330 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



quantities that the bee may be compelled to make frequent visits. It 

 is also a fact worthy of note that the blossom does not yield nectar 

 until it is ready for its part in fertilization. 



This phase of the phenomena is curious enough to be interesting, 

 but there is an intensely practical aspect of the case. Nature would 

 not go to so much trouble for nothing, and if there was not an impor- 

 tant work for the bees to perform, there would not be these provisions 

 made for it. We are forced to the conclusion that where there are no 

 bees many blossoms will fail of being properly fertilized and hence 

 fail to mature fruit. 



How much the fruit grower would lose by the total destruction of 

 bees it would be hard to estimate even approximately, but probably 

 it would far exceed any damage the bees will do by occasionally 

 puncturing a grape or peach. It is said that in a town in Massachu- 

 setts, so strong was the belief that bees injured the fruit, that an or^ 

 dinance was passed obliging the bee-keepers to remove their bees to 

 another locality. After a year or two the fruit growers decided to have 

 the bees brought back as so little Iruit set upon the trees in proportion 

 to the blossoms which appeared. When we consider the work done 

 by bees, we are justified in calling them pomologists. 



I am certain that bees injure fruit very little, if at all. Most of 

 the destruction blamed upon them is the work of other agents. The 

 jaws of the bee are too weak to puncture the skin of the most delicate 

 grape. Only after it is pierced does the bee harm the fruit. 



John M. Stahl, in American Garden. 



SOME PUGNACIOUS SPARROWS. 



We may be pardoned for again calling the attention of Prairie 

 Farmer readers to the much talked of English sparrow, long enough 

 to quote the following interesting and phathetic incidents from a let- 

 ter to Science written by G. C. Henning, of Louisville, Ky. It gives 

 some positive evidence as to whether or not these feathered intruders 

 molest our native song birds, that the few remaining sparrow advo- 

 vates would do well to ponder upon. Mr. H. writes : 



We had provided at my home in Hudson county, N. J., numerous 

 boxes for nests of blue birds and wrens in the trees, and before the in- 

 troduction of the English sparrow in New York in 1864, these were in- 

 variably occupied by the same family each spring ; additional nests 

 were always soon occupied. Any one acquainted with these pretty 

 little singers will understand the peculiar charm they lend to a coun- 

 try home. During the summer time the grove would be full of thrushes, 

 who would build their nests in the underbrush and fill the morning 



