WINTER MEETING. 247 



the pine). But with our fruits this agency must be very uncertain and 

 ineffectual. And perhaps that fruit blooms fail to become pollinated 

 when the weather is too cool for insects to move goes to show the 

 same thing. Our chief and only safe reliance for the performance of 

 this function must be upon insects. But insects differ greatly both in 

 numbers and activity. 



During the time when Prof. Cook was making the first experiment 

 [ referred to, he made observations to determine the rtomparative num- 

 bers of different insects to be found upon the blossoms, and he esti- 

 mated that at that time there were 20 honey bees to one of all other 

 kinds at work on the bloom. Ju his California experiments he found 

 there were 100 bees so engaged to one of all other kinds. I think 

 this last — 100 to 1 — would be nearer ihe rale in Michigan in the neigh- 

 borhood of an apiary of any considerable size. Then if we consider 

 the immensely greater activity of the bee over that of most other in- 

 sects, darting like a shot from flower to flower, and from tree to tree, 

 the conclusion is inevitable that we must rely chiefly for cross-fertili- 

 zation on the bee. 



Busy bee, pray tell me why, 



Thus from flower to flower you fly. 

 Culling sweets the live-long day. 



Never leaving off to play. 



We know the answer so far as it immediately concerns the bee, 

 but if that were the only reason, why does the flower that lasts but 

 for two or three days secrete the nectar that attracts the bee, instead 

 of the leaf, which endures for the season, and which could therefore 

 so much better serve her ? Nature made no mistake ; the welfare of 

 the bee was not the first consideration. 



Notwithstanding all this, there is undoubtedly, as I stated at the 

 outset, a prejudice against bees, and for these reasons : 



First — Because of a belief that the bees take something from the 

 plant that will render it less productive; or something that is of value 

 to the grower of the plant. 



What I have already said shows the fallacy of the first branch of 

 this belief, and as to the other branch of it I have this to say, that 

 bees gather from domestic plants nectar and pollen only. The nectar 

 of clover, for instance, can never be of any value to the farmer. A. 

 shower washes the blossoms so thoroughly that the bees do not work 

 on them for several hours afterward. The nectar in that case, to be 

 sure, goes into the soil, but any well-informed chemist would tell you 

 that it has no value even as a fertilizer. The pollen, in like manner, if 

 ungathered, would go into the soil, and there it would have some value 



