MAY 15, 1913 



337 



Apiary of John "Wallace, Grand .1 unction. ( 



wiiere 

 the tr 



iiees were poisoned by spray falling on clover under 



SPRAY FALLING ON CLOVER KILLED BEES 



BY WESLEY FOSTER 



Early last fall I was called to the vicinity 

 of Grand Junction to investigate the cause 

 of so many colonies d^dng during the height 

 of the season. I reached Grand Valley 

 about the first of September. Mr. John 

 Wallace, a fruit-grower and beekeeper, met 

 me at the hotel and took me out to his place, 

 a mile and a half east of Grand Junction. 

 We passed the now abandoned Indian 

 school, surrounding wliich is some of the 

 typical seepage land of the western slope 

 country. Alkali shows in many places, and 

 the orchards have either died out or are 

 dying. 



Mr. Wallace had lost upward of one hun- 

 dred colonies of bees, so that was the prin- 

 cipal topic of conversation. The only thing 

 that was very apparent was that the trouble 

 was caused by sjiraying. But spraying has 

 been done for years, and little trouble such 

 as befell the bees had been experienced be- 

 fore. 



A few points regarding the methods of 

 spraying may not be amiss. Most of the 

 fruit-gi'owers are alert and up-to-date, and 

 do not spray during full blooming time, al- 

 though there are some blossoms that get 

 the spray before the petals fall, as all trees 

 do not bloom evenly. But from five to ^ev- 

 en later sprays are applied ; and the spray 

 falling upon the clover, alfalfa, or other 



blossoms beneath, would doubtless poison 

 the bees. ''Cover" cropping has been prac- 

 ticed more and more each jear — alsike, red 

 clover, alfalfa, and sweet clover being 

 grown. The amount of cover crops in com- 

 parison to the fruit acreage is small, and this 

 has led some to think that the spray could 

 not cause the trouble. 



Arsenate of lead is the spra_y material 

 that has been used largely; but because of 

 its expense a considerable number of fruit- 

 growers have been trjdng arsenide of zinc. 

 I understand the arsenide of zinc has not 

 given the results secured from using arsen- 

 ate of lead. The trouble from poisoning- 

 bees began about the same time as the use 

 of arsenide of zinc, so that this seemed the 

 cause in some minds. 



The spray which fell on the clover jDoi- 

 soned some cattle and horses that were pas- 

 tured in the orchards. 



Some died and others recovered. Mr. 

 Wallace had a cow that sickened and dried 

 up, but she finally recovered. A flock of 

 sheep pastured on the alfalfa in the orchard 

 shown above were not affected by the poi- 

 son on the leaves at all. The sheep are 

 shown back of the row of hives. These 

 colonies were purchased to help make up 

 the losses caused by the spraying. Mr. 

 AYallace told me earW in March this year 

 that he had only about 35 colonies left, so 

 his losses have been considerably above one 

 hundred colonies. 



