Tb 



e (4)ee- 



\eepeps' JAcVieLu, 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1,00 A YEAR. 



¥. z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL, IX, FLINT, MICHIGAN, OCT. 10. 1896. 



NO. 10. 



Work at IVTioliioraii-'s 



Experimental 



^piarv. 



B. L. TAYLOR, APIAEIST. 

 BEES AND GRAPES. 



ir 



S between 

 fruitgrowers 

 and bee - keepers 

 there is no more 

 important quep- 

 tioi) ttian tbis; do 

 bees injure fruit ? 

 There is no ques- 

 tion during any 

 time of summer 

 when the flowers 

 ^ec^ete little or 

 no nectar, that 

 bees suck the juices of broken fruit, but it is 

 contended on the part of a considerable 

 class of horticulturists that the bees actually 

 cut through the outer covering of grapes 

 and some of the small fruits, and thus do 

 great damigetothe fruit growing interests. 

 S rneare very positive on this point, affirm- 

 ing th4t they know they do, having actually 

 witnessed the operation. I feel some 

 sympathy for this class, since, at one time, 

 though familiar with all the arguments 

 against that opinion, I was half inclined to 

 believe that in some way sometimes the bees 



forced open the skin of grapes. For some 

 years I have been greatly interested in the 

 production of fine grapes and when at times I 

 saw the bees crowding their heads down be- 

 tween the berries of fine compact and appar- 

 ently perfect clusters of Delawares, and 

 afterwards found that many of the berries 

 were sucked dry, and would fall off with a 

 touch, my faith in the inability of the bee 

 to break the skin of the grape suffered a 

 severe wound. I could easily see, in the 

 case of the Lndy grape, and some others, 

 which frequently crack open extensiv< ly 

 from excessive moisture, since the cracks 

 were evident and the cause certainly known, 

 that the bees had no agency in making the 

 openings; but in the case of the Delawares 

 no such ruptures were evident. Continued 

 investigation convinced me that the skins of 

 different varieties of grapes crack in diff'er- 

 eut w.tys, that is, some crack, so to speak, 

 longitudinally, and some crosswise and 

 that they also crack from a somewhat 

 different combination of causes. The^e 

 as I j udge, are three ; moisture from without, 

 moisture from within, and external pressure. 

 Moisture alone, in my experience, seldom 

 cracking, or, rather, I should say causes it 

 only to a small extent. Certain tender 

 skinned varieties, as the Brighton, when 

 the bunches hang in clusters so as to prevent 

 the ready evaportionof moisture caused by 

 frequent rains, suffer some, but, perhaps, 

 rather from decay of the .kin; and, appar- 

 ently, the berries of any variety if they lie 

 on the ground in a wet season or upon any 



