APRIL 15, 1916 



307 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York, 



BEES AND APPLE-BLOSSOMS. 



" I live in a locality where there 

 are many orchards of apple-trees. 

 What relation do these trees bear 

 to our friends the bees, in having 

 them in shape so that they can, by 

 the ' great army of workers ' pro- 

 duced thru the stimulation of apple-bloom, 

 gather for us the tons of honey from the 

 white clover and basswood ? " 



Thus writes a correspondent. In reply I 

 would say that nothing in the line of early 

 honey so stimulates early brood-rearing as 

 does that which comes from the pink and 

 white blossoms of the apple-trees. In fact, 

 it has always been a proverb in this section 

 of the country, " As goes apple-bloom, so 

 goes the season," as to honey. More than 

 half a century ago the hand of that mcst 

 noted beekeeper, Moses Quinby, of St. 

 Johnsville, New York, penned these words : 

 "In good weather, a gain of 20 pounds is 

 sometimes added to the hive during the 

 period of apple-blcssoms. But we are sel- 

 dom fortunate enough to have continuous 

 good weather, as it is often rainy, cloudy, 

 cool, or windy, all of which are very detri- 

 mental. A frost will sometimes destroy all, 

 and the gain of our bees is reversed; that 

 is, their stores are lighter at the end than 

 at the beginning of this season of flowers. 

 Yet this season often decides the prosperity 

 of the bees for the summer. If there is 

 good weather now, we expect our first 

 swarms about June 1. If not, no subse- 

 quent yield of honey will make up the de- 

 ficiency." 



Never were truer words uttered, as ap- 

 plied to central New York; and what ap- 

 plies to this locality will apply generally to 

 to northern states. Hence we see that the 

 apple-tree bears no mean relation to the 

 beekeeper. In 1877 we had the best yield 

 of honey from apple-bloom that I ever 

 knew; and the results from the apiary that 

 year were the highest ever obtained by the 

 writer, which was an average of 166% lbs. 

 of honey, mostly comb, from each old colo- 

 ny in the spring. I consider the gi'eat 

 value from apple-bloom to lie in its stimu- 

 lating quality, toward plentiful brood-rear- 

 ing, and in producing stores to tide over the 

 period of scarcity which immediately fol- 

 lows this bloom for a time approximating 

 two weeks. I believe that if we could have 

 the same number of bees in the hives in 

 apple-bloom that we do in basswood time, 

 with equally good weather, the yield from 



this source would be nearly or quite as good 

 while the bloom lasted; but since the bloom 

 comes so soon after cold weather, we do not 

 have the bees; and, still worse, the weath- 

 er is usually such that the bees do not have 

 an opportunity oftener than one year out 

 of three or four to work on the bloom more 

 than enough to encourage brood-rearing; 

 hence I doubt the advisability of trying to 

 work the colonies up to an unusual strength 

 with the hopes of securing a surplus from 

 apple bloom. 



So far I have touched only on the prac- 

 tical or dollar-and-cent side of this matter. 

 However, there is still another side which 

 we as beekeepers look after so seldom that 

 we grow poor, and to a certain extent ugly, 

 in our everlasting hustle after that wliich 

 25ours mammon into the home treasury ; and 

 we go about continually with a look on our 

 faces which says to every passerby, " Time 

 is money," He who sees in the bees, the 

 apple-blossoms, and the ripened fruit, only 

 that which shall put money into his pocket, 

 lives in a poor half-furnished house. He 

 who obtains from them only what he can- 

 sell, gathers but a meager crop. If I can 

 find something besides dollars and cents 

 with my bees or on apple-trees, shall I 

 not take it? Apple-trees, during each year, 

 are like some people we know. In their 

 young and blossoming days they are sweet 

 and pink-hued, and then they grow acid, 

 pale, and hard; but in the ripened experi- 

 ence of later life they may become sweet 

 again, and more enchanting by their minis- 

 tering to the calls of humanity. So if any 

 of us have become acid, pale, and hard, in 

 our eager grasping after the " almighty 

 dollar " which may come from the bees and 

 apple-trees, let us once more return to the 

 joy and sweetness we had in the springtime 

 of life which may again come into our lives 

 as the deep richness of color comes to the 

 ripened fruit of the apple-trees of autumn. 

 If we have allowed our grasping disposition 

 to get the better of our inner being, some- 

 thing as apples led to the loss of Paradise, 

 is it not about time we begin to reconstruct 

 a bit of Eden by once more listening to that 

 better nature which will, if we will let it, 

 lead us once more under the blossom-laden 

 boughs, made pleasant with their perfume 

 and the joyful hum of the bees? Nature 

 might have contented herself by allowing 

 the apjDle-trees to bear seeds only; but she 

 accompanied such prosaic action with fra- 

 grant flowers and delicious fruit. 



