SKl'TKMBKU 15, IIU! 



767 



BEES AND ORCHARD BLIGHT 



nV E. R. ROOT. 



A short timt' ago a corresvondent of tlie livral New YorJccr jiroteslod iiguiiist Iho ;ittitu<li' tnkrn by 

 pditor CoUingwood, favoiiii;; bees in orchiirds. The Inttev sent the letter to me, and asked me if I would 

 present the bee side of the proposition. This T did, and m.v reply was published in the Rural for June 12. 

 See CoUinewood's letter in Gi>kaxings, piiire 52t'. Sinre that time several have asked nie why I did not 

 publish the same or a similar thiiiK in our own .iourn:il. Amoti;^ them is a letter from Thomas F. Rigg, editor 

 of the hortieultural department of the Ainrrirnn I'ovltiii Jotirndl — a .iournal that A. I. Root says is among 

 the very best of its class. As Mr. Rigg is- a hortieultMrist, and is not particularly interested in the bee 

 side, except for the good it docs to fruit culture, his endorsement means something. I am glad to give 

 the letter here; and in doing so 1 accede lo his request, Hove is the reply. — Ed. 



Mr. Tioot :~\ have just read your artiele 

 in the Eural Xcw-Yorker of June 12, vour 

 reply to " I. C. R.," of Danville, N. YI -e- 

 garcling- bees and orchard blight. I want to 

 con.irratnlate you upon the able and force- 

 ful manner in which you stated the facts in 

 tiio case. Of cour.se, bees can carry blight, 

 and so can luimerous other agencies of 

 creation wliicli God in his wisdom placed in 

 this Avorld for doing their work in the inter- 

 est of mankind. That 

 the bee is of great val- 

 ue and service to the 

 fruit-gi'owers is a fact 

 so well established that 

 none but tjie very 

 stubborn or uninform- 

 ed person will dispute 

 it. I hope every fruit 

 and farm journal in 

 America will repro- 

 dtice vour article. 

 Thos. F. Rigg. 



Iowa Falls, Ta. 



T notice you have 

 beo.<; in orcliard and 

 your approval of the 

 plan. All looks \ery 

 well and is all right 

 until there comes a 

 year when the blight 

 sweeps over that sec- 

 tion as it did through 

 this part of the state 

 last year. This bligli' 

 is carried by bees and 

 insects: and the more numerous, the more 

 damage. The statement was made on the 

 institute platform last winter that bees in 

 an orchtud were a great damage, and that 

 they had done hundreds of dollars' worth 

 of damage in sr.me orchards the past sea- 

 son. As we had a dose of it ourselves, and 

 T sjient six weeks cutting out little blighted 

 fwies. and in .some cases lost the whole tree, 

 1 certainly agreed with the statement, 

 though it was, indeed, a grreat surprise to 

 nie to boar such a statement made, as T had 

 been of the same opinion as you, in regard 

 to the value of bees in an orchard. 



Daiisville, N. Y. I. C. R. 



It is generally admitted by i)ractical and 

 scientific beemen that bees may carry blight; 

 but that they may do the larger part of it is 

 )iot proven. If all the bees were removed 

 from districts where blight has started, 

 there are flies and other insects, as well as 

 common ants, to scatter blight right and 

 left. The syrphus flies are a common ex- 

 ample of a fly that looks very much like a 

 yellow-jacket, and which frequent the blos- 



d txliibit for a fair. Silent proof 

 sound fruit. 



lat Ijcus do not toucii 



soms of fruit-trees in earlj' spring. 



The writer was called to inspect some 

 pear orchards in central California, in the 

 Joaquin Valley, about 15 years ago. It was 

 alleged tliat the bees were the sole and only 

 means of scattering the blight; but I proved 

 beyond any question that young trees just 

 set out. and wliich had never blassomed, 

 were blighted worse than the older trees. 

 Myriads of ants were crawling all over the 

 trees as well as the young ones; and flies 

 of every description, as well as bees, were 

 tn-esent in the orcliard. The bees were re- 

 moved to accommodate the fruit-growers; 

 l)ut verj' little fruit set the following season, 



