BEES AND FRUIT

Nelson Evening Mail, 3 August 1916, Page 7

BEES AND FRUIT

ADDRESS TO ORCHARDTSTS

Air W. Bowman, of the Apiaries Division of the Agricultural Department, is at present in the Nelson district, and was spc-oiallv invited to attend the meeting of shareholders of the Nelson Fruitpa" kors Ltd.. held at Upper Aloutere vesterday. and gi^ r e an address. Air Bowman said that bees and fruit were regarded as sister industries. Fruit blossoms must be properly inoculated cr there would be. no fruit. It had been estimated that 75 per cent of blossoms of >.ll trees were inoculated' by the agenov of bees . An apple blossom I he believed had to be inoculated five times in order to obtain a perfect fruit. Bees, he nointed out, gave a crop of honey as well vs a, crop of fruit, without b?es the.-e would be practicnllv no fruit crop. Bees were also useful friends'to the farmer. He instanced a case in the South where i farmer had offered a beekeeper a st'.a on his farm with the result that he obtained, three bags of white clover seedto the acre against three-quarters of a ba"- previous to the introduction of the bees. Some people argued that the bees were killed bv the use of poisonous sprays, but he had yet to come across a commercial fruit-grower who sprayed while bis trees were in blossom, whicn was the period during which they were visited by the bees.. He had heard of farmers complaining that the bees stole the nectar, but the quantity of nectar was so small that its loss was not wortn -onsid'sration. Some varieties of fruit required to be cross-fertilised,, and nothing would effect this better than the bee Ho advised every orchardist 1o keep a. few hives of bees. They would increase the fruit crop, even if no honeycrop was obtained. Generally there were I from 60,000 to 100,000 bees in. a colony, md with that many working about tne -iirc-havrl there would be very few blossoms that would not be visited by- some bees. Bee-keeping was'a fascinating as well as a lucrative hobby, and though he would not say that the* Aloutere distri-.-t Was a. commercial bee country it was a listrict that required a large number of been in order to fertilise the fruit blo\ soms. A word of advice was given in regard to bee diseases-, it being emphasised that if a single hive was infected :he disease might spread over the whole listrict. It was also explained that the kepping of bees under the old system was now prohibited'. They must be kept in properly-constructed liives, having movable frames of comb. Another point made was the value attaching to co-operation, which bad proved very successful in regard to bee-keeping, and was just as essential to the fi'uit industry. Mr Bowman humorously referred to the fact that the bee-keeper, is well as the fruitgrower, could point to valuable by-products—honey mead (non-alcoholic and "otherwise") and vinegar (from the coarser grades .«. f honey). Air Bowman's address was followed with great interest and he was accorded i very hearty vote of thanks for the Information he had ; imparted . M.r Bowman announced that he would be pleased to give a special address en bee-keeping or to meet' anyone intex'ened in the subject.