This sort of damage is far-reaching in 
many cases; and as the bee is one of 
the fruit grower’s best friends we can 
not afford to murder them in this way.” 
So far as known every experiment 
station in the United States advises 
against spraying or dusting while the 
trees are in bloom. 
Dusting Often Destructive to Bees 
In 1922 and 1923 many fruit grow¬ 
ers began the practice of dusting their 
orchards with dry poisonous powder in 
place of using water in the form of 
spray to carry those same chemicals to 
the trees. A large area of orchards can 
be covered with dust, and in less time, 
than by the use of liquid sprays; tout 
much more chemical is required. But 
the dust carried by the wind falls upon 
the other bloom on which bees are 
working. Experience showed that hun¬ 
dreds of colonies were killed and many 
hundreds of others weakened, in many 
states and particularly in New York in 
1923 where the dusting method has be¬ 
come more or less prevalent. Bees 
were killed in New York in such num¬ 
bers that beekeepers had to remove 
their bees from the vicinity of the or¬ 
chards where dust was applied. It was 
hoped that some repellant might be 
used in connection with the poison 
dusts that would drive the bees away 
from the bloom; but nothing of that 
kind has been found. Some work was 
done by the Minnesota and the Connec¬ 
ticut Experiment Stations, showing 
that the dusting method for killing the 
coddling moth is not so effective as the 
spray. Even some of the large fruit 
growers themselves are in doubt as to 
whether it pays to use it, and not a 
