255 



Bee keepers have never eompl.iiued but that the growing of fruit in 

 the vicinity of their apiaries was a great benefit to their interests^ 

 hence their position has been merely a defensive one, the battle waxing 

 warm only when poisonous substances were set out to kill off the bees, 

 or when fruit-growers sprayed their orchards with poisonous insecti- 

 cides during the time the trees were in blossom, or again when efforts 

 were made to secure by legislation the removal of bees from a certain 

 locality as nuisances. Fruit-growers first relented when close observa- 

 tion and experiment showed that wasps bit open tender fruits, birds 

 pecked them, they cracked under the action of sun and rains, and hail 

 sometimes cut them, the bees only coming intosave the wasting juices 

 of the injured fruit. The wide publicity given to the results of the ex- 

 periments made under the direction of the United States entomologist 

 and published in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1885 have no doubt contributed much to secure this change among 

 fruit-growers. 



But now it would a])pear that the bees have not only been vindicated, 

 but that in the future fruit-growers are likely to be generally regarded 

 as more indebted to bee-keepers than the latter are to the fruit- 

 growers, for the amount of honey the bees secure from fruit blossoms 

 comes far sliort of e(iualing in value that part of the fruit crop which 

 many accurate observations and experiments indicate is due to the com- 

 plete cross-fertilization of the blossoms by bees. The observations and 

 researches of Hildebrand, Miiller, Delpino, Darwin, and others, as 

 well as the excellent explanation of the subject in Cheshire's recent 

 work,* have gone far to prove how greatly blossoms depend upon the 

 agency of bees for their fertilization and hence for the production of 

 seeds and fruits 



The facts they have brought forward are gradually becoming more 

 widely known among fruit-growers and bee-keepers, and additional evi- 

 dence accumulates. A case illustrating very clearly the value of bees 

 in an orchard has recently come to the notice of the writer, and its au- 

 thenticity is confirmed by correspondence with the parties named, who 

 are gentlemen of long and extensive experience in fruit-growing, recog- 

 nized in their locality as being authorities, particularly in regard to 

 cherry-culture. The facts are these: For several years the cherry crop 

 of Vaca Valley in Solano County, Cal., has not been good, although it 

 Tvas formerly quite sure. The i)artial or complete failures have been 

 attributed to north winds, chilling rains, and similar climatic conditions, 

 but in the minds of Messrs. Bassford, of Cherry Glen, these causes did 

 not sufficiently account for all the cases of failure. 



These gentlemen recollected that formerly when the cherry crops were 

 good wild bees were very plentiful in the valley, and hence thought 

 perhaps the lack of fruit since most of the bees had disappeared, might 



*" Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical," by Frank E. Cheshire, F. L. S., 

 F. R. M. S., vol. I. pp. 279-328. 



