The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-04-15
The Value Of the Honey Bee in Ag
Piculture.


The Value Of the Honey Bee in Az.
riculture.
Honey and wax have ever been two most use.
ful articles In domestic economy, and from the
earliest times the honey bee has been the oom.
paniOn of man. What an addition to farmers
place is a bee hive nesting ameng the apple
trees with its hundreds of busy inhabitants, some
settling about the door, or flying lightly above
the root, others darting off in quest Of new sup
plies of food, and still others returning on labor.
ing wings laden down with their baskets" filled
with crude pollen. What scene of industry
and system is bee life This is an every day
picture. But honey and wax not indispensa-
BILE. The hunting of the sperm whale and the
discovery of petroleum have done away with the
need OF wax, and the sugar cane and beets give
US sweets in new and more convenient forms
What use then is the bee, our readers will ask.
The answer will recur to but few. The grand
use in nature of the bee, is tho securing to the
farmer or fruit raiser good crop and the per.
manence OF the best varieties of fruit.
Gardeners have always known that bees fertilizs
squash, melon and cucumber flowers by convey
ing the pollen from one plant to another. thus
insuring, not only the complete fertilization of
the male pollen and thus improving the fruit,
bat actually causing the production of more
squashes, melons and cucumbers by causing GER
dropped to the ground, steril and useless This
has been proved by fertilizing the flowers by
hand; very large, indeed an unnsturally large
crop being thus obtained. It has been noticed by
lew, though the many have not appreciated the
fact, that fruit trees are more Productive when a
swarm OF bees is placed among them, for when
the bees have been removed by disease or ether
means the fruit crop has diminished.
On this subject have written as follows to a
| IN tho &c Al
Naturalist, monthly illustrated magazine of nat.
ural history published by the Peabody Academy
OF Science, at Salem Mass:
lin answer to the question by J. j. Gould
(Wenhan, Mass whether bees are in any way
injurious to fruit or lessen the quality or guam.
tity, would reply that all the evidence gwen
by botanists and biologists, who have specially
studied this subject, shows that bees improve the
quality and tend to increase the quantity of the
fruit They aid in the fertilization of flowers,
thus preventing the occurrence OF sterile flowers,
and by more thoroughly fertilizing flowers al.
ready perfect, make the production Of sound we'll
developed fruit more sure. Many betanists
think if it were not for bees aud other insects
lsuch as certain two.winged flies, moths, wasps
&C., many psants nould not fruit a, all. This
whole subject OF the great office bees and insects
perform in the fertile alton of plants has been
fully discussed in the May, July and October
! llS67) numbers OF the american Naturalist, and
by Professor Asa Gray in the AmtricQn AgricM.
tmtst beginning in May, 1866. ut is alleged
that bees do I'M ury in some way by extracting
the honey from flowers. What is the use in ma.
ture of honey? The best Of observers will tell
you it is secreted by the plant for the very pur-
pose of attracting bees to the flower, otherwise
it is of no use to the flower or fruit"
This was written before Mr. Samuel Wagner
printed an article on the same subject in his we'll
known and useful American Bee Journal" His
testimony so well confirms my statement made
above, and Is SO important to fruit rasers, that
reproduce it in part.
I'm IVA Count Anthony of Torrings, Seefield,
in Bavaria, President of the cademy of Science,
at Munich, striving to re-introduce bee-culturs
on his patrinonial estate, found in this generally
prevalent prejudice, H. e. that the bee INJURIES the
fruit by its visits to the howers the chief obsta.
Gle to success. To overcome it, he labored assd.
uously to show that bees, far from being injuri.
Gus, were directly beneficial in the qualification
OF demonstrating the fruit TO SeI, by convey.
ing the !ertilizing pollen from tree to tree and
from flower to flower. He proved moreover, by
official family records, that century earlier,
when bees were kept by every tenant on the
estate, fruit was abundant; whereas then, when
| only seven kept bees, and none of these had more
than three colonies, fruit was scarcsr than ever
among the tenantry.
AT the Apiarian General Convention held at
STUTTGART, in Wirtemburg, in September, 1858,
| the subject of honey yielding crops being under
discussion, the celebrated pomologst, Professor
Lucas one OF the directors Of the Hohsnheim In.
stitute, abiding to the prejudice, went on TO cay:
OF more Importance, however, is tho proved
management OF our fruit trees Here the inter.
ess OF the horticultural and the bee.keeper com.
bine and run parallel. A judicious pruning of
our fruit trees will cause them to blossom more
freely, and yield honey more beautifully. would
urge attention to this on those particularly who
| are both fruit.grcwers and bee.keepers. A care
| full aud observaut bee-keeper ut Potsdam writes
to me that his trees yield dec,dedly larger crops
since he has established dplary IN lis orchard,
and Me annual crop is now more certain and req.
uIdr than detore, though his trees had always r.
ceived due attention.
''Some years ago wealthy lady in Germany
established green house ut considerable cost,
aud stocked it with great variety of choice and
native and exotic fruit trees expecting in due
time to have rsnumerstihg crops. Time parsed.
and annually there WIS superbundance of bios.
SONS. vith only very little fruit. Various plans
were DEVISED aud adopted to bring the trees to
bearing. but without success till it was supvest.
ed that the blossoms needed fertilization and
that hy means Of bees tn. needed work could be
effected. A hive Of busy honey gatherers WAS
introduced next season; the remedy was effect.
usI-'herc wan no LONGER any difficulty in pro.
ducnI crops there. The bees distributed tho
pollen, aud the setting CT the fruit followed nat.
orally"
From these convincing facts we learn the value
OF TIE honey bee 60 agriculture Blot them out
aud we must go almost entirely without fruit or
vegetables. Besides being source of profit for
their honey aud wax, the bee actually brings to
| Lad IS f...sN as,l 10y