BEE MANUAL. 299 



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-fertilization 

 were to be depended upon. In the case of meadow cultivation 

 it enables the farmer to raise seed for his own 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 a 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 agriculturist 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 illustrated by Mr. Cheshire, in the pages of the British Bee 

 Journal, and by Prof. Cook, in his article upon " Honey .Bees 

 and Horticulture," in the American ApicuUurist. 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. 



CAN BEES HARM THE SOIL, OR THE CROPS ? 



Is then the question to be considered. The agriculturist 

 may say, " Granting that the visits of bees may be serviceable 

 to me in the fertilisation of my fruit or my clover, how will 

 you prove that I am not obliged to pay too high a price for 

 such services ? " For the answer to such a question one must 

 fall back upon the researches of the agricultural chemist, which 

 will furnish satisfactory evidence to establish the two following 

 facts : — First, that saccharine matter, even when assimilated 

 and retained within the body of a plant, is not one of the 

 secretions of vegetable life which can in any way tend to 

 exhaust the soil, being made up of constituents which are fur- 

 nished everywhere in superabundance by the atmosphere and 

 rain water, and not containing any of the mineral or organic 

 substances supplied by the soil or by the manures used in 

 agriculture; and secondly, that in the form in which it is 

 appropriated by bees, either from the nectaries of flowers or as 

 honeydew from the leaves, it no longer constitutes a part of 



