State Bee-Keepers' Association. 47 



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 ten or filteen thousand in a single colony, in lieu of one solitary female, as 



seen in the nest of bombus or vespa. By actual count in time of fruit bloom 

 in May, I have found the bees twenty to one of all other insects upon the 

 flowers ; and on cool davs, which are very common at this early season, I 

 have known hundreds of bees on the fruit blossoms, while I could not find a 

 single other insect. Thus we see that the honey bees are exceedingly im- 

 portant in the economy ot vegetable growth and fruitage, especially of all 

 such plants as blossom early in the season. We have all noticed how much 

 more common our flowers are in autumn than in spring time. In spring we 

 hunt for the claytonia, the trillium, and the erylhronium. In autumn we 

 gather the asters and goldenrods by the armful and they look up at us from 

 every marsh, fence corner and common. In May our flowers demand a 

 search, while in California the fields of January and February are one sea of, 

 blossoms. The mild California winters do not kill the insects. There a 

 profusion ot bloom will receive service from these so-called 'marriage 

 priests,' and a profusion of seed will greet the coming spring time. Thus 

 our climate acts upon the insects, and the insects upon the flowers, and we 

 understand why our peculiar flora was developed. Yet notwithstanding the 

 admirable demonstrations of the great master Darvyin, and the observations 

 and practice of a few of our intelligent practical men, yet the great mass of 

 our farmers are either ignorant or indifferent as to this matter, and so to the 

 important practical considerations which wait upon it. This is very evident, 

 as appeas from the fact that many legislators the past winter, when called 

 upon to protect the bees, urged that fruit growers had interests as well as the 

 bee men, not seeming to know that one of the greatest of these iaterests 

 rested with the very bees for whicli protection was asked. 



"Now that we understand the significance of the law of adaptation in 

 reference to the progressive development of species, we easily understand why 

 our introduced fruits that blossom early would find a lack of the 'marriage 

 priests,' and why it would be a matter of necessity to introduce the honey 

 bee, which, like the fruits, are not indigenous to our countrj', just as the 

 bumble bee must go with the red clover, if the latter is to succeed at once in 

 far off New Zealand . 



"It is true that we have native apples, cherries, plums, etc. But these, 

 like the early insects, were scattering not massed in large orchards, and very 

 likely the fruitage of these, before the introduction of the honey bee, may 

 have been sc nt and meager. 



"Now that spraying our fruit trees with the arsenites, earlj' in the spring, 

 is known to be so profitable, and is coming and will continue to come more 

 generally into use, and as such spraying is fatal to the bees if performed 

 during the time of bloom, and not only fatal to the imago, but to the brood 



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