THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 11

THE APIARY.

SITES FOR APIARIES.

Those who intend to engage in beekeeping should* not overlook the fact that the distance between temporary sites is a matter of importance. Aligratory apiarists may not be so welcome as they may think. One notes with interest that in Ale'lbourne recently, at a conference of bee-keepers, the distance between temporary sites was fixed at one mile. Previously it was two miles for temporary as well as permanent sites. On the representation of experienced apiarists it was agreed that two miles should continue to be the distance between permanent sites, but that one mile was sufficient in the case of apiaries which had to be moved during the honev gathering season.

One of the oldest beekeepers in the State (Air- D. Al. Alorgan) pointed out that the bulk of the honey in Victoria was being produced by migratory apiarists. Colonies of bees, he said, were rushed into a district, on the first place that caught the eye. with no consideration tor the man who had come before with his apiary. Both apiaries would have done much better had there been a little regulating. The timber resources of the state, from an apiculturist’s point at least, appeared to be diminishing. Even on the roads the timber was being destroyed. J here were millions of acres of timbered forests, but not much of value to beekeepers.

It was evident that the best honeyproducing timbers of the State were disappearing, with no replacements of trees of value to the industry. For a long time remarked Air Alorgan, beekeepers had been endeavourim' to airange matters so that the overlapping of apiaries might be avoided, and if those controlling temporary colonies would only take the precaution of locating the positmn of the apiaries in the selected wh‘? I ty ‘ ?- le r posslbl I llt y of the friction which not infrequently arises would be removed. POLLENISATION. • P j 1 fl° wer contained pollen-bear-ing and pollen-receiving parts. The norma process of fertilisation was for the nart “of r the fall ° n A he pistil or fe,nale V h i e / lower - A strange compact y as made between a plant and an insect of the greatest importance to races set unborn. The compact was that the plant should manufacture nectar and freely supply it as food, and that the insect, in return should carry the fructifying pollen grains from flower to flower, savs Professor A E. V. Richardson. Out of that compact grew the rivalry that stimulated development, and made possible the evolution of the whole race of plants that bore beautiful flowers and exhaled sweet perfumes. But for that alliance there never would have developed in the world a conspicuously coloured or scented flower ot any kind. There were other plants that u’u not join the plant-insect union. Ifiese apostates were the numerous gigantic trees that no longer depended upon insects for the fertilisation of the Howers. These-trees and the maize plants long ago declared against further cooperation with insects, and adopted the method of producing large quantities of pollen and scattering it in the air to be cai ried by the wind to the female flowers. . was .,P r obable that the trees changed their allegiance from insect messengers to the wind, because of the nature of the conditions under which they grew. By raising their heads higher and higher they were able to broadcast their pollen over wide stretches of territory. There was another group of plants that had forsaken the plant-insect union, the cereals—wheat, barley, oats, and rye, arid certain vegetables, like peas and beans, lhese plants were habitually self-fertilised and were annuals. They did not know tx- Yi , e,se Plants renounced the union. With the perennial plants it was not vital that there should be a crop of seeds every year, but in the case of the annual the matter was very different. Should plants fail to produce seed for a single season the entire race might vanish. When they sowed the seeds of cereals usually 90 per cent, germinated, and the rest of the seed decayed before the end of the season. It was not strange, therefore, that plants perennially threatened with destruction should adopt measures to ensure fertilisation.