14 Texas Dep^uitment of Agriculture. 



doubt where the agency of the honey bee was not only essential, but 

 absolutely necessary, to insure satisfactory crops. 



Even Darwin, the greatest naturalist, recognized, in his time, the 

 value of the honey bees as an important agent in relation to plants 

 when he wisely said: "No bees, no seed. No seed, no increase of 

 the flower. The more visits from the bees the more seeds from the 

 flower. TTie more seeds from the flower the more flowers from the 

 seeds." This he proved by extensive experiments, and others have 

 done this many times after him. He found in one of his experiments 

 the following results: "Twenty heads of white clover visited by bees 

 produced 2,990 seeds, while twenty heads so protected that bees 

 could not visit them, produced not one seed." The same kind of ex- 

 periments have been made with strawberries and various other kinds 

 of fruits. Fruit trees that were covered half way with netting, so 

 that the bees could not visit the flowers, bore fruit abundantly on 

 the unprotected parts but none at all, or very little, and that of a very 

 inferior quality, on the other. 



MORE BEES, BETTER CROPS. 



This shows the importance of keeping a few colonies of bees on 

 every farm, aside from the honey they may yield for their keeping, 

 and it is hoped that this will be appreciated to the extent that not only 

 more bees will be kept, but that they will be kept better. 



For the large commercial orchardists, or extensive growers of cu- 

 cumbers, melons, and various other crops, this question is of more 

 importance still. Where large orchards or fields are planted in solid 

 blocks, or where there are a number close together, cross pollenation 

 is not satisfactory, on account of the lack of sufficient insects to do 

 the work properly, especially when the main part of the trees, or 

 plants, are in bloom. Therefore, the keeping of honey bees near them 

 is to be encouraged, to increase the quantity as well as the quality of 

 the crops. In one instance the owner of a large orchard did not get 

 aiiy fruit from it for eight years and he was about to dig up the en- 

 tire orchard. Being advised to try keeping honey bees to fertilize 

 the blossoms, he did so. The result was that he sold thousands of 

 dollars worth of fruit thereafter. The idea of keeping bees in this case 

 was mainly to fertilize the fruit blossoms. But the usual crop of 

 honey yielded by them, aside from the beneficial service rendered, in- 

 creases their value. Many other instances might be given. 



DO BEES PUNCTURE FRUIT? 



It is sometimes stated that honey bees destroy fruit, but this is an 

 erroneous conclusion. Since their mouth parts are not constructed 

 for biting, they are unable to pierce the sound skin of any kind of 

 fruit. They do not appear until birds, wasps, or some other agency 

 breaks the skm and causes the juices to exude ; then they only come 

 to gather up the wasting juices from the bruised fruit They do no 

 harm whatever to fruits. Many experiments in which sound fruits 

 apples, pears, peaches, bunches of grapes, etc., were placed for days 



