200 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



applying this knowledge is somewhat remarkable. Those who do so, 

 however, have every reason to be satisfied with the result. Mr. R. 

 Brown, of Somersham, Hunts, is a well-known fruit grower who some 

 years ago was dissatisfied with the yield of fruit from his trees and, on 

 the advice of a friend, procured some hives of bees as a remedy. The 

 result far surpassed his expectations, for, in the ensuing year, his crop of 

 bush fruit increased fourfold. Being desirous of ascertaining whether 

 Mr. Brown's subsequent experience agreed with his first results I 

 communicated with him and he writes on August 10, as follows : — 



" I am thoroughly convinced that bees are the chief factors in the 

 fertilization of fruit blossoms, and the production of fruit both as regards 

 quality as well as quantity. Living as I do right in the midst of a fruit 

 growing district arid being an ardent bee-keeper as well as horticulturist 

 I have made this subject a special study and have not the slightest 

 hesitation in affirming that where bees are kept, much better results 

 obtain in the garden and orchard. In 1907 when we had a very cold 

 spring and when bees could work only at brief intervals and at short 

 distances from home, there was an abundance of fruit in three orchards 

 close to my apiary of fifty stocks. I closely watched their movements 

 and made a special point of noting the results, and can affirm that, with 

 the exception of these three orchards in the immediate vicinity of the 

 apiary there was scarcely any fruit at all in this district. 



" This year, the weather being favourable at brief intervals for the bees 

 to work, I have got the heaviest crop of apples I have ever had, and up to 

 the present I have gathered 150 bushels off two acres, comprising the 

 varieties Ecklinville, Peasgood's Nonesuch, Beauty of Bath, Julian, June- 

 eating, &c, being only a first picking, and scarcely half the crops. This 

 is a season when apples are quite scarce in our district ! " 



This favourable testimony of a practical fruit grower might be 

 amplified by the remark that Mr. Brown obtains a large quantity of 

 excellent honey from his hives. 



Mr. T. W. Cowan, chairman of the British Bee-keepers' Association, 

 one of our highest authorities on apiculture, has long advocated the 

 keeping of bees as a most efficient aid to the horticulturist. He has been 

 good enough to send me two instances of the benefit derived from the 

 introduction of bees which I will give you in his own words : — 



" Some years ago Lord Sudeley started fruit orchards at Toddington, 

 and for some time they were quite unproductive ; in fact it was a question 

 of giving them up. It was suggested that bees would be of use, and a 

 Scotch bee-keeper was engaged to take charge of an apiary on the spot. 

 The result was that the fruit trees very soon showed the difference and 

 became remunerative. The trial was so successful that the orchards 

 were enlarged, and a large jam factory was established to preserve the 

 fruit. There were 200 colonies in this case assisting the fruit grower 

 which turned an unproductive orchard into a very productive one. 



" Another example is in California. I happened to be visiting Mr. 

 Butler of Penryn, California, and he showed me over his ranch, where he 

 had forty acres of peach trees. He complained that the e^rly Alexander 

 peach, which is a very good one, was a very shy bearer ; in fact he said 

 that it was such a poor bearer that he intended to grub up all the trees 



