258 



AUSTRALIAN BEE LOBE AND BEE CULTURE, 



how fruit-trees yield fruit, appears strange, if we take into con- 

 sideration the too frequent destruction of the very many agents, 

 more especially the honey bee, that husbandmen in their blind 

 ignorance are constantly waging war upon. "Smear the trees with 

 poisoned honey," "Destroy the bees of the bee-farmer," or "Burn 

 down the tree where there are he© nests," is the too constant 

 advice given by well-educated fruit-growers, but whose knowledge 

 of bee life is far below zero. Nature has been very lavishing in 

 the distribution of her varieties of indespensable helpmates for the 

 land culturists. The tiller of the soil, after the necessary prepara- 

 tion of the land and all the mechanical aids he brings to bear in 

 assisting the earth to yield her increase, and to produce her crops 

 of cereals, vegetables, and fruits for our imperative use, is solely 

 dependent on outside agents, over one of which he has little or 

 no control. I refer to the wind. In insect agency — of these the 

 principal ones are members of the bee family — he can to a certain 

 extent regulate the supply and demand. , 



The chief agent employed in the fertilisation of the seed that 

 supplies us with the "staff of life'' is the wind. Seeds that are 

 so fertilised are termed anemophilus. But life's luxuries — cherries, 

 plums, and other drupes or stone fruit generally — are fertilised 

 by insects ; so are the pomes and all apple-like fruits, citrus fruits, 

 berries, &c. Insects make the labours of the fruit-grower a great 

 certainty — make "assurance doubly sure." Without them all his 

 labours would end in a wretched and miserable failure. We are 

 entirely dependent on insects for the fertilisation of our fruit. Seeds 

 or fruits that are thus dependent on insects for reproduction are 

 termed entomophilus. It is a true and wise saying, "No bees, 

 no fruit." Nothing can be more fallacious than the idea that bees 

 injure crops. There is no more widely entertained opinion among 

 fruit-growers and florists than this. Let a fruit differ somewhat 

 in form, tint, flavour, or general appearance from that of the same 

 crop on the same tree, the innocent bee is accredited with having 

 ^'innoculated" that particular member of the fruit of that tree. I 

 have heard it said, when examining the fruit on a navel orange 

 tree, where the characteristic mark in some of the fruit was very 

 prominent and in others almost inconspicuous, that the latter 

 was caused by bees ; and this, too, from men of prominent positions 

 in the agricultural world. If an ornamental flowering plant pro- 

 'duce a bloom, differing somewhat from the rest of its kind, or 

 sport, the bee is said to be the culprit. 



