OCR Text |
Show HONEY BEE CARRIES POLLEN As Assurance of Crop Depends Upon insects as Distributors, Apiaries Should Be in Orchards. (Ey C. I, LEWIS and C. C. VINCENT.) It has been a question in the minds of many experimenters for some time just how much the wind aids in carrying carry-ing pollen from tree to tree. If the wind does aid in distributing pollen, is it distributed in sufficient quantities to insure the fertilization of the ovules? Since so many of our varieties of apples are known to be self-sterile, and must depend upon, foreign pollen for fertilizing the ovules, this question is Apiaries should be kept in orchards, as the bee is the best agent for cross-pollination. cross-pollination. of serious consequence. Is it the wind or our common honey bee that does the work? From observations made the past few years it is evident that bees play a most important part in the fertilization fertiliza-tion of' the blossoms. To arrive at some definite conclusions as to how much pollen is transmitted through the air by the wind, experiments have been carried on in several states to determine this question. These experiments' ex-periments' demonstrated beyond doubt that plum pollen as well as pollen of several sriecies of apples experimented upon is not transmitted through the air in sufficient quantities to insure in-sure cross-pollination. Hence, the wind cannot be relied upon as an agency to transfer pollen from tree to tree throughout the orchard. That the honey-bee is not attracted lo the blossom by the inflorescence has also been shown. It is apparent that the snowy petals of the blossoms aid materially in attracting the bees. The blossom is well supplied with nectar, and the open character of the nectary makes it accessible to almost all insects. The bees, in trying to reach the nectar, brush against the anthers and carry away with them on their hairy legs and abdomen large quantities of pollen. The insects in visiting other blossoms transfer some of the foreign pollen to these pistils. Since the wind aids so little in cross-pollination, cross-pollination, it is evident that the various vari-ous insects, especially the bees, are carriers of pollen. As the assurance of a crop depends upon insects as distributors of the pollen, it is necessary that apiaries be established in the different fruit sections. sec-tions. With favorable climatic conditions condi-tions and proper planting of varieties the bees would insure pollination. |