74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



that town, especially in its center. On the outskirts of the town 

 fruits matured more plentifully, suggesting that the bees from the 

 woods were able to work the suburbs but not the center of the 

 community. 



Today it could hardly be presumed that a community would 

 banish honey-bees. It is becoming, too, generally recognized the 

 important part which they play in securing our crops. Yet, to a 

 large extent, the growers of crops are securing their insect and bee 

 service without regard to controlling or reserving their services. 

 They are still doing to a certain extent what the people of that early 

 Massachusetts town did when they benefited from the services of 

 bees of the woods beyond the limits of that town. Today many 

 large orchards, market gardens, and seed growing areas, while 

 they are having success, are without the producer's knowledge, 

 depending on honey-bees which may be wild in the woods or located 

 in adjacent apiaries. There is, however, considerable risk in this 

 because seasons fail, climatic conditions are undependable, and 

 more especially, the prevalence of insect and bee life in any given 

 area may vary with these and from year to year. 



It is a well-known fact that the prevalence of all wild life, be it 

 plant or animal, is subject to fluctuations, due to favorable or 

 unfavorable environmental conditions. In a given locality under 

 favorable conditions, its numbers may rise or under unfavorable 

 conditions, its prevalence may be less. Take, for example, a pest 

 of mosquitoes or houseflies. In a given community these may be 

 prevalent one year due to conditions favorable to their propagation, 

 while unfavorable conditions will depress their prevalence during 

 successive years. So with wild fowl and fish, weeds, and in fact 

 all forms of life uncontrolled by man. This is in accordance with 

 the unrefutable, biological law. Honey-bees and wild bees are in 

 no way an exception. Even honey-bees under man's control are 

 subject to these environmental effects. When favored their num- 

 bers rise to the crest of prosperity and prevalence. If un- 

 favorable circumstances set in, for instance, the entrance of a bee 

 disease, their numbers are reduced; hard winters may also depre- 

 ciate them so that in the early season when their services may be 

 most needed as pollen bearers their prevalence is at a low ebb. 



