ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



71 



just received from the nursery. Those 

 pear trees were supposed to toe in good, 

 vigorous, healthy condition. Being 

 young trees they had no blossom. It 

 was during cold, wet weather. The 

 bees were not flying. Some of these 

 trees shortly aftper planting and prun- 

 ing commenced to show the presence 

 of blight as indicated by the blacken- 

 ing bark. Some of them went on and 

 blighted clean to the ground and died. 

 I am convinced that the honey bee was 

 not anywhere near one of those trees 

 that died with the blight. Those trees 

 were inoculated with the pear-blight 

 without the agency of the honey 'bee. 

 I know to a certainty that the disease 

 is carried by other means entirely than 

 the honey bee. 



I have my serious doubts as to the 

 honey ibee 'being an important enemy 

 in carrying that dangerous and de- 

 structive disease to the pear tree. 

 There are no words to express the im- 

 portance of pear-blight to the pear 

 grower not only in this state but clear 

 to the Pacific. It is the chief enemy 

 of our pear trees. 



I am well convinced, then, in sum- 

 ming up what I have observed dur- 

 ing the past summer that pear-blight 

 does spread and does kill trees with- 

 out any relation whatever of the honey 

 bee to that tree or to the spreading of 

 that disease. Whether the honey bee 

 ever does carry that blight or not I 

 cannot say with certainty, but even if 

 it does its relationship to that blight 

 would be only the same as the rela- 

 tionship of the American robin to the 

 San Jose Scale, one of the many agen- 

 cies that would carry it. There is no 

 need of condemning the honey bee on 

 account of the spreading of the pear- 

 blight any more than the robin on ac- 

 count of the San Jose Scale. 



Mr. Hershisher: What effect would 

 it have upon the fruit crop of the pear 

 if the bee was excluded from it? In 

 other words, does the ibee do as much 

 good as harm? 



Prof. Surface: This year the piear 

 crop is shorter in this state than it 

 has ever been before within my recol- 

 lection, and this year there were fewer 

 bees flying during the time of pear 

 blossom than I have ever before seen. 

 There may be a definite relationship 

 and there may not be, but I have seen 

 trees bear fruit where there certainly 

 were no bees flying to them. On the 

 other hand, we do know that bees did 

 not fly during fruit bloom all this 



spring in our region, and there were 

 comparatively few fruits on the trees. 

 I believe especially that the plum needs 

 the bee for carrying its pollen more 

 than any other of our cultivated fruits. 

 The absolute dependency of the pear 

 upon the honey (bee I cannot state, but 

 I believe it is an important and essen- 

 tial agent, and that it does more good 

 than harm. I am not discussing in 

 my paper the importance of the bee . 

 in carrying pollen, because it has been 

 worked over so much. Mr. Gabriel 

 Hiester, who is the most noted fruit 

 grower in this part of the state, and 

 who is President of the State Horti- 

 cultural Association, at our first annual 

 meeting presented a paper on the sub- 

 ject of "The Bee and Horticulture" in 

 which he brought out plainly the re- 

 lationship of the bee to the blossom in 

 its necessity for carrying pollen. That 

 paper is printed in our proceedings and 

 I shall have it here for distribution by 

 noon today so that those who wish to 

 read that paper may do so. 



Mr. Hershisher: My purpose in ask- 

 ing this question is not that we are 

 not all convinced that the bee does 

 more good than harm, but in order to 

 get it upon the record so that when 

 people confront us with such an argu- 

 ment we can show them it is the opin- 

 ion of scientific men that the 'bee does 

 more good than harm. 



Prof. Surface: In my opinion there 

 is essentially a relationship between 

 the ibee and blossom of which one is 

 necessary for the existence of the 

 other. 



The President: Tou find that all 

 through nature. 



Prof. Surface: Yes. The Almighty 

 that planned these things did not plan 

 them in vain. It seems to me if one 

 should ever dou-bt a great plan, a great 

 design, or a great designer, he would 

 exclaim with the poet: 



"No more the misty vale of doubt I 



trod; 

 My reason saw, my soul confessed to 

 God." 



Mr. Hummel: There being no pears 

 in this part of the country was owing 

 to early frost in the spring. 



Prof. Surface: My third point is in- 

 volved in the subject of spraying. This 

 article had considerable circulation in 

 the papers of this state, and I think it 

 has found its way into the public press 

 elsewhere. The title was: 



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