RELATIONSHIP OF THE HONEY BEE TO HORTICULTURE. 405 



RELATIONSHIP OF THE HONEY BEE TO HORTICUL- 

 TURE. 



F. A. TICKNOR 



(So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



I find but one important, direct relationship between the bee and 

 horticulture, and that is fertilization, but there are many mu- 

 tual advantages existing in the dual occupation. The orchards 

 furnish shade, low lighting places for swarms, a contented home for 

 the bees, and it gives great pleasure for the manager or owner 

 to hear the industrious hum of the busy workers among the trees, 

 knowing full well that, like national banking, there is double profit 

 coming from his investment, and that the little workers are also 

 looking after the interests of his neighbors' blossoms for several 

 miles around. 



Were I to be dispossessed of the savings of many years both in 

 business and productive life, and the choice was given to me either 

 to become a burden on my friends or the public or on the other hand 

 to commence life anew at an advanced age, I would at once decide 

 to return to my old time occupation and first love as an apiarist. In 

 connection with horticulture there is, to my mind, no pursuit in the 

 productive lists fitted for young or for old, male or female, that re- 

 quires so little capital and gives so large an opportunity for gain 

 without the aid of power, expensive buildings, hired labor, etc., as 

 the orchard and apiary. 



In this paper I speak particularly upon the advantages of the 

 apiary, making some very high estimates of what should be the re- 

 sults reached in it. The vital point of how to reach these high results 

 is another question and could not be covered in one article or indeed 

 in a dozen. It would be a very poor and exceptional year when less 

 than one hundred pounds of surplus honey was received as an aver- 

 age of spring counts, and it would not be surprising to receive two 

 hundred pounds average with the up-to-date way of applying human 

 aid in conjunction with the efforts of the little bees — thus equalling 

 the profits of a dairy cow. How to accomplish this is the point I 

 wish to make in this article and the principle will apply equally well 

 in horticulture. 



Could I have a class of say not less than twenty students, young 

 or old, to meet me once each week in the apiary from the time the 

 bees were set out in the spring to the time that they were again re- 

 turned to winter quarters, such necessary information and practice 

 could be received as to enable them to obtain the results I have 



