New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 373 



bees in one colony died a few days after the application, and 

 many in another. Arsenic was found in the bodies of the dead 

 bees and in their dead brood. Thus bees may take the poison 

 home and feed it to the young, killing the bro^od in the 

 hive. A recent instance of great destruction of bees from spray- 

 ing trees when in bloom is given by E. P. Felt, New York State 

 Entomologist, in Country Gentleman for June, 1900. In some 

 cases SO to 95 per ct. of the working bees were killed. " The des- 

 truction was fearful, and there is every reason to think that it 

 was due to poison thrown upon trees in blossom." 



The observations of many practical orchardists seem to throw 

 much doubt on the whole question of the relation of bees to pol- 

 lination and to spraying, and seem to demand that the subject be 

 opened for further inquiry. WTiile working in the orchards of 

 Orleans and Niagara counties every day for ten days during the 

 past blossoming season, not a single bee or other insect was 

 observed working on the blossoms. This was probably due to 

 the cold and windy weather which prevailed during most of the 

 blossoming season. Several fruit-growers in that section like- 

 wise reported the absence of all insect pollination in their or- 

 chards. Yet the set of fruit was the best since 1896. The wind is 

 probably a factor in the cross-pollination of apples. If the pollen 

 is moist or sticky, as in most varieties of pears, it is not readily 

 blown away by the wind; hence insects are more important in the 

 cross-pollination of this fruit. But the pollen of apple blossoms 

 is usually nearly, or quite, dry and is probably carried by wind. 

 But even if apple blossoms can be pollinated by wind, it may 

 vet be true that insects are more efficient agents. Again, the 

 varieties most commonly grown in Western New York, Baldwin 

 and Rhode Island Greening, do not usually need cross-pollination 

 in order to produce good crops. They are self-fertile. It was 

 shown in Cornell Bulletin 181, however, that cross-pollination 

 even of these varieties may be expected to give better fruit than 

 self-pollination. 



