104 
BEE PASTURAGE. 
in animals. The pistil is connected with the ovaries, the 
stamens furnish the pollen that must come in contact 
with the pistil ; in other words, it must be impregnated 
by this dust from the stamens, or no fruit will be pro- 
duced. Now if it be necessary to change the breed, 
or essential that the pollen produced by the stamens 
of one flower shall fertilize the pistil of another, to 
prevent barrenness, what should we contrive better 
than the arrangement already made by Him who knew 
the necessity and planned it accordingly ? And it works 
so admirably, that we can hardly avoid the conclu- 
sion that bees were intended for this important purpose ! 
It is thus planned ! Their wants and their food shall 
consist of honey and pollen ; each flower secretes but 
little, just enough to attract the bee; nothing like a 
full load is obtained from one ; were it thus, the end in 
view would not be answered ; but a hundred or more 
flowers are often visited in one excursion; the pollen 
obtained from the first may fertilize many, previous to 
the bees’ returning to the hive ; thus a field of buck- 
wheat may be kept in health and vigor in its future 
productions. A field of wheat produces long slender 
stalks that yield to the influence of the breeze, and 
one ear is made to bestow its pollen on a neighboring 
ear several feet distant, thereby effecting just what 
bees do for buckwheat. Corn, from its manner of 
growth, the upright stalk bearing the stamens some 
feet above the pistils, on the ears below, seems to need 
no agency of bees ; the superabundant pollen from 
the tassel is wafted by the winds rods from the pro- 
ducing stalk, and there does its office of fertilizing a 
