MAY 15. 1915 



Spraying Trees Just Before the White 

 Petals Fall; Is the Practice Dan- 

 gerous ? 



While Mr. Pritchard and ourselves were 

 making observations at the big orchard 

 north of Medina we discovered that the bees 

 would ignore certain of the apple-blossoms, 

 and that those that they did visit showed 

 that the antliers of the stamens had turned 

 slightly brown. This would indicate that 

 the blossoms before yielding nectar must be 

 ripe. Mr. Pritchard also called our atten- 

 tion to the fact that the bees actually visited 

 and stayed longer on the old blossoms where 

 the white petals had entirely fallen off. We 

 thought he uuist have made a mistake; but 

 after a little scrutiny we found numerous 

 cases where the bees were gathering nectar 

 from the old blossoms without a single white 

 petal on them. 



To-day Professor Gossard came down 

 with Mr. Walworth, the bacteriologist, to 

 get some material for another investigation. 

 We drove them over to this orchard. He 

 found, just as we did, that the bees were 

 gathering nectar from these old blossoms 

 from which the petals had fallen. Mr. 

 Walworth then dissected one of these and 

 found considerable nectar, although the 

 blossom was denuded of all bright colors. 



This has a practical bearing to those who 

 have bees in the vicinity of orchards. It 

 means that we have been spraying our trees 

 at the wrong time. The usual instructions 

 sent out recommend apphdng the spray just 

 about as the white petals begin to fall. The 

 supposition has been that at this stage no 

 more nectar is yielded, and hence no bees 

 would be killed; but the observations made 

 by ^Ir. Pritchard, Prof. Gossard, and Mr. 

 Walworth and ourself, show very clearly 

 that bees gather not a little nectar after 

 the jietals have fallen. If arsenate of lead 

 is poisonous to bees, which is ordinarily ap- 

 plied at this time in the form of sprays, 

 then the recommendation to apply the poi- 

 son just before or after the petals fall is 

 just at a time when considerable damage 

 will be done. It would seem, then, that our 

 instructions should be modified so that the 

 arsenate-of-lead spraj's shall not be applied 

 until several days after the petals are gone. 



The year that our neighbors in the tifty- 

 acre apple-orchard secured such an enor- 

 mous crop of apples was the year when they 

 sprayed just before the petals began to fall ; 

 hence they must have sprayed when the 

 blossoms were yielding a large amount of 

 nectar. Whether this spraying killed our 

 bees we could not tell. If so. there were no 

 dead bees or brood showing about the hives. 



In view of the facts above stated, and that 



391 



some do not believe that arsenate-of-lead 

 sprays kill bees, we shall have to say we 

 don't know; and yet we have on file large 

 numbers of reports that look very much as 

 if the bees had been poisoned by the thou- 

 sands by spraying when in full bloom. 



G. W. York, Former Editor of the 



American Bee Journal, Statesman 



and Lawmaker 



On our recent western trip we had the 

 pleasure of meeting our old friend George 

 W. Yoi'k, who for many long years was sole 

 owner and proprietor of the American Bee 

 Journal as well as its editor, and who, prior 

 to that time, had served in the capacity of 

 assistant editor and manager under Thomas 

 G. Newman for several years. After many 

 years of arduous labor, Mr. York sold out 

 to the well-known business men and beemen, 

 Charles Dadant & Sous, of Hamilton, 111. 

 ]\Ir. York never claimed to be a practical 

 beekeeper, and never posed as such in his 

 regular editorial columns. He said to us 

 recently that the American Bee Journal had 

 improved in one respect; and that was, 

 there are practical beemen at the head of it 

 as publishers and editors, and he noted with 

 great pleasure the apparent life and growth 

 of the journal. After the continuous strain 

 of many years of hard labor, during which 

 Mr. York did the work of two or three men 

 almost every day of his life, he began to 

 feel the need of a change. A business op- 

 portunity presented itself, and he sold to 

 his old friends the Dadants, as before ex- 

 plained. He then went to Sand Point, Ida- 

 ho, going into the fruit and dairy business, 

 where there was entire change of profes- 

 sion, climate, and surroundings away from 

 the turmoil and noise of a big city. One can 

 scarcely blame him for doing this, for some- 

 times there come periods in one's life when 

 a change in profession, although it some- 

 times results disastrously in a financial way, 

 is desirable. Mr. York, however, in tlie 

 parlance of the day, is making good. While 

 as he says he is not getting rich quick, he 

 is making a living, and is happy and well. 

 His picture taken expressly for this journal 

 shows it. He is happy, because he is out- 

 doors right next to Nature. Bees? Yes, 

 he keeps a few. 



It was not long before the people of Sand 

 Point, Idaho, began to discover in Mr. York 

 not only a friend and neighbor but a citi- 

 zen. Much against his protest he was elect- 

 ed a member of tlie city council; and when 

 he got into that body there was something 

 doing, for Mr. York initiated a movement 

 to clean out the undesirable element of his 



