Issued December 1942 STAtp^' E " 5P ^ 
Revised July 1946 ° iAr£ PLANT BGARO 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Agricultural Research Administration 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 
THE DEPENDENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON THE BEEKEEPING INDUSTRY— A REVIEW 
Prepared by the Division of Bee Culture 
INTRODUCTION 
The principal role of the honeybee is not in the production of honey 
and beeswax, as is commonly supposed, but in the pollination of agricul- 
tural crops for the production of seed and fruit. Without insects to 
effect pollination, many species of plants will not set seed or produce 
fruit no matter how well they are cultivated, fertilized, and protected 
from diseases and pests. 
Although the honeybee is the most important pollinating insect, it 
is but one of many species of bees necessary for the perpetuation of 
flowering plants. Various species of flies, beetles, and other insects 
also visit flowers and to some extent pollinate them. Whereas nectar and 
pollen are rarely the principal food of other pollinating insects, these 
substances supply the entire nourishment of both the young and adults of 
honeybees and wild bees. 
Wherever a proper balance exists between plants and pollinating in- 
sects, both flourish. Agricultural development, however, has seriously 
interfered with this balance. It has demanded the growing of certain 
plants in enormous acreages and has unwittingly destroyed native pollina- 
ting insects as well as their nesting places. As a result the burden of 
pollination has been increased to such an extent that wild bees are no 
longer adequate or dependable, particularly where agriculture is highly 
developed. In many places the depletion of wild pollinators is so acute 
that honeybees have to be brought in especially for pollination, and so 
in practically all agricultural areas honeybees are now the most numerous 
of the flower-visiting insects. It is essential, nevertheless, to con- 
serve our native pollinating insects, since some species of native bees 
are more efficient, bee for bee, than honeybees and will work under more 
adverse conditions. As yet, however, no agency, Federal, State or private, 
has assumed the responsibility for conserving wild pollinating insects. 
The reduction in wild beneficial insects and the increase in acreage 
of crops requiring insect pollination have been gradual. While these 
changes were occurring, commercial beekeeping had its inception and fortu- 
nately so, since the presence of honeybees in some areas has helped to make 
