration. It would be difficult, in fact 

 to describe all the good results from this 

 practice. After the bed has been carefully 

 burnt over, the refuse matter should be care- 

 fully raked off, leaving only the ashes. The 

 ground must then be dug over, <-are being 

 taken not to turn up the subsoil. All stones, 

 roots, or other foreign substances must be 

 carefully removed, and the soil made fine and 

 friable. We feel as if we could not too strongly 

 impress the good results of this fact upon our 

 tobacco growers. In those portions of the 

 State where timber is still plentiful and 

 cheap, the custom ought to be universally 

 followed. 



The ordinary custom is, however, not to 

 burn over the seed-bed. It should be dug 

 over as early in the spring as the weather 

 will admit or the ground is dry enough. A 

 rich virgin loam is the best soil ; black, if it is 

 to be had, is preferable, as the color absorbs 

 the sun's rays better and advances the plants 

 faster. If the ground is not naturally rich 

 enough, it must be made so. You cannot 

 make it too rich. Well-rotted stable manure 

 is much the best article that can be used ; 

 chicken or hog manure are not nearly so de- 

 sirable, nor are artificial manures. A com- 

 post made the previous year of the various 

 manures produced on the farm and plenti- 

 fully applied would, no doubt, produce ex- 

 cellent results. This must be spaded in and 

 care be taken to render the soil on the sur- 

 face, and indeed throughout, as fine as if run 

 through a fine sieve. Lumpy ground would 

 impede the free sprouting of the minute sued 

 by covering them. The bed is now ready to 

 receive the seed. 



Sprouting the Seed. 

 Most growers sprout the seed before plant- 

 ing, but a few do not. The former course is 

 much the best. It is surer, because it enables 

 you to see whether your seed is good. It also 

 gives you plants sooner, as unsprouted seed in 

 an unfavorable season sometimes lie hi the 

 ground a long time before germinating. 

 Wheu the season is late and inclement 

 weather prevents the early preparation of the 

 seed-bed, it is sometimes all important that 

 the plants are brought forward as rapidly as 

 possible. There are different methods of 

 sprouting the seed. 'The more common way 

 is to tie it in a little bag and place it in 

 slightly tepid water for a day or two ; it is 

 then removed and placed under some .moist 

 woollen covering in an atmosphere suflSciently 

 warm to forward the process of germination; 

 near a stovein a light room is a good place. 

 Much care must be taken in handling the 

 seed at this critical period. Any injury to 

 the tender sprout that issues from the minute 

 seed is sure to result in the death of the 

 germinal principle. They must be kept 

 slightly moist all the while, so that the 

 sprouting process may not be interrupted, 

 which, were it to occur, might also result 

 disastrously. 



An old and very successful grower of our 

 acquaintance sprouts his tobacco seed in an 

 entirely different manner. He selects a lot 

 of chip soil from the site of an old woodpile, 

 sifts it carefully to remove all foreign sub- 

 stances and to pulverize the earth thoroughly. 

 This is then moistened with warm water, 

 placed in earthen pots, or some other vessels, 

 and the proper quantity of seed thoroughly 

 mixed with it. The pots are then placed near 

 a stove ; the soil is kept most by the addition 

 01 sulBcient water, and it is besides carefully 

 stirred over several times daily to prevent 

 packing and to expose the seed to the light. 

 Much care is necessary when the tiny shoot 

 begins to emerge from the seed, as rude hand- 

 ling would soon break it ofl'. Either of the 

 two methods just given, if carefully followed, 

 will give good results. — New Era. 



Eight hundred varieties of pears and near- 

 ly one hundred kinds of native grapes are said 

 to be iu cultivation in America. 



*DO BEES PUNCTURE GRAPES, AND 

 IF SO, HOW ? 



The question as to whether the Honey Bee, 

 A^ds melUJica, punctures and tears open the 

 skin of fruit, and especially that of the grape 

 has called forth considerable discussion. That 

 a matter apparently so simple should for so 

 long a time be in an unsettled condition seems 

 not a little surprising. 



Bee keepers generally deny that bees do 

 auy injury to sound fruit, and as they doubt- 

 less best understand the habits of their favor- 

 ites, they make a strong argument in their 

 own behalf. 



Fruit-growers on the other hand, earnestly 

 claim that bees do them gresit harm. They, 

 find these insects industriously engaged in 

 sipping the juices of bursted grapes, and in 

 their vexation over the lost fruit, and with- 

 out much discrimination, they charge the 

 whole work — both the rupturing of the skin, 

 as well as the extracting of the juices — upon 

 the busy yet harmless insect. 



Here we have the chief point of interest in 

 this question— the fruit grower, from persbnal 

 considerations, demanding that the bees shall 

 be destroyed or kept within bound : — the 

 apiarist denying that his bees do any harm, 

 and that therefore they should not iu any 

 way be restrained. 



The subject was assigned to me to report 

 upon before this society, at a time when I had 

 not the opportunity of giving it any special 

 attention, and yet in a general way I have 

 observed for several years that bees have 

 been very numerous about my vines, and 

 that many a grape was robbed by them of its 

 sweet juices and rich pulp. 



That bees have increased in number and 

 that they are fond of feeding upon the luscious 

 contents of a ripened bunch of grapes are 

 well admitted facts. The food most natural 

 to the bee is the fluid secretions contained in 

 the nectaries of various kinds of flowers, and 

 the pollen dust on the anthers. But when 

 flowers are scarce, or when they have passed 

 their season,— since the bee must live and 

 gather honey all the day— its instinct leads 

 it to other saccharine substances, and on this 

 account, doubtless, it takes to the ripened 

 peach, grape, pear, and the like. 



The bee is furnished with organs, enabling 

 it readily to gather its food. In the first 

 place it has a double stomach, or more cor- 

 rectly, two stomachs, the first of which 

 serves as a receptacle or pouch for the tiuid 

 matter which it gathers from the flowers ; 

 this fluid matter thus gathered and stored up 

 does not appear to differ from honey. In 

 this honey-stomach no digestion of the honey 

 is known to take place, and' it seems to serve 

 the only office of holding the gathered honey 

 until the bee returns home. The coatings of 

 this stomach being furnished with the power 

 of muscular reaction, the honey is readily 

 emptied into the cells of the comb. 



To extract the honey-fluid from the flowers 

 and introduce it into this stomach, the bee is 

 furnished with what may be regarded as an 

 elongated tongue, formed by a prolongation 

 of what with us answers to the lower lip. 

 This tongue is flexible, and capable of a cer- 

 tain degree of extension. It is not a hollow- 

 tube with a suction arrangement at the end, 

 to enable the bee to s..ck the fluid of the 

 flower into its stomach, as has commonly 

 been supposed. But in gathering honey, the 

 bee inserts its tongue into the nectary of the 

 flower, and whatever honey may adhere to 

 the surface of the tongue is introduced into 

 its mouth and ultimately finds its way into 

 the stomach. It is in tliis way that the 

 bee gathers its honey. This tongue is a very 

 delicate organ and^has no, puncturing or pen- 

 etrating power. 



To further enable the bee to accomplish its 

 work the mouth is furnished with " feelers " 

 or palpi— four in number. These are for the 

 insect, its organs of sense. There are, be- 

 sides, two strong mandibles or jaws, furnish- 

 ed with two teeth. These parts are not used 



as in vertelirates for masticating the food, but 

 for a variety of other purposes. For instance, 

 sometimes the parts of the flower may be so 

 compressed, that ready access to the necta- 

 ries cannot be obtained and it may be neces- 

 sary for the bee to push apart or to cut away 

 portions of the floral envelopes, so as to gain 

 the honey. And in the work of preparing a 

 place for the building of the nest, or 

 the making of the comb, it may be ne- 

 cessary to break away or to cut through hard 

 substances. ■ In the accomplishment of these 

 things the mandibles furnish the requisite 

 power, while the paliri or feelers tell the bee 

 ^vllat is to be done, and Ikao and where to do 

 it. 



That these mandibles have, for the size of 

 the insect, considerable power, may be seen 

 by consideriug for a moment some of the gen- 

 era allied to the common honey bee. 



Thus, instances are known where the bum- 

 ble-bee has been shut up within the corolla of 

 flowers, and he has cut his way through the 

 walls of his imprisonment. There is the so- 

 called boring bee, which with its mandibles 

 often skilfully cuts its way for a considerable 

 distance through dry timber. Then the ma- 

 son-bee detaches and gathers together grains 

 of sand and by the aid of a mucous secretion 

 works these up into cells of an almost im- . 

 perishable kind. So that the mandibular 

 power of the bee family is quite conspicuous, 

 and it is a power to be exerted according as 

 the exigencies of the case may require. 



The sting of the bee is an organ in its 

 structure and in its use quite different from 

 the mandibles. It is situated in the posterior 

 part of the body and is a finely pointed in- 

 strument with au open tube extending along 

 its entire length. At the root of the sting is 

 a little sac in which is contained the poisonous 

 fluid, which the bee injects through this tube 

 into the wound which he may have made. 

 The object here is to provide the insect with 

 the necessary means of self-defense when it 

 is exasperated or attacked, and so far as is 

 known, it is only under these circumstances 

 that the sting is used. It is strictly an organ 

 of defense, and in no way used as a means to 

 assist in the gathering of the food. When 

 the sting is used, it simply punctures the sur- 

 face to which it is applied, unless that surface 

 be powerful enough to resist the fine point of 

 the sting. So toat with reference to the 

 question before us the opinion is generally 

 held, that in their ravages upon grapes, if 

 bees ever do tear open the slcin, they certainly 

 do not and cannot do tliis with their sting, 

 this organ having no power to tear or cut' 

 open, but only to penetrate orpuncture«asily 

 yielding substances. 



But it is not certainl}' known that the bee 

 does ever tear open the skin of the grape. 

 From what has been stated, its mandibular 

 power is without doubt sufficient to enable 

 this to be done, and that it is iwssible may not 

 be doubted. But there is want of evidence 

 that thee bee ever does this, 



I have never seeu a bee in the act of tear- 

 ing open the skin of a sound grape, although 

 I have seen repeated instances, of one and 

 indeed several bees together luxuriating upon 

 the sweet juices of a Dalaware or a Concord. 

 And so far as I have been able to corres- 

 pond with them, I find that the authorities 

 upon this subject quite unanimously agree, 

 that there is no evidence against the bee that 

 it tears open the grape, although this assidu- 

 ous little honey-worker is ready to appropriate 

 the sweet substance of the grape, the peach 

 and kiudred fruits, when once tlie skin has 

 been broken from any cause, whether on ac- 

 count of a defect in the growtli of the fruit, 

 or Ihrongh disease, or by reason of an excess 

 of juices in the fruit whereby the skin not 

 being able to yield sufficiently must burst, or 

 through the sting of a wasp or of other insect. 

 In a note from Professor A. S. Packard, 

 now of Brown University, he says that 

 though he has no evidence that they do so, 

 yet liis "impression is that bees will puncture 

 and bite open grapes," but this impression 

 he says is founded simply on this, that he sees 



