46 First Annual Report 



Paper by Prof. A J. Cook, of Agricultural College, Michigan. 



BEES AS FERTILIZERS. 



[Read at the Association for tlie Advancement of Agricultural Science, Washing- 

 ton, U. C] 



"Darwin's memorable researches and generalizations in relation to the 

 fertilization and cross-fertilization of plants, through the agency of insects, 

 are not the least of liis many valuable scientific discoveries, nor yet are they 

 least in their bearings on economic questions. His classic investigations 

 settled the question of the great value of insects in securing full fruitage to 

 many of our most valuable fruits and vegetables. Since Darwin, many 

 scientists have, by crucial trsts and experiments, abundantly confirmed his 

 conclusions. Our most iiitellii^ent practical men have also made significant 

 observations. They note a scarcity of insect visits to the blossoms of the 

 first crop of red clover, and also its failure to bear seed. The alsike clover 

 is freely visited in early June by the honey bee and bears a full crop of seed. 

 In New Zealand the red clover failed to seed at all seasons, and there was a 

 conspicuous absence of insects upon the blossoms, both early and late. This 

 I'd tt) the importation of bumblebees from England, to the earth's very 

 limit, and now the New Zealand farmer produces clover .seed. Gardeners 

 keer> bees to-day that their vegetables may fruit and seed more liberally. 

 Even the producers ot flower seeds in our cities keep bees in their green- 

 houses, as they find this the easiest and cheapest method to secure that 

 more perfect fertilization upon which their profits depend. Secretary Farns- 

 worth, of the Ohio Horticultural Society, could account for a very meager 

 crop of fruit a few years since, in his vicinity, altera profusion of bloom, only 

 through lack of pollenization. The bees had nearly all died oft the previous 

 winter. I have often noted the fact, that, if we have rain and cold all during 

 the fruit-bloom, as we did in the sprmg of 1890, even trees that bloom fully 

 are almost sure to bear as sparingly. 



"Darwin's researches considered insects as a whole, and it is true that 

 all insects tlvt visit flowers, either for nectar or pollen, do valuable service 

 in this work of pollenization. Thus many of the hymenoptera, diptera, and 

 coleoptera, and not a few lepidoptera, are our ever ready helpers as pollen- 

 izers. Yet early in the season, in our Northern latitudes, most insects are 

 scarce. The severe winters so thin their numbers that we find barely one, 

 whereas we will find hundreds in late summer and early autumn. In late 

 summer the bumble-bees and paper-making wasps number scores to each 

 colony, while in spring only the one fertile female will be found. This is 

 less conspicuously true of solitary insects, like most of our native bees and 

 wasps; yet even these swarm in late summer, where they were solitary or 

 scattering in the early spring. The honey bees are a notable exception to 

 this rule. They live over winter, so that even in early spring we may find 



