THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 427 



praise in its utilization. Gathering the fruit before it is overripe will 

 minimize this loss to a negligible quantity, especially if the birds and 

 wasps are restrained from opening the doors to the mischief. 



There is another impeachment that horticulture may offer with some- 

 what more of reason against the hive bee. I refer to the fact that bees 

 are a prolific source of dissemination of contagious pear blight. This 

 dreaded bacterial malady, so fatal to two of our most valued fruits — 

 the apple and the pear — is without doubt carried by bees and any other 

 insect or any bird that sips nectar from the blossoms or comes in con- 

 tact with the germ-laden sap. Aphids and other Hemiptera, bugs, 

 many Coleoptera and beetles, are collaborators with the bees in the 

 spread of pear blight. Yet bees may carry the blight germs from 

 orchard to orchard and are only rivaled by birds in such long distance 

 dispersion. This fact should obligate every grower to extirpate "hold- 

 over" blight in his orchard. However, some experts claim that it is 

 doubtful if the absence of bees would materially lessen the rate of dis- 

 semination. This is quite unlike pollination, where every blossom must 

 receive the energizing pollen, for here one inoculation from the bacteria 

 lodged on the sucking tube of aphis or bee infects the entire tree. 

 Pollination calls for a multitude of pollinators ; a feeble few will spread 

 pear blight over an entire orchard. 



From this it can be seen that the pomologist owes much to the api- 

 arist. If right-minded, he will be grateful and will be moved to recip- 

 rocate. Happily he has a rich opportunity to gratify this desire. If 

 wise and sane, he will always spray with arsenite of zinc for the first, 

 or calyx, spray, or arsenate of lead, in combating serious harm done by 

 the codling moth to apples and pears. This spraying should never be 

 done until the petals have largely fallen from the trees; otherwise the 

 bees are liable to be poisoned in wholesale fashion, and if favorable 

 w^eather prevails which insures abundant nectar, this poisoning would 

 be almost certain, and the amount of arsenicals gathered by the bees 

 might be so plenteous as to even poison the brood. I have known of a 

 few such cases. However, the fruit bloom comes at an unpropitious 

 time for nectar secretion, and so fatal results from the poisoned nectar 

 in the fruit blossoms are not so general as might be expected, yet from 

 the bloom of alfalfa grown under fruit trees the danger would be more 

 frequent. 



We should insist then that fruit trees should never be sprayed with 

 arsenious mixtures until the blossoms are largely gone, and that if 

 fruit trees are in the same field with alfalfa and are treated with 

 arsenical sprays, the alfalfa should be cut before it blossoms. 



As it is never wise to cut alfalfa until at least one-third of the 

 blossoms are open, there will be little loss in this early cutting. It is a 

 well-known fact that late-cut alfalfa is less nutritious. 



To sum up : bees as pollinators are of great value to horticulture ; in 

 planting all fruit trees it is well to mix varieties; the honey bee never 

 feeds on or destroys sound fruit. Bees aid in spreading pear blight, 

 but it is doubtful if by eliminating the bees, the dissemination of this 

 disease would be greatly lessened. Fruit trees should never be sprayed 

 with arsenious compounds until the petals have largely dropped, and 

 if alfalfa is grown in the orchard, the spraying should precede the 

 blooming of the alfalfa. 



