342 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 30, 



Corjtributed /V^icles* 



On ImjiOTtatit Apiarian SutyJ&ots, 



Do Bees Work on Strawberry Blossoms ? 



BV HON. EUGENE SECOK. 



In an essay read by me at the annual meeting of the Iowa 

 State Horticultural Society last winter, I stated that " Bees 

 seldom work on strawberry blossoms." 



In the American Bee Journal of March 21, ex-President 

 Abbott disputes my statement. He advanced some specious 

 arguments to prove that I am mistaken, and says, "The 

 strawberry yields both nectar and pollen ;" and, again, " it 

 has been my observation that bees do visit strawberries in 

 abundance." 



I replied to this in the American Bee Journal of April 

 11, and in closing called on bee-keepers and others who had 

 made observations along this line to give us the facts. I was, 

 and am, willing to submit this question to a competent jury of 

 bee-keepers and horticulturists. I never had any desire to 

 prove that bees do not pollenize strawberry blossoms. 



But while waiting for the evidence to come in, Mr. Abbott, 

 in the American Bee Journal of May 2, labors by specious 

 and ex-parte statements to break the force of my arguments. 



If the strawberry growers in this country will read his 

 last reply to me on page 283, I think they will conclude that 

 if he doesn't know any more concerning the subject in hand 

 than he does about strawberries in general, he is not a safe 

 adviser. He may out-talk the farmers in a Missouri Farmers' 

 Institute, but let him come before the Horticultural Societies 

 of Iowa and make the statement which he does by inference — 

 that the so-called staminate varieties bear no fruit — and he 

 would be laughed at for his ignorance. When I said " perfect 

 flowering kinds," I meant precisely that. I would like to 

 have Mr. Abbott name some of the varieties that produce 

 "stamens only," and therefore "bear no fruit." Will he 

 name the old and familiar Wilson, or Capt. Jack, or Jessie, 

 or Beder Wood, or Parker Earl, or Gov. Hoard, or 

 any of the other sorts sent out as fertilizers to the 

 pistillate varieties ? Certainly not, because they do all 

 bear fruit. I would like to have him name one variety used 

 as a fertilizer that has stamens only. It will be news to some 

 of us to learn that the rows planted for fertilizing the main 

 crop do not bear fruit, as he intimates. 



But this is all outside of the question before us. I asked 

 for the facts, not for more theories. We have had quite too 

 many theories already. I would like to know that bees do 

 work on strawberry blossoms, and thereby aid in the pollina- 

 tion. Since Mr. Abbott has so persistently refused to believe, 

 I have taken a little pains to get the testimony of some of my 

 friends whom I happened to know were both bee-keepers and 

 strawberry growers, and men of trained habits of observation. 

 They replied to my questions at once, and in a manner which 

 I think will carry more weight than columns of specious 

 pleadings. 



The first letter is from William Kimble, of DeWitt, Iowa, 

 who raises strawberries by the acre and honey by the ton, and 

 reads thus : 



" Your favor of May 6 is received, and w reply I will say 

 that I have been growing strawberries for ten years. I have 

 also had from 100 to 150 colonies of bees all the time, and 

 have watched carefully for bees on the flowers. It is a fact 

 bees seldom ever touch a strawberry blossom. I have three 

 acres in full bloom now, and I haven't seen a single bee on 

 them this year. I have seen a stray bee on strawberry blos- 

 soms only one year that I recollect, since I have been in the 

 fruit business, and it is a fact that they never work on them. 

 I wish they did. I have studied the pollen theory, and I as- 

 sure you I appreciate the benefit bees are in carrying pollen 

 from one blossom to another. It has to get there, or there is 

 no fruit. William Kimble." 



The next letter is from W. S. Fultz, of Muscatine, Iowa, 

 one of the most careful observers I am acquainted with. He 

 writes as follows : 



" Yours of yesterday is at hand, making inquiry as to how 

 long a time I have been growing strawberries, and to what 

 extent I have observed bees working on them when in bloom. 



" I usually have three acres of strawberries, and aim to 

 keep about 30 colonies of bees. At the present writing I have 

 three acres of strawberries and 28 colonies of bees in first- 

 class condition. My strawberries are now in bloom, and pre- 

 sent a lovely sight, and give promise of a bountiful crop. 



" As you are well aware, I have for the past ten years, or 

 longer, been making a special study of insect-fertilization of 

 fruit-bloom, and, in this connection, I have taken particular 

 notice of the bees that worked on the strawberries while in 

 bloom, and have never seen but very few bees working on 

 strawberry blossoms, and those few had a very solitary ap- 

 pearance ; and it always seemed from their actions that they 

 were hunting for something that could not be found. This 

 year I have taken unusual care in watching the strawberries 

 while in bloom, and I am satisfied that there is not at any one 

 time an average of one bee to 10,000 blossoms ; and that my 

 entire three acres would not furnish enough honey to keep a 

 nucleus of one pint of bees alive for one week, if they had no 

 other supplies than what is furnished by the strawberry bloom. 



"At the present time the bees are working on the oaks. 

 The black oaks in my door yard are in bloom, and the bees 

 are faivly roaring on them. In my 22 years' experience in 

 raising strawberries I have never known them to get up the 

 smallest attempt at a roar on the strawberries when in bloom. 



W. S. Fultz." 



The next is G. M. Doolittle, of Borodino, N. Y. He needs 

 no introduction, and no certificate of character and qualifica- 

 tions from me. He says : 



"You are quite right about bees not working to any 

 amount on strawberry blossoms. It must be a time of ex- 

 treme scarcity to work on either strawberry or blackberry 

 blossoms. I have raised strawberries for the past 18 years, 

 and only in two years out of that time have I seen bees on the 

 blossoms — to say they were at work on them. Of course, now 

 and then a bee will hover over the bed in all years, alight 

 down, run over a blossom or two and go off; but this is no 

 more than they do on white daisies, etc., which never yield 

 honey. I was told 20 years ago that bees did work largely 

 on strawberry bloom, but, like you, years of experience and 

 watching say no. G. M. Doolittle." 



Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo, 111., says in Gleanings, in 

 answer to his own question, "Do bees work on strawberry 

 blooms ?" " I don't remember ever seeing them at it, and 

 I've had strawberries by the acre." 



Talk about nectar in strawberry blossoms I My olfactories 

 are reasonably sensitive, but I never could detect much fra- 

 grance. Forest City, Iowa. 



Queens — Cheap vs. Good Ones. 



BY .J. W. ROUSE. 



We notice in the bee-papers from time to time, something 

 in regard to the purity of queens, also as to their prolificness, 

 etc. I wish to say that buyers of queens are to blame in a 

 large measure for unsatisfactory queens — not every one, but 

 many, want queens as cheap as possible, but some do want, 

 and ask for, a reduction even on a low price. I do not wish to 

 blame any one for wanting to be economical, and to save all 

 possible expense, as in many instances bee-keeping is not pay- 

 ing, and those that are economizing and not paying unneces- 

 sarily high prices are to be commended ; but economy can be 

 carried too far, and what one would save in expenditure may 

 be much more than lost in the use of the cheap article. 



Now as to cheap queens : It is just as easy to rear queens 

 from good stock as it is from poor. The difference in the 

 price of a good queen for breeding, and a poor one, is of little 

 consequence, when the number of queens that can be pro- 

 duced from them is considered, so that I think in most, if not 

 all, cases, breeders of queens use good stock to rear young 

 queens from ; so I do not think the trouble or complaint comes 

 from the use of poor stock as a starter. 



A queen-breeder, to make it pay, has to sell large quanti- 

 ties of queens, if sold at a low price, for if there is a honey- 

 flow his bees could gather nectar, and the queen-trade has to 

 be enough to make up the loss of honey the bees would have 

 stored, and pay the queen-breeder for his time spent in work- 

 ing to rear queens. To sell queens at a low price, the breeder 

 can produce good, strong queens; also as they can be pro- 

 duced in any quantity desired ; but to sell queens low, the 

 breeder cannot be as careful in the selection of his young 

 queens, and they must be sold quick— that is, the breeder can- 

 not afford to keep the queens long enough to know by a trial 

 that his queens are more than ordinarily prolific, if sold as 

 untested, or if sold as tested he cannot keep them long 

 enough to rear other young queens from them so as to know 

 of their absolute (I speak advisedly) purity ; for if there is 

 any cross blood (so to speak) in the young queen, it is most 

 sure to show in a young queen. If queens are tested long 

 enough to know that they are very prolific, and produce well- 



