April 25, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



263 



Lowe and heretofore alluded to. These were made by 

 enveloping^ trees and parts of trees in a hood made of 

 sheeting in order to exclude bees and all other insects 

 while the trees were in bloom. The trees so sheeted were 

 found to set much less fruit than those left in their natural 

 condition. It would have been very unreasonable to have 

 expected any other result from this experiment. The trees 

 so treated were placed in a very unnatural condition. The 

 free circulation of the air was excluded. The vivifying- 

 rays of the sun, so necessary to the growth and develop- 

 ment of the average plant life, was excluded, and light, tho 

 not entirely excluded, was greatly obscured, all of which 

 Nature provides most bountifully for the perfect normal 

 development of fruit. The unnatural heat in that hood 

 when the sun was shining upon it, without the circulation 

 of air inside, may alone have been sufficient to have 

 destroyed the delicate germ of reproduction, or prevented 

 the grains of pollen from ripening sufficiently to perform 

 its functions. The sun shining upon the outside of this 

 hood, with no air in circulation within it, would produce an 

 unnatural heat inside, enough to injure the undevelopt 

 pollen and pistils ; and these conditions would render the 

 experiment abortive. In keeping the bees and other insects 

 out, the wind was also kept out, and this is the main cause 

 of the unreliability of this experiment. No one will deny 

 that the wind plays a most important part in pollenizing 

 flowers not only of fruit-treesr, but of all the vegetable 

 kingdom, many of which are never visited by insects of 

 any kind. The wind loosens the pollen from the stamens 

 and sets it in motion, and the invisible particles are wafted 

 hither and thither by every breeze that blows, bringing 

 some of these particles in contact with the pistils of the 

 flowers, and in some wonderfully inscrutable way causing 

 them to produce fruit and propagate the species. The wind 

 is Nature's agent to disseminate pollen, and every experi- 

 ment that excludes it is unreliable. 



The All-wise God who made all things and provided for 

 their continuance on earth, and said that there should be 

 seed-time and harvest as long as the world stands, did not 

 leave the fulfillment of this promise to depend upon the 

 uncertainty of bees and other insects, but chose a more uni- 

 versal and surer medium to perform the important work of 

 keeping up the vegetable kingdom — of producing fruit. 



In some countries there are no bees, as in North 

 America before the white men came, and there are now 

 places in this country where there are no bees, and in many 

 of these places the circumstances and surroundings are 

 such that other insects can not do this work. It is to some 

 of these places where there are no bees, to which I wish to 

 call attention, and give some fads that well sustain my 

 position. 



I live on an island in Lake Erie, and near by me are 

 several smaller islands upon which no bees are kept, and 

 they being from six to ten miles by water from any place 

 where there are bees, no bees ever visit them. These 

 islands are all noted for their production of fruit. Middle 

 Bass Island is just across the international boundary line 

 between Canada and the United States, and is one of the 

 largest of these islands where there are no bees, and the 

 whole island is devoted to successful fruit-culture. Upon 

 this island lives a friend, Mr. George M. High, one of the 

 most successful fruit-growers in the State of Ohio, who 

 excels both in quantity and quality of his fruit; growing 

 sucessfully nearly every variety of fruit that can be grown 

 in this latitude. Several years ago I askt Mr. High to join 

 me in investigations by inaking daily observations when 

 his trees were in bloom, to see if they were visited by 

 h«ney-bees and other insects, and to what extent by other 

 insects. This he readily consented to do, becoming much 

 interested in the matter himself. His reports were that he 

 had never seen a honey-bee in his orchard, saw a few 

 bumble-bees but they were not enough to visit one fruit- 

 bloom in ten thousand; also saw a few small "other 

 insects" on the bloom. 



These observations have continued for several years 

 with the same result. I visit Mr. High about twice a year 

 — when fruit-trees are in bloom and when the fruit is ripe — 

 and I know what he and his neighbors are doing in the 

 fruit-line. Their trees set fruit so abundantly that peaches 

 and plums have always to be thinned out, and they hive 

 surer annual crops than any other place that I know of ;// 

 without bees; and these facts ought to convince the ni.st 

 skeptical, and those who are most anxiously interested, to 

 establish the contrary that bees are not necessary to pollen- 

 ize the bloom of fruit-trees. 



I am aware that I may be confronted with the asser- 

 tion, or argument, if you choose so to call it, that other 



insects were or might have been the means of pollenizing 

 these island fruit-trees so perfectly. For argument's sake 

 I grant this, and let us see what it proves. If anything it 

 proves that bees are unnecessary, as other insects can 

 insure good crops of fruit withdVit bees. So the advocates 

 of the importance of bees do not get much comfort from 

 that. But I deny that other insects did it, and I propose to 

 prove it. 



The first witness that I shall introduce is Mr. O. L. 

 Hershiser, one of the witnesses who gave his evidence at 

 the convention of the New York State Association of 

 Bee-Keepers on the side of those who were trying to prove 

 that bees were necessary to pollenization, etc. I quote 

 from the proceedings of that New York convention as 

 reported in an editorial in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



" When the professor [Lowe] was askt how much of this pollina- 

 tion was attributable to bees, aud how much to other insects, he said 

 he could not tell; but Mr. O. L Hershiser in referring to a similar set 

 of experiments made some 5'ears ago at the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege showing the same results, said the bees were altogether the earli- 

 est insects out ; that at the time the average fruit-tree is in bloom it is 

 too early in the spring tor other insects to be of any value. In his 

 opinion the covering of the limbs or the covering of the whole tree, 

 as explained by Prof. Lowe, showed clearly that the bees, and they 

 alone, did the mixing of the pollen." 



Notice Mr. H's evidence as to the fact that " ?7 z.s too 

 early in the spring for other insects to be of any value ;" and 

 this corresponds exactly with Mr. High's observation on 

 Middle Bass Island, and with my own, made repeatedly, 

 here on Pelee Island. When these three witnesses agree so 

 well in their evidence, that " there are not insects enough 

 out at the time of the blossoming of the average fruit-tree 

 to be of any value " in pollenizing, then it ought to be 

 sufficient to establish that fact beyond question, and put a 

 quietus to the " other insect " theory. 



As to Mr. H's "opinion," or his conclusion from Mr. 

 Lowe's experiments that " the bees, and they alone, did the 

 mixing of the pollen,'^ I am willing to leave it for what it 

 is worth, as from the facts already given it can not be 

 worth much. He reminds me of some other evidence and 

 conclusions that I once saw in print on this subject. This 

 writer said that he knew the bees were of great benefit to 

 fruit-growers because he had some pear-trees near his 

 apiary, and the sides of the trees next to his bees bore a 

 good crop of fruit while the opposite side bore scarcely any. 

 Comment is unnecessary. 



There are a number of other points on this subject that 

 I would like to notice, but fear that I am already too long. 

 But I will say, if there are experimenters and professors 

 who really desire to give this matter an impartial investiga- 

 tion, I should be pleased to have them come here and I will 

 take pleasure in doing all I can to aid them. 



Pelee Island, Ontario, Canada. 



Qiueens Only One Year Old for Comb Honey. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes as follows : I have decided that every 

 colony that is iatended to be run for comb honey duriofj 1*^02 must 

 contain a queen of this year's reanni^. I desire good queens, that 

 my stock may not deteriorate. In view of the foregoing, what plan 

 can I follow id order to produce the best results for a series of years? 

 Please tell me thru the columns of the American Bee Journal." 



In answering this, I must say I can not conceive what 

 line of argument could have been used to bring the ques- 

 tioner to a decision that he would not allow a queen over a 

 year old in his apiary, which was to be run for comb honey, 

 and can not help thinking that when his experience accumu- 

 lates, he will find that his decision is not well-founded ; for 

 queens which are in their second year do fully as good work 

 as younger ones, where the colony is workt for comb honey, 

 and often are equally, good the third and fourth year. 

 Those who have read the Canadian Bee Journal for Febru- 

 ary, 1901, and treasured up what is found there about 

 queens, will have " a feast of good things " to revel in for 

 some time to come, along this matter of queen-rearing. 

 There, Mr. J. B. Hall, than whom the world can not boast 

 of a greater apiarist or more practical comb-honey pro- 

 ducer, has things to say about prolific queens which it 

 would be well for all those to heed who have considered 

 that prolificness in queens was the «^^/a,s ultra. Among 

 other things he said was this : 



" I want longevity in my bees; I want that first and 

 foremost; that is why I don't want to replace my queens 

 every year, because if I do I must kill them, and I don't 

 know what to kill. If I keep them three or four years and 

 they have done good work for four years, wintered well 



