112 
BEES—DO THEY ATTACK FRUIT? 
semblance of its former shape and size. 
However, careful investigation has shown 
repeatedly that bees never injure sound 
fruit, no matter how soft the skin nor how 
juicy and pulpy the contents within the 
skin. 
The author has attended various horticul¬ 
tural and pomological conventions, both 
state and national. Among- the progressive 
fruit-growers and horticulturists there is a 
general acknowledgment that bees do not 
attack sound fruit; that the little harm 
they do to damaged fruit is compensated 
for a hundred times over by the indispen¬ 
sable service they perform in pollinating 
fruit blossoms early in the season when no 
other insects or means of pollination 
exist. The best fruit-growers are now keep¬ 
ing a few colonies of bees in each of their 
orchards. Often they invite beekeepers to 
locate yards of bees either in the orchards 
or as near as it is practicable to put them. 
Some years ago, Prof. N. W. McLain, 
then in the employ of the Department of 
Agriculture, "Washington, D. C., conducted 
an elaborate series of experiments in which 
he placed sound fruit, consisting of grapes, 
peaches, apricots, and the like, in hives 
containing bees that were brought to the 
Grapes punctured by birds and despoiled by bees. 
verge of starvation. This fruit was left in 
the hives day after day, but it was never 
once molested. Then he tried breaking 
some of the fruit, and in every case all 
such specimens were attacked by the bees 
and the juices sucked out until nothing but 
One of the exhibits of bees at the Grange Fair, in 
Wilmington, Del., held in September, 1908. A card 
in the hive read, “Bees do not injure sound fruit.” 
a dried skin and the stones or seeds were 
left. 
Years later, Prof. H. A.. Surface, then 
economic zoologist at Harrisburg, Pa., 
tried a similar experiment, but in no case 
did the bees attack sound fruit, altho they 
partook freely of that which he had 
broken. 
At the Wilmington State Fair, held in 
September, 1908, in Delaware, Joel Gil- 
fillan of Newark, Del., had on exhibition a 
three-story obseiwation hive containing two 
combs of bees. In the third story were 
hung a peach, a pear, and a bunch of 
grapes. This hive was kept on exhibition 
during the entire fair where the general 
public could see it. As is shown, this fruit 
was never once visited bv the bees. The 
general verdict of those who saw it, fruit- 
men and farmers alike, was that bees did 
not injure this fruit. 
The publishers of this book have had, 
during the past 40 years, between three 
and four hundred colonies located in a 
vineyard at their home apiary. Notwith¬ 
standing hundreds and hundreds of pounds 
