APRITi 15, 1914 



vania Railroad bridge, located about four 

 rods from our apiary. Our priucipal sources 

 of honey are alsike, clover, white clovei-, 

 and sweet clover; also fruit-bloom, bass- 

 wood, and buckwheat. 



Fillmore. N. Y. 



[Is tiiere another apiai'y of this size 



299 



located within the corjjoiate limits of a 

 village? An apiary of nearly 200 colonies 

 "in town" is quite rare, although appar- 

 ently in this case the bees are just outside 

 the main part of the village. We expected 

 to use this article in our March 1st issue, 

 but it reached us loo late. — Ed.] 



DO BEES SPREAD PEAM AND OTMEE KINDS OF BLIGHT ON FRUIT 



TREES ? 



If So, ig ihe Damage More ItliHiini Offselt hj the Good They do ' 



nV CHARLES B. PIPER^ M. D. 



I am enclosing' a communication received 

 from Mr. Jackson, of the Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Oregon Agricultural College. I had 

 written to him about the i^ossibility of the 

 dissemination of blight by bees, and place 

 before you what he has to say on the sub- 

 ject. 



I have also perused Circular Bulletin No. 

 7. Crop Pest Series No. 1, " Fire-blight of 

 Pear and Apple," by Prof. Jackson. The 

 strongest statement in this publication is 

 found on page 9. The statement is, " The 

 fire-blight germs are naturally disseminated 

 chiefly by insects at blossoming time. As 

 noted above, active hold-over cankers exude 

 a sticky ooze, attractive to insects, in which 

 the bacteria are present in enormous num- 

 bers, and any insects visiting such cankers 

 will become covered with the germs. If, 

 after becoming infected in this way, they 

 visit the blossoms for nectar, they inoculate 

 the flowers, whereupon the germs find an 

 easy access to the inner tissues of the blos- 

 soms through the nectaries." 



Leaving this publication for a minute T 

 would quote from Circular Bulletin No. 20, 

 from the same Experiment Station. " Tlie 

 Pollination Question." On page 5 I read. 

 "Probably 99 per cent or more of the trans- 

 fer of pollen is done by insects. Prime 

 among these may be mentioned the honey- 

 bee. Bumble-bees, ants, flies, and short- 

 tongued bees play an important part. How- 

 ever, there is no doubt that the common 

 honey-bee is by far the best of all, and it 

 will pay every orchardist to have a feAV 

 stands among his trees." 



Realizing as I do the great menace to oni' 

 orchards of fire-blight, it is naturally some- 

 what disquieting to think that honey-bees 

 among my fruit-t]'ees would be instrumental 

 in disseminating blight. At the same time, 

 Ave are all convinced of the value of bees as 

 ]iollenizing agents, and it is a problem to 

 determine at this time whether we shall do 

 without the bees as pollenizers, and in a 



measure protect our trees from this dreaded 

 blight. I am endeavoring to collect all the 

 information possible, a)id have thought that 

 you might possibly have some opinions 

 gleaned from wide reading. 



I have an orchard of twenty acres in the 

 Bitter Root Valley, Montana, in which I 

 have hoped ultimately to keep possibly 40 

 or 50 colonies of bees. At the present time 

 I am undecided as to whether it might be 

 a good procedure. That western country is 

 undeveloped; the apiarists are usually un- 

 skilled and not up to date in their methods, 

 and I believe that a good field i^resents 

 itself to a person of intelligence and in- 

 dustry. However, I wish to be absolutely 

 assured of the wisdom of any move before 

 making it. 



Milwaukee, Wis. 



[The letter from Mr. Jackson is as fol- 

 lows : ] 



Our Crop Pest and Horticultural Report, dealing 

 with many other important subjects than the one you 

 mention, and our circular bulletin No. 7 on fire- 

 blight, have been sent you. I would say that there 

 i.s absolutely no doubt but that bees carry fire-blight, 

 as all authorities who have worked on this disease 

 apee. It is partially this that makes the disease so 

 difficult to handle, since cross-pollination is so neces 

 sary, and we can not use any methods which would 

 prevent pollination. 



Corvallis, Ore., Feb. 2. H. S. Jackson. 



[You need not fear fire-blight, pear- 

 blight, or twig-blight to any great extent. 

 There are certain seasons when all phases 

 of the blight are worse some years than 

 others. A few years ago pear-blight was 

 giving a great deal of trouble on the Pacific 

 Coast. The pear-growers demanded that all 

 the bees be removed from the immediate 

 vicinity, and it looked as if there were go- 

 ing to be a war between the fruit-growers 

 and the beekeepers. At that time I was 

 President of the National Association, and 

 as such I went into the territory to study 

 the matter. T knew that bees were very 

 necessary for the iiroper pollination of the 

 pear-blossoms, and I felt very sure that, if 



