TENNESSEE AGRICULTURE 



269 



pollen or "bee-bread" — the protein-containing material — is not stored 

 to any appreciable amount ; it is practically gathered from day to day 

 as needed. Much is needed in early spring, and Nature obliges the 

 bees to crawl about over the blossoms of the fruit, gathering pollen 

 and nectar for the maintenance of the colony, for self-preservation, and 

 thereby inducing them to serve in pollinizing blossoms which would 

 otherwise be unproductive of fruit or seed. 



Bees seldom, if ever, visit flowers of different species on the 

 same trip, but will visit different varieties of the same species. When 

 peach trees are in bloom they stick closely to the peach blossoms ; 

 when apple blossoms are open they confine their labors to these. .Even 

 in nectar gathering the flavors and colors of the different honeys 

 will be sharply outlined in the combs. We have a number of fruit- 

 bearing plants where certain varieties are self-sterile, even where both 

 male and female blossoms are on the same tree, as in the nut-bearing 



aa-^-'-s^sujf^j'^ 



Old Fashion Unprofitable Hives. 



plants, or both sexes in the same flower, as in Gravenstein apple, for 

 example. With these it is necessary to have pollen transferred from 

 some other variety and perhaps from some distance away. Wind 

 will not do it. Insects are the only means to fulfill this law of nature ; 

 and of all the insects only bees can be had in sufficient number so 

 early in the season to do this great work. 



Again, they are perfectly under the control of man. He can, by 

 light feeding, stimulate them to brood-rearing sufficiently early in 

 the spring to be assured of thousands of little pollinators of his fruit 

 blossoms. ' 



