- 32 - 
Watermelon 
Goff, C. C. 
1937. Importance of bees in the production of watermelons. Fla. Ent. 
20(2 )i 30-31. 
From these observations it is quite evident that the size of 
the melon crop may be greatly influenced by the bees. Observations 
in Florida and elsewhere show that certain days are favorable for 
setting melons while a very poor set will occur on other days, due 
to weather conditions. If the favorable days are few and the supply 
of bees small, the yield may be small. 
It is therefore important that a good set be obtained from the 
earlier flowers and to insure this an adequate supply of bees should 
be present . Thus, in certain areas at least, the earliness and size 
of yield may be increased by keeping honeybees near the field during 
the flowering season . In large fields, the best results should be 
obtained by having a hive near the center of the field. 
Seed Crops 
Alfalfa 
Tysdal, H. M. 
194.0. Is tripping necessary for seed setting in alfalfa? Amer. Soc. 
Agron. Jour. 32: 570-585. 
p. 582: One factor ... is the effect of constant visits of 
honey bees to the same flower. When the bees are extremely numerous 
the same flower may be visited a great many times, and in this way a 
higher percentage of flowers are tripped than shown in Table 10. 
Actual counts have shown honey bees to trip as much as 12 percent 
of the flowers of a given raceme during the course of two or three 
days. This would indicate that honey bees in abundance might be 
beneficial for seed setting . It has also been observed that certain 
honey bees are much more apt to trip alfalfa flowers than others, 
thus indicating rather wide differences among individuals in the 
same species. Plants also differ in ease of tripping. 
Tysdal, H. M., and Westover, H. L. 
1937. Alfalfa improvement. U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1937: 1122-1153. 
p. 1139: The ability of the honey bee (Apis melllfera L. ) to 
trip alfalfa flowers is not so easily clarified. Piper et al. found 
that honey bees tripped only from 0.3 to 4.7 percent of the flowers 
visited and many visits to the flower were required before tripping 
was effected. Dwyer ..« of Australia, has found that honey bees 
cause a considerable amount of tripping and has suggested the use of 
honey bees in cages in breeding work. Michigan workers have also 
