NOTES ON POLLINATION OF RED CLOVER 
363 
C. E. Bartholomew, who has charge of the college apiary, in- 
forms us that he saw bees gather nectar from red clover in the 
college apiary. He states that bees usually gather pollen and 
because the bee is highly specialized that some bees gather pollen, 
others only nectar. The statement is made by bee authorities 
that both honey and pollen may be gathered at the same time. 
Our observations made in the college apiary indicate that 80 
per cent of the bees had pollen on their legs and on 20 per cent 
of the bees pollen could not be seen. Several bees without 
pollen were tested for the presence of honey in the honey bag, 
but we could not detect it. It is interesting to note that honey 
bees were abundant on the first crop of red clover in the college 
apiary, but on August 11, bees were as numerous as one to the 
quadrat (4 feet square) on a field a quarter mile from the 
apiary. Of nine that were captured seven were found to have 
pollen on their legs. Microscopic examination showed this to be 
red clover pollen. On subsequent days, bees were rather fre- 
quently seen on red clover. Some of them were evidently gath- 
ering nectar, others pollen. In 1914, a very dry season, honey 
bees were more numerous on red clover than in 1915. At one 
time during August, 1914, the month of their greatest abun- 
dance, as many as nineteen were counted on one cpiadrat. This 
may account for the difference in the pollination experiments 
noted later. 
Knufh observes that Bombas terrestris, a species of bumble 
bee found in Europe, pierces the tubes of clover flowers and 
honey bees later gather nectar through these slits. Bombas 
terrestris has a proboscis from 7 to 9 mm. in length. While 
working on the experiments given in this bulletin several corolla 
tubes were observed which had been slit at the base but it can 
not be stated, that these were probably not slit by bees. The 
structure of the mandibles of the honey bee is not adapted for, 
cutting. Schneek 22 states that Virginia carpenter bee ( Xylocopa 
virginica) slits the lower end of the corolla tubes of red clover 
flowers and that he has observed honey bees obtaining nectar 
through the slits. Pammel 23 has made similar observations. 
In order to determine the efficiency of the honey bee as a 
cross pollinator of red clover, a cage, 12 feet square and 6 feet 
high, made of galvanized wire screen having 4 meshes to the 
linear inch, was erected in the same field as ,the bumble bee 
