THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



39 



"no reason from the structure of the mouth 

 why they could not do so." 



But the observations and experiments of 

 Mr. Charles H. Math, the Secretary of the 

 Cincinnati Entomological Society, are more 

 to the point. lie says that if you lay a ripe 

 bunch of grapes with sound berries in front 

 of the liive, with the entrance thereto con- 

 tracted to ,( or to i of an inch, so that every 

 bee going out or coming home will have to 

 run over or around the bunch, you will notice 

 that they try their very best to attack the 

 grapes, while yet every berry remains intact. 

 He found the same to be true of a sound ripe 

 BartJett pear. After he had .satisfied himself 

 of the inability of the bee to penetrate the 

 skin of the grape, he then punctured each 

 berry with a pin, and in an hour or two no- 

 thing remained but ^he skins and the stem. 



Dr. S. S. IJathvon, the learned editor of the 

 Lancasteu Farmer— a pai>er of excellent 

 scope and character, and devotiil to the high- 

 est interests of agriculture and liorticulUire — 

 ■says in a letter of the date of Octolier L"), " I 

 have grown grapes (Isabellas, Clintons, Con- 

 cords, Hartlord Prolilics, Marthas, Dela- 

 wares,) upon my premises for thirty years, 

 and yet I liavc never observed a bee cutting 

 or tearing ojieii any of them. From the or- 

 ganic structure of the mouth of the bee, it is 

 very probable that they can lacerate skins of 

 the niore delicate grapes, and the testimony 

 from intelligent sources seems to be so strong 

 that I do not feel like ignoring it, and yet I 

 fear that many observations in that direction 

 are too superficial to be entirely reliable." 

 From another part of the letter we quote, "I 

 have not conversed with a single person who 

 says he ever saw a bee in the act of cutting 

 open grapes. But the grapes are found rup- 

 tured, and the bees at work upon them, and 

 that seems to be the bulk of the testimony." 



Mr. A. I. Root, the editor of "Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture "—a paper published at Me- 

 dina, O., says that "although bees may at 

 times puncture sound grapes, the evidence is 

 very strong that they very rarely, if ever, do 

 so. Their work is principally on broken or 

 bursted grapes." 



But the highest and best authority is Pro- 

 fessor A. J. Cooke of Lansing, Michigan, 

 who says in his communication of Dec. 13, 

 "From close observation for many years, from 

 careful experiments seemingly crucial, and 

 from a vast amount of testimony, I feel sure 

 that if bees ever attack sound grapes it is ex- 

 exceptional : some scientists say they do at 

 times — so that I cannot say they do not. But 

 L am sure that it is very rarely, if ever, the 

 case. I have lived for some years in the midst 

 of vineyards, and where bees were very nu- 

 merous, but I never saw bees tear open a 

 sound grape. If bird or wasp or disease 

 break the grapes, and the bees find no other 

 stores, they will lap up the oozing juice. At 

 such time I have broken grapes, and when 

 they were being supped by bees, I would re- 

 move tliem and place sound grapes in their 

 stead, when the bees would at once stop 

 work." 



Our conclusions from observations, and 

 from the testimony of others are then— 



1. That the bee cannot puncture the skin 

 of the grape with either its tongue or its 

 sting. 



3. That it is possible that bees may tear 

 open grapes from the fact that they possess 

 the necessary mandibular power. 



S. We believe that tlicy rarely, if ever, do 

 this, and that their depredations upon grapes 

 are confined to cases where aheady from other 

 causes, the skin has been ruptured. 



The complaints of bees destroying grapes 

 and other kinds of fruit are more frequent 

 than they were thirty years ago, and possibly 

 for the reason that in later times the trees 

 and shrubs and plants from which bees have 

 been in the habit of gathering their lioney 

 have been relatively decreasing in numl)er, 

 while at the same lime the culture of bees 

 has been increasing all over tlie country. The 

 remedy for such complaints should be found 

 not in destroying the bees, nor in advocating 



their restriction, for honey we must liavc and 

 j it is quite as desirable to many persons as is 

 I fruit. The true way will be for the bee- 

 [ keeper to provide in places conveniently near 

 the hives, tlie necessary clover and other 

 j flower-bearing plants from which his bees 

 may derive their food. 



Imluied with its instinct of industry, the 

 bee will not be idle. It will gather its stores 

 fVom flowers if it can ; from various fruits, 

 peaches, grapes and pears, if it yuust. 



FRUIT CROPS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Mr. E. Satterthwait, of .lenkintown, Mont- 

 gomery county. Chairman of (he (iemial 

 Fruit Committee of the I'ennsylvunia l'"niil 

 Growers' Society, presentrd tlie following re- 

 port in reference to the fruit crops of the past 

 season in Pennsylvania, which was read at 

 tlie recent annual meeting of the society held 

 in Gettysburg : 



To the President and Members of the .Sociely. 



I have received answers to my inquiries in 

 regard to the fruit crops of the past season 

 from most of the members of the committee, 

 and from these, together with my own per- 

 sonal observations, I have gathered the fol- 

 lowing conclusions : 



The Large Apple Crop. 



The apple crop throughout the State was 

 unusually good. All the reports except from 

 one locality agree in this, and all have the 

 same complaint to make, that owing to the 

 unusual forwardness of the season all varieties 

 ripened some weeks before their time, so that 

 a large proportion of the winter varieties had 

 to be disposed of early in the fall to little 

 profit, but fortunately those that stayed on 

 the trees until the proper time for picking 

 were unusually fair and fine and are keeping 

 very well ; and this was the only part of the 

 apple crop that paid, the summer and fall 

 varieties as usual not bringing enough to pay 

 the expense of sending to market. The de- 

 struction from codhng moth is not complained 

 of as much as usual, but this is probably 

 owing to the fact that the crop of apples was 

 uncommonly large, and there being only an 

 average crop of the insects their ravages 

 were not so much noticed. I fear there is no 

 good ground for hoping for any immediate 

 abatement of this great evil as most probably 

 another season will show, with a smaller crop 

 of fruit and an increased crop of insects. As this 

 insect is the only real obstacle to the produc- 

 tion of apples in this State in any amount and 

 of the best quality, it is of great importance 

 that some more effectual remedy than any 

 yet devised may be discovered. Nothmg 

 better has been suggested in my reports than 

 the gathering of the wormy fruit as it falls 

 from the tree and the destruction of the 

 worms, either by feeding the fruit to swine or 

 making into cider for vinegar. This is very 

 well as far as it goes, as is also the trapping 

 of the worms with hay bands and other simi- 

 lar devices, but these though doubtless very 

 beneficial as far as they go have not proved 

 effectual. 



Some complaints are still made of injury to 

 and destruction of apple trees by the borer. 

 As this is a thing so easily guarded against, 

 and the one, simple, easy and effectual 

 remedy has been so frequently mentioned at 

 these meetings that it would seem almost in- 

 credible that any member of our society 

 should be so far behind the times as not to 

 have learned how to save his fruit trees from 

 injury by the borer. There docs not seem to 

 be anything else worth mentioning injurious 

 to the apple crop. 



Selection of Varieties of Apples. 



The most important consideration, perhaps, 

 connected with apple culture in this State is 

 the selection of profitable varieties. Next to 

 the destruction by codling moth, the grej\t 

 cau.se of the failure of the apple crop in this 

 State for many years, has been the platiting of 

 trees from New York nurseries, not because 

 these trees are not as good as trees grown 

 here, but because they are all of kinds, which 

 though good varieties there, are of no value 



here. Almost all of the kmds wliich are 

 grown in the North for keeping varieties and 

 do so well there, ripen here in the fall and 

 will not keep and are conseciuenlly worthless. 

 I am sorry I am not able to give a list that 

 could he depended' on for tlie State, or for any 

 large part of it. As it is not only a question 

 of climate, but the kind of soil as well as cul- 

 tivation, and perhaps many other things 

 wlrich are not yet understood have much to 

 do in determining the adaptability of a 

 variety of fruit to any particular locality, I 

 will merely give here the varieties mostly 

 spoken of as having done well the past year. 

 Karly Harvest, Red Astracan,Benoni, Porter, 

 r.lush, Smokehouse, Domine, Krauser, York 

 Striiie, York Imperial, Fallawater, Ben 

 Davis, Grimes' (Joldeii, Smith's Cider and 

 Kidge Pippin. This is indeed a very meagre 

 list, and perhaps does not embrace the one- 

 tenth part of the valuable varieties that are 

 cultivated here and there in the State, but 

 are not generally known and have not been 

 widely tested. This is one of the questions 

 upon which information is greatly wanted, 

 and should claim a large share of the atten- 

 tion of this society. A great deal of good 

 work has been done by this association in 

 bringing into notice and diffusing valuable 

 varieties of apples that hiid only a local rejiu- 

 tation, and there seems to be no reason why 

 we should not be able to obtain a list of 

 varieties of apples asjcertain and reliable as we 

 now have of pears and peaches. I have dwelt, 

 perhaps, too long on this subject, but it is one 

 of great importance. Pennsylvania can and 

 will in time grow all the apples needed to .sup- 

 ply her own population and many to spare for 

 foreign markets, instead of purchasing the 

 larger part of our own supjil y, as we have been 

 doing from other States. We are learning to 

 do it, but not as fast a.s we ought to. 



Most Profitable Varieties of Pears. 



Pears, from all accounts throughout the 

 State, were not more than half a crop. The 

 failure is attrilluted to late frosts which are 

 said to have killed the blossoms. Fortunately 

 we are not as much at sea as to varieties of 

 pears as with apples. Great unanimity lias 

 prevailed for years as to the most profitable 

 varieties of pears. Bartlctt, Seckel, Duehesse, 

 Buerre d' Anjou and Lawrence and Man- 

 ning's Elizabeth for an earlier sort, are the 

 varieties universally recommended, and for 

 those wanting a greater variety. Doyenne 

 d'Ete, Buerre, Giffard, Ott, Itowell, Des 

 Nomes, Buerre, Superfine, Buffam, Rutter 

 and Vicar of ^Viukfield can be relied on as 

 doing well everywhere. And it is safe to say 

 that any one desiring to plant will not go far 

 wrong in planting these, unless, indeed, they 

 are soon to be superseded as some think by the 

 new and hardier and more vigorous seedlings 

 of the Chinese pear. It seems but proper to 

 say here that the Kiefler, the only one of these 

 which has as yet been fairly tested here, has 

 fully held its own the past year and so far has 

 proved to be all that was claimed for it, in 

 quality as well as in fniitfulness, vigor of 

 growth and freedom from disease. 



Fire Blight— The Great Enemy. 



The one gre;vt obstacle to pear culture con- 

 tinues to be fire blight. It is very strange 

 how this mysterious disease continues its never 

 ceasing and destructive, but erratic and per- 

 fectly unaccountable course— breaking out 

 suddenly in one locality and as suddenly 

 ce.asing altogether in another, without tlie 

 slightest reason that can be imagined for 

 either. As the cause of this totally incompre- 

 hensible disease is not even within the verge 

 of conjecture, no rpmedy can be suggested but 

 the planting of varieties least subject to it. 



It may not be out of place to say here that 

 my own crop of pears, notwithstanding the 

 general failure reported, was very large and 

 fine, and I might add that I have not missed 

 a good croi) of pears for many years. I could 

 give what I consider the reasons for this, but 

 do not think it would be proper here, as it 

 would involve disputed theories of cultivation 

 which would be out of place in a report like 

 this. 



