UARKELS. 



37 



BASS WOOD. 



keeper to use them in preference to barrels. 

 While the tin package costs a little more 

 per pound, it also brings a little more on the 

 market ; for the buyer can take as large or 

 small a quantity as he needs. Where the 

 purchaser hesitates to buy a whole barrel of 

 lioney for his own local trade, he will readily 

 take one or more cans of 60 lbs. each. 



REMOVING CANDIED HONEY FROM BARRELS. 



Good thick honey will usually become sol- 

 id at the approach of frosty weather, and 

 perhaps the readiest means of getting it out 

 of the barrel in such cases is to remove one 

 of the heads, and take it out with a scoop. 

 When it is quite hard, you may at first think 

 it difficult to force a scoop down into it ; but 

 if you press steadily, and keep moving the 

 scoop slightly, you will soon get down its 

 whole depth. If the barrel is kept for some 

 time near the stove, or in a very warm room, 

 the honey will become liquid enough to be 

 drawn out through a large-sized honey-gate. 



A more wholesale way of removing can- 

 died honey is to set the barrel or keg in a tub 

 or wooden tank of water, the latter being 

 kept hot by a small steam-pipe. In 24 or 36 

 hours the honey in the barrel will be melted, 

 and can tlien be drawn out in the usual way. 



BASSVTOOD (or Linden) [Tilia Amer- 

 icana, Tilia heterophylla ^ argentea , cind other 

 Tilice). Excepting, perhaps, alfalfa, sage, 

 and white clover, basswood (often known as 

 "linden") furnishes more honey than any 

 other one plant or tree known in this 

 country. It is true that it does not yield 

 honey every season ; but what plant or tree 

 does? It occasionally gives us such an im- 

 mense flood of honey that we can aft'ord to 

 wait a season or two, if need be, rather than 

 depend on sources that yield more regularly, 

 yet in much smaller amounts. If a bee- 

 keeper is content to wait, say ten or fifteen 

 years, for the realization of his hopes, or if 

 he has an interest in providing for the bee- 

 keepers of a future generation, it will pay 

 him to plant basswoods. A tree that was 

 set out about ten years ago in one of our 

 streets now furnishes a profusion of blos- 

 soms, almost every year ; and from the way 

 the bees work on them we should judge it 

 furnishes considerable honey. A hundred 

 such trees in the vicinity of an apiary would 

 be, without doubt, of great value. See Ar- 

 tificial Pasturage. Our 4000 trees were 

 planted in the spring of 1872, and in 1877 

 many of them were bearing fair loads of 

 blossoms. "We made some experiments with 

 basswood seeds, but tliey proved mostly fail- 



ures, as have nearly all similar ones we have 

 heard from. By far the better and cheaper 

 way is to get small trees from the forest. 

 They can be bought for about one cent each. 

 These can be obtained in almost any quan- 

 tity, from any piece of woodland from 

 which stock has been excluded. Cattle feed 

 upon the young basswoods with great avid- 

 ity, and pasturing our woodlands is eventu- 

 ally going to cut short the young growth of 

 these trees from our forests, as well as of 

 many others that are valuable. We planted 

 trees all the way from one to ten feet in 

 height. The larger ones have, as a general 

 rule, done best. 



The cut will enable any one to distinguish 

 at once the basswood when seen. Clusters 

 of little balls with their peculiar leaf at- 

 tached to the " seed stems''. are to be seen 

 hanging from the branches the greater part 

 of the summer ; and the appearance, both 

 before And after blossoming, is pretty much 

 the same. The blossoms are small, of a light- 

 yellow color, and rather pretty ; the nectar 

 is deposited on the inner side of the thick 

 fleshy petals. When profuse it will sparkle 

 like dewdrops if a cluster of blossoms is held 

 up to the sunlight. 



Climatic influences have their effect upon 

 basswood. Among the hills of York State 

 the leaves assume mammoth proportions. 

 We measured one that was 14 inches long. 

 While this leaf was among the largest, j'et 

 the leaves were, on the average, about twice 

 the size of those in our own locality. In 

 Illinois we noticed that the basswoods seem- 

 ed to be less thrifty than in Ohio. The leaves 

 seemed to be smaller, and the bark of the 

 trees of a little different appearance. The 

 next engraving represents quite accurately 

 the typical forms, however. 



The European basswood, or linden (fully 

 as good a honey-producer as the American 

 species) is famous as an avenue tree, as it 

 furnishes a fine shade and is unaffected by 

 the grime and dirt of the cities. The famous 

 street of Berlin, Unter den-Linden, is shad- 

 ed by this species. It is known in England 

 as the "lime" tree, and is there a great 

 favorite for street planting. The famous 

 "lime-tree walk'" of Cambridge University 

 is well known. This tree takes precedence 

 over all others for street planting in the 

 northern United States. It blooms earlier 

 than its American sister. 



It is rather to be regretted that basswood 

 is not more plentiful, being one of the main 

 stays, where it grows, of the honey-producer, 

 and one of the most valuable woods in man- 



