The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-07-21
Marvellous Things About Bees.

literally break the boughs OF your
trees with the weight of fruit
Frank G. odell of Lincoln. Neb.,
+ bee master, who gave series of dem
constructions with $4,000 bees at the
National Apple Show in Spokane. De
icember 7 to u, made the foregoing
1 observation in the course of an in
terview, discussing bee keeping, sci
entific agriculture and fruit growing.
He said:
The bee is the expert assistant of
the horticUlturist and the farmer. So
indispensable are its functions in the
pollina.ion of fruits, vegetables, ce-
reals and grasses that its activities
may be said to lie at the foundation
of all successful agriculture. Nature
has ordained one supreme law, that
of creation, the perpetuatiOn of the
race type. This law, universal in its
application and absolutely identical
in its form, obtains in the plant world
as in the animal world. The luscious
pulp of the fruit is the envelope, the
package, the strong box, devised by
ndIulC " plOICOt lnG 0CCu Nllll1
from injury and render it susceptible
of termination so that the type be re
produced in all its perfection.
The bee, like other insects, effects
! incidental pollination of flowers in its
search for nectar, but its great value
to the fruit grower lies in this, that
it goes to the flowers specifically to
gather pollen, literally by the carload
in the hairy baskets on its legs, has
tening from bloom to bloom, rolling
and packing and literally rioting in
the golden dust, pregnant with the
microscopic germs of plant life, until
the golden pellets are packed away in
its hair baskets, to be carried to the
hive for storage as an indispensable
portion of the food of its young dur
! ing the winter months to come.
1t requires no expert knowledge to /
comprehend how perfectly the bee
thus performs the office of poliina-
ton. Indeed, it is natures chief
agent in this indispensable work. No
seed, no fruit, is the universal law.
Here is the only insect useful in all
its habits, having I fixed aabitation
accessible to man, dependent upon
the pollen of every variety of flower !
IS an indispensable portion of the |
food of its young, and going to the
bloom specifically to gather that pol !
len, thus making possible the mar
felous frui crops in Washington and |
the Pacific Northwest. That is why |
/ say, give the bee a chance, and it |
Will literally break the boughs OF |
your trees with the weight of fruit.
Delve into the realm of applied |
mechanics or structural engineering |
and your research is incomplete until
a lesson is COINED from the structure
of the hoBeycomb with its marvellous
strength as compared with the fragile
nature of its fabric. No more mar |
velous structure exists among the my
Rad marvellous works of nature. This
WaXen fabric, derived primarily from
liquid honey converted into wax in
that marvellous laboratory of the bee
formed by some mysterious instinct
or intelligence into the very form of
all others designed for economy of
materials, space and extremity of /
strength, passes beyond the measure
of human skill in its perfection.
Notwithstanding the fragile ma
ture Of the honeycomb it is still SUM-
GENTLY strong to carry the relatively
immense load of sweets stored in its
cells The perfection of insect labor
is shown, by the fact that human
ingenuity has never been able to
make artificial honeycomb The tales
concerning manufactured comb honey
are Pigments of the imagination. Con-
slider any machinery devised for
manufacturing honeycomb would l.
make all parts alike in similar sec
tons Examine carefully two or
more One-pound boxes of honey at
your grocer's and you will note differ
ences in the finish of cappings and
building the comb fast to the wooden
casing, which will at once convince
you of the genuineness of the article
Not only does the bee excel as an
artisan, but also as a chemist. It's
honey stomach is the most delicate
chemical laboratory in the world.
Here the nectar of the flowers is trans
formed from a highly diluted sweet.
susceptible of speedy fermentation,
into the most perfect food product
known. This chemical change, in
verting the sugar, according to the
chemists phrase, is undoubtedly ac-
complished in the laboratory of the
bee during its short flight from the
field to the hive. This chemical re-
action is so delicate that no labor
atory aside from that of the bee can
successfully accomplish it. !
Notice
This is to inform the public that