Advantages of Bees. 



In its Iahresbericht for 1878, the 

 " Bienenwirthschaftliche Hanptverein 

 im Konigreiche Sachsen," publishes 

 the following highly interesting statis- 

 cal data referring to the indirect utility 

 of bees : " It has ever been one of the 

 objects of all apicultural societies to 

 prove the great importance of bees to 

 agriculture generally. It appears that 

 the Society named possesses 17,000 

 hives from each of which 10,000 bees fly 

 out daily, which represents a total of 170 

 millions of bees. If we suppose that 

 each bee undertakes but four journeys 

 per day, and that this takes place only 

 on 100 days out of the 305, then we ob- 

 tain a yearly total of 68,000 millions of 

 bee-journeys. It is not too much to 

 suppose that 50 flowers are visited on 

 each journey, and we are certainly 

 justified in supposing that 5 out of these 

 50 are fertilized ; then we get a grand 

 total of 340,000 millions of fertilized 

 flowers per year. Let the value of fer- 

 tilizing 5,000 blossoms be but 1 pfennig 

 (or 500,000 for 25 cents) : then the work 

 done by bees of the Society represent a 

 value of 68 million pfennigs, or $170,- 

 000. Its results from these calcula- 

 tions that each hive benefits agriculture 

 to the amount of $10.00 annually, a 

 value hitherto totally overlooked." 



The fertilization of plants by the bees 

 presents a very interesting field for 

 study. But for the oft-repeated visits 

 of the bees, myriads of beautiful flow- 

 ers would in a short time cease to bloom 

 —aye, and cease to live also ! Many 

 plants absolutely require the visits of 

 bees or other insects to remove their 

 pollen-masses, and thus to fertilize them. 

 Hence Darwin wisely remarks, when 

 speaking of clover and heart's-ease : 

 " No bees, no seed ; no seed, no increase 

 of the flower. The more visits from the 

 bees, the more seeds from the flower ; 

 the more seeds from the flower, the 

 more flowers from the seeds." Dar- 

 win mentions the following experiment: 

 4i Twenty heads of white clover, visited 

 by bees, produced 2,990 seeds; while 

 twenty heads so protected that bees 

 could not visit them, produced not one 

 seed." Thus is infinite Wisdom dis- 

 played by Nature on every hand ! 

 Nothing is created in vain ; each has its 

 proper sphere, and each its appropriate 

 work to perform. 



The National Convention. 



Mr. A. J. King, of New York, editor 

 of the Bee-Keepers' Magazine, thus gives 

 his opinion of the late meeting of the 

 North American Bee-Keepers' Society, 

 held in this city. 



Never before was a meeting of this 

 Association held in Chicago, and as Mr. 

 King characterizes this one as " the best 

 one ever held in this country," we have 

 reasons to feel proud, and hope western 

 and southern bee-keepers will feel 

 interested enough in the next meeting 

 to make it even an improvement over 

 the last one. It can be done, and it 

 ought to be done ! Mr. King says : 



The Chicago convention was, in many 

 respects the best ever held in this 

 country. Such unanimity and general 

 good feeling, with the intelligent dis- 

 cussion of a wide range of subjects, 

 rendered it indeed and in truth a " feast 

 of reason and flow of soul," and we can- 

 not but believe that the two or three 

 hundred persons, who participated in 

 this feast, feel that it was money and 

 time profitably expended. This desir- 

 able condition of things was largely due 

 to the efficiency of the officers of the 

 Association, all of whom, save the 

 Treasurer and a few Vice Presidents 

 who were absent, were unanimously 

 re elected. 



We renewed some old acquaintances 

 and formed many new ones. The good 

 impressions, formed by correspondence, 

 were confirmed and deepened on per- 

 sonal acquaintance. 



While at Chicago we enjoyed the hos- 

 pitality of our old friend, Thomas G. 

 Newman, Esq., President of the Asso- 

 ciation, and we shall not soon forget the 

 kind and genial manner in which we 

 were received by his family, whom we 

 met for the first time on this occasion. 



Take it "all in all" the Convention 

 was a " grand success," and did work of 

 permanent value to the science of apicul- 

 ture. The valuable essays read at the 

 Convention cover nearly the entire 

 ground of practical and scientific bee- 

 keeping, and will appear at the appro- 

 priate time in our columns. 



igiT San Diego Union says that during 

 November Mr. Maxfield's apiary, on 

 the east of San Miguel mountain, was 

 swept away by the forest fires that 

 raged in that vicinity. He is reported 

 to have lost 70 roloniesof bees, in addi- 

 tion to the buildings, etc., on the ranch. 



