DO BEES DESTROY FRUIT ?

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 22, 10 December 1874, Page 3

DO BEES DESTROY FRUIT ?

Many complaints have been made that bees destroy fruit, ■> Being a beekeeper, I consider it. also my duty to be a bee defender. Various theories are indulged ia. Some assert that bees prevent the fruit from setting ; others maintain that bees puncture the fruit when ripe. A correspondent complained in the fore part of summer tbat bees destroyed his peaches, and not knowing what to do asked for advise, whereupon the learned Prof! Riley took it upon himself to give a recipe with which to poison the bees, and he also stated that by such management he had known one-half of an apiary to give out. Does Prof. Riley not know thai his bee-de-stroying recipe has gone before the world, among people some of whom are still more ignorant than himself? Does it not trouble his conscience to be the destroyer of the most admirable, busiest, and most profitable insect created ? And all because some ignoramuses imagine the bees destroy their fruit without any facts for evidence.

In the Report of Agriculture for 1871. some state that bees had destroyed their grapes, which led me to take close observation. Accordinly, I took a bunch of grapes, the tenderest I could get, and put them on the hive, directly over the bees, and watched proceedings, but not a single berry was punctured ; then I broke a few of the berries, upon which they immediately went to work and sucked them dry — thus showing that something beside bees must open the grapes, or any other fruit, before they can touch it. Perhaps, it is in the growth, or in the weather, or the work of some other insect, but don't lay it to the innocent bee. How is it that we don't hear of such complaints in Germany, France, and Italy, where fruit, especially grapes, are raised so extensively, and bees kept in great numbers? If the bees were so destructive to fruit, would they not have enacted laws long ago to prevent their being kept 1 ? Such is not the case ; on the contrary, beekeeping is encouraged. In Italy there is a law regulating the size of hives and frames.

Practical bee-keepers of America declare bees do not injure fruit of any kind. Many of them are extensively engaged in fruit culture, and they say bees help in impregnating* blossoms, by bringing the polen of the male and female Llossoms in contact. Finally I would say to those complainants to procure and diligently read one or all of the bee periodicals published in this country, and thoroughly post themselves on bee culture, and not depend entirely on their own- investigation, which is not sufficient, for even Agassiz makes blunders in the bee line.

To correct a sour swamp, lime is the best thing in use. Either rock or shell lime will do.

Hilling potatoes will give more bushels per acre than flat culture, however nice.

Manuring with a little salt and watering with lime water, a farmer raised good cabbages for fifteen j^ears running on the same lot.

For ridding trees of insects use potash dissolved in water It may be used very strong on the trunks of trees, but on twigs and tender blades should be largely diluted.

Pigs can be cured of what is known as blind staggers by cutting a gash in the scalp, and rubbing the opening with pepper and salt or powdered camphor. Cures have been thus wrought when the hog* was nearly dead.

A writer in the c Boston Cultivator says that in -his experience he has been led to look upon the black ant as his best friend in the peach orchard, his only object in travelling up and down the tree being to destroy lice, which frequently cover the young and tender leaves of the peach tree.

The use of clover as a green crop for manure arises from the fact that the roots of clover go much deeper than corn roots. They draw virtue from, the subsoil up into the soil. Corn has very little power of this sort. In some soils the acid that comes of decomposing clover is useful in dissolving* the mineral parts of the soil. For these reasons many farmers find it to their advantage to plough under clover.

Cheap concrete flooring., where suitable stone for pavxng is not readily procurable, may be made as follows :-^ Mix three bushels of coal ashes with two bushels of gas lime, and then add sufficient gas tar to make a stiff mortar. If the ammonical liquor has been separated from the tar, its place must be supplied by adding water till the talis thin enough, for use; For stables and cattle sheds, the mortar can be laid down with a spade, and fine sharp sand or gravel sifted over it ; then roll- well, and you will have a good concrete floor. It will take a few days to get thorough.lv hard, even in dry weather ; but it will be a good piece of work, if carefully done.

In cutting clover hay, a good plan is to start reaping' in the afternoon and keep cutting until dark. Dew or rain will not hurt grass while it is green ; The next morning, after the dew is off, rake the partially dried grass into small windrows with a steel rake.. Turn them immediately after dinner,: and towards ; night rake into larger windrows and put into cock- •'.'.Turn' or spread ouf'the cocks the next morning, and draw in the hay ia the aftornooa.