20 



of bee disease, the honey bees had been completely wiped 

 out for an area of at least three or four miles on the radius. 

 It is not necessary to detail the proof of these conditions, 

 but 1o emphasize the results upon general agriculture. The 

 writer inquired of the farmers, they not knowing what was 

 being aimed at, how their squashes and apples and other 

 vegetables and fruits were setting. The topic was hardly 

 suggested, when they replied that it was an off year. It 

 was easy to see, therefore, that with the absence of the 

 honey bees, notwithstanding there had been present the 

 various solitary and other wild bees, the appreciable effect 

 upon the community. 



In discussing the value of bees in horticultural work, 

 whether, in market gardening or the growing of fruits, 

 it is not necessary to prove the process or agency of bees 

 in transmitting pollen. This has been too often demon- 

 strated. For the sake of brevity, it may be assumed as a 

 hyjiothesis that bees, not only the honey bees, but the soli- 

 tary bees, are the means of transmitting pollen, which is 

 the male element of the plant, to the stigma which is the 

 female organ. This is accomplished as is known, by a mul- 

 titude of intricate contrivances. The ])rocess is so common 

 and general that it escapes thought or observation. But 

 the importance of bees in horticulture lies in a deeper, 

 more fundamental law which will be emphasized. 



It is dou])tless a common experience with practical 

 growers that a part of the orchard may set fruit more ful- 

 ly and better than^ the more remote ])art. Probably if con- 

 ditions Avere examined carefully, it Avould be found that 

 that part of the orclmrd which bore fruit abundantly, was 

 l>rotected perhaps from the prevailing Avinds, was nearer 

 to an apiary, was not obstructed by a hedge row or build- 

 ings, so that the ])ees had an easy access to the trees. More- 

 over, it is a common experience during fruit bloom that the 

 weather conditions consist of cold or intermittent sunshine 

 and showers. In a word, the weather conditions are ad- 

 verse for the best setting of fruit. It therefore becomes 

 evident that the natural obstructions and adverse weather 

 are a check to the best possible work of the bee. 



One concrete illustration of this is reported by a gentle- 

 man in Rhode Island who observed that part of an orchard 

 bore apples abundantly while the more distant part did not 

 fruit, t'pon examination, it was foiuid that the fruiting 



