162 The Bee People. 
The most interesting thing we have 
learned in modern times about bees is 
their relation to the flowers. Some plants 
cannot set seeds at all without the help 
of the bees, and they are very great helpers 
in gardens and orchards. 
If you want your trees loaded with 
apples and pears, be sure to put a bee- 
hive near the orchard. 
Near Boston, where a great many cucum- 
bers are raised for market in the winter 
in glass houses, hives of bees are kept 
in the houses to fertilize the cucumbers. 
If the little bees did not go from flower 
to flower carrying the pollen from one to 
another, a large force of men would have 
to be employed to brush the pistil of 
each cucumber blossom with pollen. 
Phe” 
Wild Cherry. 
