92 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FRUIT growers' FRIENDS, 



"Sweet is the hum of the bee 

 That at her flowery work doth sing'' 



was iiiuoh to Virgil and Pliny, who wrote poetry and books, kept bees and 

 grew fruits long, long years ago. When it was discovered nearly two cen- 

 turies ago that flowers had sex, the naturalist of the time held that honey 

 was but the bait by which bees were induced to take the fertilizing ele- 

 ment and carry it from flower to flower. They were right only they knew 

 not the whole truth, for we now know that while pollen may be dis- 

 tributed by them and other insects, the fruits are almost wholly de- 

 pendent upon visits of the bees, though we must include here wild bees, 

 bumble bees and the bee family in general. 



Every fruit grower now knows that the fruitfulness of his orchard is 

 largely influenced by the abundance or scarcity of bees, and if the weather 

 is such that bees cannot work but little fruit sets. That orchards in 

 which bee hives are kept bear larger crops than those not thus favored is 

 common knowledge. No matter how carefully the strawberry grower 

 arranges his rows of perfect and imperfect varieties, his crop would be 

 small were it not for the timely help that he knows not of from the bees. 

 We fruit growers should give the bee due credit as a fruit producer and 

 must never begrudge the nectar and pollen the bee takes as her profes- 

 sional fee as a midwife. 



The bee does other work for the fruit grower that we must not lose 

 sight of. New varieties come from crossed plants. It is the fashion now 

 for the plant breeder to do his own cross pollination, but most of our new 

 varieties still come by chance and the bee cross-pollinates 10,000 flowers 

 where man does one. Most of our new varieties then are not man-made 

 varieties, nor chance-made varieties, but are bee-made varieties. Thus 

 the plant breeder owes much to the blessed bee. 



NATURE^S PROVISIONS. 



The fruit grower has come to recognize the great good he derives from 

 the principle so strongly set forth by Charles Darwin, that close-breeding 

 tends to sterility and debility, while cross-breeding among different 

 individuals and varieties among the same species avoids this tendency. 

 This brings us to the matter of cross-pollination, which we now know to 

 be all-important in fruit growing. Here again we have an all-wise and 

 beautiful provision of nature whereby the wonderful adaptation of bees 

 and flowers for cross-pollination benefit the fruit grower. 



Waite, of Washington, has proved that many pears and apples must be 

 cross-pollinated to produce crops of fruits. Beach, of Geneva, found that 

 some grapes need cross-pollination. Bailey and Waugli state that many 

 plums are not self-fertile. All give the same remedy, namel3% mixed plant- 

 ing by means of which foreign pollen is supplied to the impotent varieties, 

 but none seemed to have recognized the importance of the bee in this 

 exchange of pollen. Now while the bee is little among such as fly, let us 

 not entirely overlook her in this matter of cross-pollination and to give 

 as the remedy for infertile orchards mixed planting and plenty of bees. 



The bee not only befriends the fruit gi-ower, but the gardener as well. 

 She is the same sort of a match-maker and matrimonial agent for the 



