23 



as calculated by weighing all the seeds and counting the number in a 

 weight of two grains. 



Trijolium pratense (Purple Clover).— One hundred flower-heads on 

 plants protected by a net did not produce a single seed, whilst one 

 hundred on plants growing outside (which were visited by bees) yielded 

 68 grains weight of seed; and as eighty seeds weighed 2 grains the 

 hundred heads must have yielded 2,720 seeds. 



Here we have satisfactory proof that the effect of cross-fertilisa- 

 tion brought about by bees upon the clovers and other plants grow- 

 ing in meadows and pasture lands is the certain production of a 

 large number of vigorous seeds, as compared with the chance only 

 of a few and weak seeds if self-fertilisation were to be depended 

 upon. lu the case of meadow-cultivation it enables the farmer to 

 raise seed for his own use or for sale, instead of having to purchase 

 itj while at the same time the nutritious quality of the hay is, as we 

 shall see further on, improved during the process of ripening the 

 seed. In the case of pasture lands, such of those vigorous seeds as 

 are allowed to come to maturity and to fall in the field will send up 

 plants of a stronger growth to take the place of others that may 

 have died out, or to fill up hitherto-unoccupied spaces, thus tending 

 to cause a constant renewal and strengthening of the pasture. The 

 agriculturist himself should be the best judge of the value of such 

 effects. 



The beneficial effect of the bees' visits to fruit-trees has been 

 well illustrated by Mr. Cheshire in the pages of the British Bee 

 Journal, and by Professor Cook in his article upon " Honey Bees and 

 Horticulture " in the American Apiculturist. In fact, even those 

 who complain of bees cannot deny the services they render; what 

 they contest is the assertion that bees do no harm. 



Can Bees harm the Soil or the Crops ? 



is then tlie question to be considered. The agriculturist may say, 

 " Granting that the visits of bees may be serviceable to me in the 

 fertilisation of my fruit or my clover, how will you prove that I am 

 not obliged to pay too. high a price for such services?" For the 

 answer to such a question one must fall back upon the researches 

 of the agricultural chemist, which will furnish satisfactory evidence 

 to establish the two following facts : First, that saccharine matter,, 

 even when assimilated and retained within the body of a plant, is 

 not one of the secretions of vegetable life which can in any way tend 

 to exhaust the soil, being made up of constituents whicli are fur- 

 nished everywhere in superabundance by the atmosphere and rain- 

 water, and not containing any of the mineral or organic substances 

 supplied by the soil or by the manures used in agriculture ; and, 

 secondly, that in the form in which it is appropriated by bees, eitlier 



