It may appear from this that the possibility of bees bringing much 

 poisoned honey into the hive is rather remote. Demuth^ has shown that 

 the bee makes on the average about four trips to the field in a day. If 

 this is the case, and if sickness comes in 20 minutes after feeding to a 

 degree that makes it impossible to fly to the hive, it is clear that those 

 unfortunate enough to gather the poisoned material will in most cases bs 

 unable to return to the. hive with their loads. 



Dead and dying bees were found in abundance in the blossoms and 

 flower clusters as well as under the trees in the vicinity of the trees 

 sprayed in the open. This condition was not confined to the sprayed trees 

 alone, but the trees in the immediate vicinity of those sprayed were well 

 littered with dead. In the other end of the orchard, where there were no 

 sprayed trees (See Fig. 8), no dead or dying bees could be found.^ 



Is it not possible that the bees found on and around the unsprayed 

 trees in the vicinity of the sprayed ones secured poison from the sprayed 

 tree, and in further quest for nectar flew to the adjacent trees which had 

 no spray on them, and there became sick and unable to proceed farther ? 



FIELD WORK— First Year 



The first year two trees were caged. Cheese-cloth was used for the 

 four sides, top, and bottom. The trees were of the Jonathan variety and 

 twelve years old. 



On Sunday, May 5, the trees were in full bloom. The next morning, 

 May 6, one of the trees was sprayed with lime sulphur (1° B. or one 

 gallon lime sulphur to 50 gallons of water) and arsenate of lead, one 

 pound to 50 gallons. A colony of bees was moved in and liberated. The 

 other tree was dusted with flowers of sulphur and arsenate of lead (85 

 per cent sulphur and 15 per cent arsenate of lead). A colony of bees was 

 put within its enclosure and liberated. Dead bees were gathered in the 

 cages and data secured as shown in the following table. At the conclusion 

 of this phase of the work (morning of May 10), escape boards were 

 placed on the hives and the bees counted. In the hive in the sprayed lot 

 there were found 3880 living bees, and in the dusted lot there were found 

 4960. This gives a mortality- in the case of the sprayed tree of 13.5 per 

 cent, and in the dusted one 18.6 per cent.* 



1 The following unpublished data are from the writer's notes from one of Demuth's 

 lectures: Experiments were carried on by Geo. E. Demuth, Bureau of Entomology, 

 U. S. D. A., for another purpose which incidentally furnished data concerning the number 

 of trips a bee makes per day in gathering nectar. Six colonies were weighed in the 

 morning and evening each day. The difference in their weights represented tlie amount of 

 nectar gathered that day. Bees ■with and without loads of nectar were weighed and it 

 was found that when nectar was abundant they carried from one-half to two-thirds of 

 their own weight in nectar (four to six m. g.). With this information, knowing the 

 number of bees in the colony and the proportion that go to the fields, it was not difficult 

 to compute the number of trips made each day by each bee. It was found that the 

 average number of trips made was about four; old bees making 2% trips and young ones 

 more than five. These experim.ents were carried on in the midst of large commercial 

 orchards when apple blossoms with much nectar were only four rods away. 



2 This observation was made by Prof. Laurenz Greene, Chief in Horticulture, Purdue 

 Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta. 



3 Twenty-four bees were analyzed that were not treated with sodium hydroxide and 

 nitric acid; 21 of these were strongly positive in the arsenic tests. This indicates the 

 importance of careful treatment with sodium hydroxide, acid, and washing. 



