S90 



cussed ill such a manner that the pamphlet 

 is made a short text-book, vahiable not only 

 to the Oregon novice but to any one else 

 taking a hand in the game. 



Bees and Fruit-bloom in and about 

 Medina 



Our readers will remember that fifty-acre 

 apple-orchard some ten miles north of Me- 

 dina, and how that the proprietors of that 

 orchard have desired to have a large number 

 of bees in it. It will also be recalled that 

 the first year the present management took 

 charge of this orchard they secured, with 

 the help of the bees, and by spraying and 

 trimming, 16,000 bushels of apples. The 

 following season was not as favorable, but 

 they took another big crop, but not as large 

 as that of the previous year. This year we 

 again put some fifty colonies in the orchard ; 

 and yesterday. May 6, we drove down there 

 to see how the bees were working on the 

 blossoms. The trees had not all come into 

 bloom; but some where the blossoms ma- 

 tured had plenty of bees on them. In fact, 

 there was a distinct roar such as one hears 

 near basswood-trees. A glance upward 

 showed hundreds and hundreds of bees ; and 

 it also showed something else. Some little 

 flies, or bees, or what looked like bees, hov- 

 ered in the air. These latter would occa- 

 sionally alight on the center of a blossom; 

 but they were by no means as persistent 

 and active as the honeybees. They would 

 hang and poise on the wing like a humming- 

 bird, then dart like a bullet in one direction 

 or the other. Sometimes they would alight 

 on the green leaves, and at other times on 

 the petals of the flowers. Sometimes we 

 caught them in the act of helping them- 

 selves to pollen ; but they made no effort, so 

 far as we could discover, to get at the nectar 

 at the base of the blossom. 



We were so much interested that we made 

 another trip, taking our head queen-breeder, 

 Mr. Mell Pritchard, who is also the " bug 

 man " of the A. I. Root Co. Some of the 

 bees which he saw he pronounced the soli- 

 tarj' sand bees, a very small black bee with 

 a head like that of a common honeybee, but 

 very different in its general appearance. 

 Some call them sweat bees. There was still 

 another kind of bee or fly that was more 

 numerous than the last named. They were 

 smaller than honeybees, and looked very 

 much like small yellowjackets. They had 

 yellow bands, and the ones which we cap- 

 tured showed that they had pollen on their 

 legs and on their bodies. While they were 

 very numerous in the orchard, and no doubt 

 were doing something in the way of poUin- 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



ating blossoms, they were by no means us 

 industrious and jiersistent as the honeybees. 

 The latter would seem to rush from blossom 

 to blossom in the greatest haste. One bee 

 would pollinate a hundred blossoms while 

 these flies would pollinate only one. 



On coming home Mr. Pritchard pulled 

 out his authority (Comstoek's book), and 

 identified these bees as the Diptera; that is 

 to say, they were not bees but flies. The 

 description showed plainly that they were 

 the yellow-banded species belonging to the 

 genus Syrphus. They do much good by 

 destropng colonies of aphids. There are 

 other species of this family that resemble 

 bumblebees, and others the honeybee; still 

 others the wasp. One species " so closely 

 resembles a common honeybee," says Prof. 

 Comstock, " as to be often mistaken for it." 



In this connection we have wondered 

 whether in that Pejario Valley, California 

 (see Gleanings, p. 305), where there are 

 15,000 acres of apple-trees, and where it 

 was alleged no bees were needed, there were 

 not present myriads of these flies. In re- 

 ferring this matter to the Entomologist, 

 Professor H. A. Gossard, of the Wooster 

 Experiment Station, Ohio, he gave it as his 

 opinion that there was nothing to prevent 

 these same flies from being present provid- 

 ed there were colonies of aphids for them 

 to feed on. You will remember that the 

 Horticultural Commissioner of Pejario Val- 

 ley, supported by Professor Woodworth, of 

 the University of California, stated that the 

 apple-trees of that valley did not require 

 the presence of the honey-bees; that the 

 two varieties of apples grown there, the 

 Newtown and the Bellflower, were self-fer- 

 tile. One of these, the Bellflower, is known 

 to be sterile to its own pollen in the eastern 

 states. We have just been wondering wheth- 

 er or not either of these vaieties does not 

 require the agency of bees or insects. We 

 proved that there are bees in the valley ; but 

 it is evident that there were not enough 

 to pollinate such a vast number of trees. Is 

 it not possible that the syrphus flies are 

 doing this work? On the other hand. Pro- 

 fessor Gossard explains that there is quite 

 a difference in the formation of the blossom 

 of the same variety of apples in the East 

 and in the West. If this is true it may 

 account for the fact that a variety that is 

 self- fertile in one locality is sterile to its 

 own pollen in another. In the one case the 

 pollen cannot reach the ovaries of the blos- 

 som without the help of insects, and in the 

 other no such help is needed. This whole 

 question is an interesting one. If any of 

 our readers can solve the problem we shall 

 be glad to hear from them. 



