298 



THE BEE-KEEPERS- RliiVil^. 



other substance that retains moisture, crack 

 more or less. Other kinds, as the Lady, 

 crack to a limited extent on accou*t of 

 moisture from within, that is, from the 

 superabundant flow of sap which takes 

 place during a time of frequent heavy rains. 

 But very much the larger part of cracking is 

 caused by this unusual flow of sap in con- 

 junction with the pressure of "the berries 

 upon each other, that is, in the compact 

 clusters. In some varieties, however, the 

 grapes haveaskm of such toughness or elas- 

 ticity as to successfully resist these joint 

 forces. The Ulster and the Niagara are of this 

 character. I hve never known these to 

 crack, and the greatness of the force which 

 the skin resists is seen in the fact that in 

 these, and other varieties, as they grow here, 

 it is not uncommon to find, before the ripen- 

 ing season begins, berries which have been 

 pulled from the main stem of the cluster by 

 the crowding force of their neighbors. 

 Upon these grapes and others like them, in 

 the characteristic mentioned above, I am 

 satisfied the bees never work, unless the 

 grapes are first broken by birds or otherwise, 

 evidently not the work of bees. On the other 

 hand, the Brighton is an example of a grape 

 with a very tender skin which, nevertheless, 

 never cracks here beyond an insignificant 

 amount, owing to the fact, as I claim, that 

 the clusters are, as a rule, not very compact, 

 and, though it is a grape of the highest 

 quality, with a very tender skin, the bees 

 have no more success in gaining access to 

 its juices than they have to those of the 

 tough skinned Ulster. Of the more than 

 thirty varieties I have in bearing the work 

 of the bees has usually been confined almost 

 entirely to the Delaware and the Lady, but, 

 on account of the wetness of the season, the 

 Duchess and the Salem must be added this 

 year, and these are the ones also to which 

 cracking is almost exclusively confined. In 

 point of compactness these -kinds staud in 

 the following order: Duchess, Lady, Dela- 

 ware and Salem. Most of the clusters of 

 the Duchess on strong vines are exct^ediugiy 

 compact, while those on young vines or 

 those lacking in vigor are quite loose. The 

 Lady has most of its fruit in compact clus- 

 ters which, with its brittle skin, seldom 

 fails to render it almost wortliless here on 

 account of its cracking. A fair share of 

 Delawares are quite compact and from one 

 third to a half of the Salems are only less so. 



The significant fact here is that the work 

 of the bees was confined to the compact 

 clusters while the loose clusters neither 

 cracked nor were visited by bees. 



In all tl)ese varieties except the Delaware 

 the cracks, a half inch or more in length, 

 were plainly visible and evidently the work 

 of natural causes. As to the Delaware one 

 might say on a hasty enamination that they 

 do not crack, for the cracks are never in 

 sight so long as the berries remain in the 

 cluster, but an examination with some little 

 care will show that they do crack transversely 

 near the stem end of the berry. The Dia- 

 mond grape is affected in a similar man er 

 when it cracks at all. 



The line of thought and investigation of 

 which the above is a rough outline convinc- 

 ed me that bees never in j are grapes. Still, 

 the thought that many would not thus be 

 convinced led me to seek some furthur test. 

 Heretofore all manner of experiments have 

 been made to induce, if possible, bees to 

 break the skin of perfect grapes, such as 

 placing clusters in hives, confining bees 

 with grapes, etc . from whicli only negative 

 results were obtained. Entomologists have 

 studied the ma'jdibles of the bee and de- 

 clared that they are so little adapted to the 

 purpose of piercing the skin of a grape that 

 it wtiuld be entirely impossible for a bee to 

 use them with effect in that way. On many 

 minds these arguments had little effect. 



In July last the rainfall being so great 

 that more than the usual amount of the 

 cracking of urapes might be expected, so I 

 decided to determine if possible whether 

 grapes from which bees were excluded, but 

 still left hanging upon the vines, suffered in 

 any different degree from those to which 

 the bees hail free access. To shi.t out the 

 bees i)aper sacks were used. These were 

 folded closely about the stems after being 

 drawn over the clusters and fastened with 

 common pins. A small slit was cut in the 

 bottom of each sack to permit the escfipe of 

 any water that might gain admittance. 

 Upwards of one thousand sacks were put 

 upon the thirteen varieties herein-after 

 mentioned. Many of these became ripe 

 early in September and now ( Sept. 24th ) 

 all are riv)e except .Jefferson and lona. As 

 already intimated the damage was consider- 

 able, iiecoming evident even before matur- 

 ity. The results will sufficiently appear 

 from the following table. 



