New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 371 



(4) Even if arsenical sprays at blooming; time do kill bees, the 

 value of the bee interests in the orchard counties is very small as 

 compared with the value of the fruit interests. 



(5) It is not proven that bees are necessary for the fruitfulness 

 of apples, at least of the varieties which are most grown. 



The first argument of the fruit-growers is yet to be proved, but 

 no one who has been in these great apple orchards during the 

 blooming seasion can fail to feel the weight of the second point. 

 A fruit-grower may set out to spray his twenty-aore apple 

 orchard when the blossoms show pinlc, as directed in the spray 

 calendars, but after a short '' spell " of warm May weather he 

 finds his trees in full bloom and only half of the orchard sprayed. 

 Spring rains may prevent him from spraying till the blossomis 

 are just ready to burst; then come two or three days of sunny 

 weather, and his trees are in full bloom. 



The third point — are bees killed by arsenical sprays at blos- 

 soming time under norm;'.l orchard conditions? — is also worthy 

 a moment's review. The fruit men are in such overwhelming 

 majority in the apple sections that the bee men are not often 

 heard. In order to approach this question from the bee-keeper's 

 point of view, three apiarists were visited and asked to give their 

 experience and opinions on this much discussed subject. A bee- 

 keeper of Orangeport has his hives under an apple tree which 

 he has sprayed with arsenites when in full bloom for three years. 

 He has not noticed more than the usual number of dead bees by 

 the hive at this season, and the colonies have apparently done 

 just as well as in previous years. A bee-keeper of Gasport has 

 had the same experience. Another at Medina, who has about 

 forty colonies, sprayed his trees with the Kedzie (arsenic) 

 mixture last year when they were in full bloom. There was no 

 more than the normal mortality among his bees that year. All 

 these men believe that few, if any, bees are killed, because poi- 

 soned blossoms are distasteful to them, or else they have instinct 

 enough to keep away. The feeling of these men on the subject 

 is said to be shared by other bee-keepers in Western New York; 

 but there are many who are equally certain that their colonies 



