BEES IN RELATION TO GARDENING. 



203 



many fruit growers in my neighbourhood had very poor crops. In the 

 short intervals of fine weather, however, my bees were so busy on the 

 blossom, that my trees bore heavy crops. Fig. 72 shows a branch of 

 a 1 Black Diamond ' plum and fig. 73 a ' Pond's Seedling ' plum, both 

 photographs taken in 1907. 



There are few fruit growing districts that are really adequately 

 supplied with bees, and capital amounting in the aggregate to many 

 millions of pounds is either unremunerative or only partially remunerative. 

 Instead of being an expense, bees are the most remunerative agricultural 



Fig. 73. — Plum ' Pond's Seedling.' 



investment with which I am acquainted. Under proper management 

 there are few districts in this country where the sale of the bee products 

 alone will not repay the outlay on bees and hives in two or three years. 

 A careful examination of a fruit district by an expert bee-keeper who has 

 some horticultural experience would, in most cases, reveal whether the 

 district is sufficiently supplied with hive bees. The British Bee-keepers' 

 Association, which is to apiculture what this Society is to horticulture, 

 has affiliated Associations in the chief counties of England and is always 

 pleased to assist in this or any other question connected with bee- 

 keeping. 



