28 
BEE - CULTURE. 
Bees in Relation to Flowers 
and Fruit-Culture. 
By Isaac Hopkins, Apiarian, in Bulletin 
18 of N.Z. Department of Agriculture. 
JI IN RELATION TO FRUIT 
CULTURE. 
(Continued from last issue.) 
Mr. R T. Morrison, of Messrs. E. 
Morrison and Sons, Warkworth, well- 
known horticulturists, supply the follow- 
ing interesting note regarding cross 
pollinating experiments which have been” 
carried out at their orchards:— 
Three seasons ago a small pear-tres was 
selected for operations. When the 
blossom-buds were in the right condition 
—namely, when the petals of a large 
proportion of the blossoms were almost 
ready to break open—the blossoms and 
blossom-buds were thinned out to, roughly 
speaking, about one-sixth of what the tree 
-originally held, leaving only such as would 
open into full flower in about a day or 
two. These petals (all being of unopened 
blossoms), together with stamens and in 
some instances calyx also, were then 
removed, and the tree was covered with 
butter-cloth. Ina few days pollen of 
another variety of pear was administered 
to the stigmas, being placed there by hand 
and not shaken on, and the tree was again 
left covered with buttercloth. This 
pear-tree set and matured a large crop of 
fruit—in fact, too large—while other trees 
of the same variety alongside set practi- 
cally nothing. ras 
Two seasons later (that is in 1905) 
this same tree was treated in the same 
manner, except that blossoms were 
thinned down to about one-tenth ; butter 
cloth or covering was not used; and pollen 
from another variety (that is a different 
variety from that from which pollen was: 
taken for the previous experiment) was 
made use of. Though no covering was 
used it would appear that the bees would 
not be likely to much visit a tree from 
which the petals had been entirely re- 
moved. Still, almost-every blossom that 
was treated seemed to set, and the result 
was a crop much too heavy. Other trees 
of the same varicty alongside had a fair 
crop, but not nearly so heavy as this 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
October 1, 1909 
one. 
Other experiments with various frnits 
have been carrie| out at different tines 
with varying success. The above two 
instances are perhaps the most striking, 
I may mention that bees are very -busy 
agents in our. orchards dnring the 
blossoming season, when the weather is 
fine enough. Still, it would be too much 
to expect that the bees would always be 
_able to carry the right pollen to the right 
trees at the right time. But no doubt 
the bees would be even of much more 
value in the orchard than they are at 
present if we had the knowledge as to 
which varieties of a fruit were best for 
fertilising other varieties, and were to lay 
off our orchards in such a way as to give 
the bees the best opportunity of carrying 
pollen from one variety to the other. 
An eminent authority, when speaking 
of the fertilisation of apple-blossoms 
said,—- ; 
The apple is called by botanists a 
pseudo-syncarpous fruit, because it. may 
be regarded as five fruits gathered into a 
unit by an envelope formed by a develop- 
ment of the calyx. If an apple be cut 
across we see five compartments or 
dissepiments in the core each one of which 
should contain pips or seeds. The bloom 
which preceded the fruit had five stigmas 
three of which remain in section, and 
each one of which communicated with a 
dissepiment or partition, and required an 
independent fertilisation. Bees seeking 
honey would, by getting their breasts 
(furnished as they are with abundance of 
-long webbed hairs) thoroughly dusted 
with apple-pollen, and flitting to a bloom 
whose stigma had reached the receptive 
condition, bring about fertilisation. It 
would, however. frequently happen that 
three or four of the stigmata only would 
be pollinated. In this case an apple 
though an imperfect one would be pro- 
duced. Trees agitated by the winds 
frequently drop a number of their 
ruits, hence known as ‘ windfalls’ but 
the actual cause of this dropping is in by 
far the largest number of instances de- 
fective fertilisation. 
Cheshire says in his * Bees and Bee- 
keeping’ (Vol. i, page 323) ,— 
I had two hundred apples, that had 
dropped during a gale, gathered 
promiscuously for a lecture illustration 
and the cause of falling in every case but 
eight was traceable to imperfect 
fertilisation. Such fruits are readily 
recognised by being deformed, a_ part 
failing to grow from the want of perfect 
fertilisation. Cutting one such apple 
across, no sced will be found «pposite the 
undeveloped part. ‘hese facts taken 
together show conclusively how completly 
our fruit-crop is dependent upon insect 
agencies, and amongst these the hive-bee 
takes the most important place. 
(To be Continued.) 
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Gives rise to no poisonous dust 
No danger to the sprayer 
Adheres firmly to the leaves 
Mixes with water in any proportion 
One pound of Paste makes 30 gallons 
of Spray. 
No Lime Required. 
THE AUSTRALIAN 
BEE BULLETIN 
A Monthly Journal 
Devoted to Bee Keeping. 
Edited and Published by E, TIPPER, 
West Maitland; Apiary, Willow ‘Tree, 
New South Wales. 
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