714 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



surplus from this plant, and yet it is, as per the list already given, 

 second in value to the bee-keeping industry of this region, from the 

 fact that it furnishes the bees a source of winter supply. Its value 

 in this respect will be readily seen from the following data: July 

 20, when 1 took oil' the surplus honey — white clover — the hives as a 

 rule were fairly well filled with stores. September 1, the beginning 

 of the aster tlow, the bees had well used up other stores, the result 

 of a honey drouth from about July 15. At the end of the aster 

 flow the hives were again full, and a few had begun operations in the 

 supers when that cold wave struck us. White clover for surplus 

 and aster for winter stores. These are our two main sources. 



The principal value of soft maple is its early availability, yielding 

 honey and pollen by the middle of March, and thus stimulating 

 brood-rearing and giving colonies short in stores a limited source of 

 supply sufficient for the time at least. 



The same may be said of fruit bloom, coining as it does the latter 

 part of April and fore part of May. There is this difference, how- 

 ever, in that the bees usually gather from this source a goodly 

 quantity of fine, rich, honey for present use, filling the combs oftimes 

 one-third full. But right here we are face to face with a dire calamity 

 threatening the bee-keeping industry of Adams county. This is a 

 fruit-growing region, and the spraying of fruit trees while in bloom 

 is becoming more general. This is death to the bees. There must 

 be some legislation along this line, or our industry is doomed. 



Locust is uncertain. The raspberry, though sure and of good 

 quality, is of limited extent. Sumac and catnip are valuable in that 

 they come at a time when there is a dearth in the honey flow. Es- 

 pecially in this true of catnip. Its time and length of flow, early 

 part of July to middle of Sept., about ten weeks, makes it no mean 

 asset to the bee-keeping industry. I am convinced that many bee- 

 keepers do not appreciate this plant as they should. Speaking with 

 a friend upon this subject during the past summer, he said: "Oh, 

 yes; I see the bees working on it much during the summer, but have 

 never known them to make much out of it." This was the remark 

 of a hasty conclusion. In the first place, with us it does not grow 

 very abundantly, and in the second place, it comes, as we have 

 already seen, at the time of a honey drouth, so that the bees seldom 

 store any of the nectar in the surplus, and hence the above conclu- 

 sion. But while very little is obtained in the surplus, it does furnish 

 a reliable source for the brood nest, and in addition to this gives the 

 bees some employment at a time when otherwise they would be in a 

 large measure idle. My conclusion is that if there is one honey plant 

 worthy of cultivation for its honey yielding qualities alone, catnip is 

 that plant. 



