I 



April, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



83 



Geo. 



THERE is scarcely a spot anywhere 

 that bees cannot be kept to advan- 

 tage, but there are some places 

 where they will do better and be of bet- 

 ter service than others. The ideal loca- 

 tion, howe\er, is in the orchard. 



I 



k 



Orchard Honey— Roalti Worth Havint 



Four or five hives can be placed un- 

 der old trees, and less according to the 

 age and size of the trees. Place them 

 on the north side, and shelter will be af- 

 forded the hives during the hot days of 

 summer. 



In this way the fruit grower will ob- 

 tain a double yield from the same amount 

 of land — a crop of fruit and a crop of 

 honey. But there is a much greater ad- 

 vantage to be derived. Four years ago 

 I began bee-keeping and people around 

 are telling me that somehow the last 

 year or two they are getting better 

 shaped fruit, with a smaller amount of 

 ill-shaped specimens, or what they call 

 "runts." The theory that tees in visit- 

 ing the flowers fully fertilize the blos- 

 soms is past the experimental stage. I 

 believe that in the apple orchards in 

 Gloucestershire in England bees are 

 maintained in the orchards not for the 

 sake of their honey alone, but in order 

 that their labors in visiting each blos- 

 som in search of nectar may result in 

 larger and better fruit through a thor- 

 ough fertilization of the flowers. Bee- 

 keeping and fruit growing are or should 

 be twin sisters. It has been fully dem- 

 onstrated that fruit growers, who have 

 complained of the annoyance caused by 

 bees and have had bee-keepers remove 

 their bees from the neighborhood of 

 their orchards, have been glad to have 

 them return. Some time ago a writer 

 in a United States fruit paper said : 



"It has now become demonstrated 

 that many kinds of fruits, if not all 

 kinds, are greatly benefitted by the 

 bees, and that a large proportion of our 

 fruit, such as the apple, pear, and par- 

 ticularly the plum, would be barren were 

 it not for the helpful work of the honey 

 bee. The fruit grower must become 



Bees in the Orchard 



W. Tcbbs, Hespeler, Ontario 



interested in bees, and I do not doubt 

 that within a few years it will be a rare 

 thing to find a fruit grower who does 

 not keep honey bees, the prime object 

 being to employ the bees in carrying 

 pollen from one blossom to another." It 

 is not meant that bees have the exclusive 

 prerogative of accomplishing this very 

 desirable end to the orchardist, but if in 

 any way it will augment and bring about 

 a larger percentage of perfectly formed 

 fruit, the keeping of bees should be more 

 generally considered in Canada. 



A further advantage to the fruit grow- 

 er is that the bees can be given a place 

 in the work of the year when time is not 

 so valuable. The preparation of the hives 

 and the filling of the supers can be done 

 during the winter, and so save many 

 valuable summer hours. 



SPRAYING AT BLOSSOMING TIME 



This short paper cannot be complete 

 without a reference to a most important 

 department of work, where, largely 

 through want of knowledge, there is se- 

 rious conflict between the orchardist and 

 the apiarist. I refer to the matter of 

 .spraying. Spraying with poisonous 

 liquids is now almost universally em- 

 ployed. If it is done when the petals 

 of the blossoms are open it is certain 

 that bees will be poisoned, much of the 

 young brood will die, and the inexperi- 

 enced bee-keeper will begin to look about 

 for a reason for the abnormal death rate. 



It has been conclusively proven that it 

 is quite useless, and indeed decidedly 

 harmful to spray during the time that 

 trees are in full bloom, and that better 

 results follow if spraying be done both 

 before and after blooming, and when 

 there is no danger of bees visiting the 

 trees in quest of pollen and nectar. 

 When spraying is done at blossoming 

 time the pollen is often shrivelled up, 

 and it will fail to develop. In Ontario 

 it has been made by law a misdemeanor 

 to spray during blooming time. 



Fruit growers in all parts of Canada 

 should keep a few hives of bees in their 

 orchards. Get a colony or two this 

 spring, and start now. 



Keep Beei in the Orchard and the Fmit Crop will be More Certain 



Some Facts About Gooseberries 



S. Spillett, Nantyr, Onl. 



I had to stop growing gooseberries 

 here about ten years ago. My inability 

 to grow this fine fruit was owing en- 

 tirely to a (to me) new pest — a maggot 

 in the berry. Just when the fruit com- 

 menced ripening it began falling until 

 for the last two years I tried to grow it, 

 not a berry was left on the bushes. At the 

 suggestion of Professor Hutt of Guelph, 

 I put a pint of the fallen fruit into a two 

 quart jar and closed the opening. The 

 result was that, in a few days after, the 

 contents of jar was fairly alive with mag- 

 gots. I have never heard whether any 

 method of destroying the moth that de- 

 posits the egg in the berry that produces 

 this maggot has been discovered or not. 



When I grew this fruit I preferred 

 the shrub form of bush rather than the 

 tree form. I received 500 bushes, six 

 of each variety from England at one 

 time. These had been all trained to one 

 stem. I had therefore some experience 

 with this form of bush and concluded 

 that though it might suit the slower Eng- 

 lish clime it did not suit our heavy snows 

 and hot summers. 



The slow-growing European varieties 

 do not need much pruning. On the Am- 

 erican varieties such as Red Jacket, the 

 best all round berry I ever grew, and 

 Pearl and Downing dose seconds, from 

 six to eight or even ten stems may be 

 permitted to grow. 



In the spring as soon as the suckers 

 start, cut all away except those needed 

 for renewal. In the fall cut away all 

 dark colored stems upon which the fruit 

 has been small that season and replace 

 each by a sucker saved from the spring 

 cutting for the purpose. It will be found 

 necessary to spare two or three of the 

 largest suckers every spring to replace 

 the old dark ones cut out in the fall. 

 Two good crops is about all the one stem 

 will give. "If a stem is 

 cut at all, cut it out," 

 was the rule I followed. 

 If you thin a head in 

 fall it only induces four 

 or five spindly branches 

 to grow for every one 

 cut. 



Do not stir the ground 

 under or about the bush- 

 es in the spring, or you 

 are likely to lose your 

 whole crop. I lost three 

 crops before I found the 

 cause. Well-rotted man- 

 ure under and about the 

 SI bushes in spring or fall 

 is always in order. 



