1879 TJie Western Povvologist and dardener. 121 



Bees and Grapes. 



I have read with interest the numerous articles published in the back numbers of the 

 Country OenUeman, most of which seem to agree that the bees did great injury to grapes. 

 I beg leave to difler with these gentlemen on thai subject, from the fact that I have raised 

 bees and grapes for the last thirty years, and have been a close observer, and have never 

 yet discovered the first grape injured Ijy bees. It is true when the skins of grapes are 

 broken, the bees will suck out the sweet, but that I consider a saving, as the grape would 

 rot soon after the skin is broken. 



Some twenty years ago I built me a bee-house, or great palace, (such as some old fogies 

 still use,) and planted Catawba grapevines around it to shade it from the sun. These 

 vines soon ran all over the house, and for ten years or more were fairly loaded every year 

 with grapes of the richest quality. Oftentimes when .standing by the entrance eating 

 grapes, 1 have bur.st a grape and laid it on the alighting board to see how quickly the 

 bees would lick up the juice, but never saw one on the grapes on the vines. 



Some ten or twelve years ago I concluded to engage in wine making, and planted three 

 Or four acres of Catawba vines, with the intention of increasing my vineyard as fast as I 

 gained knowledge of wine making, etc., but after the vines had borne fruit two or three 

 years, the grapes began to rot so badly I abandoned the idea of enlarging my vineyard, 

 and for the last three or four years the grapes rotted so badly that I became discouraged 

 and cut up the vines. During the tirst few years when the grapes were healthy, no grapes 

 were molested hy bees, although I kept an apiary of one hundred stands or more all the 

 time, within less than ten rods of the vineyard. 



The tirst year or two after my giapes began to rot in my vinej'ard, I had some old vines 

 trained on trellises and arbors in my garden that seemed to be healthy, and not a grape 

 on these vines was touched by the bees, while at the same time every rotting or imperfect 

 grape in the vineyard was covered with bees. 



The last two years I have not had a single good perfect cluster of grapes on any of my 

 vines, and I have twenty or more varieties. All rot before they mature. 



Now, sirs, I think if these men who are so annoyed hj the bees as they think, will be • 

 patient a year or two longer, they will find the difficulty is in the grapes rotting or bursting 

 open before they mature, and the bees are simply taking what would be lost. 



I would advise that gentleman not to try the German's receipt for killing the bees, as 

 he might get himself into a big lawsuit, or if his apiarian neighbors are of a retaliative 

 disposition, they may slip over some night and salt his sheep or cows out of a bottle that 

 has a skeleton oi bones on the label. 



Before going too far, suppose some of these anti-bee men procure a microscope and 

 examine tlie jaws or mouth of the bee, and they will see that it is not capable of cutting 

 ■ the skin of grapes or other fruit like the hornet-wasp and 3'ellow jacket, that get the mate- 

 rial for building their nest 'by gnawing it from wood, while the bee's mouth is con- 

 structed for working soft «vax. So make war on the hornet-wasps, etc., and examine the 

 grapes closely and I think you will find the grapes are diseased. I am a great lover of 

 grapes, also of bees and honey, and believe in doing justice to all men and things. — Cor- 

 respondence Country Oentleinan. 



HuMBUGGERT IN WiNES. — In Speaking of the adaptability of the southern slope of the 

 Blue Ridge to the culture of the grape, and of American wines in general, the Richmond 

 (Va.) Whig of the 29th ult., remarks : "There is besides, a great deal of humbug about 

 wines. Many estimate the quality of the article by its cost — -while others deem nothing 

 fit to be called wine which has not crossed the ocean. The fact is, the taste for all liquor 

 is artificial and acquired. The sealing-wax flavor of the German wines, which is indis- 

 pensable to genuineness and so much esteemed by connoisseurs, is imparted by the 

 Cement used to stop the leaking of the casks. And so of other highly-prized wines. The 

 musk flavor of American wines is imparted b}' the grape, and is quite as respectable as 

 the sealing-wax of the Germans. We have only to educate our taste to like a genuine 

 giape jnice, and give it age, to rate our own productions more highly than most of the 

 foreign concoctions." 



