130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



lett pears, planted distant from other varieties, 

 would he utterly barren were it not for the work of 

 the bees, and even then tliey could not be profitably 

 g-rowti unless every third or fourth row in the or- 

 chard was planted to Clapp's Favorite, or some oth- 

 er variety that was capable of fertilizing tlie blos- 

 soms of the Bartlett. 



n other words, he found tliut the Bartlett pear 

 could no more fertilize its own blossoms than the 

 Crescent strawberry. We have already learned 

 that certain kinds of plums will not fertilize their 

 own blossoms, such as the Wild Goose, etc. 



The fruit-growei's of the country are g-reatly in- 

 debted to Prof. Waite for the discovery he has made. 

 The lesson is, that fruit-growers must become in- 

 terested in bees, and I do not dtmbt that within a few 

 years it will he a rare thiny to find a fruit-grower who 

 does not keep honey-bees, the prime object being to 

 employ the bees in carrying pollen from one blos- 

 som to another from the fields of small fruits as 

 well as for the large fruits. 



Think of the changes that have occurred in the 

 last twenty years. In olden times there were :is 

 many bees as there are now, and there were not -i 

 thousandth part as many orchards or berry-fieids 

 as now. Therefore, if tlie lioney-bee has to visit tlie 

 blossoms as in olden times it will have to visit one 

 thousand, where in olden times they had to visit 

 only one blossom. 1 verily believe tliat the barren- 

 ness of many orchards may be owing to the scarcity 

 of bees. 



During some seasons, the scarcity of bees may be 

 less noticed than other seasons. If the seast)n is a 

 dry one during the blossoming time, many blossoms 

 are fertilized liy the winds and otlier insects than 

 the honey-bee; but it tlie season is wet, and pro- 

 longed rains occur, the honey-bee has no power to 

 fulfill i(s lielpful mission. 



This is a question that should receive tlie atten- 

 tion of every fruit-grower. The honey-bee is useful 

 and profitable by itself alone. C. A. Green. 



BEES AND FI.OWEKS. 



By O. M. Doolittle. 

 It was with more than usual interest that I 

 read the different views relative to the aid bees 

 render in the matter of fertilizing flowers of 

 various kinds, in the last number of Gleanings; 

 but wliat interested me sliii more was the fact 

 thiit friends Root proposed to put the pros and 

 coii-i of the whole matter in pamphlet form 

 for general distribution. This is something we 

 have needed for a long time, and, if I am not 

 greatly mistaken, the doing of this will have a 

 greater influence toward dispelling the mist 

 which has gathered before the eyes of the farm- 

 er and horticulturist — gathered more largely 

 through jealousy than otherwise, than any 

 thing heretofore done. I said jeaUmsy had 

 been largely the cause of this mist gathering 

 before the eyes of the horticulturist and farmer. 

 I think I hear some one ask why these should 

 be jealous. Only from that innate weakness, 

 common to all, that causes a restlessness to 

 come over us at seeing others more prosperous 

 than we are. No sooner did it go out that Doo- 

 little was makiiig money out of bees than a few 



about me began looking around; and when they 

 saw bees at work on the bloom in their orchards, 

 meadows, and buckwheat-fields, they began to 

 reason that Doolittle was getting rich from that 

 which belonged to them, and from this sprang 

 the thought that the saccharine matter found 

 in the flowers was placed there for the develop- 

 ment of the fruit; and as the bees took away 

 this sweet as fast as it was secreted by the 

 flowers, an injury must result to the product 

 coming from these flowers and their fields, 

 which injury did much to enhance Doolittle's 

 gains. 



Since going into the queen business I have 

 heard less of this than formerly; but from my 

 own experience I doubt not that every prosper- 

 ous bee-keeper has either heard something sim- 

 ilar to this. or. if he has not heard it, his neigh- 

 bors have talked it when not heard by him. I 

 have even been asked for ten pounds of nice 

 comb honey as pay for wliat honey the bees 

 gathered from a ten-acre lot of Canada thistles 

 which the owner of the land had allowed to 

 grow up through his shiftlessness. 



vSuch a pamphlet as the one proposed will do 

 away with all this way of thinking, if placed 

 in the hands of those about us before they be- 

 gin to be jealous; and instead of their think- 

 ing that we are getting rich off their broad 

 acres they will welcome the bee-keepers of the 

 land as a blessing in helping them to secure 

 good crops of fruit and grain. 



It will be remembered that I have taken a 

 little different view of the matter than most of 

 the writers on this subject; and as I believe 

 this view is the right one, I wish to say a few 

 words further by way of emphasis in the mat- 

 ter. The view I hold to, and, as I believe, the 

 only right view, is, that the first object of hon- 

 ey n the flowers was not as a food or luxury for 

 man, nor even to sustain the ife of the bees, 

 but as a means to an end, and that end was, 

 that the fruit, or female blossoms of plants» 

 which could not be possibly fertilized in any 

 other way, might be fertilized through the agen- 

 cy of insects which would be attracted to these 

 flowers by the tempting and attractive morsels 

 of sweet they spread out before them as a 

 sumptuous feast, while honey as food for the bee 

 and for the use of man came In as a secondary 

 item. As Gregory puts it in his treatise on 

 squashes, " The primary reason why a squash 

 grows, is, to protect and afford nutriment to the 

 seed — the use of it as food being a secondary 

 matter." and the same reason holds good when 

 we look into this honey matter. Why is honey 

 placed in the flowers V To attract insects that 

 the blossoms may be pronerly fertilized, prima- 

 rily; and, secondly, for food for these insects, 

 which food for insects, in case of the bee, is util- 

 ized by man. 



Wliy I coiue to quote Gregory, as above, was 

 because I knew he said something that was fa- 

 vorable toward the bee side of this fertilizing 



