THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



121 



perience in fruit-growing, recognized 

 in their locality as being authorities, 

 particularly in regard to cherry cul- 

 ture. The facts are these: For sev- 

 eral yeais the cherry crop of Vaca 

 Valley, in Solano county, Cal., has not 

 been good, although it was formerly 

 quite sure. The partial or complete 

 failures have been attributed to north 

 winds, chilling rains, and similar cli- 

 matic conditions, but in the minds of 

 Messrs. Bassford, of Cherry Glen, 

 these causes did not sufficiently ac- 

 count for all the cases of failure. 



These gentlemen recollected that 

 formerly when the cherry crops were 

 good wild bees were very plentiful 

 an the valley, and heuce thought per- 

 haps the lack of fruit since most of 

 the bees had disappeared, might be 

 due to imperfect distribution of the 

 pollen of the blossoms. To test the 

 matter they placed, therefore, several 

 hives of bees in their orchard in 1890. 

 The result was striking, for the Bass- 

 ford orchard bore a good crop of cher- 

 ries, while other growers in the val- 

 ley who had no bees found their erors 

 entire or partial failures. This year, 

 (1891,) Messrs. Bassford had some 

 sixty-five hives of bees in their or- 

 chard, and Mr. H. A. Bassford writes 

 to the Entomologist: " Our crop was 

 good this season, and we attribute it 

 to the bees." And he adds further: 

 "Since we have been keeping bees 

 our cherry crop has been much larger 

 than formerly, while those orchards 

 nearest us, five miles from here, where 

 no bees are kept, have produced but 

 light crops." 



The Yacaville Enterprise said last- 

 spring when referring to the result of 

 the experiment of 1890: 



"Other orchardists are watching this 



enterprise with great interest, and 

 may conclude that to succeed in cher- 

 ry culture a bee-hive and a cherry 

 orchard must be planted side by side;, 

 And now that the result of 1891 is 

 known, "others," so Mr. Bassford 

 writes, "who have cherry orchards in 

 the valley are procuring bees to affect 

 the fertilization of their blossoms." — 



METHODS IN BEE KEEPING — WHICH IS 

 RIttHT ? 



The bee-keeper who reads more than 

 one bee paper, or follows more than 

 one text-book on ayiculture, is often 

 compelled to ask himself the question, 

 " Which of the two is right, for their 

 advice distinctly differs?" It seems 

 very odd to find the very highest con- 

 tinental authorities quite at variance 

 on fundamental points, and in Amer- 

 ica similar diversity of opinion would 

 be more apparent if there were more 

 bee papers worth reading, but fortu- 

 nately or unfortunately for the Amer- 

 ican bee-keeper, the literature devoted 

 to our science worth perusal is very 

 scant. The only answer one can 

 make to the query at the head of these 

 lines is, to "read both sides, and de- 

 cide" which appears to you the most 

 reasonable course; try that, and so 

 long as it succeeds, stick to it like 

 Death to the proverbial dead nigger. 



Is it right to have thin or thick 

 walls? Doctors differ, and give such 

 good evidence of successful wintering 

 that, unless one absolutely disbelieves 

 the statement, one must come to the 

 conclusion that both are right, under 

 different and varying conditions, sun- 

 posing quilts, etc., are used in suffi- 

 cient quantity. 



Is it best to have your frames par- 

 allel with, or at right angles to, the 



