FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 



THE VALUE OF BEES IN HORTICULTURE. 



RY DR, BURTON N. GATES. 



Associate Professor of Beekeeping, Massacliusetts Agricultural College, 



Amherst. 



The Bee's Service in Garden and Orchard. 



bees to horticulture is a vast one, somewhat treacherous and intricate. 

 While it has been worked for years and while there is a vast accumu- 

 lation of information concerning the method by which the various plants 



This field of the biology of bees and plants or the relations of honey 

 are pollinated, yet today there is considerable dispute as to the actual 

 need of honey bees or even other insects in setting some of our more im- 

 portant fruits and vegetables. As Dr. Pammel said in his lecture last 

 evening, there is a recent attempt today to remove the poetry from our 

 belief in cross-pollination, to show that apples for instance, are capable 

 of self-pollination, thereby dispensing with the need of bee service. 

 With a full realization of this uncertainty concerning our present knowl- 

 edge of the value and need of bees, in every horticultural pursuit, I am 

 inclined to believe that for years to come the old assumption that bees, 

 to a greater or less extent, are of service in procuring our crops of fruits 

 and vegetables, will be retained. From this standpoint, therefore, and 

 with it fully in mind that every future discovery may contradict our 

 present ideas, I take up my subject. 



It is generally believed that bees pollinate the greatest number of 

 flowers of any insect. Generally speaking, too, every horticulturist is 

 indebted to their inestimable service and while this has been but par- 

 tially realized for years and decades, it is relatively recent that the 

 horticulturist has made any active effort to retain bee service, thereby 

 insuring a crop. Today he is more awake to the situation and ready to 

 realize that the honey bee is an agent of service which will better enable 

 him to meet that important, keen competition. 



The bee's service to the horticulturist may be briefly stated as the 

 result of her effort to secure either nectar or pollen (which is the male 

 element of the flower). In her search for nectar or pollen, this is trans- 

 planted from the anther to the stigma (which is female), effecting pol- 

 lination, resulting, if the elements are correct in fertilization. Many 

 flowers, it has been shown, repeatedly require for satisfactory fertiliza- 

 tion, cross-pollination, producing a better, larger, more fully developed 

 and rounded, oftentimes more highly colored fragrant, luscious fruit. Dr. 

 Pammel well explained, last evening, some of the many intricate mechan- 

 isms by which pollination is accomplished and which have been de- 

 scribed by many botanists, among whom are Darwin and Miiller. 



