. The American bee keeper. Bee culture; Honey. 120 1HE AMERICAN BEES OF GREAT VALUE TO FRUIT AND SEED GROW ERS. At last fruit-growers and bee-keep- ers are getting into right relations with each other. The numerous dis- cussions which have taken place re- garding the value of bees as fertiliz- ers of fruit blossoms and of those blos- soms of plants grown for their seeds, and regarding the alleged damage to fruit by bees, have led to close obser- vation and careful experimentation, the results of which show that the interests of these two classes of pro- ducers conflict in but trif
. The American bee keeper. Bee culture; Honey. 120 1HE AMERICAN BEES OF GREAT VALUE TO FRUIT AND SEED GROW ERS. At last fruit-growers and bee-keep- ers are getting into right relations with each other. The numerous dis- cussions which have taken place re- garding the value of bees as fertiliz- ers of fruit blossoms and of those blos- soms of plants grown for their seeds, and regarding the alleged damage to fruit by bees, have led to close obser- vation and careful experimentation, the results of which show that the interests of these two classes of pro- ducers conflict in but trifling respects —that, in fact, bee-keepers and fruit- growers are of great help to each oth- er, and even indispensable if each is to obtain the best results in his work. Bee keepers have never complained but that the growing of fruit in the vicinity of their apiaries was a great benefit to their interests, hence their position has been merely a defensive one, the battle waxing warm only when poisonous substances were set out to kill the bees, or when fruit- growers sprayed their orchards with poisonous insecticides during the time the trees were in blossom, or again when efforts were made to secure by legislation the removal of bees from a certain locality as nuisances. Fruit- growers iii'st relented when close vation ami exp< riment showed that wasps bit open tender fruits, birds peeked them, they cracked un- der the action of sun and rains, and hail sometimes cut them, the bees ? only coming in to save the wasting juices of the injured fruit. The wide publicity given to the results of the experiments made under the direction of the United States entomologist and published in the report of the Com- missioner of Agriculture for 1885, have no doubt contributed much to secure this change among fruit-growT- ers. Hut now it would appear that the bees have not only been vindicated, but that in the future fruit-growers are likely to be generally regarded as more indebted to bee-
Size: 2486px × 1005px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbeeculture, bookyear1
