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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



why, I didn't suppose that there was so much honey tn the 

 world !" If your State fair does not offer much in premiums, 

 never mind ; make a dispiay next year, then they will give 

 more. 



FIRST DAY— Evening Session. 



Hon. R L. Taylor, ex-Superintendent of the Michigan 

 Apiarian Experiment Apiary, having been requested to pre- 

 pare a paper, sent the following, which was read by the 

 President : 



Relation <>f Bcc>i to Ilorliculliire. 



There is a widespread prejudice against the honey-bee. 

 Why? I want to explain to you as well as I can in the few 

 minutes allowed nie, facts that go to show that the prejudice 

 is unfounded, and that the honey-bee Is the greatest friend of 

 the fruit-grower, if not indispensable to successful horticul- 

 ture. 



There is in plants or flowers what answers tn sex in ani- 

 mals. Sometimes both sexes exist in the same flower, some- 

 times in different flowers of the same plant, sometimes on sep- 

 arate plants. Hut whatever the plan of growth, fruitfulness 

 depends upon the fertilization or pollination of the pistil by 

 the grains of pollen produced on the stamen. The stigma, 

 generally the upper part of the pistil, is a part denuded of the 

 epidermis, toucht with a viscid (sticky) substance, and when 

 the proper pollen adheres to this part the pollen puts forth 

 pollen-tubes which lengthen till they reach the ovules, which 

 completes fertilization and causes fruit or seed to grow. 



In our fruits generally both pistil and stamens are pres- 

 ent in the same flower, tho there are exceptions. Under such 

 circumstances one's first thought, perhaps, would be that 

 there could be no difficulty in securing thorough pollination. 



But we have other principles to reckon with. Nature ab- 

 hors in-breeding, and resorts to various devices to prevent it, 

 the most familiar one being the " ripening " of the two parts 

 of the flower at different times, and pollen from the same 

 flower in most cases has a much less potent influence ou the 

 pistil if indeed it has any at all. 



But you may ask. Are not our fruits exceptions in this 

 matter ? Let facts answer : 



Prof. A. J. Cook carefully experimented with the bloom 

 of the apple, crab apple, pear, cherry, strawberry, raspberry 

 and clover. In some cases the experiment was duplicated or 

 triplicated. In each particular case an equal number of blos- 

 soms were selected from adjacent branches. One lot was 

 markt with a tag, the other surrounded by cheese-cloth. I 

 cannot enter into details, but these are the results : 



Covered Uncovered 

 Blooms. Fruits. Fruits 



Apple 40 15 



" 75 3 



Crab apple 200 3 



Apple 160 2 9 



Pear 140 7 



Cherry 300 9 119 



Strawberries 60 9 27 



212 80 104 



123 20 36 



Raspberries 184 93 160 



Clover (red) 10 h'ds 191 



Clover (white) 10 h'ds 541 



Again, in 1894, since his removal to California, Prof. 

 Cook made similar experiments with plums, cherries and 

 pears. Two plum trees, one cherry, and two pear trees were 

 made use of in the experiment. On each tree three lots of 

 blossoms were selected instead of two (as in the other case), 

 the number of blossoms varying in each tree from 32 upward, 

 the lots ou any one tree of course having an equal number. 

 One lot on each tree was left uncovered, the second lot was 

 covered, but with bees introduced under the covering, and the 

 third lot was covered, excluding all bees. All proper precau- 

 tions were taken to secure reliable results. The result was 

 that there was not a single fruit on any of the twigs from 

 which bees were shut out. On the twigs covered with sacks, 

 into which bees were put, there were on the plums three and 

 five, the cherry five, on the pears six and eight respectively. 

 On the uncovered branches of the plums were eight and five, 

 the cherry seven, and the pears eight and eleven : 



Covered. Bees enclosed. Not covered. 



P'""^ -jo 5 5 



Cherry O 5 7 



10 6 8 



Pears ]o 8 11 



■- From one-fourth to one-twentieth only developt fruit, but 

 this fortunately is always so. 



What makes these experiments all the more favorable to 

 the beo, is that many small insects called thrips, were noticed 

 on the bloom inside the coverings, yet tho they must have 

 carried pollen from anther to stigma, and from blossom to 

 blossom, yet without so much as pollinating one pistil. 



In one experiment with the plum. Prof. Cook covered a 

 branch, and when it was in bloom, and the bees working in 

 force on the trees, he removed the sack, and keeping watch 

 markt the blossoms on which he saw bees work. When he 

 ceast watching, the branch was re-covered, and at length the 

 four blossoms alone on which he saw bees alight developt into 

 plums. 



No doubt some varieties of our common fruits are self- 

 fertile, but none the less should cross-fertilization be sought, 

 for the great advantage of it, even where flowers are self- 

 fertile, is abundantly proved by Darwin and others. 



It is to be noted that cross pollination Is accomplisht only 

 by the application of the pollen of one variety to the pistils of 

 another variety. Cross-pollination cannot be efl'ected between 

 two trees of Baldwins. All Baldwins are in effect one tree, so 

 of other varieties. Hence the pertinency of the advice of Mr. 

 M. B. Waite, endorsed by Prof. Cook : 



" Plant mixt orchards, or at least avoid planting solid 

 blocks of one variety. It is not desirable to have more than 

 three or four rows of one variety together unless experience 

 has shown it to be perfectly self-fertile." 



In this connection I quote Prof. Barrows ; he says of 

 apples : Most varieties are practically self-sterile, and so far 

 as we know now are completely self-fertile. In what way is 

 cross-pollination best accomplisht? In some cases this is well 

 done by the wind (as in cor?i and the pine). But with our 

 fruits this agency must be very uncertain and ineffectual. And 

 perhaps that fruit-blooms fail to become pollinated when the 

 weather is too cool for insects to move goes to show the same 

 thing. Our chief and only safe reliance for the performance 

 of this function must be upon insects. But insects differ 

 greatly both in numbers and activity. 



During the time when Prof. Cook was making the first 

 experiment I referred to, he made observations to determine 

 the comparative numbers of different insects to be found upon 

 the blossoms, and he estimated that at that time there were 

 20 honey-bees to one of all other kinds at work on the bloom. 

 In his California experiments ho found there were 100 bees so 

 engaged to one of all other kinds. I think this last — 100 to 

 1 — would be nearer the rule in Michigan in the neighborhood 

 of an apiary of any considerable size. Then it we consider 

 the immensely greater activity of the bee over that of most 

 other insects, darting like a shot from flower to flower, and 

 from tree to tree, the conclusion is inevitable that we must 

 rely chiefly for cross-fertilization on the bee. 



Bu'iy bee, prav tell m'^why. 



Thus from flower to Hower you fly. 

 Culling sweets the live-long day. 



Never leaving off to play. 



We know the answer so far as it immediately concerns the 

 bee, but if that were the only reason, why does the flower that 

 lasts but for two or three days secrete the nectar that attracts 

 the bee, instead of the leaf, which endures for the season, and 

 which could therefore so much better serve her? Nature 

 made no mistake ; the welfare of the bee was not the first 

 consideration. 



Notwithstanding all this, there is undoubtedly, as I stated 

 at the outset, a prejudice against bees, and for these reasons : 



1st. Because of a belief that the tees take something 

 from the plant that will render it less productive; or some- 

 thing that is of value to the grower of the plant. 



What I have already said shows the fallacy of the first 

 branch of this belief, and as to the other branch of it I have 

 this to say, that bees gather from domestic plants nectar and 

 pollen only. The nectar of clover, for instance, can never be 

 of any value to the farmer. A shower washes the blossoms 

 so thoroughly that the bees do not work on them for several 

 hours afterward. The nectar in that case, to be sure, goes 

 into the soil, but any well informed chemist would tell you 

 that It has no value even as a fertilizer. The pollen, in like 

 manner, if ungathered, would go into the soil, and there it 

 would have some value as a manure, equal for that purpose to 

 perhaps about the same quality of bran, and in no case could 

 it amount to more than a few pounds from a large farm. 



Same are so constituted that they could bear the loss with 

 equanimity if they knew it was occasioned by bees from the 

 woods, but would be grievously disturbed if they were con- 

 scious that it was carried to the hives of a neighbor. But I 

 have never known a fruitgrower made on that plan. 



2nd. Because of a belief that bees are continually moved 

 by a desire to sting. This is a great mistake. Bees abso- 

 lutely never volunteer to sting when absent from their hives. 



