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gators are recommending one hive of bees per acre for pollination 
purposes . 
A few years ago, the writer helped to conduct a special test 
to prove the value of cross-pollination and bees in a bearing Rome 
Beauty orchard in West Virginia. This orchard consisted of approxi- 
mately twenty acres and was planted at quite a distance from any 
other orchards. Although it blossomed well each year, the set was 
always very light. During the blossoming time for two years bees 
were placed under sixteen trees in the center of the orchard and 
blossoming limbs of other varieties were secured and placed in 
pails of water, which were hung in the Rome Beauty trees. The b ees 
worked back and forth through these blossoms and an excellent set 
was secured each year on the se si xteen trees . T he rest of the 
orchard, at some distance from the bees, set only a light crop . 
A similar test conducted in 1922 in a bearing Stayman Winesap 
orchard in Maryland where bees were placed in the orchard, together 
with blossoming branches of the York Imperial variety in nails of 
water, resulted in a fair crop of fruit being set, even thoug h the 
season was unfavorable for pollination purposes due to some frosts 
and cold windy weather * In previous years, without bees or the 
York Imperial blossoms, very little fruit "set" although there were 
plenty of Stayman blossoms and the weather was favorable . 
In 1923 with good pollination weather and Grimes blossoms placed 
about the bee hives, a good set of fruit was obtained in this orchard. 
In some special tests at the Experiment Station in 1923, two 
trees, one a Grimes and one a Stayman Winesap, 40 feet apart, were 
inclosed in a large muslin frame 1A. feet wide, 14 feet high, and 55 
feet long. 
A muslin partition was built through the center of the tent 
(long ways) so that one-half of each tree was on one side of the 
partition and one-half of each tree was on the other side. Bees 
were placed in one side of the tent, so that they could fly back and 
forth between the halves of the Grimes and Stayman Winesap trees. 
No bees were placed in the other side of the tent. In the side in 
which bees were placed, fruit set on the halves of both the Stayman 
Winesap and Grimes trees . In the other side of the tent without bees , 
no fruit set on the halves of the same Stayman Winesap tree, although 
the Grimes, being a self -fertile variety, did set some fruit . Appar- 
ently in the one-half of the tent, the Grimes pollen was carried b y_ 
the bees to the Stayman Winesap, giving a set, while in the other 
half, the Grimes pollen did not reach the Stayman blossoms. 
