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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph hy Jacob Gayer 

 THERE IS A EIGHT AND A WRONG WAY TO OPEN A HIVE 



An expert never stands in front of a colony or moves with nervous jerks; such tactics irritate the 

 bees. A puff or two from the smoker (foreground) disorganizes the entrance guards (see Plate I) 

 and sends all workers rushing to the honey cells. There they load up, apparently fearing fire is about 

 to destroy their home. Then the keeper removes the cover, sends a few whiffs of smoke into the hive 

 from above, and inspects the frames. The card tacked to the hive records the condition of the colony. 



Even yet we scarcely realize the depend- 

 ence of many plants upon insects to effect 

 pollination. 



The cutting of wood lots and the clean 

 cultivation of our fields have added to the 

 difficulty of survival of our useful insects, 

 with the result that more and more depend- 

 ence has to be placed upon the honeybee, 

 the only pollinating insect that can be 

 propagated and controlled. 



SEX LIFE OF THE PLANTS 



Some plants bear only male flowers, 

 which produce pollen but no fruit, and fe- 

 male flowers in the same species occur on a 

 separate plant. To set fruit, pollen from 

 the male plant must be carried to the female 

 flower. 



Some plants simultaneously bear both 

 male and female flowers, but still require 

 cross-pollination to set fruit. Then there 

 is a third class in which both sexes occur 

 in the same blossom. Some of these plants 

 can set fruit with their own pollen. But 

 in many plants pollen from another is neces- 

 sary to set a full crop of fruit or seed. 



The blossom of the apple, for example, 

 contains both sexes, but in most varieties 

 the pollen produced is not suitable for pol- 

 linizing its own blossoms. Its flowers must 

 be fertilized by pollen from an entirely dif- 

 ferent variety. Thus, if blossoms of the 

 Grimes Golden are cross-pollinated from 

 the Jonathan, a good set of fruit should 

 result, but the pollen of the Stayman pro- 

 duces little or no fruit when transferred 



