Relation op Bkes to Fuuit Culture. 257 



uativo and exotic fruit trees, expecting abundant crops in 

 due time. As time passed on her trees produced a great 

 abundance of flowers, with only a little fruit. Various 

 plans were devised and adopted to bring the trees into bear- 

 ing, but without success, until it was suggested that the 

 blossoms needed fertilization, and that by means of bees the 

 work could be accomplished. A hive of bees was intro- 

 duced the next season. The remedy was effectual. There 

 was no longer any difficulty in producing abundant crops of 

 fruit. The bees distributed the pollen, and the setting of 

 the fruit followed naturally. 



Similar statements come to us in regard to the orch- 

 ard house of Stephen M' Esq., near Pliiladelphia, 

 where" peaches are grown by the bushel in fifteen inch pots 

 and eighteen inch tubs ; the gardener attributing much of his 

 success to the agency of bees in fertilizing the blossoms. 

 He places a hive in the house as soon the flowers begin 

 to open, and it is kept there until the petals fall. 



A large fruit grower says that his cherries are a very 

 uncertain crop, a cold northwest storm frequently prevail- 

 ing when his trees are in blossom. He had noticed, how- 

 ever, that if the sun shone only a couple of hours the bees 

 secured him a crop. 



We have the authority of Darwin for stating that twenty 

 heads of white clover, unprotected from insects, produced 

 2,290 seeds, while twenty other heads, that w^ve protected, 

 produced not one. Also, twenty heads of red clover, 

 unprotected, produced 2,700 seeds. The same number, 

 protected, produced not a single seed. Indeed, he believes 

 9 



