MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 303 



the visit of the bees, and if carefally done, one will find very little orno 

 frnit to set on the limb so protected. 



There are other insects that will do the same work on the bloom 

 as the bees do, but when the earliest bloom comes out, the bees having 

 €ome through the winter in large colonies, and most all other insects 

 come through the winter singly, and not having time to yet increase, 

 are very scarce at the time needed to fertilize the bloom ; by observa- 

 tions it has been found that there would be twenty bees to one insect 

 of any other kind. 



Bassford Bros., of Yaca valley, California, after growing a large 

 cherry orchard for commercial purposes, obtained no crop until after 

 they obtained bees, when their neighbors, five miles away, had no bet- 

 ter results than they did before obtaining the bees. 



Mr. W. W. Eansom, of Boston, Mass., who has a large number of 

 green-houses, seven of which he devotes to the raising of cucumbers 

 in winter time, could not do this without the help of the bees, he hav- 

 ing a colony of bees in each green-house. 



Peter Henderson, in the Hand Book of Plants, says in regard to 

 the growing of cucumbers, especially under glass, that this is accom- 

 plished only by artificial fertilization. 



It has been observed that where bees are kept near fruit-trees that 

 it frequently happens that in a wet or cool time during fruit bloom 

 there would be a short spell when it would be favorable for the bees 

 to be out, and the trees near the bees would set their fruit, while the 

 trees located further away, even in the same orchard, would have no 

 fruit. 



In the matter of clovers, there have been tests made, and in one 

 instance where 20 heads were protected from the bees no seed set, 

 while 20 heads exposed to the bees had 2290 seed. 



The only reason red clover has had no seed in the first crop here- 

 tofore has been that there were so few bumble-bees to work on the 

 bloom, as it is only the green bumble-bee that goes through the winter, 

 and as she has to produce a new lot of bees to be of much service to 

 the clover, and as she can only do so after she is able to obtain nectar» 

 she has no young bees during the first bloom, but by the time the sec- 

 ond crop of clover comes on, there are large numbers of bumble-bees, 

 and they do the work well and thus cause the seed to set. 



We now have Italian bees that often work on red clover. 



We deem this sufficient to show the necessity of the bees to the 

 successful growing of fruit, and will not attempt nor tax your forbear- 

 ance to show the value and often great profits to be obtained in keep- 

 ing bees in obtaining honey and wax, aside from fruit-growing. 



