14 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



bloom honey also being prompt to 

 granulate. Neither of these products 

 is ever harvested in sufficient quantity 

 in Illinois to make a test. 



The question of the cost of comb to 

 the bees was raised and the opinions 

 expressed varied between 10 and 20 

 pounds of honey for each pound of 

 comb. This is far from the French 

 writer Sylviac, who claimed that the 

 cost rarely exceeds two pounds of 

 honey, in favorable circumstances. But 

 those men are experienced and I be- 

 lieve their opinion is based on plausi- 

 ble grounds. 



It will interest our readers to learn 

 that Mr. Wright is one of the pioneers 

 of American beekeeping. In 1871, 

 when only 20 years of age, he described 

 in the American Bee Journal (Novem- 

 ber, 1871, page 110), a home-made honey 

 extractor, the tank of which was made 

 of wood coated with beeswax. The 

 honey extractor was then a novelty 

 and was not yet manufactured for sale. 

 Mr. Wright was also for several years 

 one of the officers of the National 

 Association. 



The Importance of Bees in 

 Horticulture 



BY L. H. PAMMEL. 



THE importance of bees in connec- 

 tion with the production of fruit 

 has long been recognized. With- 

 out bees we would have very little fruit, 

 very little alfalfa or clover seed. 



Dr. Joseph Gotlieb Kolreuter, a Ger- 

 man naturalist who studied the hydridi- 

 zation of plants from 1761 to 1766, 

 made some observations on the pollin- 

 ation of plants. In one of his treaties 

 he says, " Experience has taught me 



FLINTSTONE FARM. DALTON, MASS.. ESTATE OF F. G. CRANE 

 Apiary of Ralph A. Ely 



that this, which has long been asserted 

 concerning the fig tree, is true of many 

 other plants, some of them very com- 

 mon. In all cucumber plants, in all 

 sword lilies, and in not a few plants of 

 the meadow family, pollination of the 

 female flowers and stigmas is effected 

 by insects. I was amazed when I made 

 this discovery in one of these plants 

 for the first time and saw that nature 

 had left so important a matter as re- 

 production to a mere chance, to a fort- 

 unate accident. My amazement was 

 gradually converted, however, by pro- 

 longed observation, to admiration of 

 the means, at first sight casual, but in 

 fact most rare which the wise Creator 

 employs to secure reproduction." 

 A second German, Konard Sprengel, 



made a large number of observations 

 on flowers. He says in his preface, 

 " In the summer of 1787, while I care- 

 fully watched the flower of the wild 

 geranium {Geranium syh'aticuni), I 

 found that the bases of its petals were 

 provided on the inner side and on both 

 edges with fine soft hairs. Convinced 

 that the wise Creator of Nature has 

 brought forth not even a single hair 

 without some particular design, I con- 

 sidered what purpose these hairs might 

 serve." Then he discusses how these 

 hairs prevent the nectar from being 

 worked out by the rain. He made 

 many observations on the plants of 

 Germany, 500 species in all. He made 

 this remarkable statement: " It seems 

 that Nature is unwilling that any flower 



HOME APIARY OF W. U, WRIGHT, AT Al.TAMONT, N. Y. 



