214 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Our Trip to Wisconsin. 



It is difficult for us to leave the office 

 during the months of December, Janu- 

 ary and Februarj-, but receiving such a 

 pressing invitation, coupled with the 

 assertion that we had declined all pre- 

 vious invitations to attend the State 

 Convention, and that the bee-keepers of 

 that State were anxious to make our 

 personal acquaintance, we concluded to 

 go and take the consequences of our 

 absence for two days. 



President C. A. Hatch was at the 

 depot to meet and conduct us to the 

 Capitol building, where the horticultur- 

 ists and bee-keepers were holding a joint 

 session. We received a hearty welcome, 

 and were soon called upon for a speech, 

 upon the question under consideration, 

 which was whether the two pursuits of 

 bee-keeping and horticulture were well 

 adapted to each other, and could be 

 practiced in harmony. 



We complimented those present upon 

 the excellent and harmonious relations 

 seeming to exist, and upon the fact that 

 quite a number of them were actually 

 engaged in the two branches of business, 

 and in practice had found them to be 

 very well adapted to each other. 



We then remarked that some few hor- 

 ticulturists had ignorantly opposed their 

 neighbors who were bee-keepers, and 

 had in some cases appealed to the law ; 

 but such a meeting as this would do 

 more to harmonize the interests than a 

 thousand lawsuits. Here matters in 

 common could be discussed, and methods 

 adopted which would make and preserve 

 harmonious relations, remove prejudice, 

 and relegate envy to the remote past. 

 In substance we then remarked as fol- 

 lows : 



Shakespeare very sagely remarked : 

 '• Let me not know that I am robbed, and 

 I am not robbed at all.'" On the other 

 hand, many imagine that they are rob- 

 bed when they are not robbed at all ! 



Some persons think of the bees that 

 they are robbers — and they openly 

 charge them with robbing the clover 

 lields of something, so that the clover 



does not make good hay, etc., but the 

 facts are the very reverse. 



Bees are of great advantage to the 

 clovers as well as to other bloom, and 

 without their aid in fructifying the 

 flowers, many a plant would cease to 

 bloom — and even to live ! They abso- 

 lutely require the visits of bees or other 

 insects to remove their pollen-masses, 

 and thus to fertilize thvn. Hence, Dar- 

 win wisely remarks, when speaking of 

 clover and heart's-ease : "No bees, no 

 seed ; no seed, no increase of the flower. 

 The more visits from the bees, the more 

 seeds from the flower ; the more seeds 

 from the flower, the more flowers from 

 the seeds." Darwin mentions the follow- 

 ing experiment: "Twenty heads of 

 white clover, visited by bees, produced 

 2,990 seeds ; while 20 heads so protected 

 that bees could not visit them, produced 

 not one seed.'' 



Here in Richland county, a few years 

 ago, a farmer conceived the idea that the 

 bees damaged the clover, and sued his 

 bee-keeping neighbor for damages, be- 

 cause he imagined that his sheep did not 

 l)rosper, on account of the presence of 

 bees in his pasture. 



This ignorance was a God-send to 

 apiculture. It brought out such an 

 array of testimony as to the great advan- 

 tage that bees were to the clover fields, 

 that now it is difficult to find many so 

 ignorant as to claim that bees are any- 

 thing but a blessing to fields and flowers 

 — to plants, trees and bushes. They 

 make it possible to produce large crops 

 of clover seed, and fill the land with 

 richest fruit. Many fruit-growers now 

 even keep bees, not for the production 

 of honey or wax, but for the especial 

 purpose of fertilizing the early blossoms, 

 thereby increasing the fruit crop. 



Nature hangs, out the beautiful and 

 variegated colors, in order to call the 

 attention of the insects. Dainty repasts 

 are provided in the little fountains, dis- 

 tilled and welled up. drop by drop ; and 

 the aroma invites the bees and other 

 insects to " come to the feast!" Why 

 all this design in Nature ? She wants 

 their fertilizing aid ? The flowers need, 

 the visits of the insects to carry the pol- 

 len masses from blossom to blossom, in 

 order to fructify them, and cause the 

 fruit to form, abide and ripen — to glad- 

 den the hearts of fruit-growers, and fill 

 their pockets with shekels. 



The horticulturist may dig, graft and 

 bud. but what will the returns be with- 

 out the labors of the bee ? The Creator 

 has provided no other means for the 

 fertilization of flowers but the visits of 

 insects, and there are no other insects 



