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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 1, 1899. 



Bees and Fruits— The Facts in tiie Case. 



BV PROF. A. J. COOK. 



AS conductor of Farmers' Institutes for Southern Cali- 

 fornia, I have a g-ood opportunity to feel of the public 

 ipul.se reg'arding' bees, and I have been more than g'rati- 

 fied at the g-eneral right-mindedness of all parties inter- 

 ested. As a region where all kinds and the most luscious 

 fruits are raised, and where extensive fruit-drying is carried 

 on, it goes without saying that bees will of necessity be 

 more or less of an annoyance at certain seasons in certain 

 years. When we couple with the above facts that of the 

 general presence of bees, and often in immense numbers, 

 we readily see that the question of bees and fruits becomes 

 one of great importance. 



The last week in March and the first week in April I 

 held institutes in four regions where fruit-growing is the 

 leading industry, and where bees are kept in great numbers. 

 These meetings were attended by hardly less than 2,000 

 people in the aggregate. In two of the places — Villa Park 

 and Banning — lawsuits have been recently instituted be- 

 tween orchardists and apiarists. The fact that I was re- 

 quested to give the true status of the relation of bees to 

 fruit, shows clearly that the people for the most part wish 

 to know the truth. I gave as below the facts as I see 

 them, and was more than pleased to note that few took ob- 

 jection to my position ; indeed, only one man called in ques- 

 tion my statements, and he did so in private, and not in 

 hostile mien. I am very sure that Southern California will 

 very soon be in the same attitude as the people of France, 

 Italy and England, and will wish the bees brought to the 

 orchards, and not cry for their removal. Already the or- 

 chardists in most localities are converted to the right belief. 



The following is the position I took in the premises : 



It is a truth demonstrated beyond question, by Darwin, 

 and by many other scientists, by our Department of Agri- 

 culture, and by my own experiments, that many flowers are 

 sterile to their own pollen, or to that of the same varietj' of 

 fruit. It is also true that pollination is always necessary to 

 seed-production, and usually to the production of the pulp 

 in case of our berries, pomes, drupaceous fruits, etc. There 

 seems as little doubt but that some fruits usually or some- 

 times fertile to their own pollen, or to that of the same 

 variety, are under less favorable circumstances sterile to 

 the same. Thus, the Bartlett pear is generally sterile to 

 Bartlett pollen, tho occasionally under favorable circum- 

 stances it fruits well tho no other pears are in the vicinity. 

 Yet in these exceptional cases no one knows when the tide 

 will turn, and the Bartlett fail to produce unless other pears 

 are hard by to insure cross-pollination. We are sure, then, 

 that mixing of fruits so as to secure cross-pollination is ab- 

 solutely essential in almost all cases, to the best success, 

 and in a large proportion of cases to any success at all. 



Again, this cross-pollinating requires insects to carry 

 the pollen-grains from the anther of one bloom to the 

 stigma of another. Before the orchards were planted the 

 fruits were less numerous, and the solitary scant-insects 

 were sufficient to do the work ; but as we mast the fruits 

 in great orchards, the native solitary insects were all too 

 few, and fortunately the social bees were brought along 

 with the fruits. Even the social native insects, like social 

 wasps and bumble-bees, are very few in spring when the 

 fruits bloom, and so are absolutely inadequate to pollinate, 

 our orchard trees. The non-seeding of red clover for the 

 early first crop is because the bumble-bees are too few to 

 properly cross-pollinate the bloom. It is possible that in 

 this case the flowers are fertile to the pollen of other red- 

 clover blossoms but not to their own. 



The orcliardis.t then must have the bees. To drive them 

 away would be to kill the goose that lays the golden e.^^. 



Again, bees never attack sound fruit. They only come 

 when bird, wasp, or sultry weather combined with over- 

 ripeness break the rind and cause the juice to exude. Pos- 

 sibly bees could bite open the skin of the fruit, but posi- 

 tively they never do. Yet let the juice once ooze, and then 

 the bees quickly hie to tree or drj-ing-tray and leave little 

 behind to show what once was there. 



When we remember that nearly 90 percent of the ripe 

 fruit is juice, and that the bees take this, we see that little 

 would be left. The juice often oozes from verj' ripe fruit, 

 and so bees are often in the vineyard to the great annoy- 

 ance of those who would gather in the vintage. Fruit on 

 the trays in the drying-3-ard has the skin removed, or is cut 

 open, and so the bees may take most of it unless repelled by 

 sulphuring, which is now generally done. We see, then, 

 that bees are a disturbance at times, and annoy the orchard- 

 ist greatly. Then must the apiarist be driven ofi" ? Not so, 

 say the European pomologists. They want the bees, and 

 there is no quarrel between the two industries. Not so, say 

 the most intelligent fruit-men of our own State and coun- 

 trj', for we must have the bees to aid us in time of bloom. 



What then ? It may be wise to move the bees tempora- 

 rily on rare occasions when the annoyance is most severe. 

 If so, who should bear the expense ? Sureh', not the bee- 

 keeper, for he was the pioneer in the region, and has a first, 

 or at least an equal, right. The removal is for the fruit- 

 man, and he should be at the most, if not all, of the expense. 

 But each should know all the facts, that bees are never 

 harmful to flowers, but always necessary to best success, 

 and that the)' are only injurious to wounded fruit ; that if 

 they are to be temporarily removed it is for the good of the 

 fruit-man, and he should bear the expense. The harm is 

 usually not great, and the annoyance usually almost noth- 

 ing, so that if the bee-men and fruit-men donate the one to 

 the other their choicest products, and cultivate good-feeling 

 and not emnity, each may be a tremendous blessing to the 

 other, and all the best of neighbors. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Advantag'ss of Docility in Queen-Bees. 



BY \V. \V. m'NE.\I,. 



JUDGING from the superior excellence of a queen reared 

 to supersede the old one, I am led to believe that to 

 further domesticate our bees, all queens should be 

 brought up in accordance with conditions as therein found. 

 At such times the desire of the whole colony is in the in- 

 terests of the home they have. The nurse-bees are not in- 

 toxicated with that wild dissipation which culminates in 

 swarming, and which comes from a knowledge of the pur- 

 pose queens are reared during the flush of the honey season. 



To take away the reigning queen when the colony is 

 enjoying a flourishing situation, in the hope of securing a 

 number of young queens, and then expect the mother-bee 

 to duplicate herself in these, it seems to me, is entirely 

 wrong. The colony is thrown into a state of intense ex- 

 citement and worry, if not frenzy, and more especially is 

 this the case if the bees are blacks or hybrids, the kind so 

 frequently chosen for cell-builders. Now, surelj', the nurse- 

 bees will not, cannot at such times, furnish nourishment 

 that will develop a queen-bee possessing the most steady 

 and pleasing temperament. If queens so reared are allowed 

 to receive their first impressioiis from angry, loose-footed 

 bees, or bees madly bent on swarming, it would very ma- 

 terially afl'ect their good behavior, and the tie that binds 

 them to home and its sweetness. 



I believe it advisable, even when rearing queens in col- 

 onies having a laying queen, to remove the combs on which 

 the cells are built to the nursery as soon as they are capt. 

 Then when the queens emerge from the cells their first les- 

 son will be at the hands of the apiarist. I have retained 

 young queens in cages containing honey and comb, away 

 from any but very young worker-bees, and permitted them 

 to take their first flight from my hand or coat-sleeve. They 

 would return, barring calamities that sometimes overtake 

 them while in the air. 



If they are handled gentlj-, never blowing smoke or 

 one's breath on them, their action soon contrasts largely 

 with that of virgin queens which have remained in the hive. 

 I see no reason, if one chooses to take the pains, why the 

 mating of queens could not be secured before giving them 

 back to the hive-bees at all. Those large, supersedure 

 queens, when fully developt and on the combs, behave as if 

 they had a realizing sense of being in their proper element, 

 and were fully entitled to protection and respect. Not only 

 are we to expect strong, gentle workers from gentle queens, 

 but more uniform success in introducing them into strange 

 colonies of bees. Any one who has had experience knows 

 that much depends upon the queen being cool-headed and 

 quiet at such times ; and in any colony of bees they are 

 much less liable to be balled when it is necessary to manip- 

 ulate the combs. Scioto Co., Ohio. 



