1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



325 



then being- sent East ; but, thanks to our 

 New York friends, they would not be send- 

 ing" any inore such g^oods into the State of 

 New York without g-etting into trouble. 



THE BEK AND PEAR-BLIGHT; THE SITUATION 

 IN CALIFORNIA. 



Our readers will remember that trouble 

 arose last summer between the pear-grow- 

 ers on the one side and the bee-men on the 

 other, in the vicinity of Hanford, Cal., a 

 g:reat fruit-growings region near the center 

 of the State. The first mentioned alleg^ed 

 that the blight that was killing their trees 

 was scattered by the bees, because the mi- 

 crobes causing the disease, and which they 

 claimed was in the nectaries of the flowers 

 of affected trees, were scattered by the bees 

 to the nectaries of flowers of healthy trees. 

 In this contention they seem to be sustained 

 by one or two scientific inen of some promi- 

 nence. 



As a member of tfie National Association 

 I appeared at the scene of the trouble in be- 

 half of the bee-keepers. The result of our 

 meeting was that a compromise was agreed 

 on, bj' which, for the purpose of experi- 

 ment, all bees in a given vicinity were to 

 be removed b^' the bee-men voluntarily for 

 one season, to determine whether the spread 

 of pear-blight could be mitigated. 



When I left, there was good feeling; but 

 in the mean time there have been various 

 strii3' shots fired back and forth at different 

 times. The pear-men, in two or three in- 

 stances, iiccused the bee-keepers of bad 

 faith, but unjustly, as I know from facts in 

 my possession. 



A month or so ago a statement was 

 broadly scattered throughout the East, to 

 the effect that Mr. Downing, near Han- 

 ford, one of the larg-est if not the largest 

 pear-grower in California, had stated in a 

 public meeting that there were certain 

 counties in the Eastern States where it was 

 unlawful to keep bees within five miles of a 

 pear-orchard. As I had met that gentle- 

 man, and had a very pleasant chat with 

 him, I immediately sat down and wrote 

 him, asking him to give me the names of 

 the counties and States in which such laws 

 or ordinances were in effect. At the time 

 of doing- so I sent a copy of that letter to 

 Mr. Brown, President of the Central Cali- 

 fornia Bee-keepers' Association. The lat- 

 ter immediately, on receipt of this, it ap- 

 peiirs, wrote Mr. Downing, asking for in- 

 formation. 



At the time of sending this letter Mr. 

 Brown sent one to me, which reads as 

 follows, and which explains the final out- 

 come of the situation: 



Mr. E. R. Root : — I have j'our letter of March 18 re- 

 garding the published siatenieiit of Mr. D wning. 

 where he said that he kuew of places in the Kast 

 where it was unlawful to keep bees. Mr Downing 

 made thi-^ statement before a mass meeting in the Su- 

 perior Court room in Hanord, at which I was present. 

 I at once called for the particular State and county, 

 but he was unable to give it. I then called for the 

 source of his infornialio'i, when he stated that his 

 brother had just arrived in Seattle, and that a man 

 there had told him that he had a let er from his friend 



somewhere in the East to the effect of the law a.^ 

 above referred to ; so you will see it is only hearsay, 

 and I have no faith in the matter whatever ; but as 

 soon as we can find out for sure that he is publishing 

 only hearsay, then I think the statement should be 

 published as it is, setting forth Mr. Downing and his 

 statement in a true light. His statement as to $10,000 

 loss in pears is another exaggerat d remark, I think, 

 but I have no means to disprove it. 



The way the bee and blight question was settled is 

 this : The two committees came together on February 

 22, and. after much deliberation, mapped out a section 

 two miles square, as a matter of lest, and agreed tt> 

 move our bees three miles from the two-mile line, and 

 left it to the fruit-men to St e that all the bees that be- 

 long d to the fruit-men. and a 1 farmers not in the As- 

 sociation, be moved. This they agreed to do, but they 

 are not succeeding, and ic will spoil the test. 



Some ore compaining of poison, but I am not yet 

 sure that poi-.on has been put out this spring, although 

 last fall there was. We gathered up some of the bees 

 and had them analyzed, and it was reported that they 

 were poisoned by arsenic. 



California has had plentv of rain for another big 

 crop, and I am afraid that 'the market will begin to 

 weaken at the fiist report of new honey ; and should 

 Southern California not get in position to hod the 

 bulk of the product until as late as August or Septem- 

 ber, then I ciii not see but we still have repeated the 

 same results as we experienced last season. 



Haiiford, Cal., Apr. 2. F. i). Brown. 



There is a possibility that bees carry the 

 virus of pear-blight. If they do, all kinds 

 of insects that are so abundant in Califor- 

 nia, that visit the flowers, are helping to do 

 this mischief. It has been contended by us 

 all along, that, even if all the bee-men were 

 to remove their bees from a given locality, 

 there will be large numbers of wild bees, so 

 to speak, in the rocks and in trees, that are 

 wholly beyond the control of man. These 

 alone would be sufficient to cause all the 

 trouble. But suppose all the wild bees as 

 well as the tame ones could be removed ; 

 there would still be hordes of insects that 

 would scatter pear-blight. 



But a most significant fact against the 

 theory that bees are the sole means of con- 

 veying the virus from tree to tree while in 

 bloom is this: Young trees that have never 

 been in bloom — acres and acres of them — 

 were fearfully blighted last summer. Our 

 committee called the pear-men's attention 

 to this, and asked them what explanation 

 they had to offer. One of them said, "I 

 think that bees crawl all over these young 

 trees." Some bee-keeper offered to give 

 him five dollars for every bee he could find 

 crawling- around on those little sprouts 

 sticking out of the .ground, on which there 

 had never been any bloom. 



Later. — Since writing the foregoing, a 

 letter has been received from President 

 Brown, inclosing one from Mr. Downing, 

 who, under date of April 3, writes: 



Mr. F. E. Broivn. Dear Sir: — In answer to jour let- 

 ter of the 2d inst., and in order lo give you fully what 

 information I have regarding the subject mentioned. 

 I inclose herewith a letter received from Prof. Buck- 

 hout, of the Pennsylvania State College, which will 

 show that, whereas I was given to understand that the 

 laws referred to had already been passed, they have 

 up to the pre.sent time been only proposed. 



Armona, Cal. Chas. Downing. 



The letter from Prof. Buckhout was not 

 inclosed; but from the admission of Mr. 

 Downing there are no such laws as he is 

 reported in all the papers to have said were 

 in existence. Will those same papers now 

 give the correction? 



