FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 91 



liable to be poisoned by the sprayed blossoms of fruit trees. The liability 

 increases, as a matter of course, in proportion as the weather is favorable 

 for the working of the bees. The danger begins as soon as blossoms 

 appear and lasts until all have fallen. 



But why all this fuss about spraying when trees are in bloom? What 

 right-minded fruit grower ever thinks of spraying his trees at blooming 

 time? Experience and direct experiments, as every up-to-date horticul- 

 turist knows, have proved that the fruit crop is decidedly injured by such 

 spraying. The pollen is weakened or killed and the stigmas injured. 

 Moreover, there is no reason for spraying at this time unless it is to thin 

 the crop, for all known troubles can be better treated before or after 

 blooming time. I, therefore, look upon the law forbidding the spraying 

 of trees in bloom as nonsensical. The law does more harm than good, if 

 there be such, a good way of killing his neighbor's bees. 



The bee flits from flower to flower, takes something for herself, but 

 leaves quite as much for the next comer. Her motto seems to be, "Live and 

 let live." Take a lesson, beekeeper. Take a lesson, fruit grower. "Live 

 and let live" be your motto, and we shall hear less of this nonsense about 

 bees eating fruit and spray killing bees. A bee among the flowers in 

 spring, says an old writer, is one of the cheerfulest objects that can be 

 looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment — so busy and so 

 pleased. How about the bee as an exemplar for man? "So busy and so 

 pleased," a second motto to keep us out of the courts. 



WRONGS THAT BEES DO. 



I would gladly pass on and say nothing of the wrong-doing which I 

 believe the bee is really guilty of, but I am compelled to show up the 

 relations of bees to fruit growing just as they are. Among all the things 

 that poets have said and sung about bees, I do not remember their ever 

 having mentioned the fact that the bee not infrequently scatters evil. 



Our friend the beekeeper, in telling us of the remarkable number of 

 products — honey, wax, bee-bread and bee-gum — collected and carried by 

 bees, never mentioned the fact that the liquid nectar of their honey bags 

 may contain vile germs. Or more likely it is the waxen thigh, the velvet 

 cap or the humming wing, that rubs against and carries away the evil. 

 At any rate it is well established that bees carry germs at least of one 

 disease from tree to tree, namely, the pear blight, and in sufficient quan- 

 tities to be a means of spreading the disease. But what shall we fruit 

 growers do about it ? Even if no bees, no blight, were true ; no bees, no 

 fruit would be just as true. Under the circumstances, it seems to me the 

 best we can do is to take the evil with the good and say nothing. 



We have not yet sufficiently touched upon the chief good work of the 

 bee ; this we must hasten to do and so acknowledge the debt due her from 

 the fruit grower. That the bee is a worthy partner in fruit growing and 

 helps to load the trees with fruit has long been known ; the ancients, 

 seemingly, having given the bee more credit for her good work in the 

 orchard than we moderns do. 



