71 



PART lY.— BEES IN RELATION TO 

 AGRICULTURE. * 



The benefits derived by both agriculturists and horticulturists from'the 

 labours of the bee are now very generally understood and acknowledged ; 

 but still cases have sometimes occurred, though rarely, of farmers objecting 

 to the vicinity of an apiary, and complaining of bees as " trespassers," 

 instead of welcoming them as benefactors. 



ARE BEES TRESPASSERS ? 



It is not, perhaps, surprising that at first a man should imagine he was 

 being injured in consequence of bees gathering honey on his land, to be 

 stored up elsewhere, and for the use of other parties ; he might argue that 

 the honey belonged by right to him, and even jump at the conclusion that 

 there was so nmch of the substance of the soil taken away every year, and 

 that his land must therefore become impoverished. It is true that if he 

 possessed such an amount of knowledge as might be expected to belong to 

 an intelligent agriculturist, working upon rational principles, he should be 

 able, upon reflection, to see that such ideas were entirely groundless. Never- 

 theless, the complaint is sometimes made, in a more or less vague manner, 

 by persons who ought to know better ; and even beekeepers appear to have 

 occasionally adopted an apologetic tone, arguing that " bees do more good 

 than harm," instead of having taken the much higher and only true stand 

 by asserting that bees, while confe-ring great benefits on agriculture, do no 

 harm whatever, and that the presence of an apiary on or close to his land can 

 be nothing but an advantage to the agriculturist. 



BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OP BEES ON AGRICULTURE. 

 The value oE the intervention of bees in the cross-fertilisation of plants 

 is dwelt upon in Chapter III, " Australasian Bee Manual," third edition, 



* This paper, which constituted the nineteenth chapter of the third edition of my 

 " Australasian Bee Manual," was an attempt, and I have reasons for believing a successful 

 attempt, to clear up several misunderstandings that had arisen in the minds of some 

 farmers who had come to regard the working of neighbours' bees in their pasturage as 

 detrimental to themselves, and to prove on the contrary that it is really to their interests 

 to encourage beekeeping. Shortly after the paper was first published the subject was 

 brought prominently forward in consequence of the action taken by a farmer in the 

 United States to claim damages from a. neighbouring beekeeper for alleged injury done 

 to his grazing sheep by trespassing (?) bees. Needless to say, he lost his case. The paper 

 has been extensively quoted in several American bee journals, and described as a " unique 

 and valuable addition to bee literature." I trust it may still serve a good purpose in this 

 country, where it first appeared. — -I.H. 



