Spraying vs. Beekeeping (100 years ago)

Probably we may look for an ever increasing array of parasites and diseases, not only on our fruit-trees but on the shade-trees. The forces in nature that tend to tear down are always on the increase, and constant vigilance is necessary to combat them. This means that the beekeeper must realize that spraying of shade-trees as well as of fruit-trees is bound to increase, and the probabilities are that bee-poisoning resulting from spraying is likely to become some day a serious matter in many localities just as it is now in a few localities.

Dr. Burton N. Gates, in charge of apiculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and state inspector of bees for Massachusetts, has made a compilation of the known instances of alleged poisoning, with some recommendations for relief, in a bulletin on the subject, No. 10A, under the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. We believe tins is the best and most authoritative statement on the spraying situation that has yet appeared.

Dr. Gates gives numerous instances of poisoning that have come under his own observation, and also takes from GleanIngs and other bee-journals similar reports from other states. A report from West Newton, under date of June 16, 1915, is as follows: "Each morning there are manybees, sometimes 200 or more, on the ground, unable to fly, but trembling around until they die." Another from Middleboro: "The bees come home with white lead on their backs. In the morning you can see a quart of bees on the ground in front of their hives."

The poison is not only in the nectar, but in the pollen. Some peculiar features of the situation, as pointed out on page 18, is that certain colonies in an apiary may be affected, while others, apparently, are not. One beekeeper reporting for his locality says perhaps one apiary in ten is doing well.
The remedial measures mentioned on pages 18 and 19 are as follows:

"1. Legislation, which shall control spraying practices, overcome the spraying of blossoming trees, license contracting spraymen, and limit the indiscriminate, injudicious, and unnecessary use of poisons: the correction of mistaken state and municipal spraying practices.

"2. Educational campaign, which shall correctly inform users of spray poisons and reveal the errors and fallacies iu current spraying practices; which shall promote the welfare of beekeepers.

"3. Co-operation of the manufacturer and distributer of spraying materials, compounds, and apparatus might be enlisted, to the end of furthering the educational campaign for sane spraying practices ami the protection of bees.

"4. Development of spraying compounds which shall be repellant to bees. This, at the writer's suggestion several years ago. attracted the attention of scientists. It is hoped that benefits will result, yet it must be remembered that such experimentation is necessarily of slow progress."

Gleanings in Bee Culture, Volume 44, 1916

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