GROUNDLESS PREJUDICES. 507 



exhausted to fly off. The bunch had lost its bloom, the 

 grapes were shiny, but entirely sound. The one punct- 

 ured grape had a slight depression at the pin hole, show- 

 ing 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 or five hives of bees, directly over the frames, and three 

 weeks after we found that the bees had glued them fast to 

 the comljs, as they glue up anything they cannot get rid of, 

 but the grapes were perfectly intact. This test can be made 

 by every Apiarist. 



Mr. McLain, in charge of the U. S. Apicultural Station, 

 was instructed to test this matter thoroughly by shutting 

 up bees with sound fruit, and the results were the same 

 as in our case. (See the Agricultural Reports for 1885. ) 



873. The main damage to grapes is done by birds. 

 Hence, the borders of a large vineyard are first to suffer, 

 especially when in proximity to hedges, orchards or timber. 



Even in small cities, the number of birds that feed on 

 fruit is extraordinary, and one can have no idea of their 

 depredations until he has watched for them at day-break, 

 which is the time best suited to their pilfering. 



After the mischief has been begun by them or by 

 insects, or wherever a crack, or a spot of decay is seen, the 

 honey-bee hastens to help itself, on the principle of " gath- 

 ering up the fragments, that nothing may be lost." In this 

 way, they undoubtedly do some mischief, but they are, on 

 the whole, far more useful than injurious. 



875. Among thousands of testimonials, we translate the 

 following from L'Apicoltore, of Milan, Italy, May 1874, 

 page 181 : 



"Being a lover of good wine, 1 manufacture mine from wilted 

 grapes ; my crop amounts annually to from thirty to forty hec- 

 tolitres* of wine, worth on average, one franc seventy-five 



•One hectolitre is twenty-flTe gallons . 



