396 Thu bee-keeper's GUIDE ; 



must be brought from one flower to the stigma of another, and 

 this must be done by insects — chiefly bees. Nature thus 

 makes close pollination impossible. Indeed, color and odor 

 in flowers are solely to attract insects for the good of the 

 flowers. In cases like red clover, where pollination is pos- 

 sible without aid, my colleague. Prof. Beal, has shown that, 

 unless insects are present, the yield of seed is meager indeed. 

 The seeds in the uncovered blossoms were to those in the 

 covered as 236:5. Prof. Waite, of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, has shown that many varieties of pears, apples, etc., 

 will fruit very scantily unless cross-pollinated by insects. I 

 have proved the same in California with pears, plums, olives, 

 and citrus fruits. The navel orange is an exception. It fruits 

 just as fully without pollination, and so, of course, is usually 

 seedless. It bears no pollen. Thus many fruit-growers keep 

 bees to do this very important work, which they find they can 

 not afford to neglect. I suspect in very favorable years, or in 

 very favored localities, fruits like the Bartlett pear may be fer- 

 tile to their own pollen, when at other times they will be 

 wholly sterile. The fruit-men, then, must see that bees are 

 abundant hard by their orchards. There is then entire reci- 

 procity between the bees and flowers. The bees are as neces- 

 sary to the plants as are the plants to the bees. I am informed 

 by Prof. W. W. Tracy, that the gardeners in the vicinity of 

 Boston keep bees that they may perform this duty. Mr. Root 

 found in New York a greenhouse, where bees were kept at 

 work all winter, to save the otherwise necessary hand-pollina- 

 tion, which was very laborious and expensive. That bees 

 ever injure blossoms and thus effect damage to the fruitage of 

 such plants as buckwheat — or to any plants, as is sometimes 

 claimed — is utterly absurd and without foundation. It is now 

 contended by able authorities, like Profs. Waite and Pierce, 

 that bees carry the germs of pear-blight. Very likely this is 

 true. Yet other insects are sufficiently abundant to do this, 

 and yet too few to do the work of pollination. A few inocula- 

 tions will scatter the blight, while pollination must be done in 

 wholesale fashion. 



But the principal source of honey is still from the flowers. 



