27 



II. APICULTURE IN RELATION TO 

 AGRICULTURE.* 



The bsnefits derived by both, agriculturists and horticultuiists from the 

 labours of the bee are now very generally understood and aoknowledged ; 

 but still cases sometimes occur, though rarely, of farmers objecting to 

 the vicinity of an apiary, and complaining of bees as "trespassers," 

 instead of welcoming them as benefactors. 



AEE BEES TRESPASSERS? 

 It is not, perhaps, surprising that at first a man should imagine he 

 was being injured in consequence of bees gathering honey on his land, 

 to be stored up elsewhere, and for the use of other parties; he might 

 argue that the honey belonged by right to him, and even jump at the 

 conclusion that there was so much of the substance of the soil taken away 

 every year, and that his land must therefore become impoverished. It 

 is true that if he possessed such an amount of knowledge as might be 

 expected to belong to an intelligent agriculturist, working upon rational 

 principles, he should be able, upon reflection, to see that such ideas were 

 entirely groundless. Nevertheless, the complaint is sometimes made, 

 in a more or less vague manner, by persons who ought to know better ; 

 and even beekeepers appear occasionally to adopt an apologetic tone, 

 arguing that " bees do more good than harm," instead of taking the 

 much higher and only true stand by asserting that bees, while conferring 

 great benefits on agriculture, do no harm whatever, and that the presence 

 of an apiary on or close to his land can be nothing but an advantage to 

 the agriculturist. 



BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF BEES ON AGRICULTURE. 

 The value of the intervention of bees in the cross-fertilisation of plants 

 is dwelt upon in Chapter III, " Australasian Bee Manual," third edition, 



* This paper, which constituted the nineteenth chapter of the third edition of 

 my "Australasian Bee Manual," was an attempt, and I have reasons for believing 

 a successful attempt, to clear up several misunderstandings that had arisen 

 in the minds of some farmers who had come to regard the working of neighbours' 

 bees in their pasturage as detrimental to themselves, and to prove on the 

 contrary that it is really to their interests to encourage beekeeping. Shortly after 

 the paper was first published the subject was brought prominently forward in con- 

 sequence of the action taken by a farmer in the United States to claim damages from 

 a neighbouring beekeeper for alleged injury done to his grazing sheep by trespass- 

 ing( ?) bees. Needless to say, he lost his case. The paper has been extensively 

 quoted in several American bee journals, and described as a "unique and valuable 

 addition to bee literature." I trust it may still serve a good purpose in this country, 

 where it first appeared. — I.H. 



