279 

 Michigan Station, Bulletin No. 65, August, 1890 (pp. 7). 



Special planting for honey, A. J. Cook, M. S. (illustrated).— 

 It is well knowu that owing to peculiar oouditions of the weather even 

 the best houey plants sometimes fail to secrete nectar or produce blos- 

 soms. There are also times iu every season and region, as in Michigan 

 from July 15 to August 15, when there is a dearth of nectar-secreting 

 flowers. Waste places, near apiaries, such as are found along roads and 

 railways, might be utilized if the right kind of honey plant for plant- 

 ing there could be discovered. For the past two seasons this station 

 has devoted about 14 acres of laud to investigations in this line. " The 

 seasons have been very opportune, as there was an almost total failure 

 iu the honey harvest both years, and so if any plan adopted was a suc- 

 cess, it would have ample chance to i)rove its excellence." The plants 

 experimented with were " Rocky Mountain bee plant {Cleome inteyri- 

 folia), Chapman honey plant {Echinops sphcerocephalus), and a foreign 

 mint of the genus Melissa,''^ Four or five acres, part clay and ])art sandy 

 soil, were sown with the Chapman honey plant. The plants made a 

 vigorous growth, but did not blossom until the second season. After 

 bearing a full crop of seed the plants seemed exhausted and few sur- 

 vived to blossom again, though young plants came u^) thickly from the 

 self-sown seed. The seed sown on five acres in the spring of 1890 almost 

 entirely failed to germinate. Another objection to this plant is that the 

 chaft" has minute barbed awns, which severely wound the skin and eyes 

 of the persons who clean the seed. 



The Rocky Mountain bee plant sown in 1888 and 1889 did not ger- 

 minate well on either sandy or clay land, and the flowers produced did 

 not secrete nectar freely. "The melissa is an annual. We planted it 

 for two successive years. It did well, blossomed freely, and was visited 

 very generally by the bees. It grows well on both sand and clay, and 

 by sowing early will commence to bloom early in July and continue 

 iu bloom for a month or more. I regret to say that it will not self-seed 

 and must be planted annually. This is expensive and it is doubtful if 

 it will pay." The author thinks that one of the perennial mints might 

 be found more serviceable and hopes to make experiments with some 

 of these mints in the future. 



Michigan Station, Bulletin No. 66, September, 1890 (pp. 8). 



Fighting the plum curculio, A. J. Cook, M. S. — This paper 

 was read in substance before the Association for the Promotion of Ag- 

 ricultural Science, at Indianapolis, August 19, 1890. It includes a brief 

 account of the life history of the curculio and a discussion cf different 

 methods for its repression. The author's observations and experience, 

 confirmed by inquiries among fruit growers of Michigan, lead him to 

 believe that the curculio has such a decided preference for tbe plum 

 that if plum-trees are planted near other fruit trees the latter will be 



