l04 BEE PASTURAGE. 



in animals. The pistil is connected with the ovaries, the 

 stamens furnish the pollen that must come in contact 

 with the pistil ; in other words, it mnst he impregnated 

 by this dust from the stamens, or no fruit will be pro- 

 duced. Now if it be necessary to change the breed, 

 or essential that the pollen produced by the stamens 

 of one flower shall fertilize the pistil of another, to 

 prevent barrenness, what should we contrive better 

 than the arrangement already made by Him who knew 

 the necessity and planned it accordingly ? And it works 

 so admirably, that we can hardly avo'd the conclu- 

 sion that bees were intended for this important purpose ! 

 It is thus planned ! Their wants and their food shall 

 consist of honey and pollen ; each flower secretes but 

 little, just enough to attract the bee ; nothing like a 

 full load is obtained from one ; were it thus, the end in 

 view would not be answered ; but a hundred or more 

 flowers are often visited in one excursion ; the pollen 

 obtained from the first may fertilize many, previous to 

 the bees' returning to the hive ; thus a field of buck- 

 wheat may be kept in health and vigor in its future 

 productions. A field of wheat produces- long slender 

 stalks that yield to the influence of the breeze, and 

 one ear is made to bestow its pollen on a neiglJooring 

 ear several feet distant, thereby effecting^just what 

 bees do for buckwheat. Corn, from its manner of 

 growth, the upright stalk bearing the stamens some 

 feet above the pistils, on the ears below, seems to need 

 no agency of bees ; the superabundant pollen from 

 the tassel is wafted by the winds rods from the pro- 

 ducing stalk, and there does its office of fertilizing a 



