VALUE OF THE BEE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12773, 21 April 1910, Page 1

VALUE OF THE BEE.

If every farmer and fruit grower were to take the advice offered on Monday night in a remarkable lecture before the Farmers' Club, British crops would probably be multiplied in value by millions of pounds (says a London paper). . Mr. Herrod, proving his contentions by admirable slides, made out the bee to bo one of the greatest friends of the human race. . Formic acid, which no chemist can make, v is obtained direct from the bees in America and used as a cure for rhenroaiism, and in ih& .hospitals bonfey is bow employed as a valuable substitute for cod liner oiL But the farmer and fruit grower receive the most valuable boon. It is proved that apples are earlier, larger, and much more numerous where bees are in quantity. Some beautiful photographs showed that mis-shapen and stunted apples are duo principally to bad fertilisation; and the perfect strawberry needs 100 to 300 acts of fertilisation. New Zealand, which now exports clover seed, could not grow any till a cargo of bumble bees were sent oyer, and a number of Californian fruit growers failed till bees were kept.