April, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



229 



nel is developed or not. In our experiments 

 plums which were self-jjollinated by hand 

 showed no diffeienee in size, shape or qual- 

 ity from those cross-pollinated. The plant 

 breeder would be interested in determining 

 how seeds would germinate and grow from 

 the various combinations. The grower, 

 however, is satisfied when the fruit remains 

 on the tree to maturity. With apples and 

 2)ears the case is somewhat different. In- 

 stead of one pistil to each flower there are 

 five. All five must be pollinated and the re- 

 spective eggs fertilized to secure a perfect 

 fruit. Very often, due to lack of pollina- 

 tion, only three of the five carpels or divi- 

 sions in the core of the apple have perfect 

 seeds, while the other two have not. The 

 fully developed portion of the fruit corre- 

 sponds with the side having the perfect 

 seeds. The Cornell Experiment Station has 

 shown a direct relation between the number 

 of seeds in an apple and the percentage of 

 June drop. This drop always consists of 

 the fruits having the smallest number of 

 seeds. In other words the larger the num- 

 ber of seeds, the better the chances for that 

 fruit to remain on the tree until mature. 



In California where Bartlett pears are 

 grown extensively, a great portion of the 

 fruit is found to be practically seedless and 

 coreless. For reasons as yet unexplained 

 this pear under our conditions is seemingly 

 able to set and mature fruit whether it 

 contains seeds or not. The seedless quality 

 of this variety, it is argued, constitutes a 

 distinct advantage, as the core is much 

 smaller and the flesh is not so gritty. These 

 factors are advantageous to the canner and 

 grower where the product is consumed soon 

 after picking. In the demand for a long- 

 keeping pear, however, some interesting 

 points have been developed in this connec- 

 tion. The University of California has re- 

 cently shown that the Bartlett pear with 

 perfect seeds keeps from two to three weeks, 

 or more, longer than the seedless ones pick- 

 ed at the same time. The advantage of 

 cross-pollination for producing a long-keep- 

 ing pear is obvious. 



Injury Caused by Bees. 



The average grower in general has two 

 grievances against the bee. One is the at- 

 tacking and injuring ripe fruit on the trees 

 and in the dry yard, and the other is in the 

 spread of certain diseases, notably pear 

 blight. Usually the sight of several bees 

 gathered around a split or puncture in a 

 ripe fruit is enough to cause the grower to 

 want to rid the entire countryside of these 

 obnoxious visitors. The benefits received 

 during the blossoming season a few months 

 previous are entirely forgotten. It has been 

 demonstrated that bees are not the primary 

 cause of injured fruit. The first damage is 

 usually done by birds or insects which have 

 piercing mouth parts. The honeybee comes 

 along later and gets the blame. Actually 

 the damage, if any, started by bees is so 

 slight as to be practically negligible. 



With pear blight the case against the hon- 

 eybee is somewliat stronger. Experiments 

 have shown that bees do carry blight, and 

 that the blight organism remains alive in 

 the hives for several weeks after it has been 

 brought there. However, to my knowledge 

 it has never been definitely proved that bees 

 prefer the sticky exudate of the blight can- 

 ker to the honey in the blossom when the 

 latter is available. It may be that the 

 blight organism is picked up accidentally 

 and thus transferred to the blossoms. Be- 

 cause of its size the honeybee seems to be 

 tlie most frequent visitor to pear trees, and 

 hence is judged guilty of doing all of the 

 harm. As a matter of fact other insects, 

 such as thrips, aphis, ants and beetles of 

 various kinds are as guilty as the bee. If 

 they were not, how is blight in young twigs 

 and on young trees without blossoms ex- 

 plained? The solution to this difliculty is 

 to use more care in removing old hold-over 

 cankers which form sources of infection. 

 The honeybee must be given credit for per- 

 forming so faithfully the function of dis- 

 tributing pollen, and should be relieved of 

 tlie stigma of being the chief carrier of 

 blight, and a general nuisance at harvest 

 time. 



BEEKEEPING AND AGRICULTURE 



Honeybees of Great Value in the 



Pollination of Certain Field Crops 



as Well as Fruit 



By Geo. S. Demuth 



SOME one has 

 said that 

 the only way 

 by which one 

 can honestly 

 gain a living by 

 stealing is to 

 keep bees. These 

 industrious little 

 workers pay no 

 attention to line fences or land ownership, 

 but roam freely over 'neighboring fields, 

 gathering nectar from other peoples' flow- 

 ers and carrying it home to make into hon- 

 ey, which enriches the owner of the bees in- 



stead of the 

 OAvner of the 

 land. 



.lust what are 

 tlie bees carry- 

 ing away from 

 the neighboring 

 farms when they 

 bring their loads 

 of nectar? The 

 chemist explains that it is chiefly sugar and 

 water. He further explains that sugar is a 

 carbohydrate, so called because it is com- 

 posed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the 

 liydrogen and oxygen being in the same pro- 



