- 17 - 
and native s. The dusting of cotton, potatoes 4 and vegetables takes 
a heavy annua] toll of bees. 
From the knowledge of the habits of wili poll i i ects and 
the fact that the queens obtain their food directly from flowers, they 
would appear to be even more susceptible to insecticides than honeybees, 
since the queen's food is not nectar and pollen but royal Jelly. Brittain 
made observations on this point, but came to no definite conclusions as 
to the over-all effect of the use of insecticides on wild pollinating 
insects. He did find, however, lethal amounts of arsenic in pollen in 
the nests of wild bees. 
VALTTE OF THE HONEYBEE IN POLLINATING CROPS 
On the following pages will be found a few selected references to 
the value of the honeybee in pollinating crops, as mentioned in articles 
by recognized authorities in horticulture and agronomy. 
ELetz, K. F. 
1925. Pollination and the honey bee. Ind. Conserv. Comn. Pub. 52, 
20 pp. 
pp. 19-20: One thing is certain. The honeyb ee represents 
the hi ghe st point that has been re ached in the. insec t world as a 
flower polli n ato r^ _Its_ ow n ex iste nce in both t he larval and 
adult stage are dependent on either pollen or nectar. The ha bits 
that it possess es of wo rking one kind of flower at a time make it 
a more effective pollinator than an insect that visits al l flowers 
promiscuously . . . 
And finally the honeybee is the only one of the insect pollinators 
that man has under his control or domesticated, so to speak. All 
the rest are subject to all the vicissitudes of nature, including 
unfavorable weather conditions, food shortage, which cannot be 
supplied, and the inroads of natural enemies, including Man. Man 
through h is varied, often thoughtless and multitudinous activities , 
is the greatest disturber of the natu ral order of things , and w hat 
he does he must pay the price for in one manner or another . How- 
ever , by studying the ways of nature he often corrects his errors 
and when he needs a general flow e r polli na tor he has bu t to try 
the honey bee. 
Vansell, G. P., and deOng, E. R. 
1925. A survey of beekeeping in California and the honeybee as pollini- 
zer. Calif. Agr. Expt. Sta. Cir. 297, 22 pp. 
* 
pp. 17-18: Of all the insects that visit flowers, bees are 
the b est adapted by the st ruc ture of the body to act as c arri ers of 
pollen . The body and legs are covered with heavy, stiff hairs which 
are branched or feather like. These catch and hold the p ollen grains , 
until they are brushed into a "pollen basket" on the hind leg. In 
