760 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



J^ov. 28, 



ordered at §27.50 for the lot. In this way he was able to 

 start off with 10 prime " swarms." 



It was expected that the first rua (as the maple-sugar 

 maker would say, with his two barrels of cane-sufrar to one of 

 maple all in the same pau, and warranted pure) of willow- 

 buds and fruit-bloom would fill the brood-chamber or " queen's 

 own." It was believed that the second run of white clover 

 and basswood would stuff the 80 one-pound surplus to over- 

 flowing, and the fall flow of yellow weeds and buckwheat and 

 candy factories (he was located in the city of Detroit) would 

 supply enough for home use, and presents to friends. 



It was expected that the improved yellow 7-band honey- 

 queen drips would sell at 20 cents a pound at the apiary. 

 Starting oft' with 10 colonies at SO pounds surplus honey each 

 year, and doubling only once a year, at the end of ten years 

 the account would stand this way : Honey yellow queen drips 

 817,200 pounds, at 20 cents per pound, cash, ijl68,8-10. 

 Bees on hand, 5,120 colonies ; at SIO each, .$51,200. Sur- 

 plus 7-band queens with yellow spine and straight sting, and 

 no baskets on their legs, five in each hive, 25,600 ; cheap at 

 $10 each, .§256,000. Whole amount, net cash, §471,040. 

 Good for this country, but not up to Texas Dees, where all 

 they lack of a good bee-country is water and good society, and 

 that is all Timbuctoo lacks. 



It will be noticed that producing honey is a small business 

 compared to that of bees and improved queens. There could 

 have been ten times the number of Improved queens reared at 

 no extra expense except the self-destruction of the drones. No 

 account has been taken of the Vast amount of wax and bee- 

 gum gathered in from the pitch factories and varnish shops, 

 and tarred cordage ; of the shipping in the harbor, all of 

 which furnish a never-ending supply of bee-gum. It was de- 

 signed to save all this and sell to the foundation-makers (for 

 the benefit of the teeth of the consumers of yellow queen 

 drips) in pound sections with full starters; the proceeds to be 

 devoted to the missionary cause. 



All being ready, steam was turned on early in the spring 

 in shape of a large wooden pan contrived for the occasion, full 

 of syrup, and set in front of the hives. The bees came out in 

 good shape, and for about three years the apiary run up and 

 down, and around, while sugar syrup disappeared at an aston- 

 ishing rate. During the third winter the bees migrated to 

 Texas, or to some happy land, leaving not a pound of honey 

 or a live bee, or a dollar in money, for the owner, and they 

 have never returned. But he has the experiences, and a fine 

 lot of kindling wood, and a bee-book. His smoker some grace- 

 less thief stole from the attic of his Napoleon hive ; but since 

 his bees are all of the 7-band kind, and quiet, there is not 

 much call for a smoker. 



Moral : Take a bee-journal and read it. Study the bee- 

 papers. Dearborn, Mich. 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



A Denial of the Statemeut that Bees Destroy 

 Fruit. 



BY JAMES M'NEILL. 



Hudson, N. Y. 

 Mr. Geo. W. York — Dear Sir : I send you a couple of 

 clippings from our local paper — the Hudson Republican — 

 which will explain themselves. Perhaps my article may serve 

 a useful purpose to the bee-keeping fraternity in furnishing 

 arguments to meet the almost universal complaints which are 

 made by fruit-raisers against bees. 



Yours truly, James McNeill. 



[The following item is the one which appeared in the 

 newspaper named by Mr. McNeill, and which called out his 

 reply. — Editor.] 



Bees Cause Trouble. — Fruit-growers in the upper part 

 of the city, and especially those on Academy hill, are com- 

 plaining of the damage done to fruit by the myriads of bees 

 that abound in that locality. The fruit-growers state that the 

 damage alone to grapes will amount to hundreds of dollars. 

 The bees, they say, are from the hives on the bee-farm of 

 James McNeill, of Greenport, and that a general complaint 

 will be made to him of what the fruit-growers have to put 

 up with. 



[Whereupon Mr. McNeill wrote this reply, which ap- 

 peared in the same paper very soon thereafter. — Editor.] 



BIRDS DO THE MISCHIEF. 



Editor of the Republican : — My attention has been 

 called to an item in the Republican, in which the statement 



is made that fruit-growers in my neighborhood suffer much 

 because of the myriads of bees which swarm on their fruit, 

 the damage to grapes alone being estimated at hundreds of 

 dollars. 



E'er the purpose of getting at the status of bee-keeping 

 as a legitimate industry, as well as to enlighten the ignorant 

 and promote neighborly feeling, let me present a few facts 

 and arguments. 



First, as to the assertion that bees destroy fruit, I would 

 refer those interested to a detailed report of an experiment on 

 this line which may be found in the Report of the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture for 1885, pages 136 and 139. The ex- 

 periment in brief is this : 



A screen-house was constructed in which three colonies of 

 bees were confined, from whose hives all honey had been re- 

 moved. Plates of peaches, plums and pears in different stages 

 of ripeness were placed on the shelves within the house, as 

 well as 23 varieties of grapes. The bees were kept in a con- 

 dition bordering on starvation, so that their capacity to injure 

 fruit might be most completely tested. 



The experiment was continued during a period of 55 

 days, and proved conclusively that bees do not injure sound 

 fruit. If the skin of the fruit is broken, injured by decay, or 

 punctured by birds or insects, so that its juice or pulp is ex- 

 posed, the bees will show their characteristic industry in ap- 

 propriating the fruit without regard to ownership, but sound 

 fruit is free from their depredations. 



It is well known to experienced fruit-growers that certain 

 birds have a liking for grapes and other fruits. The oriole 

 will go from bunch to bunch along a grapevine and take a 

 dab from a berry here and there, and perhaps a score or more 

 of berries will be injured before the bird is satisfied. In a 

 bee-keeper's neighborhood there are thousands of bees for 

 every bird. The bird, which really does the mifchief, is 

 rarely seen, while the bees, being so much more numerous 

 and less timid, are very much in evidence. 



Then there are wasps and hornets with strong mandibles, 

 and a love for sv/eet juices. These, like the birds, are guilty 

 in the first degree, while the bees only appropriate that which 

 would otherwise go to loss. 



There is another point of view from which it may be well 

 for fruit-growers and others to look at this matter. 



Many seem to talk and act as if they would have as just a 

 claim for damages from bees as from chickens,. dogs, or any 

 other domestic animal. If it were possible to fence bees in, 

 or practical to shut them up, such claim might be reasonable 

 and right. But, however desirous a bee-keeper may be to 

 prevent his bees from annoying his neighbors, he is powerless 

 in the matter. And to enforce the law for trespass against 

 bees as stringently as it may be enforced against domestic 

 animals, would simply be to drive bee-keeping as an industry 

 out of existence ; and the question recurs, would it be better 

 for the community in general to have no bees than to suffer 

 such occasional annoyance from bees as are unavoidable? 



While bees may certainly make themselves quite a nui- 

 sance at times, it must not be forgotten that they perform a 

 most useful service to the community in general, and perhaps 

 to the very same people who are loudest in their outcry 

 against them. 



It is a fact not very generally known that bees are an im- 

 portant agent in fertilizing flowers. We often hear it said 

 that a long, cold rain during fruit-bloom drowns the blossoms 

 so that no fruit comes from them. The true explanation of 

 the blight of the blossom, lies in the fact that the rainy 

 weather prevented the bees from working on the bloom and 

 thus fertilizing it. 



In Australia they were unable to raise clover seed until 

 bumble-bees had been introduced to fertilize the blossoms. 

 And our great seed-raisers have learned that any apiary is a 

 very important and useful adjunct to a seed-farm. 



Bees, then, have a claim to consideration from the gen- 

 eral public far beyond any damage which they may do, and 

 they are rarely troublesome except for a few weeks in the 

 fall when dry weather has cut off their natural food supply. 

 If individuals suffer occasional annoyance from them, such 

 annoyance is merely incidental and unavoidable. 



The scream of the railroad whistle, the puff of the engine, 

 and the rattle of the train, are the sources of much annoyance 

 to sensitive and delicate people, and not infrequently result in 

 the loss of human life, but no one thinks of holding the rail- 

 road responsible for damages from this cause, for the simple 

 reason that such annoyances are unavoidable, and the benefits 

 which the general public derive from railroads by far out- 

 weigh the evils which are their necessary accompaniments. 



James McNeill. 



