GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



BEES AND FRUIT TOGETHER 



THERE is a 

 man in the 

 state of New 

 York engaged in 

 the culture of 

 bees and the 

 growing of fruit 

 who has been 

 astonishing the 



natives (or neighbors) by some of his re- 

 markable yields. As a prophet is not with- 

 out honor save in his own country, so this 

 man, when he went into the scheme of set- 

 ting out fruit-trees when he was past forty 

 years of age, provoked no little ridicule on 

 the part of some of his good neighbors, and 

 no wonder. Any one who could have the 

 nerve to cast his bread upon the waters like 

 this, and expect to get returns from it in 

 his lifetime, must be visionary, not to say 

 crazy; but that is precisely what our man 

 did. He put out a seventeen-acre orchard of 

 apple-trees, Baldwins and Greenings, when 

 he was past 40, and inside of ten years he 

 took in one season six carloads of apples. 

 Not only that, he secured a big crop of 

 honey, 3000 bushels of pears, and 1000 

 bushels of peaches. " Going sorue," you 

 would say, and he surely was. His neigh- 

 bors by this time began to sit up and take 

 notice. 



How did he do it? Easy enough with 

 the right man and the right environment. 



One such " right man " is C. J. Baldridge, 

 of Kendaia, N. Y., for it was he that did 

 the trick. That his " environment " was 

 right is indicated by the name Kendaia. 

 which is of Indian origin, meaning apple- 

 orchard; for it appears that the Indians, 

 before the advent of the w^iite man, had 

 found that this locality was favorable for 

 the. growing of apples, located as it is on 

 the shores of Seneca Lake. 



Mr. Baldridge is a beekeeper 52 years 



old. He has now about 450 



colonies of bees, and last year 



secured 50,000 lbs. of extracted 



Iioney. He has a farm of 175 



acres, of which 49 are devoted 



1o growing of orchard fruits. 



There are 17 acres of apples, 



6 of peaches, and 26 of pears, 



making 49 acres all told. The 



pear-orchard, 11 acres bearing, 



is about 30 years old. Last 



year's crop was a light one, 



as he secured only about 1000 



bushels. There are 15 acres 



of sickel pears set 5 years. 

 Our " right man " is a firm 



believer in the co-relation of 



bees and fruit. So far as the 



cA New-Yorker who had Such ^"Re- 

 markable Yields of Fruit as to 

 Astonish the Natives 



By E. R. Root 



The man who astoii 

 ished the natives. 



pears were con- 

 cerned, he said 

 that the bees 

 contributed a 1- 

 most the whole 

 crop for him, 

 and they were a 

 great help to the 

 apples. 



His orchards are within 100 rods of his 

 home apiary of 130 colonies; and while the 

 yield of fruit is increased very materially 

 by the help of the bees, the bees in turn are 

 very materially helped by the pollen and 

 nectar in the spring, just at a time when 

 they need both; for there is nothing like 

 natural pollen and natural nectar to build 

 \\]) bees. When asked whether he ever se- 

 cured any honey from fruit-trees he replied 

 that about once in six or eight years he got 

 some surplus. 



When we inquired whether his neighbors 

 secured as good crops as he (those who did 

 not have any bees), he said: 



" An orchard of 1200 Bartlett pear-trees, 

 two miles from my bees, with no bees near 

 it, some seasons fails to set fruit except on 

 the outside rows of trees." 



Asked again why the outside rows set 

 fruit he said : 



"A few bees going to that orchard from 

 a distance work on the trees they first come 

 to, and so some blossoms become fertilized 

 on the outside rows, while no bees reach 

 the trees in the middle of the orchard." 



With this exception, most of his neighbors 

 who are in the fruit-gi'owing business have 

 bees near by, because they know that with- 

 out bees their yields will be irregular 



THE DAXGER OF SPRAYING WHEN THE FIRST 

 PETALS BEGIN TO FALL. 



When we asked Mr. Baldridge whether 

 any harm would result if fruit-trees were 

 sprayed when the fii-st petals begin to fall, 

 lie said he thought there would 

 be. When we put to him point 

 blank the further question why 

 he held to that opinion he said : 

 " At the time the first petals 

 are falling from the trees, other 

 blossoms are just opening, and 

 the bees work on these blos- 

 soms. If these blossoms are 

 sprayed, bees will be killed." 

 When we told him that Mr. 

 Van Rensselaer, who oper- 

 ates that fifty-acre orchard of 

 apple-trees, nine miles north of 

 us, began spraying about the 

 time the first petals began to 

 fall, and that we had seen no 

 bad results, he said : 



