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THE CANADIAN HORTI0UJ.TURI8T. 



at Columbus — named Mrs. Cleveland. 

 Summit, a new seedling of Matthew- 

 Crawford's ; I have fruited it for three 

 years; sixteen berries this season 

 weighed one pound; no plants for sale. 

 From T. T. Lyon Nos. 3, 5, 9, worthy 

 of testing in Canada ; Howell, as early 

 as the Crescent and as large as Manches- 

 ter; Emerald and Bancroft, the former 

 early and the latter the latest of the 

 late. These are only a few out of a 

 number I give my full attention to with 

 my raspberries. 



BEES IN THE ORCHARD. 



Mr. Editor, — I notice a question 

 asked in the Canadian Horticulturist 

 headed, " Bees as Helpers in the Or- 

 chard." Now, sir, I have been keeping 

 bees for twenty-four years — never been 

 without them during that time. I also 

 am a fruit-grower on a small scale. I 

 have my bee yard located among my 

 fruit trees. My pear trees are in my 

 bee yard. I am never troubled with 

 blight, and I grow the finest samples of 

 pears I ever saw grown in the county 

 of Lambton. I grow several sorts, 

 such as Clapp's Favourite, Flemish 

 Beauty, Bartlett, Sheldon, White 

 Doyenne and Louise Bonne de Jersey. 

 I have been in the habit of showing 

 fruit at the agricultural fairs, and when 

 I gather fruit to show I always find the 

 finest samples in my bee yard. 



There are a great many persons in- 

 terested in keeping bees in the neighbor- 

 hood of Arkona, and I have heard the 

 remark made by apple buyers that they 

 can buy handsomer samples of apples 

 here than in any other part of Ontario. 



The Value of the Honey Bee in 

 Agriculture. — Honey and wax have 

 ever been two most useful articles in 

 domestic economy, and from the earliest 

 times the honey bee has been the com- 

 panion of man. What an addition to a 

 farmer's house is a beehive nestling 

 among the fruit trees, with its hundreds 



of busy inhabitants, some settling about 

 the door or flying lightly above the 

 roof, others darting off in quest of new 

 supplies of food, and still others return- 

 ing on labouring wings laden down with 

 their baskets filled with crude pollen. 

 What a scene of industry and system 

 is bee life ! The grand use in nature of 

 the bee is the securing to the farmer or 

 fruit-raiser a good crop and the per- 

 manence of the best varities of fruit. 

 Gardeners have always known that bees 

 fertilize squash, melons, cucumbers and 

 flowers conveying the pollen from one 

 plant to another, thus insuring, not 

 only the complete fertilization of the 

 seed by the pollen, and so improving 

 the fruit, but actually causing the pro- 

 duction of more squashes, melons and 

 cucumbers by causing certain flowers to 

 set that otherwise would have dropped 

 to the ground sterile and useless. This 

 has been proved by fertilizing the 

 flowers by hand, a very large, indeed 

 an unnaturally abundant crop being 

 thus obtained. 



It has been noticed by a few, though 

 the many have not appreciated the fact, 

 that fruit trees are more productive 

 when a swarm of bees is placed among 

 them ; for when the bees have been re- 

 moved by disease, or other means, the 

 fruit crop has diminished. It is no 

 longer a doubt that bees aid in the 

 fertilization of flowers, thus preventing 

 the occurrence of sterile flowers, and 

 by more thoroughly fertilizing flowers 

 already perfect render the production of 

 sound and well developed fruit more 

 sure. 



Many botanists think if it were not 

 for bees and other insects, such as cer- 

 tain two-winged flies, moths, wasps, 

 etc., many plants would not fruit at 

 at all. What is the use in nature of 

 honey? The best observer will tell 

 you that it is secreted by the plant for 

 the very purpose of attracting bees to 

 the flowers, otherwise it is of no use to 



