87 



soned, but the brood lias also been destroyed. The fact that doubt has 

 been expressed in reference to such poisoning, and the fact that even 

 legislators have expressed disbelief in the value of bees to horticultur- 

 ists, led to the following experiments : 



Bees in cages were given foliage sprayed with sweetened water, and 

 in other precisely similar cages the same sweetened water in which 

 London purple had been mixed in the proportion of 1 pound to 200 gal- 

 lons of water. The bees in the first cages were in no way affected, 

 while the others were all dead in thirty six hours, and in many cases 

 in twenty-four hours. 



Thus we have positive proof, both in the field and from laboratory 

 experiment, that bees are very susceptible to the poisonous effects of 

 the arsenites, and that to spray fruit trees while in bloom always en- 

 dangers the lives of all bees that visit the flowers. In the other ex- 

 periments we desired to learn how important bees were in the work of 

 fertilization and cross-fertilization of plants. Trees examined in May 

 while in bloom showed twenty bees to one of other kinds of insects. 

 On a rather cold day, such as are likely to occur in time of fruit bloom, 

 hundreds of Honey Bees were found at work on the apple bloom, while 

 almost no other insects were to be seen. 



In the following experiment the same number of blossoms were 

 counted on each of two adjacent branches on various trees, shrubs, 

 and plants. In each case one lot was marked by a tag giving the date 

 of the experiment, while the other was surrounded by cheese cloth 

 just before the blossoms opened, thus precluding the visits of all insects 

 from this lot, except such very small ones as Thrips, Jassids, etc., which 

 were so small that they would escape notice. After the blossoms with- 

 ered the covers were removed, and two weeks later examination was 

 made to note the results. The following table gives the results of the 

 this experiment: 



Variety. 



Date cov- 

 ered. 



Date 



uncov- 

 ered. 



Number 

 of blos- 

 soms. 



Date 

 exam- 

 ined. 



Fruit 

 set. 



Fruit 

 set on 

 compar- 

 ison. 



Remarks. 





May 4 

 May 4 

 May 4 

 May 4 

 May 4 

 May 4 

 May 18 

 May 18 

 May 18 

 May 26 



May 30 

 May 30 



June 12 

 June 5 



May 25 

 May 19 

 May 19 

 May 19 

 May 19 

 May 19 

 June 16 

 June 16 

 June 16 

 July 6 



July 6 

 July 6 



July 30 

 July 30 



40 

 75 

 200 

 160 

 140 

 300 

 60 

 212 

 123 

 2 canes. . 



184 

 lcane... 



10 heads. 

 10 heads . 



June 11 

 June 11 

 June 11 

 June 11 

 June 11 

 June 11 

 June 22 

 June 22 

 June 22 

 July 6 



July 6 

 July 6 



July 30 

 July 30 









 

 2 

 

 9 

 9 

 80 

 20 



15 



3 



3 



9 



7 



119 



27 



104 



36 





Do 





Crab Apple 



Affected by the frost. 











Straw berries . . . 

 Do 





Do 





Raspberries 



Do 



As many perfect berries as 

 on canes not covered. 



93 



160 



Do 



No difference by count or 

 appearance of fruit. 



Red Clover 



White Clover . . 





 



191 

 541 



In the case of the strawberries boxes covered with cheesecloth were 

 set over the plants. As these stood on the ground, of course insects may 



