2 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. A. J. Cook spoke of the pending bill to protect bees from death 

 by arsenical spraying of fruit trees. He read the bill and said that the 

 state beekeepers' meeting had resolved to look after and secure its passage. 

 It simply forbids, under penalty of not less than $5 for each offense, the 

 spraying of fruit trees, shrubs, and vines, with arsenical or other poison- 

 ous solutions, while in bloom. There have been considerable losses of bees 

 in Michigan by this means, especially in Kent county. He thought no 

 litigation was likely to arise through passage, of the bill, but it might be 

 made protective to beekeepers where some fruitgrower might be 

 indifferent or uninformed. Notice to such of the existence of the law 

 would be sufficient. Damage to bees might be very great indeed, as it 

 has been in Illinois, before the legislature of which state a similar 

 measure is pending. If the period of blossoming were the right time to 

 spray, the case would be quite different; but the fact is that it is not in 

 any sense the time — spraying would be entirely useless then. 



Mr. Parks of Lansing thought the bill a good one. Fruitgrowers 

 should know that the time of blossoming is not the time to spray, and the 

 bill will help teach them that fact. 



L. B. Rice of Port Huron: If it kills the bees does it not injure us as 

 fruitgrowers? The less bees, the fewer carriers of pollen for fertilization 

 of blossoms. 



Prof. Cook: Had I been talking to the legislature I would have said 

 that, but every horticulturist knows it. Horticulture could not be carried 

 on without the aid of bees. Perhaps we might grow strawberries, but the 

 bees help even there. 



Prof. L. R. Taft hoped some such act might pass. Bees do help 

 greatly, even as to strawberries. 



A. G. Gulley of Agricultural College: A few years ago, speaking as a 

 fruitgrower, I would not have favored this bill, because we were then very 

 fearful of yellows, which disease bees are believed to disseminate; but 

 peach-growers have no such fear of yellows now, and so have no feeling of 

 opposition. As to spraying for curculio, it must be done early if it is to 

 be of any use at all, perhaps even before the blossoming. 



Prof. Cook : In experiments I have never gotten any curculio until after 

 the plum blossoms fell; so it is of no use till then, if indeed it is of any 

 use at all. 



Senator Taylor explained the situation of the bill in the senate. Oppo- 

 sition was made upon its introduction, but it proceeded upon the idea that 

 the bill is disadvantageous to fruitgrowers; but if such is not the case, 

 there is no objection to its passage. 



Mr. Garfield said fruitgrowers were of but one mind upon this subject, 



