Winter Meeting. 321 



I do not wish to appear boastful, but we could probably suc- 

 ceed better in bee-keeping without fruit men than they could with- 

 out the help of bees, as if there were no fruit trees at all, bees 

 could have other bloom to work on ; whereas, without the aid of in- 

 sects, especially bees, on account of their large numbers just when 

 needed, to distribute the pollen, the fruit crop would often be short 

 if not nearly a complete loss. 



It has been demonstrated many times the help insects are to 

 the fruit crop in causing fertilization to take place by the distribu- 

 tion of the pollen. 



So I will state, we need each other in our business, as the bees 

 sometimes receive much help in early spring from fruit bloom. 

 Tests have been made many times on fruit bloom, and where the 

 bloom was protected from insects, by covering them with light 

 gauze, in most instances no fruit would set, or, if so, would fall off. 



We tested a pear tree in our own yard one spring. At bloom- 

 ing time it was very cool ; but one day we noticed when the sun was 

 shining, and one tree that stood near our dwelling and was pro- 

 tected from the wind, we noticed the bees working on the bloom for 

 about two hours. This tree had pears on when there were no others 

 in our neighborhood, so far as we could learn, that season. 



In raising cucumbers in the winter time in the north, it must be 

 done under cover — that is, in greenhouses; artificial fertilization 

 must then be done in such cases. -A number of greenhouses located 

 at Minneapolis, Boston and other places have found that bees are 

 the cheapest method to distribute the pollen to get the fruit to set, 

 and are kept for this purpose. Mr. Peter Henderson, in his book 

 on gardening, speaks of this, the help bees are to help fertilization 

 under cover. 



Perhaps many of you have heard of the undertaking to raise 

 red clover in Australia, and, while it would grow there, no seed was 

 obtained until bees were obtained to visit the bloom, thus to dis- 

 tribute the pollen. In a test made in the United States on 20 

 heads of white clover that were protected from the bees, no seed set 

 at all, while on 20 other heads there was 2,000 seed set. 



What we wish to speak of in particular on this occasion is in 

 regard to spraying. We do not presume to be able to instruct any 

 of you how to do this, but wish to lay particular stress not to do 

 so at one certain time, namely, during blooming time. We are 

 pleased that Mr. W. M. Scott of the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington made his address before ours; we are certainly pleased 

 to get his experience on spraying during blooming time, the ex- 



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