30 



process of fertilization in plants is exactly the same as in 

 animals. It is a sex problem, the male and female element, 

 the egg and what corresponds to the spawn in animals. 

 Transfer is made and growth is made just exactly as it is in 

 animal life, and in that way the perfect fruit is brought 

 forth. 



j\Ir. Race. I think that it is a strange idea to affirm 

 that a bee has got to attack a blossom in order to have it 

 fertilized. The idea of saying that in ten millions of blos- 

 soms in a large orchard, ten millions of blossoms in a straw- 

 berry or currant bed, you couldn't have that fertilization 

 without bees! Why, you couldn't have bees enough to cov- 

 er the plants if you had all the colonies there were. It looks 

 absurd to me. 



Mr. Cook. I should like to make a statement in the 

 matter of English cucumbers. They floAver just the same as 

 ours. It is positively necessary on squash and melons and 

 cucumbers that we should plant the field where there are 

 bees, for without bees there wouldn't be a cucumber. We 

 have grown cucumbers under glass and knoAV that very 

 well. How far that goes on fruit trees I don't know, but 

 I know that it is necessary in a good many crops. 



Mr. Race. I suppose it is like a man with 2,000 hens 

 who doesn't keep a rooster and the eggs don't hatch worth 

 a -cent. (Laughter). 



Mr. J. W. Clark. I would like to relate a little ex- 

 perience I had in regard to keeping bees in an orchard. Two 

 years before I had about three thousand barrels of apples. 

 The second year after that they blossomed fully were very 

 full of blossoms, more by at least a third than there was two 

 years before. This year that they were so full, while they 

 were in blossom there was a cold, cloudy week, very little 

 sunshine, but not much rain, and if they had set as well as 

 they did two years before I woidd have had at least four 

 thousand barrels of apples; but with this cold, dull, cloudy 

 week, with very little sunshine — that was that week I speak 

 of, once in a while I would go out for an hour, perhaps, 

 during the day and walk through that orchard and it would 

 be just like death. There wasn't the hum or b-uzz of an in- 

 sect while the sun didn't shine. While the sun shone they 

 would come out for a few moments and buzz; it was alive 

 with insects. Instead of having the amount of apples I 

 thought I should have, I had 167 barrels. Now, what was 



