. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. ESTABLISHED^^ IN 1861. VOL. XIX. CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 31, 1883. Ko. 5. Published every Wednesday, by THOMAS G. NEWMAN, Editor and Proprietor, Bees as Fertilizers of Flowers. In fructifying the various flowers bees act as Nature's marriage-priests, and present us with a field of study as boundless as the gorgeous realm of Nature's bloom. But for the oft- repeated visits of the bees, many a a beautiful flower would, in a short time, cease to bloom—aye, and also to live ! Many plants absolutely require the visits of bees or other insects to remove thei
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. ESTABLISHED^^ IN 1861. VOL. XIX. CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 31, 1883. Ko. 5. Published every Wednesday, by THOMAS G. NEWMAN, Editor and Proprietor, Bees as Fertilizers of Flowers. In fructifying the various flowers bees act as Nature's marriage-priests, and present us with a field of study as boundless as the gorgeous realm of Nature's bloom. But for the oft- repeated visits of the bees, many a a beautiful flower would, in a short time, cease to bloom—aye, and also to live ! Many plants absolutely require the visits of bees or other insects to remove their pollen-masses, and thus to fertilize them. Hence, Darwin wisely remarks, when speaking of clover and hearfs- ease : " No bees, no seed; no seed, no increase of the flower. The more visits from the bees, the more seeds from the flower ; the more seeds from the flower, the more flowers from the ; Darwin mentions the fi)llowing ex- periment : " Twenty heads of white clover, visited by bees, produced 2,900 seeds ; wliile twenty heads, so protected that bees could not visit them, produced not one ; Prof. Beal, of the Michigan Agri- cultural College, has been conducting experiments, for the past .six years, with bumble-beesand red clover. The sixth experiment, during 1882, he de- scribes as follows • Two fine bunches of the first clover crop, apparently alike, were both covered with mosquito netting. No insects were seen about either, except wliat are mentioned below. On .June 29tli, a bumble-bee was placed inside of one netting and .seen to work on the flowers; July lOtti, tvvoBQore were introduced and seen to work, and on the 12th, more were put in and ob- served. On July 31st, fifty ripe heads were selected from each plant and the seeds carefully counted. The fifty heads on the plants where bees were excluded yiel-^ed twenty-five seeds. The fifty heads im the plant where the bumble-bees were inserted under tlie muslin, and seen to work, yielde
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
