72 



and the reader is referred for further information to the works of Sir J. 

 Lubbock (Lord Avebury) and of Darwin. The latter, in his work on " Cross 

 and Self Fertilisation of Plants," gives the strongest evidence as to the 

 beneficial influence of bees upon clover-crops. At page 169, when speaking 

 of the natural order of leguminous plants, to which the clovers belong, he 

 says, " The cross-seedhngs have an enormous advantage over the self- 

 fertilised ones when grown together in close competition " ; and in Chapter 

 X, page 361, he gives the following details of some experiments, which show 

 the importance of the part played by bees in the process of cross- 

 fertilisation : — 



Trijolium repens (White Clover). — Several plants where protected from 

 insects, and the seeds from ten flower-heads on these plants and from ten 

 heads on other plants growing outside the net (which I saw visited by bees) 

 were counted, and the seeds from the latter plants were very nearly ten times 

 as numerous as those from the protected plants. The experiment was 

 repeated in the following year, and twenty protected heads now yielded 

 only a single abortive seed, whilst twenty heads on the plants outside the net 

 (which I saw visited by bees) yielded 2,290 seeds, as calculated by weighing 

 all the seeds and counting the number in a weight of 2 grains. 



Trifolium fratense (Purple Clover). — One hundred flower-heads on 

 plants protected by a net did not produce a single seed, whilst one hundred 

 on plants growing outside (which were visited by bees) yielded 68 grains' 

 weight of seed ; and, as eighty seeds weighed 2 grains, the hundred heads 

 must have yielded 2,720 seeds. 



Here we have satisfactory proof that the effect of cross-fertilisation 

 brought about by bees upon the clovers and other plants growing in 

 meadows and pasture-lands is the certain production of a large number 

 of vigorous seeds, as compared with the chance only of a few and weak 

 seeds if self-fertilisation were to be depended upon. In the case of 

 meadow-cultivation it enables the farmer to raise seed for his o^vn use or 

 for sale, instead of having to purchase it, while at the same time the 

 nutritious quality of the hay is, as we shall see further on, improved during 

 the process of ripening the seed. In the case of pasture-lands, such of 

 those vigorous seeds as are allowed to come to maturity and to fall in the 

 field will send up plants of stronger growth to take the place of others that 

 may have died out, or to fill up hitherto-unoccupied spaces, thus tending 

 to cause a constant renewal and strengthening of the pasture. The agri- 

 culturist himself should be the best judge of the value of such effects. 



The beneficial effect of the bees' visits to fruit-trees has been well illus- 

 trated by Mr. Cheshire in the pages of the British Bee Journal, and by Pro- 

 fessor Cook in his articles upon " Honey Bees and Horticulture " in the 

 American Apiculturist. In fact, even those who complain of bees cannot 

 deny the services they render ; what they contest is the assertion that bees 

 do no harm. 



