458 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Bees are also very useful to the horticulturist, as they are able 

 to carry pollen from one flower to another and thus fertilize the 

 flower. As many of our fruits are self-sterile, they could not fruit 

 without this help from the bees. Careful experiments by entmolo- 

 gists have shown that bees are not guilty of cutting open grapes and 

 other fruits, as their mandibles are too weak and are not designed 

 for such work. It is, of course, true that after the fruits have been 

 torn open by wasps, birds, etc., the bees feed on the pulp and juice. 

 — Prof. Hunter, of Kansas, before the Am. Nurserymen at Chicago, 

 June 14, 1899. 



If bees are kept from fruit blossoms by netting or other arti- 

 ficial means, the amount of fruit set is little or none. It not infre- 

 quently happens that inclement weather prevents or hinders the 

 flying of bees during the period when the flowers are receptive. A 

 fruit tree, half of which w^as subjected to a continuous spray of 

 water during the flowering period, produced no fruit upon the 

 sprayed portion, but an abundance upon the other. A failure due 

 to the above mentioned cause cannot well be prevented, but may be 

 modified by having bees near at hand to utilize the short favorable 

 periods which do occur. 



An insufUcient supply of bees will hinder the setting of fruit. 

 While other insects may take part in the carrying of pollen, the 

 fruit raiser must rely chiefly on honey bees. Experience shows 

 that, though the hungry bees may fly two or three miles, hives 

 should be within half a mile of the orchard or small-fruit patch. — 

 Press Bulletin No. 8, of the Kansas Experiment Station. 



The value of the honey bee to the horticulturist is hardly real- 

 ized by many who are engaged in fruit growing. The setting of 

 fruit that will stay on the tree depends chiefly upon proper pollina- 

 tion, and in this work the bee is largely instrumental. There are, 

 of course, other instrumentalities, but none, perhaps, so effective. 

 Experiments at the Oregon station with the peach throw a good 

 deal of light on this subject. A number of peach trees were forced 

 into bloom under glass in November, and a colony of bees was 

 placed in the house as soon as the bloom began. For several days 

 a heavy fog prevented the bees from working, but on the first 

 bright day that came the bees went to work and continued at it as 

 long as there was anything on the trees to work on. The result was 

 that at the stoning season, the time when unfertilized fruit drops, 

 not a peach fell from the trees, and the crop was so heavy that it 

 had to be severely thinned. As a check test, one tree was so pro- 

 tected that the bees could not get at it, and from this tree all the 



