FRUIT BLOSSOMS 
395 
did not observe any flowers tripped by hon¬ 
eybees. While honeybees trip only a small 
percentage of the flowers visited, where 
large apiaries are located near alfalfa 
fields, the great number of bees probably 
pollinate thousands of flowers. Western 
farmers claim that, where there are an 
abundance of honeybees, the crop of seed 
is nearly doubled, and the seed is larger 
and better developed. Over 90 per cent of 
the alfalfa in the United States is west of 
the Missouri River, and thruout the larger 
part of this region the bloom yields nectar 
and supports colonies of bees by the hun¬ 
dred thousand. East of the Missouri River 
the bloom is, as a rule, nectarless and is 
only very rarely visited by bees. In sain¬ 
foin automatic self-pollination is excluded, 
and the flowers in the absence of insects 
remain sterile. The most frequent guests 
are honeybees, which ai’e estimated to pay 
nine-tenths of the visits. 
Red clover was formerly largely pollin¬ 
ated by bumblebees, but in most seasons 
and in most localities honeybees do the 
work. When there is sufficient rain to per¬ 
mit a heavy growth of the flowers the nec¬ 
tar is so deeply concealed that it can not 
always be reached by the honeybee. 
Sometimes not a single honeybee can be 
found on a field of red clover, while bumble¬ 
bees are common. But, according to West- 
gate of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., under normal conditions 
Italian bees are not only seen on red clover 
in large numbers, but they do good work in 
pollinating blossoms, altho perhaps not so 
well as bumblebees with their longer 
tongues. Italians have slightly longer 
tongues than black bees. As the seasons 
are more apt to be dry than wet, honeybees 
will be more apt to be found on red clover 
than not. In the vicinity of Medina, where 
red clover is grown largely, honeybees are 
very common visitors on red clover. 
The experience of farmers in both Aus¬ 
tralia and New Zealand in growing red 
clover shows conclusively the dependence 
of this species on bumblebees for pollina¬ 
tion. At the time of their discovery neither 
honeybees nor bumblebees were found in 
these islands. In New Zealand at Mata- 
mata large bee farms of Italian bees were 
established, which were near thousands of 
acres of red clover. They very seldom vis¬ 
ited the bloom, and very little seed was 
produced; from a commercial standpoint 
the crop was valueless. Bumblebees were 
then imported from Europe, and, as soon 
as they became abundant, the red clover 
bloom became very fertile and large crops 
of seed were obtained. 
But in very dry seasons the tubes of red 
clover are shorter, and honeybees then 
gather the nectar by thousands, pollinat¬ 
ing the bloom at the same time. It is also 
claimed that the floral tubes of the second 
crop of red clover are shorter than those 
of the first crop, and this is no doubt fre¬ 
quently true, as the second crop is less lux¬ 
uriant than the first. 
The garden and field pea (Visum sati¬ 
vum ) is self-pollinated. Out of 10,000 
cases examined by Mendel there were only 
one or two flowers pollinated by insects. 
Neither honeybees nor bumblebees have 
sufficient” strength to depress the keel. Re¬ 
peated observations of the bloom have 
failed to discover a single insect visit. In 
the course of four summers Mueller saw 
only three bees upon the flowers, none of 
which were honeybees. The cultivated pea, 
altho thousands of acres are grown annu¬ 
ally, is of no value either for pollen or 
nectar. This is also true of pole and bush 
beans, excepting the Lima bean. Only large 
bumblebees are strong enough to work the 
flower mechanism. After long and con¬ 
stant watching only a few bumblebees have 
been observed to seek the bloom. The bean 
is able to fertilize itself very perfectly and 
produces great crops of seed. While in 
California there are vast areas of bean 
fields (Phaseolus vulgaris ) which are of no 
benefit to the beekeeper, the Lima bean 
(P. lunatus ) is an excellent honey plant 
yielding large crops of honey. 
THE HONEYBEE AND FRUIT CULTURE, 
Altho many nut trees, the cereals, the 
date trees, and cocoanut trees are pollin¬ 
ated by the wind, the fig trees by wasps, 
and several widely cultivated forage and 
leguminous plants are self-pollinated, or 
pollinated by bumblebees and leaf-cutting 
bees, it is still true that the honeybee is a 
most important visitor to the majority of 
cultivated plants. It is an essential factor 
in fruit culture, and in the pollination of 
fruit bloom its significance becomes para- 
