32 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bees will work and do their work as fertilizing. But in storniy weath- 

 er the bees will, I think, be prevented from doing that work. So I 

 don't exactly see how they will bring about the crops themselves. 



I believe that an overruling Power and Commander knows morf^ 

 about this matter than any of us. The little stalk of honey that was 

 placed in the blossom was, as was stated last night, placed there as a 

 reward for the labor performed. JSow, because one orchard on one 

 side of a lane had no fruit, and the orchard on the other side had, is 

 not enough, in my opinion, to do away with the bee theory. I would 

 take it that the reason for one orchard bearing fruit and the other bear- 

 ing none, was on account of the different conditions of the trees; the 

 one not being in a natural condition, and therefore the bees did not 

 visit that orchard and it was not fertilized by them. It is also true 

 that some years we have large crops and some years none at all, or 

 comparatively none. Some years we have no blooms. But we all 

 know that there are 10 blossoms, yes, 100 blossoms more than is neces- 

 sary, that is, that 99 out of 100 blossoms are not necessary to the pro- 

 duction of a good crop of fruit. Nature always makes abundant pre- 

 paration. If you examine the honey bee and know how many blos- 

 soms one honey bee could fertilize in one day's time you would not 

 wonder. In a few hour's time, if the honey bees are distributed over 

 an orchard 100 yards apart, in one evening's time these bees can fer- 

 tilize all the trees in the orchard, and they will necessarily have to 

 leave off" in order to keep the trees from getting too full. This has 

 been thoroughly tested by bee men and has been found to be a fact* 

 We know investigations have gone this far. I have asked why it was 

 that white clover in this country is indiginous and grows all along the 

 country. It is because the bees can reach down into the blossom and 

 extract the sweet. With red clover this is not the case. It has to de- 

 pend on the bumble bee to extract the honey from it. Why is it that 

 the first crop of red clover has no seed and the white does? I will 

 say again luat if you wish to have success as a horticulturist you had 

 better induce some apiarist to put up an apiary close to your orchard. 



Mr. Hartzell — The honey bee is not on my place. One of the 

 gentlemen who have spoken on this question said that one orchard had 

 had no fruit and another near by it had fruit ; and he also said that 

 there were not enough honeybees in the county to fertilize a forty-acre 

 orchard. I will not say about that, only that it is a fact that the honey 

 bee will go fifteen miles when there is no flower near at hand from 

 which it can extract honey, and that it will work on the nearest flower. 

 The honey bee is an economist. It works to a purpose and aims to 

 accomplish all it can with the expenditure of as little useless labor as 



