BEES OX THE FARM 



393 



the region or of the Department of Agriculture regarding the 

 probable amount of disease in the neighborhood. 



Value of bees to agriculture. — Beekeeping forms a branch of 

 agriculture which adds to the food of the nation to the value of 

 millions of dollars. The business is becoming a specialty and 

 many are making it their chief work. The amount of sugar in 

 nectar secreted by the multitude of plants on every hand far 

 exceeds the entire amount of sugar of all kinds consmned by the 

 American people. Honey production is the means of saving 

 some of this vast store of sugar for human use. The raw mate- 

 rial costs nothing, the work is well i3aid for by the returns and 



ABC 



Fig. 204. — A, worker; B, queen; C, drone. 



there is every reason why bees should be increased and kept 

 efficiently. 



The honey produced is, however, not the main value of bees, 

 for they add more to the wealth of the nation through their 

 function as carriers of pollen from flower to flower. Cross-polli- 

 nation is necessary in some species and varieties of plants, is 

 desirable in others and is never detrimental. It is conservative 

 to state that through cross-pollination the bees are several times 

 as valuable as they are in gathering honey. Cross-pollination is 

 brought about through the activities of many insects, but the 

 honey bee is the only one which can be moved to the orchard or 

 which can be propagated by man with profit. It therefore occu- 

 pies a unique position, and as a result of this circumstance there 

 are many orchardists who take up beekeeping, not for the honey 



