Vol. LXVII,No. 4 



WASHINGTON 



April, 1935 



MATQOMAL 

 OGIRAIP 



agazd: 



COPYRIGHT. 1936, BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D. C. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED 



MAN'S WINGED ALLY, THE BUSY HONEYBEE 



Modern Research Adds a New Chapter to Usefuhiess of 



the Insect Which Has Symbolized Industry 



Since Early Bible Times 



By James I. Hambleton 



Senior Apicultiirist, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



DOES the buzz of a bee recall an 

 unfortunate encounter, or is it a re- 

 minder of sweet music in a blossom- 

 decked meadow? 



To a beekeeper, and there are some 800,- 

 000 in the United States alone, no music 

 is more welcome. Many laymen, however, 

 have not had the pleasure of having their 

 hands in a hive of bees, and to them every 

 buzz is a signal of danger. 



Since early Bible times the honeybee has 

 been a symbol of industry, and honey a 

 simile of plenty. The study of honeybees 

 and their remarkable life history has in- 

 spired philosophers, whose writings are re- 

 plete with references to them.* But modern 

 research now enables us to pen a new chap- 

 ter about them. 



In the United States today these bees 

 yield about 100,000 tons of marketable 

 honey annually; but in helping maintain our 

 agriculture they are of even more impor- 

 tance. They may be likened to the enzymes 

 in our food, small and mysterious, but 

 highly essential to our well-being. 



EARLY EXPLORERS BROUGHT BEES 



The honeybee is not a native. There 

 were none in North America when the 

 Spanish explorers arrived. Settlers coming 



*See "Our Friends, the Bees," by A. I. and 

 E. R. Root, in the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine for July, 1911. 



in later expeditions brought them, and at 

 first the Indians called them the "white 

 man's fly." Since then they have followed 

 man in his migration and settlement of 

 every part of the United States and Canada. 



Until recently these insects' chief useful- 

 ness to man was their production of honey 

 and beeswax — no mean service, since for 

 centuries honey was virtually the only avail- 

 able sweet. But now, as polhnating agents, 

 they perform a far more important duty. 



In the pioneer stages of American agri- 

 culture, bumblebees and other native pol- 

 linating insects that fed upon nectar and 

 pollen were plentiful everywhere. But the 

 planting of vast areas which once were 

 forests, prairies, and swamps with fields of 

 grain, orchards, and gardens upset the deli- 

 cate balance of Nature. 



Wide-spread cultivation of single plants 

 in huge acreages brought about an abnor- 

 mal condition of insect population. In- 

 jurious species, afforded an enormous food 

 supply, prospered and multiplied until now 

 serious insect pests menace almost every 

 important crop. 



Insecticides must be used to protect farm 

 crops, particularly fruits. Unfortunately, 

 these materials kill not only harmful but 

 beneficial insects. The toll includes honey- 

 bees and other wild bees, as well as the 

 efficient bumblebees — all the insects that 

 carry pollen from one blossom to another. 



