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BEES AS FRIENDS OF THE AGRICULTURIST 



(Synopsis of an address given before the Macdonald Apiary Club.) 

 W. Lochhead, Macdonald College. 



1. The Statement — Bees as the Friends of the Agriculturist. This 

 statement must appear to all of us here a self-evident truth. Evidences lie every- 

 where about us — in the garden, the orchard, and the fields. Occasionally, however, 

 we are asked to provide definite proof of the value of bees in the setting of fruit or 

 in the production of clover seed. We are told that it is very well to tell people 

 that bees are necessary in the orchard, but more is required than a mere statement. 

 Definite proof ought to be forthcoming if the public is to be convinced. My 

 purpose, then, is to produce the proofs or evidences that bees are necessary to the 

 farmer and the fruit-grower. 



2. Kinds of Evidence. In this matter, as in others, there are two kinds of 

 evidence, circumstantial or indirect evidence, and direct evidence. Circumstantial 

 evidence may be strong or weak according to the intensity of the light it throws on 

 the mystery. If it offers the only satisfactory explanation of the facts of the case 

 it is frequently as valuable as direct observational evidence. If it can be shown 

 that the blossoms of apples and clovers, for example, are so constructed that they 

 require insects to pollinate them; and if their colours and sweets attract bees anP 

 wasps, we may feel certain that such indirect evidences are of much weight. On 

 the other hand, if it can be shown that the blossoms of the plants protected from 

 insect visits set no fruit or seed; or if orchards and fields, when unvisited by bees 

 and wasps, or when visited by few, produce but little fruit or seed, these would be 

 direct evidences of the value of such insects. 



3. Indirect Evidences. That bees visit flowers for the sake of the nectar 



and pollen has been known for thousands of years, but the part played by bees in 

 connection with the fertilization of flowers, and the adaptation of flowers to 

 insects are of recent discovery. To Kolreuter, Gartner, Sprengel and Darwin we 

 owe much for their investigations on the inter-relations between insects and 

 flowers. To Darwin especially we are indebted for the discovery that as a rule 

 continued self-fertilization is disadvantageous to plants. The results of his 

 experiments led him to make his famous remark, " Nature abhors perpetual self- 

 fertilization." The advantages of cross-fertilization over self-fertilization were 

 shown by the difference in height, weight, constitutional vigor and fertility of the 

 offspring, and in the number of seeds produced. 



Moreover, Darwin showed that certain flowers are dependent for fertilization 

 on the transference of pollen from other plants of the same kind. 



