Mar. l->. uni 



dustry is making. 1 am not a jiarty to the 

 use of tobacco, and would not, if my way 

 were law, promulgate the use of it; but it is 

 here, and the honey part is certainly all 

 right. 

 Ciranby, Ct. 



*-•-« 



HOW FRUIT MAY BE IMPERFECTLY POLLI- 

 NATED 



Spraying Trees in Blossom all Wrong, Even from 

 a Fruitgrower's Standpoint 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER 



We beekeepers are very careful not to per- 

 mit the fruitgrowers to forget the importance 

 of our bees to their business. We are not at 

 all backward about reminding them of the 

 sundry blunders and losses of some of their 

 fellows in driving beekeepers from their vi- 

 cinity, and then having to beg them to come 

 back. We very diligently rub it in, for it 

 gives us a deal of satisfaction to say " I told 

 you so," and then you know it helps in a 

 whole lot of nice little ways. These orchard- 

 ists give some of us a nice spot for an api- 

 ary, a room or a building for storage, ex- 

 tracting, etc., sometimes do our carting, 

 just so they may be sure of having the blos- 

 soms well pollinated. 



Then sometimes we forget all about a crop 

 of fruit-bloom honey. "Oh dear! no, we 

 seldom get a crop of honey from apple 

 blooms — perhaps only once in four or five 

 years. Really it would be better for us to 

 put the bees a couple of miles dow n the road. 

 But as the bees are such a help to you, and 

 you keep a sort of watchful eye over them, 

 we are really very glad to help you out, even 

 if we do get a little less honey." 



And after all our i)ains to oblige and ac- 

 commodate, some of those chaps every now 

 and then get very skeptical about the use- 

 fulness of the bees to him. " Drat the con- 

 founded stinging bugs, they are a consarn- 

 ed nuisance. I got all the apples the trees 

 would carry before you brought the pesky 

 things here, and the sooner you take them 

 away the better I'll like it." 



Most exceedingly unreasonable, very 

 shortsighted, and so annoying, too, after all 

 the jiains to which we have been to educate 

 him to our point of view! Oh! well, he must 

 be talked to again and shown his folly. 



Here is a fine bit of evidence, good enough 

 to convince him or any other fruitgrower. 

 This i)hotograph of an apple, cut horizontal- 

 ly in two, shows four seed vesicles with fer- 

 tilized and perfect seed, while the fifth con- 

 tains only the dead and dried ovules which 

 were not fertilized. And the result of such 

 non-fertilization is plainly seen in the sur- 

 rountiing jiulp. The apple on that side is 

 flattened. If two or three vesicles were in 

 that condition the a])ple would be much 

 more deformed; in fact, (juite unmarketable. 



" Now, sir, that is because the blossom 

 was not fully pollinated. ^ ou go to work 

 and |)lant hundreds and thousands of trees 

 all in one great orchard, and the blossoms 

 are numbered by millions. And, at the 



Itio 



same time, old Dame Nature has not mass- 

 ed the insects to do the work of carrying 

 pollen. It is up to you to help her out; and 

 the only way in which you can do it is to 

 put a lot of bees there." 



"The bloomin' bees are in the way when 

 I'm spraying." 



"Man, you're crazy to spray when the 

 trees are in bloom. That spray, falling on 

 the very sensitive stigma of the llower, i)art- 

 ly or wholly ruins it, so that, even if pollen 

 lodges there, it can do no good. A blossom 

 only partly injured and then pollinated 

 would give just such a sort of apple as 

 shown. Furthermore, you are nowadays so 

 confoundedly thorough in your work that 



The result of imperfect pollination. Note the 

 shriveled condition of the upper seed and the de- 

 pression in the apple on that side. 



seldom is there a spot on any tree not reach- 

 ed by your spray. .Just do that when the 

 trees are in full bloom, and you will be 

 minus a crop of fruit that season. And 

 here is the proof. One orchardist, spraying 

 after the petals had fallen, came to one tree 

 which, for some reason, was away behind 

 the others, and was still in full bloom. To 

 save himself the trouble of another trip, he 

 sprayed it then, and nearly every little ap- 

 ple dropped off. ( )f the few which matured, 

 there were not a dozen perfect ones." 



We must not let the fruitmen lose sight 

 of these facts. It is our duty to help them 

 avoid loss, misfortune, and disappointment. 



And, by the way, that fruit-bloom honey 

 sold like hot cakes, and at a fancy ]irice too 

 — could have sold five times as much. Get 

 after it, boys; it's a good thing. 



Providence, R. I. 



[As Mr. Miller says, the beeman should 

 help educate the fruitgrower if he is ignorant 

 of some of the fundamentals of his own 

 business; for by so doing he helps his own 

 business. Kvery beekeeper should know of 

 the important work performed bj^ the bees, 

 for he is almost sure to encounter some 

 small fruitgrower who may jump to the con- 

 clusion that bees are a nuisance rather than 

 a benefit.— Ed.] 



