26 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
November 1, 1309 
BEE =- CULTURE. 
Bees in Relation to Flowers 
and Fruit-Culture. 
By Isaac Hopkins, Apiarian, in Bulletin 
18 of N.Z. Department of Agriculture. 
II, IN RELATION TO FRUIT 
CULTURE. . 
(Continued from last issue.) 
In the case of the strawberry —and the 
‘same applies to the raspberry and other 
berry fruits—each little 
(popularly known as seed) dotting its 
‘surface possesses a style and stigma. The 
achemia 
‘stigma of each of the achema must be 
fertilised to produce a perfect fruit; other- 
wise, if this is but partially accomplished 
the part unfertilised remains undeveloped 
—hard, shrunken, and green—when the 
fertilised portion is fully ripe. Almost 
any dish of strawberries will furnish such 
examples. 
When we consider that, according to 
‘Cheshire, it requires from 100 to 200, or 
even 300, distinct fertilisations to produce 
a perfect strawberry, we can realise how 
necessary it is to have the agents for such 
fertilisation near at hand when the plants 
are in blossom. Gooseberries are 
absolutely dependent on insects, and in 
fact all fruits are dependent upon outside 
agencies for their growth and develop- 
ment. 
It is well to note here a statement in 
‘Cheshire’s work that I have not noticed 
elsewhere, viz:— 
There is a tendency toa separation of 
the sexes in the cultivated strawberry, 
which Darwin observes ‘is far more 
strongly marked in the United States than 
in Europe’; and growers will do well to 
note that plants bearing unu:ually larse 
blossoms are frequently tending to become 
male, and produce few fruits. while those 
of the same variety and under the same 
‘treatment that produce small blossoms 
are tending to become female, and are 
abundant bearers, while they yield few 
runners, Without care in selecting, the 
numerous runners of the former would 
ultimately supplant the female forms 
and so ruin the stock for economic pur- 
poses. 
When lecturing to some of the largest 
growers of strawberries in the United 
Kingdom, Mr Cheshire found them all 
quite unaware of the above tendency. 
New Zealand growers are not, I should 
imagine, ignorant of a fact of so much 
importance to their success, but I think 
it well to quote the paragraph. 
At the Waerenga Government Experi- 
mental Station there is a young orchard 
of about 40 acres, and as there is no 
shelter for ‘ wild’ bees less than nearly 
six miles distant, I have suggested that 
fifty colonies of bees should be 
established near by for cross-fertilising 
purposes. 
I may also quote the following 
authorities: — 
Professor L. O. Howard, Chief of the 
Division of Entomology, Department of 
Agriculture, United States of America, in 
his introduction to Bulletin No lon‘ The 
Honey-bee.,’ third edition, issued in 1899 
says of bees and bee-culture,— 
This branch of agricultural industry 
does not impoverish the soil in the 
least, but, on the contrary, results in 
better seed and fruit crops. The totay 
money yain to the country from the 
prosecution of this industry would 
undoubtedly be placed at several times 
the amount given in the table above 
($20,000,000) were we only able to 
estimate in dollars and cents the result of 
the work of bees in cross fertilising the 
blossoms of fruit-crops. In support of 
this it is only necessary to refer to the 
fact that recent investigations of another 
Division cf this Department have shown 
that certain varieties of pear are nearly or 
quite sterile unless bees bring pollen from 
other distinct varieties for their complete 
cross-fertilisation. 
Professor Baily, Horticulturist of 
Cornell University, says.— 
Bees are much more eflicient agents of 
pollination than wind in our fruits, and 
their absence is always deleterious. 
‘The A BC of Bee-culture’ furnishes 
much evidence of experiments carried out 
by the Agricultural Department of the 
United States of America and by practical 
fruit-growers, ali of which went to prove 
the value of the hive-bee in the pro- 
duction of fruit, and the loss caused by 
its absence. One or two instances will 
suffice. Mr. C. A. Green, writing to the 
Fruit grower, published in Rochester 
New York, said,— 
It has now become demonstrated that 
many kinds of fruits, if not all kinds, are 
greatly benefited by bees, and that a large 
portion of our fruit—such as the apple 
pear, and particularly the plum—would 
be barren were it not for the helpful work 
of the honey-bee. Professor Waite, of 
the Agricultural Department, Washington 
covered the blossoms of pears, apples, and 
plums with netting, excluding the bees 
and found that such prctected blossoms 
of many varieties yielded no fruit, In 
some varieties there was no exception to 
this rule and he was convinced thit large 
orchards of Bartlett (Williams’s Bon 
Chrétein) pears, planted distant from 
other varieties, would be utterly barren 
were it not for the work of the bees, and 
even then they could not be profitably 
grown unless every third or fourth row 
was planted to Clapp’s Favorite, or some 
other variety capable of fertilising the 
blossoms of the Bartlett. In other words 
he found that the Bartlett pear could no 
more fertilise its own blossoms than cat 
the Crescent Strawberry. 
And, again, Professor Waite, whet 
speaking of insect visits to pear flowers, 
Say S,— 
The common honey-bee is the most 
regular, important, and abundant visitor 
and probably does more good than any 
other species; 
Ard sums up as follows:— 
Plant mixed orchards, or, at least avoid 
solid blocks of one variety. Besure there 
are sufficient bees in the neighborhood t 
visit the blossoms properly. When 
feasible, endeavor to favor insect-visits bY 
selecting sheltered situations, or bY 
planting wind reaks, 
The editor of the Rural New-Yorket 
says,-— 
In those great greenhouses near 
Boston, where early cucumbers are 
grown, it is always necessary to have on? 
or two hives of bees inside to fertilize the 
flowers. No bees, no cucumbers! unlcs® 
men go around with a brush and dust the 
pollen from one flower to another. 
(To be Continued.) 
