BEES AND FL0WEE8. 15 



cases the farmers, who previously had been unable to 

 produce red-clover seed reported their crops to be full 

 of seed. 



Professor Cooke, a noted American apiarian, is re- 

 sponsible for the following : " Inasmuch as red-clover 

 can only be fertilised by the bumble-bee, a gentleman 

 has made this statement : the safety of England 

 depends upon the number of cats she keeps. He 

 proves his proposition thus : without the aid of the 

 bumble-bees the red-clover cannot be fertilised. 

 Bumble-bees make their nests on the ground, where 

 they are the prey of mice. Cats destroy the mice and 

 give the bees a chance to live. Hence he reasons, 

 no cats, many mice ; many mice, no bumble-bees ; no 

 bees, no clover ; no clover, no cattle ; no cattle, no 

 beef ; and without beef where would the Englishman 

 be?" 



"With regard to the value of the bee as a fertiliser, 

 Darwin says, when speaking of their visits to clover 

 and heartsease, "No bees, no seed; no seed, no in- 

 crease of flower. The more visits from the bees the 

 more seeds from the flower ; the more seeds from the 

 flower the more flowers from the seed." He also gives 

 the following result of an experiment : " Twenty heads 

 of white clover, visited by the bees, produced 2,990 

 seeds ; while twenty heads so protected that bees could 

 not visit them produced not one seed." 



