302 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A preparatiou known as Cannon's fruit protector was tested against 

 certain insects, especially Coccidie, with good success. In odor and 

 consistency, as well as in its effects, it differs but slightly from thymo- 

 cresol, on which I have previously reported, and I do not think that it 

 is in any way superior to the latter. It is in the form of a molasses like 

 fluid, of which 1 part to 80 or 100 parts of water are used, to be applied 

 as a spray or drench, as a combined insecticide and fungicide. Deli- 

 <}ate foliage was in some cases injured by it, appearing as though 

 greased, and after a few days shriveled and dropped, and I would not 

 recommend its use against caterpillars or Apbidids, but think it would 

 prove a good repellant on the trunks of trees against borers, and 

 might be advantageously applied to trees affected with bark-lice. 



The Fertilization oi' Fruit. 



By J. \V. Kouse, Mexico. 



To the Missouri State Horticultural Society : 



Through the kind rerjuest of your worthy Vice-President, Hon. K. 

 E. Murray, I present you this paper on the " Fertilization of Fruit 

 Bloom, and Bees and Fruit." 



I do not presume that the facts that I am now about to present 

 are new or unknown to any practical fruit-grower, but in order to show 

 the value and aid of bees to the successful growing of fruit to the 

 uninformed and to the world at large, do I present these facts. 



I would not make the broad assertion that there could not be any fruit 

 produced at all without the aid of bees, but will say that without the 

 aid of bees there would be in many, and even in most instances, but 

 little or no fruit, such as apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries and 

 such like fruit ; and the bees are a great aid to the small fruits, such as 

 blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries. 



As is now well known, when the bloom of the fruits is out the 

 bees cause fertilization to take place by visiting the bloom in their 

 search for nectar and pollen, and by getting the pollen dust on them- 

 selves, they carry the dust along and distribute it on other blooms 

 needing it, thus causing fertilization to take place. 



While the wind helps some in this matter, it does not always come 

 in the right direction, and frequently not at all to blow the pollen where 

 needed. Nature has so prjvided that in many blooms there is only 

 one sex, and in others, even when both sexes are in the same bloom, 

 only one comes out at a time, so that it is an absolute necessity that 

 many blooms have souie artificial means of fertilization. 



Any one may easily test the value of bees to fruit, by covering a 

 limb just before the bloom comes out, so as to protect the limb from 



