1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



"How many babies has she, and what is the capacity of 

 their unregenerated appetites for these dainty morsels of 

 vegetarian nastiness ?" 



Well, ordinarily she hasn't more than six or seven infants 

 at a time to feed, but it takes a good many worms to make a 

 pound of bird-meat, to say nothing of the feathers which are 

 probably more expensive than the birdling itself ; and as this 

 seems to be their exclusive diet during their babyhood, a 

 moderate estimate of the daily consumption of worms in a 

 bird family of usual numbers and average appetite is several 

 hundred. And as she generally rears two broods in a season, 

 who can estimate the value of even one pair of these little 

 chatter-boxes ? 



And what a cheerful song they give us ! They are the 

 sure harbingers of spring. Their sprightly movements and 

 cheery notes assure us that the winter of our discontent is 

 past. They bid us enter upon the summer campaign with joy 

 and hope. The confidence with which they come to our homes 

 and claim our protection gives them at once the right of way 

 to the best quarters we can furnish, and makes us better men 

 and women by reason of their association. So insignificant in 

 size, and sober in color, they seem to have almost escaped the 

 vengeance of the small boy, and the rapacity of the grown-up 

 barbarian. They make friends of every one they meet be- 

 cause of their cheerful disposition, good habits, and the ab- 

 sence of all bad qualities. They come as near being perfect 

 in the eyes of the practical gardener and fruit-grower as any 

 bird that visits our Northern climate. It is hardly necessary 

 to intercede in their behalf, or to suggest that a safe nesting- 

 place be provided away from the wily old cat. 



And there's that pair of robins with their nest in the old 

 apple-tree. About the first thing heard in the morning is the 

 call to duty by these early risers after the proverbial worm. 

 Before the peep of day they grow restless from hunger, or 

 habit, or the pleading uneasiness of the baby squabs that have 

 gone without a morsel to eat for one-third a calendar day. It 

 is a race of the earliest and the swiftest for the unlucky ver- 

 raicule that has allowed its appetite to get the better of its 

 judgment, and has neglected to retire to a safe retreat before 

 the early dawn. And its name is legion. But thanks to the 

 young nestling with its mouth always open and its assimilat- 

 ing powers seldom overtaxed, the hordes of creeping, crawling 

 and flying foes that prey upon the vegetable kingdom are 

 held somewhat in check. 



The birds named are only two out of a large number that 

 wholly or in part live upon the enemies of the orchardist, the 

 gardener and farmer. Does any one doubt the helpfulness of 

 birds in holding in check the swarms of destructive insects, 

 worms and bugs that harrass us ? They would soon overrun 

 the country like an Egyptian plague but for these friends of 

 ours, ever vigilant because always hungry. 



What if they do occasionally levy a slight tribute on our 

 ripe berries ? Can we dispense with their services ? And 

 think of their almost endless woody concerts ! What compen- 

 sation is adequate to such unparalleled variety and melody, 

 that, like the blessed sunshine, falls upon the poor and rich 

 alike? Shakespeare said — 



" The man that hath no music in himself. 

 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

 Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." 



And he that hath no music in his soul for the songs of birds, 

 and no appreciation of the poetry of bird-life, but who can 

 wantonly slaughter these migratory, heaven-sent, operatic 

 bands, ought to be banished to the farthest coast of Nova 

 Zembla until the heavenly melody of God's sweet songsters 

 could penetrate his callous heart. 



The crime of destroying our song-birds, or any others, for 

 the purpose of supplying the demands of fashion ought never 

 to be condoned. Their blood, like the blood of Abel, ought 

 to cry out from the ground against such sacrilege. Or, like 

 Banquo's ghost, they ought to haunt their slayers and users 

 " to the last syllable of recorded time." If the butterflies of 

 fashion ever want the ballot, they must first compel the men 

 to respect their attire as well as their person and attainments. 



The usefulness of bees in the economy of nature is too well 

 known to need any special pleadings from me. 



The natural inference to be drawn froui their well-known 

 habits establishes the theory that the chief purpose of their 

 existence is the pollination of flowers. The collection and 

 storing of nectar is secondary. Every observing person who 

 has given attention to the matter has noticed that bees visit 

 only one species of plants at a time. They do not go promis- 

 cuously from one kind to another. If they are working on 

 apple-blossoms they stick to apple-blossoms so long as there is 

 anything to be gotten from them. They do not go from apple 



to plum, from raspberry to clover, from dandelion to willow. 

 So averse are they to change that they frequently continue 

 on a certain kind after it ceases to be profitable for honey. 



One reason for this, it may be, is that they do not like to 

 mix their honeys, but I do not think that the chief one, be- 

 cause I find cells partly filled with the finest honey in the 

 world — clover or linden — completed with a dark-colored pro- 

 duct from buckwheat or other fall flowers. But it is an evidence 

 to me that they were created to pollenize flowers, and that 

 they work along lines made for them by Superior Wisdom. 



Charles Darwin proved by years of painstaking experi- 

 mentation that plants grown from seed produced by the union 

 of distantly related plants of the same species were more vig- 

 orous tham those fertilized by their own pollen-dust, or by 

 that from plants near at hand and grown under the same con- 

 ditions as to soil and treatment. His deductions were that 

 close in-and-in breedinK tended to lack of vigor and inferiority. 



This, then, is the mission of the bees : To carry the pol- 

 len-dust from one flower to another, and the small amount of 

 nectar found usually in each individual blossom often compels 

 them to fly quite a distance before securing a load, and hence 

 plants widely separated are married by the bees. Another 

 fact quite well established is that the pollen from a distant 

 relative is prepotent. So the bees are continually crossing 

 one variety of a species on another. And probably all, or 

 nearly all, of the American fruits which we know and prize 

 are the result of these chance crosses. While man with his 

 puny camel's-hair brush is making feeble effort to breed fruits 

 according to a theory — perhaps a hundred miles apart — these 

 tireless little marriage-priests are accomplishing a much 

 greater work, unheralded, unknown and unappreciated. 

 Where we by our scientific methods evolve one new variety, 

 they, by a method older than science or civilization, create 

 hundreds. 



What does our brush and pincers and paper-sack amount 

 to, compared with God's cross-fertilizers ? 



I know it is maintained that bees are not necessary to a 

 crop of fruit : and the facts are cited that we had fr\iit in this 

 country before we had bees. I concede all this. There are 

 other ways of carrying pollen than on insect legs and bodies. 



Nature does not put all her eggs in one basket. She is 

 lavish in her provisions for multiplying species. Look at the 

 bushels of pollen that fall from evergreen forests — not a thou- 

 sandth part of which is ever used. Look at the millions of 

 particles of pollen-dust that go to waste in every cornfield. 



That the wind plays an important part in transporting 

 pollen-dust I have no doubt, but experience and observation 

 have convinced me that the wind can be depended upon only 

 within very limited distances. For example, in planting pis- 

 tillate varieties of strawberries, it is necessary to intermix 

 polliniferous plants quite liberally if we wish good crops. Now 

 bees seldom work on strawberry blossoms. I think the wind 

 is the chief agent in pollination. The same is also true in all 

 the conifers and nut-bearing trees. But with most of our 

 fruits bees are an active and beneficial agency in fertilizing the 

 flowers. And with some varieties they are actually necessary, 

 unless the trees are planted so close to some other sort which 

 yields an abundance of pollen that they can be readily fer- 

 tilized by the wind. 



Mr. Darwin, in his "Cross and Self Fertilization," gives 

 a list of plants, 6.5 species, that are either entirely or nearly 

 sterile without insect aid. And, by the way, our white and 

 red clovers are among them. Only kinds were experimented 

 with that produced both stamens and pistilson the same plant, 

 or, in other words, were perfectly adapted to self-fertilization 

 so far as appearances went. Of course this number of species 

 is only a fraction of the whole number, and constituted about 

 half of the number experimented with. And is it not a fact 

 that in all our hardy native fruits, almost without exception, 

 there is a more abundant supply of pollen than in our im- 

 ported or highly-organized sorts of the best quality ? It must 

 be remembered that all our improvements in the list of fruits 

 are sports. And when we find a new thing of high flavor or 

 attractive appearance, we propagate it whether it has all the 

 hardy reproductive qualities of its ancestors or not. I have 

 an opinion that all through nature qualUy is developed at the 

 expense of vigor and productiveness. Civilization seems to bo 

 developing in that direction. Stock-breeders do not need to 

 be told of the fact. Florists have so highly developed the rose 

 that it has scarcely any pollen — and I am not sure but some 

 kinds are so double they are entirely destitute. 



If it be true, then, that the finer our fruits the smaller 

 the quantity of pollen, and therefore the greater risk of pol- 

 lination by atmospheric action, the more we shall need in the 

 future oU the agencies for fully and abundantly pollenizing 

 them. One of the practical methods of accomplishing this is 

 by the aid of the well-known honey-bees.— Forest City, Iowa. 



