1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



49 



The subject was "Fertilization." A jfentleman 

 stated that he liacl a friend in this State wlio started 

 into fruit-g-rowing- several years ago, locating 35 

 miles from any fruit-g-rowing- section, or where any 

 bees were located. Tlie first year tliat his trees 

 blossomed, and in expectancy of at least some re- 

 turns from his orcliard, what should be the result 

 but complete failure! He was advised to procure 

 some bees to aid in the fertilization of the blossoms, 

 and since then his orchard has been productive. 



[Again, in the American Bee Journal for 

 Jan. 4 appear also two paragraphs from the 

 pen of C. J. Berry. He is Horticultural Com- 

 missioner for Tulare Co.. an inland county that 

 has of late made great progress in the fruit- 

 industry. Mr. Berry, whose orchard contains 

 440 acres, writes: 



Bees and fruit go togethei-. I can't raise fruit 

 without bees. Some of tlie other cranks say I'm a 

 crank; but I notice there is a pretty good following 

 after me, hereauouts, and they keep a-comin'. 



Yes, sir, 'e. I have bees all about my big orchard. 

 Two years in succession I hctvc. put netting over some 

 limbs of trees; and, while they blossomed all riyht, 

 naryfnnt; while on the same tree, wherclimbs were ex- 

 posed to the a id of bees, plenty of f)-uit. 



Italics are ours. Such statements, coming 

 from the fruit-men, are certainly strong evi- 

 dence in favor of the bee. We may think that 

 the statements from the bee-keepers would be 

 biased; but when the fruit-men turn around 

 and defend the bee, as they surely have done, 

 will do, and are doing, the old-time opposition 

 will gradually break down. 



This j<ymposium would be incomplete did we 

 fail to make mention of the fact that, some 

 three or four years ago, in the State of Michi- 

 gan a convention of fruit and bee men assem- 

 bled together for the purpose of discussing their 

 common interests. The fruit-men acknowledg- 

 ed generally that the keeping of bees in the 

 vicinity of their orchards was an important 

 factor in the production of fruit. At various 

 conventions of the Michigan State Bee-keepers' 

 Association there has been furnished abun- 

 dance of evidence, from bee-keepers and fruit- 

 growers, that points in the same direction. 



to assert that, because fruit has been grown 

 remote from bees, the -iportation of bees into 

 that vicinity would hav • no effect. Again, the 

 point is made by trieud Fultz, that nuts and 

 some other kinds of fruits, etc., were known 

 to grow without the fertilization of any bees. 

 Bee-keepers do not claim— indeed, it would be 

 foolish to do so— that all products whatsoever 

 depend for their fertilization upoa the agency 

 of the bees. All we claim is, that a large num- 

 ber of fruits are assisted, both in the quality 

 and quantity of fruit. 



Although we have given considerable space 

 to this question in this issue, we still hold our 

 columns open for further discussion eithtsr way; 

 and when the whole has been secured we pro- 

 pose to put it in pamphlet form, and place it in 

 the hands of bee-keepers for general distribu- 

 tion, at the mere cost of printing. This sort of 

 " knock-down evidence," placed in the hands 

 of fruit-growers that are at all intelligent and 

 disposed to be fair, will remove opposition at 

 once, and show clearly that their old-time op- 

 position, if it existed, was simply trying to 

 " kill the goose that laid the golden egg."— Ed,] 



RAMBLE 100. 



IN THE BRUSH. 



How mistaken our good people of the East 

 are when they picture in their mind's eye the 

 appearance of the uncultivated country in 

 Southern California! "Why," said an Eastern 

 friend in a letter to me, "I should think that 

 you would be afraid to live all alone away off in 

 the woods.'" 



" Yes," said I to myself; "woodsl" Then I 

 went out of my cabin, and could see not a woods 

 at any point of the compass — nothing but 

 brush, and but little appearance of green at 

 that. In the distance, and around some rarnch, 

 or in some embryo town, a few tall gum-trees 

 might greet the vision, while a climb up the 

 rocky side of the mountain would perhaps re- 

 veal the deep green and woodsy appearance of 



Indeed, fruit-growers often become bee-keepers the distant orange-groves. So it is, that the 



—not from the honey the bees may fiu-nish 



them, but because they have found it necessary 



to keep bees in order to secure the perfection of 



fruit. 

 You will see that we are disposed to be fair 



in the matter, because we have given "both 



sides." But wo are not at all afraid but that, 



when all the evidence is weighed, the balance 

 ! of testimony on the bee side will completely 

 '( overbalance the testimony on the other side. 



The statement in the Rural (see Dr. :\liller's 

 1 article), that fruit has grown where no bees 



were known, proves nothing. Potatoes, wheat, 



and all other crops, will grow on poor land; but 



it would be foolish to say that there would not 



be lan/er crops on good land, or under other 



conditions more favorable. It is equally foolish 



tii'st settlers here use the nuichete {mah-chay- 

 tay} for cutting and grubbing brush, instead of 

 using the ax, which was made for the sturdy 

 trees. The Mexicans are expert in the use of 

 the former, and their loads of wood, or, rather, 

 loads of the roots of chemise-bushes, are found 

 for sale upon the streets of all of our towns. 



Although there is but brush, it seems that 

 nature has been at work here for several years 

 preparing the surface of the country for habi- 

 tation, and nature comes in for an immense 

 amount of credit for so admirably fixing the 

 surface for irrigation. The mountains, acting 

 as great reservoirs for the water-supply, and the 

 broad valleys between, level in appearance as a 

 floor, but with incline enough to allow the wa- 

 ter to flow in the irrigating-pipes to the appoint- 



