APICULTURE. 341 



THE ADVANTAGE OF THE HONEY BEE TO 

 HORTICULTURE. 



BY WM. URIE, XIXXEAPOLIS. 



Darwin's memorable researches and generalizations in relation to 

 the fertilization and cross-fertilization of plants through the agencj- 

 of insects are not the best of his many valuable scientific discoveries, 

 nor, )'et, are thej' the least, in their bearings on economic questions. 



His classic investigations settled the question of the great value 

 of insects in securing full fruitage to nianj- of our most valuable 

 fruits and vegetables. Since Darwin, man}- scientists have bj- 

 crucial tests and experiments abundantly confirmed his conclu- 

 sions. Our more intelligent practical men have also made signifi- 

 cant observations. The}' note a scarcity of insect's visits to the 

 blossoms of the first crop of red clover and, also, its failure to bear 

 seed. The alsike clover is freely visited in early June by the honey 

 bee and bears a full crop of seed. 



In Xew Zealand the red clover failed to seed at all seasons and 

 there was a conspicuous absence of insects upon the blossoms, 

 both earlj- and late. This led to the importation of bumble bees 

 from England to the earth's very limit, and now the New Zealand 

 farmers produce clover seed. Gardeners are keeping bees today 

 that their vegetables may fruit and seed more liberally. Even the 

 producers of flower seeds in our cities keep bees in their green- 

 houses as thej' find this the easiest and cheapest method to secure 

 that more perfect fertilization upon which their profits depends. 



Secretar}' Farnsworth of the Ohio Horticultural Society could ac- 

 count for a verj" meagre crop of fruit a few years since in his vicin- 

 it5', after a profusion of bloom, onlj- through lack of pollenization. 

 The bees had nearly all died off the previous winter. I have often 

 noted the fact that, if we have rain and cold during the fruit bloom 

 so that the bees cannot visit the bloom, there is a light crop of fruit 

 or, perhaps, not an^". 



Darwin's researches considered insects as a whole, and it is true 

 that all insects that visit flowers, either for nectar or pollen, do val- 

 uable service in the work of pollenization. Thus many of the hy- 

 menoptera, diptera and coleoptera, and not a few lepidoptera are our 

 ready helpers as pollenizers. 



Early in the season in our northern latitude most insects are 

 scarce, the severe winters so thin their numbers that we find barely 

 one where we find hundreds in late summer. Then the bumble 

 bees and wasps number scores to each colony, while in spring onlj- 

 the fertile females are found. This is less conspicuously true of 

 solitary insects, like most of our native bees and wasps: yet even 

 these swarm in late summer,where thej' are solitarj-or scattering in 

 early spring. The honey bees are a notable exception to this rule. 

 The}- live over winter, so that even in earl}- spring we maj' find ten or 

 fifteen thousand or more in a single colon}-, in lieu of one solitary 

 female as seen in the nests of wasps, hornets and bumble bees. 



By actual count in time of fruit bloom in >Iay, I have found the 

 bees twenty to one of all other kinds of insects upon the flowers, and 

 on cool days, which are very common in the spring in most locali- 



