STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



''Failure in the fruit crop is more often due, I think, to dull 

 or damp weather at the time of blossoming, which prevents 

 insects from working actively in the flowers, than to any other 



cause." 



At the same joint meeting of bee and fruit men, H. W. Col- 

 lingwood, editor of the Rural New Yorker, one of the best and 

 most reliable agricultural papers, said : 



*'We can easily forgive the bee his short working days when 

 we consider the good he does. There is no question about the 

 debt fruit-growers owe him. People talk about the wind and 

 insects in fertilizing our flowers ; but I am confident that 

 any man who will really take the time and pains to investigate 

 for himself will see that the bee is nearly the whole story. I 

 have seen the certain results of his good work in a neighbor's 

 orchard. Those bees 'broke the trees' down just as truly as 

 though they had climbed on the trees by the million and pulled 

 at them. The appearance of those trees after a few years of 

 bee keeping would have convinced any fair-minded man that 

 our little buzzing friends are true partners of the fruit grower." 



Prof. Bailey, the very able horticulturist of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, says ''bees are much more efficient agents of pollination 

 than wind, in our fruits, and their absence is always delete- 



rious." 



If bees are then of so much value in fertilizing the blossoms, 

 the fruit grower should welcome the bee-keeper and protect the 

 bees. 



It has been proven, I think conclusively, that there is noth- 

 ing to be gained by spraying fruit trees while in bloom, and 

 often they are injured and the crop diminished. 



The orchardist can accompHsh what he desires by thoroughly 

 spraying just before the blossoms open and after the flower 

 petals have fallen and he will not destroy the bees which are 

 his best friends. 



A sweetened poisonous spray would be dangerous to use at 

 any time, particularly so at a time when nectar was not plentiful 

 in the fields. In times of drought bees will take up spray that 

 is not unpleasant to their taste for the water it contains, though 

 it is a question if much harm is done in this way. 



Bees are sometimes accused of injuring fruit by puncturing 

 them to get the juices. This, however, bees are unable to do. 



