>
>Just to play devils advocate here - what do you think the soil was like,
>say, before we imported the little buggers?  Methinks you downplay the
>role of native pollinators too much.

there is a beautiful collection of letters, Letters from Honeyhill,
written by the wife of a beekeeper that describes the soil in Wyoming
at the beginning of the 20th century and why the government was
encouraging beekeepers in that part of the country.