322 State Horticultural Society, 



perience he gives, together with so many of you who, we are sure, 

 are as good and experienced horticulturists as are any^vhere. Ac- 

 cording to this testimony, to spray at blooming time not only does 

 no good, but in a great many instances the poisonous spray destroys 

 the fertilizing element in the bloom itself. We notice the paper, 

 we suppose of one of your members, where he says, in the matter 

 of spraying during bloom, he has been asked not to do so at that 

 time; but says ''He does not know why he should not do so at that 

 time, as he considers his fruit interests worth more than all the 

 bees in his county." Yet we notice he says further, "That he 

 sprayed, but, for some reason, he has nearly no fruit at ail where 

 he sprayed at blooming time." We have the testimony of one of 

 our members of our State Bee-keepers' Association, living near 

 Chillicothe. He states that a neighbor living near him sprayed his 

 trees during blooming time, and not only destroyed large numbers 

 of his bees, but the fruit man had scarcely any fruit on the trees so 

 sprayed at blooming time. We have the Life of the Codling Moth, 

 by Professor M. V. Slingerland, and he states that the codling 

 moth does not come in any appreciable numbers until fruit is 

 set, so to spray for them before that time the work and expense is 

 lost. We have the catalog of a manufacturer of spray machines, 

 and he advises to spray from early spring until fall, including 

 blooming time. His attention has been called to his advice on in- 

 discriminate spraying. He replies that he advises to spray just as 

 the bloom is falling, but his book we have does not read that way. 

 We are pleased to have the testimony of you leading horticultur- 

 ists about spraying during blooming time, as this manufacturer, 

 with any others that may do so, may learn after awhile that it is an 

 injury to their own interest to thus do. 



We wish to speak of bees working on damaged fruit. Bees 

 never attack sound fruit, but only after it has become over-ripe 

 and cracked, or after soft spots appear, or is attacked by other in- 

 sects having biting parts, or birds have attacked the fruit. Pro- 

 fessor Cook, who is an entomologist of national reputation, says 

 the bees do not cut through the sound skin of the grape (the fruit 

 most worked on by the bees) . In many tests made by him, he has 

 never found the bees able to do so. In his scientific work on bees, 

 he shows, by cuts, that bees have no cutting or biting teeth to cut 

 through the sound skin of the grape. In tests made by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture with 30 different varieties of grapes, in 

 every way possible, he could never find that the bees were able to 

 cut through the skin of the grape. Mr. Dadant of Hamilton, 111., 



