506 BEES AND FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 
they held a meeting, to petition the State Legislature, 
for a law preventing any one from owning more than ten 
hives of bees. 
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 careful inspection to be sound, they left with evi- 
dent disappointment. 
Wasps and hornets, which secrete no wax, being fur- 
nished with strong, saw-like jaws, for cutting the woody 
fibre with which they build their combs, can easily pene- 
trate the skin of the toughest fruits. While the bees, there- 
fore, appeared to be comparatively innocent, multitudes of 
these depredators were seen helping themselves to the best 
of the grapes. Occasionally, 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 fashion of a snarling dog, molested by an- 
other of his species, while daintily discussing his own pri- 
vate 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 hid- 
den from sight. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. At 
sunset the bees were all gone, except three, who were too 
