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and the reader is referred for further information to the works of Sir 

 J. Lubbock and of Darwin. The latter, in his work on " Cross and Self 

 Fertilisation of Plants," gives the strongest evidence as to the beneficial 

 influence of bees upon clover-crops. At page 1.69, when speaking of the 

 natural order of leguminous plants, to which the clovers belong, he says, 

 " The cross-seedlings have an enormous advantage over the self -fertilised 

 ones when grown together in close competition ' ' ; and in Chapter X, 

 page 361, he gives the following details of some experiments, which show 

 the importance of the part played by bees in the process of cross-fer- 

 tilisation : — 



Trifolium repens (White Clover). — Several plants were protected from 

 insects, and the seeds from ten flower-heads on these plants and from ten 

 heads on other plants growing outside the net (which I saw visited by 

 bees) were counted, and the seeds from the latter plants were very nearly 

 ten times as numerous as those from the protected plants. The experi- 

 ment was repeated in the following j'ear, and twenty protected heads how 

 yielded only a single abortive seed, whilst twenty heads on the plants 

 outside the net (which I saw visited by bees) yielded 2,290 seeds, as 

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

 of 2 grains. 



Trifolium pratetise (Purple Clover). — One hundred flower-heads on 

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

 dred 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 efiect of cross-fertilisation 

 brought about by bees upon the clovers and other plants growing 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. In the case of 

 meadow-cultivation it enables the farmer to raise seed for his own use 

 or for sale, instead of having to purchase it, 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 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 efiect 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 articles upon " Honey Bees and Horticulture " 

 in the American Apicvlturist. (See also " Bulletin No. 18, Bee-culture," 

 New Zealand Department of Agriculture.) 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. 



