GROUNDLiESS PREJUDICES. 541 



This serious charge called our attention to the matter, and 

 we decided to make a thorough investigation, in our own 

 vineyard. But although many bees were seen banqueting on 

 grapes, not one was doing any mischief to the sound fruit. 

 Grapes which were bruised on the vines, or lying on the 

 ground, and the moist stems, from which grapes had recently 

 been plucked, were covered with bees; while other bees were 

 observed to alight upon bunches, which, when found by care- 

 ful inspection to be sound, they left with evident disappoint- 

 ment. 



Wasps and hornets, which secrete no wax, being furnished 

 with strong, saw-like jaws, for cutting the woody fibre with 

 which they build their combs, can easily penetrate the skin of 

 the toughest fruits. While the bees, therefore, appeared to 

 be comparatively innocent, multitudes of these depredators 

 were seen helping themselves to the best of the grapes. Oc- 

 casionally, a bee would presume to alight on a bunch where 

 one of these pests was operating for his own benefit, when 

 the latter would turn and "show fight," much after the fash- 

 ion of a snarling dog, molested by another of his species, while 

 daintily discussing his own private bone. 



During grape picking, the barrels in which our grapes were 

 hauled to the wine cellar, were covered with a cloud of bees 

 feeding on the damaged clusters, and they followed the wagon 

 to the cellar. After removing the barrels to a place of safety, 

 we left one bunch of sound grapes, on the wagon, puncturing 

 one of the grapes with a pin. This bunch, being the only one 

 remaining exposed, was at once covered with such a swarm 

 of bees that it was entirely hidden from sight. It was three 

 o'clock in the afternoon. At sunset the bees were all gone^ 

 except three, who were too exhausted to fly off. The bunch 

 had lost its bloom, the grapes were shiny, but entirely sound. 

 The one punctured grape had a slight depression at the pin 

 hole, showing that the bees had sucked all the juice they 

 could reach, but they had not even enlarged the hole. 



We also placed bunches of sound grapes inside of some four 



