110 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' ME VIEW. 



which we ueed more and more careful in- 

 vestigation. Perhaps bees can do a valuable 

 work for the fruit-grower here. 



Now as to the experiments in covering 

 blooms and decreasing the amount of fruit 

 set thereby. These still need a good deal of 

 verification and examination. Quite possi- 

 bly something else beside the honey bee has 

 contributed a large share to the results at- 

 tained. But even taking the results without 

 much discount, what have we ? It is tolerably 

 apparent that in favorable weather a. planta- 

 tion of almost any kind of fruit ten miles 

 from a bee will set more fruit than can be 

 grown. Part must dry up and fall off. Here 

 is a little tree big enough to bear 100 apples. 

 Without bees it sets .500, of w^ ich 400 must 

 fall away. Of what profit is it to turn on a 

 hive of bees and cause it to set 1,000, and 

 have yOO to fall away V Apparently no profit 

 at all. On the other hand in unbroken bad 

 weather, such as prevents fertilization, bees 

 cannot help, because they keep snug in their 

 hives in such weather. There are years how- 

 ever, perhaps a pretty good few of them, 

 when conditions are mixed, when there 

 would be a scant amount of fruit set without 

 bees, and a fuller amount with them. Pol- 

 len enough here and there to serve the pur- 

 pose, but no possibility of scattering it 

 widely enough during the brief hours of sun- 

 shine, except the bees help. In my judg- 

 ment this is our main hold. Let us not 

 weaken our position by too frantic a defense 

 of untenable points. The public on seeing 

 us driven out in disgrace will suspect that all 

 our positions are false. 



Now the chips from the articles. Friend 

 Gilliland saw (!,()00 bumble-bees at one clover 

 patch. But his experiments show a very 

 high per cent, of seed from covered clovers, 

 .57 ; and exposing to bees only gave an in- 

 crease of 15. Gleanings, page 4.5. Friend 

 Fultz- reports a good crop of fruit in 1892 

 with no bees to fertilize the bloom. Also, 

 more recently, a big crop of seed on bass- 

 wood trees where during bloom frequent in- 

 spection showed not a single bee. In fact 

 basswood, as well as a multitude of fruits, 

 must have reproduced for centuries before 

 the honey bee Came to America. 



During fruit bloom Prof. Cook found by 

 actual count, on one occasion, that honey 

 bees were 20 to 1 to all other insects. His 

 experiments with covered and uncovei-ed 

 flowers are somewhat startling. Of appl^ 

 only 2 per cent, of the covered, but 20 per 



cent, of the uncovered set fruit. On cherry 

 the ratio is 3 to 40. Of pears only 5 per cent. 

 set at best, and none at all when covered. 

 On strawberries the ratio is 11 to 17. But it 

 looks very probable that nature's own pro- 

 cesses of aerial fertilization would be greatly 

 interfered with by covering with cheese 

 cloth. The matter is important enough to 

 pay the expense of posting a sentinel and 

 keeping the bees away by hand. 



I think the most import nt thing Prof. 

 Cook contributes is this sentence from the 

 raspberry report. 



"In every case the fruit from tJie covered 

 twifrs was inferior." Gleanings, 48. 



There seems to be less chance for discount 

 on this. It apparently shows that compoun 1 

 fruits require the fullest and best of fertili- 

 zation for the finest fruit ; just enough to 

 keep the incipient fruit from perishing not 

 being sufficient. If this is the case bees may 

 be quite important to the fruit man. ' 



Friend Smith reports an island in lake 

 Erie, with no bees, where apples, pears, 

 plums, cherries, strawberries and raspber- 

 ries equal to any in the state are grown. 



Friend Gilliland reminds us that in the 

 order of creation plants were formed first. 

 So of course in the beginning they could not 

 require insects, however much they have 

 come to lean on insects since. But in Glean- 

 ings, 2?A, Prof. Cook replies that fiowering 

 plants • and bees both appear in the same 

 geological period, the Cretaceous, not flow- 

 ers in one age and bees in a later one. 



Friend Merritt's rather interesting report 

 of lots of apples on the lee side of a tree, and 

 almost none on the windy side seems to be 

 explained equally well with bees and without 

 bees, and so to amount to nothing in evi- 

 dence. Wind sufficient to keep bees away 

 would presumably spoil natural fertiliza- 

 tion. 



Friend Doolittle tells us that Weuham, 

 Mass., banished bees on a charge of injuring 

 the apple crop. During several years of 

 banishment apples did better in the sur- fl 

 rounding towns, and the bees were invited vH 

 back again. 



Friend Beaton reports that cherry orch- 

 ardists of Vaca Valley, California, are mov- 

 ing to bring back bees which had been driven 

 away: convinced that it will pay by two 

 years' experience of one of their number who 

 put an apiary in his orchard. 



Friend Crane tells us that peaches under 

 glass must have bees provided, else no fruit. 



