BEES AND. FRUIT. 



during the previous summer. In the summer 

 of 1872 we had a good crap of fruit, although 

 there were no bees to fertilize the bloom. I 

 have also, a record that shows that it. was a 

 good year for nuts, and that walnuts and hiek- 

 orynuts were plentiful. 



I now wish to draw. your attention as a fruit- 

 grower to. the methods in vogue in securing the 

 proper fertilization of strawberries. No fruit- 

 grower would think of planting a variety of 

 strawberry that was pistillate more than 16 

 feet from a staminate variety.. If he did, he 

 would not expect to secure much of a crop from 

 them for want of proper fertilization. If, as 

 has been so often asserted, the proper fertiliza- 

 tion is secured by the honey-bees, then there 

 would be no necessity of this close planting, as 

 the bee usually, in its flight from flower to 

 flower, covers much more than the distance 

 mentioned. I must, however, say that, after 

 close observation in my 20 years' experience as 

 a fruit-grower, I never knew bees to work on 

 strawberry bloom to any extent, and some 

 years they scarcely visit the strawberries at all 

 when in bloom; yet they were properly fertiliz- 

 ed, and produced a good crop, showing conclu- 

 sively that the fertilization of the strawberry 

 takes place without the aid of honey-bees. 



As boy and man I have kept bees for over 40 

 years, and during the first 30 years of my ex- 

 perience I frequently sowed buckwheat, so that 

 my bees would have fall pasture; but I have to 

 record the fact that more than half the time 

 that I raised buckwheat my bees never gather- 

 ed a pound of buckwheat honey, and yet it 

 never made any difference whether the bees 

 worked on the buckwheat bloom or not. I got 

 a crop of buckwheat all the same. Nature did 

 its own fertilizing. Pour years ago one of my 

 neighbors had five acres of buckwheat within 

 half a mile of my apiary of 35 hives of bees, and 

 I watched that buckwheat closely, in hopes of 

 getting a, good supply of fall honey; but my 

 bees never visited it, and I got no buckwheat 

 honey; but my neighbor did get a good crop of 

 buckwheaat. 



Basswood is one of our best sources of honey, 

 and basswood raises seed just the same as 

 fruit-trees raise fruit, and it is just as neces- 

 sary that the bloom of basswood and other 

 forest-trees be fertilized to make them bear as 

 it is that fruit-trees should be fertilized for the 

 same purpose. Some seasons I have known 

 basswood-trees to be laden with bloom, and the 

 bees worked on it in swarms from daylight 

 until dark, and the same years the trees would 

 be full of seed, and other years the trees would 

 be loaded with bloom, and not a bee would 

 visit them, and yet the trees would be loaded 

 with seed. The past summer was just such a 

 season with us. Every day during basswood 

 bloom I passed ten or twelve basswood-trees 

 from four to six times in making my trips to 

 market with berries; and although the .trees 



were fairly covered with the large clusters of 

 bloom, a careful watch never showed a single 

 bee on , any of the trees, and yet those trees, 

 were properly fertilized,, as shown by the large 

 crop of seed, . 



I have been living where I now live, for 22 

 years, and in my dooryard are several good- 

 sized oak-trees. I have watched those trees 

 when in bloom, and find that some years the 

 bees work on the bloom, and other years they 

 take no noti e of it whatever, and it makes no 

 difference whether the bees work on it or not. 

 The trees raise acorns every year when they 

 bloom. Wheat, oats, and other small grain, 

 produce pollen just the same as fruit and forest 

 trees, and fertilization is just as necessary to 

 them as to fruits; yet the claim is never made 

 that bees are necessary to the fertilization of 

 these crops. The fact is, bees do so little work 

 on them that they are lost sight of in a discus- 

 sion of this question. It must be admitted, 

 however, that, if nature can properly fertilize 

 these crops without the aid of bees, it can fer- 

 tilize fruit or any other crop-without their aid. 



Sometimes the statement is made, that cer- 

 tain kinds of fruit in^ertain specified localities 

 have failed to produce fruit, and that the intro- 

 duction of bees into tliat locality has caused an 

 entire change, the bees being credited with fer- 

 tilizing the bloom, and thus causing the trees 

 to become fruitful. This claim, in the absence 

 of more pronounced experiments, is not to be 

 relied on. Many orchards have failed to bear 

 fruit for a number of years, and then become 

 fruitful, although bees were plentiful every 

 year. In the spring of 1892 my orchard bloomed 

 profusely, as did all other orchards in Musca- 

 tine Co. The spring was rather wet, but yet 

 thore were days when the bees worked briskly^ 

 and gathered both honey and pollen, and yet 

 we had no fruit. The cause of the failure to 

 bear fruit was not for want of proper fertiliza- 

 tion. The present year we had no apples, and 

 other tree-fruits were scarce, and the cause of 

 the failure was not for the want of proper fer- 

 tilization, but from other causes. We are in 

 hopes of a good crop of fruit next year; and if 

 we get it we shall not give the bees the credit, 

 as they failed to give us a crop the past two 

 years; and should the same or a similar calami- 

 ty that overtook the bees in 1871 overtake and 

 wipe them out of existence, and should we get 

 a good crop of fruit next summer, we will not 

 blame the bees for our failure the past two 

 years, for we know the. causes have been en- 

 tirely outside of any influence they have had. 



There is much more that might be written on 

 this subject; but enough has been given to 

 show that there are two sides to this question, 

 and that the only way to bring out all the facts 

 and arguments bearing on the subject is to 

 have an unbiased and unprejudiced discussion 

 of the same. 



I might add, that, after 20 years' study of the 



