NATURE'S SILENT WORKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 294, 6 May 1911, Page 9

NATURE'S SILENT WORKERS.

JIKICS AS iIKLL'.S TO J'AKMKIIS, FLUIIISTS AX I) UIM.'IIAKDISTIS. 'I lie value ol bee-keeping for the pro<liH*tion of seeds and fruit in not so well known as il ought to be, anil .Mr. Win. Ilcrrod, F.K.S., secretary of the British Jleekeepcrs' Association, has been recently trying to awake interest in this matter by the delivery of lecture,s to some of the farmers of the .Midlands, England. J. he bee, he pointed out, was one ui Xatnre's silent workers, which im, possibly the reason why the ilorisL and the I*l mt laruicr were unable to recognise the value of the work of t.lie-e insects in fertilisation a.s well as in the pioduction of honey. .Moreover, m America the tonnic acid, which no chemist can make, i, obtained direct from the bee, and is used there for the cure of rheumatism, while in the hospitals there honey is used as a valuable substitute for cod-liver oil, lu loreign countries bee-keeping was much more looked upon from a utilitarian point of view than in England, and it was shown, that for any damage which might be attributed to the bee, it repaid a thousand fold by carrying out the work of fertilisation, and so causing seeds and fruit to form. If the nectar was not collected it evaporated and was wasted; if it was collected, then in all probability the llower would be lertilised, and in this way both the bee-keeper and the tarnier stood ty guin tlie former by obtaining honey which was made in the stomach of the bee from the nectar obtained, and the latter by the seed formed by fertilisation of the Howei. Darwin found that bees were Decenary for the fertilisation of some kinds of clover. "For instance,'' he says, "20 heads of Dutch clover (Trifolii'mi rcpens) yielded 22' JO seeds, but 20 other heads protected front bees produced not one." Hence the lecturer inferred as highly probable that if the whole genus of bumble bees became extinct or very rare in England the red clover would become very rare or wholly disappear. It was stated that in New Zealand some years ago bees were introduced for the fertilisation of red clover, fjoHi which, up to then, it had been impossible to obtain seed, as there was an absence of insects which would visit those flowers in the colony. After the introduction of these bees seed had been grown with great success. That bees were useful to the farmer even with ordinary farm crops, and that some practical, up-to-date farmers realised this, was proved by the fact that hives of bees were carried into beanfields just after horse-hoeing and the plants were about to bloom so that they might be close to the crop to carry out the work of fertilisation. As to the fruit-grower, it was proved that apples weie earlier, larger, and much more numerous where bees were in quantity while misshapen and stunted fruit was due principally to bad fertilisation. In tact, bees much more than weather i;illuenced the crop. We may supplement the information allorded by Mr. Herrod's lectures by a specialist's hints on bee management. mIV i i W<? i bri <J& e from the Staffordshire _ \ eelJy Sentinel," which is published m the same part of England in which the lectures above mentioned were donvcred. Dealing specially with management in spring, it is pointed out that owin<r to various causes though the bees go Into winter quarters with an apparent sufficiency of stored food, there is often not enough to carry them through until the collection of nectar begins. Artificial food is usually supplied in the shape of sugal -sj i up, made by boiling sugar in a port">" of water and given in a liquid state; but it the weather is cold this has a detrimental effect, and'the safer method is to give candy. This food eontains a minimum of moisture, and is consumed by the bees in much the same way as they utilise their own store. In the preparation of all foods for bees only pure cane sugar is admissable; beet sugar is injurious. Six pounds of sn„ ar "ith one pint of water and half a teaspoontul of cream of tantar is melted gradually, and to this is *dd t d a half tcaspoonful of naphtol beta solution as the usual preventative of diseases. The , C . n " ( y i shou 'd "either be too soft nor too hai l but rather of a buttery consistency so that ,io great amount of labor is re?n"i fn V bees in eonsu min» it. \ lib bottle of honey placed in each 01b of sugar and well mixed will ensure thp candy being of the right nature, and Mil aU impart to it a taste that will soon be noticed by the bees. The queen has now commenced to lav the foundation of the stock bv depositing a tew eggs, and she will from time to time increase her progeny according to the condition of the weather. In feeding the young larvae, a proportion of nitrogenous food (pollen) is absolutely necessary, and where there is a lack of honey there is generally a deficiency in this respect also. Bees require a certain amount ot wa er particularly i„ the carlv spring, ■ind if not naturally found liear thl> apiary it must be supplied. The best way is to provide a shallow pan with a number of corks floating onShc wator to give the bees a foothold and to save them from drowning.