April 9, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



229 



Dr. Miller — Well, I just think you are mistaken. 

 [Laughter.] Now, I want to say to you that I have very 

 great respect for Mr. Baldridge. He was keeping bees and 

 mastering the art when I was trying to find out what dis- 

 eases they had when I heard the noise of thequahking down 

 in the bottom, and Mr. Baldridge has been in the business 

 long enough to teach us. 



Mr. Baldridge — I will say tViis : I seldom find bees 

 working in that cover unless they were lacking room be- 

 low, and that's why I say I am just so much ahead, that if 

 it hadn't been there they would have put it in the brood- 

 nest. I was producing extracted honey. 



Mr. Horstmann — It is not safe to try that plan. After 

 a meeting of this kind we almost always work on the plans 

 spoken of during the convention. I am sure the bees will 

 put that full of comb before going into the super. If you 

 raise the hive up they will build below the frames. It may 

 work all right in Mr. Baldridge's location, but not here. 



Dr. Miller — Please let us have clearly before us that 

 Mr. Baldridge is talking of extracting-combs. I haven't 

 any doubt, although you would have two inches of space 

 over extracting-combs, and the bees would have to be 

 crowded a good deal for room before they would put an 

 ounce in there. It takes quite a little bit of crowding to 

 get them to work in a space of 1'+ inches, and you have to 

 take two inches of space over there and give them plenty of 

 comb to fill in for extracting, and you won't be troubled 

 much with irregular combs. 



Mr. Horstmann — I am satisfied that they won't work 

 up there if they have extracting-combs to work on. We are 

 producing comb honey. If any one is working for extracted 

 honey, and he likes that space, I believe it would be all 

 right. 



Mr. Whitney^Mr. Baldridge, do you apply that princi- 

 ple even to the slightest space above sections ? 



Mr. Baldridge — I would. In the sections I would add 

 bait-combs, and in this cover there is nothing to entice the 

 bees to commence until they are full. They won't com- 

 mence to work there until they are crowded. 



Mr. Whitney — I should think they would soil the sec- 

 tions. 



Mr. Niver — Mr. Chairman, I am responsible for this 

 quarrel, though they get a great deal more honey by leav- 

 ing a bee-space above the sections. I quarreled with him 

 because the sections were all stained on top, and they always 

 will be. He said he got so much more honey when he filled 

 that bee-space with bees when they get to work. I always 

 believe in the enamel cloth, so the bees can get on top 

 there. All this machinery they get up for sand-papering 

 on top is bosh. With the enamel cloth the bees can't touch 

 the sections at all. 



Mr. Purple — How does it tier up ? 



Mr. Niver — We have all our supplies made with that 

 idea. We have a skeleton honey-board so the bees can not 

 possibly touch it, whether we tier up or not. That point of 

 putting up more honey because you have an air-space filled 

 with bees, I want to find out. 



An adjournment was then taken to 6:45 p.m. 

 (Continued next week.) 



I Contributed Articles. } 



Present Status of the Pollination Question. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



THE urgent request of a subscriber, enforced by our Editor, 

 leads me to present this important question in the light 

 of the most recent research. 



The experiments of Mr. Waite, made nearly 10 years 

 ago, with mine made soon after, and the more recent work 

 of Prof. Fletcher, settled beyond question the following 

 facts : 



Many if not all varieties of our fruits that bear seeds 

 must always be pollinated to grow at all, and all to produce 

 seeds. Most, if not all, require— some possibly always, most, 

 if not all, at times— cross-pollination to set a full crop of 

 fruit. As some one has stated. Nature seems to abhor 

 close-pollination. Some plants, like the cereals, and grasses, 

 are fertile with their own pollen. Nearly all our fruit-trees 



need the invigorating effect of cross-poUination to produce 

 a maxium yield of fruit. 



The way these experiinents were conducted was to cover 

 the blossoms with netting just before the blossoms opened. 

 This netting was so close in its meshes as to preclude the 

 entrance of even the tiniest insect. The blossoms were kept 

 covered unil they wilted and fell. This, of course, kept 

 away all insects — the great agents of cross-pollination. It 

 was found that in many cases, of pears, plums, prunes, etc., 

 there was no fruit at all when the blossoms were covered. 

 Often, while there was some fruit, there was a very limited 

 crop. In some cases, as with Koyal apricots, in my case 

 the covering seemed not to diminish the crop at all ; in fact, 

 I secured more fruit from the blossoms that were covered. 



It might be objected that the covering, and not need of 

 insect visits to insure cross-pollination, was the cause of 

 the fruit failing to set. In my case this could not be. In 

 more than one instance, where the bees were thronging the 

 blossom-crowded trees, I unwrapped the netting and per- 

 mitted the bees to visits flowers, after which I at once re- 

 stored the screen. I marked the blossoms visited, and these, 

 and no other, fruited. In one case, of Kelsey plum, it is 

 very interesting ; every fruit that the string-mark showed 

 had been visited by bees developed, and no other. 



These experiments show clearly that the screens are no 

 bar to setting and development of fruit; and sustain the 

 view, with emphasis, that cross-pollination is essential in 

 many cases to a full setting of fruit, or even to the develop- 

 ment of any fruit at all. 



The cases of fruit failure, where there are no bees, or a 

 scarcity of bees in the orchard, and when fruiting was 

 markedly increased where an apiary was secured within or 

 close beside the orchard, are becoming so common in Cali- 

 fornia that there is in many sections an anonymous ac- 

 knowledgement of the need of bees in the orchard by the 

 orchardists themselves. Indeed, in many cases of trees 

 blooming profusely, each season, and yet setting little or 

 no fruit, there is probably one of two explanations that will 

 always, or nearly always, meet the case : Either there are 

 too few insects (bees are the main agents), to do this neces- 

 sary work of cross-pollination, or else there is only one 

 variety of fruit-trees that blossom at the time in the 

 orchard. Many orchardists in California have become 

 clearly convinced of the wisdom — yea, the positive neces- 

 sity — of mixed planting of varieties that blossom at the 

 same time, if one would secure the largest returns. 



It will be remembered that a Mr. Smith, now deceased, 

 of one of the Lake Erie islands, was a bee-keeper and also a 

 fruitgrower. He frequently wrote for the American Bee 

 Journal and Gleanings to the effect that bees were not 

 necessarj'. The islands had no bees, and yet the orchards 

 were immensely productive. Others have orchards of only 

 one variety — Bartlett pears, for example — and yet secure 

 large crops. They, of course, question the importance of 

 cross-pollination. The facts of such persons are undeni- 

 able ; their conclusions are not at all warranted. There is 

 conclusive evidence that crossing among both animals and 

 plants give added vigor. In fact, the origin of sex in both 

 plants and animals is to be accounted for on this principle 

 of added vigor consequent upon inter-crossing. The Bart- 

 lett pear will often produce full crops with no other variety 

 near. It is probable that in all such cases the environment 

 and all the circumstances are propitious, that the trees are 

 in great vigor, and are as a result fertile to their own pol- 

 len. It is equally well established that any unfavorable 

 change of season, any lessened care, or untoward circum- 

 stance, may enfeeble the trees, and they will become en- 

 tirely sterile to their own pollen. We can easily believe 

 that trees on the fertile limestone soil of the Erie islands, 

 bathed by the moist lake winds, and abundantly watered by 

 the copious rains incident to the region, would be at a max- 

 ium of vigor, and would very probably be self-fertile. I 

 have no hesitancy, however, in asserting that such trees 

 may at any time become barren, unless other varieties are 

 hard by, and unless bees are in the near precincts to act as 

 the needed "marriage priest" to effect the needed cross- 

 pollination. 



We must not forget, then, that while it is always wise 

 to mix varieties, and secure the near proximity of bees, yet 

 in rare cases trees — probably those in fullest thrift and 

 vigor — will bear well, even by themselves, and with no in- 

 sects to bring to the stigmas the pollen from the flowers of 

 other varieties. 



One other fact should be borne constantly in mind: In 

 nature, trees and bushes are more scattered — an acre will 

 usually have hardly a score of a kind, and contiguous acres 

 will often vary greatly in their species. Thus the limited 



