1907.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



193 



bearing and the pollen bearing blos- 

 soms separate and the fertilization of 

 the bloom is largely or quite depend- 

 ent on the visits of insects. 



Left to herself Nature has a way of 

 equalizing matters and having suffi- 

 cient laborers for the work to be per- 

 formed, but man by his meddling dis- 

 turbs the balance and must perforce 

 make special effort to remedy the 



Some years ago the writer had a 

 splendid illustration of the value of 

 bees in an orchard and herewith is 

 presented a diagram showing the re- 

 lative location of bees and trees and 

 the range of flight of the bees. The 

 season was one of frequent and heavy 

 showers. Temperature was favorable 

 most of the time and the bloom was 

 heavy but the frequent and sudden 



troubles he has created. Nature is 

 content with scattered fruit trees 

 while man must mass them by the 

 hundreds or thousands so that unless 

 he supplies bees there are not enough 

 insects to pollenate the myriads of 

 blossoms. In the early springtime, 

 when so many fruit trees bloom, show- 

 ers and storms are frequent and often 

 prove a serious hindrance to pollen- 

 ation either by wind or insects. 



showers kept the bees from ranging 

 far and also prevented much pollen- 



ation by the winds. The straight 

 lines of the diagram show the fences 

 and distances are in figures, the trees 

 are indicated by circles, and the hives 



are the other little designs. The 

 curved line shows approximately the 

 limit of the bees' flight. Within that 

 line the set of fruit was good, heavy 

 near the hives, lighter as the line is 



