344 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Pearce: Now, gentlemen, that is a very important 

 paper. There has not a paper been read here today that is 

 more important to the fruit grower and the farmer. Now, bees 

 of every description seem to be the natural fertilizers of all 

 plants and fruits, and the honey was especially put in the blos- 

 som for that purpose. You never see an apple crop when the 

 weather is cloudy and rainy; then you never see any apjjles. 

 But if the weather is bright, if it is warm, if it is clear, if all 

 the bees and insects of every description are attracted to the 

 flowers, everything will be fertilized, everything will be loaded 

 with fruit. Now, it has been years and years since I destroyed 

 a yellow jacket's nest or hornet's nest. I regard them as a sure 

 indication of a good crop, if the weather is favorable. It is the 

 universal custom to destroy these things. The first thing a 

 farmer does when he finds a yellow jacket nest is to call his 

 boys, and they destroy it. It is the worst thing he could do. 

 Now, I have had the yellow hornets build their nests quite 

 close to my house. Last summer w'e had one right above the 

 door, as we went into the ice house and the milk house. We 

 would go in day after day, and they never molested us at all. 

 We went right in day after day, and they knew every one in the 

 lamily. If a strange dog came around or a strange person, 

 they knew it right away. The bees are the best friend of the 

 farmer, the fruit grower and the gardener. They are a source 

 of wealth, a source of satisfaction and one of the greatest lux- 

 uries of life. 



Mr. Dartt: Mr. Chairman, I believe my friend Pearce has 

 made a misstatement; and although his statement may be true, 

 in some cases it is an exception. Now, he says the first thing 

 a farmer does when he discovers a yellow jacket's nest is to go 

 up to the house and call the boys, who go out and destroy it. 

 Now, my observation and experience is different from that. I 

 think the first thing he does is to scratch and run. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Patten: This matter of fertilization to the fruit grower 

 is certainly a very important one. While we have some varie- 

 ties of the larger fruits that are self-fertile, like the Duchess 

 apple, furnishing sufficient pollen, there are other varieties of 

 the apple that have not this ability. We have in southern Iowa 

 an orchardist who planted a number of years ago a block of 

 some 140 Jonathan; they were topworked on the Tetofsky, but 

 for twenty years that block has been unprofitable. Perhaps, if 



