July 26, 1906 



American Itoe Journal 



635 



bnfribufed 

 Articled 



The Relations of Insects and Flowers 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



PICKIXG up a paper lately, I ran across these two sen- 

 tences : "Honey is a vegetable production, appearing in 

 greater or less quantities in every flower that nods to 

 the breeze or kisses the bright sunlight. It is secreted in 

 the flowers for the purpose of attracting insects, thus secur- 

 ing the complete fertilization of the female blossom." In 

 another place in the same paper I found this : "Pollen is borne 

 from flower to flower on the breeze as well as on the bodies 

 of insects ; in fact, that seems to be nature's prime method 

 of carrying or conveying the fertilizing germs from the 

 anthers of the staminate to the pointals of the pistillate blos- 

 soms." And this paper is considered as an authority when 

 treating on plants and flowers. 



I do not deny that there is truth in both of the quota- 

 tions, but there is enough of untruth in both to mystify the 

 unwary, as is always the case where anything is told that is 

 part truth and part falsehood. When we apply these quota- 

 tions to certain plants and trees they are not true; neither 

 is it true that "every flower that nods to the breeze secretes 

 nectar." There are some points in this matter which either 

 myself or others fail to understand, and as it has a direct 

 bearing on our beloved pursuit — bee-keeping — perhaps an ar- 

 ticle to draw others out, so that more light may be obtained. 

 may not be amiss; especially as knowledge along this line 

 will help bee-keepers to disarm the jealous who seem to 

 think the bees are injuring them by taking sweet from the 

 flowers which bloom on their possessions. 



I understand that the first purpose for which the honey- 

 bee was created, was for the fertilization of the flowers, 

 while the storage of honey was only for the preservation of 

 the life of the bee, so that the perpetuation of the species 

 might continue for their purpose (the fertilization of flow- 

 ers) ; that man, after a period of time, found that honey 

 was good to eat. and thus utilized the product secreted by 

 the flowers and stored by the bees; man using the honey 

 as his food, while the bees perished from such colonies as 

 were robbed by man; that, as the years went by, man learned 

 that the bees would store more honey than their wants re- 

 quired, so surplus apartments were furnished the bees, which 

 were removed when filled, thus leaving enough honey in 

 the hive or home of the bee to supply all its needs ; and 

 from this surplus came the honey of commerce, and our in- 

 dustry of apiculture. 



If I am correct in the above, and I fully believe that I 

 am, the people of the world have the bee-keepers to thank 

 for bringing the bee from its primeval home (the hollow 

 tree, especially as our forests are fast becoming obliterated 

 by the advance of civilization), and scattering it broadcast 

 throughout the land, to fertilize the ever-increasing millions 

 of flowers ( increased through the increased acreage under 

 cultivation each year), which would otherwise be unproduc- 

 tive in fruit. 



But to return to the two paragraphs quoted. While I 

 believe that the bees were created for the fertilization of 

 flowers, yet I also believe that not over one-half of the dif- 

 ferent specii - of plants and trees require the aid of the bee 

 to fertilize their flowers, and that only those which require 

 the aid of the bee secrete any nectar ; hence I said that it 

 was not true that every flower secretes nectar. In this we 

 see the wisdom of the Creator — bees created to fertilize the 

 flowers which could not be fertilized in any other way. and 

 nectar placed in these flowers to draw the bees to them. 

 Thus we have the clovers among grasses secreting nectar, 

 while the timothy, orchard, June, red-top and other grasses 

 do not secrete nectar, for they are capable of being fertilized 

 by the "breeze." 



All the fault I have to find with the second quotation is, 

 that it is represented that both the breeze and the bees may 



be needed to fertilize the same ami all plants; while I be- 

 lieve that plants and tree, which can be fertilized by the 

 breeze, do not need the aid of the bees; and that those re- 

 quiring the aid of the bees eann.it lie fertilized by all the 

 breezes that ever blew. To be sure, bees sometimes collect 

 pollen from many flowers which do not require their aid; 

 nil as I -aid before, nectar i> secreted only by those 

 which do. 



Take the flower of the squash for instance: Gregory, 

 who is certainly good authority, in his treatise on this plant, 

 tells us that squashes can only be fertilized by the aid of the 

 bees and other insects, and proves the same by giving experi- 

 ments tried where tine netting was placed over the female 

 llowers on certain hills, when not one of the flowers thus 

 treated produced a squash ; while the hills not so treated 

 gave a good crop. Any one looking at a pumpkin or squash 

 flower will at once come to the conclusion that it is im- 

 possible for the wind to carry the pollen from one flower to 

 another ; hence we find it secreting nectar to attract the 

 bees. 



Prominent among this class of flowers which needs the 

 bee to fertilize them, and secrete nectar for that purpose, 

 we have the clovers, fruit-trees "i all classes, willow, hard 

 maple and basswood or linden trees, buckwdieat and many of 

 the fall flowers. Of the class that does not need the aid of 

 the bee I will mention grasses of all kinds growing in this 

 locality, except the clovers, grains of all kinds (except buck- 

 wheat), and many of the trees of the forest, such as beech, 

 birch, ash, chestnut, butternut, etc., none of which produce 

 nectar, either in a "greater or less quantity," no matter how 

 nicely they may "nod to the breeze, or are kissed by the 

 sunlight." 



In the above I have given my views regarding this mat- 

 ter, and stand ready to be corrected by any one who can 

 show that I am wrong. I am no botanist, therefore cannot 

 give a scientific article on this subject; but if there are any 

 botanists among the readers of the American Bee Journal, 

 myself, and I think all of its readers, would be pleased to 

 hear from them on the subject Borodino, N. Y. 



How to Prepare for the Honey-Flow 



Mead at the last Illinois State Convention 

 BY J. E. JOHNSON 



This is a subject on which many bee-keepers differ in 

 opinion, but I will try tell how I am able to obtain the 



best results in building up or getting colonies strong in spring, 

 so as to be ready for the honey-flow. 



First, let me say that if a colony is just fairly strong in 

 young bees, with all the brood in the hive that they. can take 

 care of, and only a few field-bees, they are not ready for the 

 honey-flow, but they should have a large force of bees over 

 15 days old. From close observation I find that in a good 

 honey-flow bees that are only IS days old will begin as 

 fielders. We should also have many younger bees to build 

 comb and do other indoor work. When we do give attention to 

 this matter we often find that the hives do not become well 

 filled with bees until the honey-flow has been on for some 

 time, and thus we lose a good share of our crop, and get our 

 bees strong about the time the honey-flow closes; thus the 

 field-bees become consumers instead of producers. 



In the spring, in my locality, the soft maples that grow 

 near the water's edge along the river begin yielding pollen 

 during the last part of March or first of April. After the 

 maples is the elm, then red willow, box-elder, wild goose- 

 berry, wild plum, Japan plum, and pears, then cherries, apples, 

 and "last of the tree fruits is the wild crab-apple; then rasp- 

 berry, blackberry, and last, white clover and basswood. Now 

 if we could have fine weather during all this bloom my bees 

 would need no tinkering with at all, as they would be in 

 fine shape to take care of the honey-flow; but nearly every 

 year I find that we have so many bad-weather days that often 

 the bees can only work on this early bloom a part of the 

 time, and thus they do not build up to strong colonies as they 

 should. So I try to produce artificially, as near as I can, 

 the same results as though the weather was favorable. This 

 I do by stimulative feeding, and although I am aware that I 

 am treading on dangerous ground, I will explain how I do 

 this. 



