Jan. 



1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL 



I The Buffalo Convention. | 



^ Report of the Proceeding's of the Thirty-Second Annual S^ 



|5 Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- ^ 



^ elation, held at Buffalo, New York, «'• 



vS Sept. 10, 11 and 12, 1901. ^ 



(Contiuued from pajje H22.J 



Prof. M. 15. Waite, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, also 

 delivered an address on "The Rela- 

 tion of Bees to the Orchard," but a 

 copy of it has not been secured for pub- 

 lication. 



Pres. Watrous then called upon 

 Prof. S. A. Beach, of the New York 

 Agricultural F^xperiment Station at 

 Geneva, who read the following paper, 

 on 



Spraying in Bloom. 



Spraying commercial orchards to 

 prevent attacks of injurious insects 

 and diseases is a practice of compara- 

 tively recent origin. According to 

 Lodeman (Lodeman, "The Spraying 

 of Plants," 63, (>5). the tirst published 

 record of successful treatment for the 

 coddling moth by spraying with Paris 

 green, is in the Report of the Western 

 New York Horticultural Society for 

 1879, and the first publication of a 

 regular experiment station to give the 

 results of using Paris green against 

 this insect, is the Annual Report of the 

 New York State Station at Geneva for 

 1885. 



In the period from 1S8T to 1894, 

 through the efforts of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and various 

 agricultural experiment stations, it 

 was demonstrated that by the use of 

 certain fungicides, notably the Bor- 

 deaux mixture, some of the most seri- 

 ous orchard diseases, such as apple 

 scab, pear scab, quince leaf and fruit_ 

 spot, and plum leaf spot, might be' 

 kept under control. During the latter 

 part of this period some fruit-growers 

 commenced the practice of spraying 

 orchards systematically to prevent cer- 

 tain diseases. In the treatment of 

 apple, pear, and quince orchards Paris 

 green, or an equivalent arsenical 

 poison, came to be usually combined 

 with the Bordeaux mixture so as to 

 apply both an insecticide and a fungi- 

 cide in one treatment. 



As early as 1889, Cook, then entomol- 

 ogist for the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, stated that bees might be pois- 

 oned with Paris green sprayed upon 

 fruit-trees when in bloom. He urged 

 that spraying should not be practiced 

 during the blooming season, and that, 

 if necessary, such a requirement should 

 be made bv law. (A. J. Cook, Bui. 53, 

 Mich. Ex. Sta.:4, S.) 



After that, whenever experiment- 

 station writers published directions 

 upon this point, they uniformly advised 

 against spraying in bloom. In 1896, 

 Webster published the results of experi- 

 ments conducted at the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station in 1892 and 1894, by 

 which it was proved that bees are liable 

 to be poisoned by working on blossoms 



sprayed with Paris green or with Bor- 

 deaux mixture and Paris green. He 

 reports that shortly after some trees 

 were sprayed, one of the colonies of 

 bees located near by became extinct. 

 Arsenic was not only found in the 

 abdomens of the bees, but it was also 

 found in the dead brood in the hive. 

 (F. M. Webster, Bui. 68, Ohio Ex. Sta.: 

 52.) 



We have already noticed that even 

 prior to 1895 some fruit-growers had 

 adopted the practice of spraying their 

 orchards for the prevention of fungus 

 diseases, and of combining with such 

 treatment the application of arsenical 

 poisons to kill the insect enemies. 

 Such was their success that their ex- 

 ample was soon followed by many 

 others, and within the next three of 

 four years spraying came to be gener- 

 ally regarded as a necessary operation 

 in successful orchard management. 

 But some of the fruitgrowers experi- 

 enced more or less difficulty in trying 

 to follow the instructions of the experi- 

 ment stations as to when the spraying 

 should be done, especially in treating 

 large apple orchards. In this eastern 

 section of the country, the apple 

 orchard, as a rule, constitutes but a 

 portion of the farm, the remaining por- 

 tion being devoted to other crops. At 

 the time when spraying should be done, 

 other important farm work also de- 

 mands attention. This is especially 

 felt when the season has been unfavor- 

 able for field-work. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, when the fruit-grower was 

 crowded with work, the practice of 

 spraying apple-trees in bloom has had 

 its origin. It was tried at first from 

 considerations of necessity or conven- 

 ience rather than from any idea of the 

 superiority of this plan of treatment 

 over that recommended by the experi- 

 ment stations. Orchardists who had 

 not completed the spraying of their 

 trees before the blossoming season be- 

 gan, continued to spray in some in- 

 stances after the blossoms opened. 

 They chose to take the risk of injuring 

 the crop by spraying in bloom rather 

 than risk injury from diseases and in- 

 sects. Later, the idea that the best 

 time of all for spraying is when the 

 trees are in full bloom gained consider- 

 able headway. 



As soon as they found that fruit- 

 growers were beginning to spray 

 orchards when in bloom, the beekeep- 

 ers at once became much concerned over 

 the effect of such a practice on their 

 business. The publications of experi- 

 ment stations and of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture assured 

 them the bees were liable to be poisoned 

 by working on blossoms which had 

 been sprayed with insecticides. In 

 New York State the bee-keepers set to 

 work vigorously, and by 1898 secured 



the enactment of a law which still 

 stands on the statute books, making it 

 a misdemeanor to apply any poisonous 

 substance in any way to fruit-trees in 

 bloom. (Chap. 325, Laws of 1898.) 

 Some of the fruit-growers had by this 

 time become so thoroughly convinced 

 that better results could be obtained 

 by spraying apple orchards in bloom 

 than by spraying at any other time, 

 that they strongly opposed the passage 

 of the law and afterwards tried to get 

 it repealed. Unsuccessful in this, but 

 still confident that their views were 

 correct, they kept at work until an 

 amendment to the law was finally se- 

 cured, whereby the experiment stations 

 at Cornell University and at (ieneva 

 were permitted to spray plants in 

 bloom for the purpose of testing such 

 treatment in comparison with the 

 treatment commonly advised. Accord- 

 ingly, in 1900, work on certain phases 

 of this subject was undertaken by both 

 of the stations named above. The re- 

 sults, so far as published, are given in 

 Bulletin 196 of the CJeneva station, to 

 which publication those who are espe- 

 cially interested are referred. 



One of the questions bearing upon 

 the subject of spraying in bloom which 

 is sometimes asked is, whether treating 

 the open blossoms with the spray mix- 

 tures does not directly help to set the 

 fruit. An understanding of the way 

 fruit sets will conduce to a clearer idea 

 of what influence the spray mixtures 

 may reasonably be expected to have in 

 this direction. An apple-blossom cut 

 through the middle shows different 

 parts as here illustrated : (The follow- 

 ing 6 illustrations are from Bulletin 

 196 of the New York State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y.) 



The outer green portion which covers 

 the bud is called the calyx. When the 

 blossom opens, the calyx turns back- 

 ward. It persists on the fruit where it 

 may be seen bv examining the blossom 

 end of the apple. Next, within the 

 calyx are the showy fiower-leaves. 

 Neither these nor the calyx are essen- 

 tial to the setting of fruit. Up to the 

 time the blossom opens, they give pro- 

 tection to the very delicate central 

 organs, but they may then be cut away 

 without interfering with the setting of 

 the fruit. The essential organs are 

 the stamen and pistil. The pistil oc- 

 cupies the very center of the flower. It 

 divides above into five green threads 

 which at the proper time exude from 

 their tips a sticky fluid. Below it con- 

 tains the little egg-cells which, when 

 fertilized, develop into seeds. The 

 stamens are thread-like and tipped 

 with yellow sacks of powder called pol- 

 len. They surround the pistil. When 

 the pollen alights upon the sticky tip 

 of the pistil— i. e.. upon the stigmatic 

 surface, if conditions are favorable — it 

 sends out a sprout in a way somewhat 

 analogous to the sprouting of grain in 

 warm, moist soil. This pollen-tube 

 grows downward through the soft tis- 

 sues till it reaches the egg-cell, which 

 is then fecundated and thus stimulated 

 to continue growing into seed. 



This, in brief, is the way feltilization 

 of the apple takes place. If fertiliza- 

 tion does not take place, there is no 

 further development and the entire 

 flower withers and falls away. Since 

 the essential organs are composed of 

 very tender tissues, it is not surprising 

 that injury may follow when they are 

 hit by the spray mixtures. Neither is 



