January 15, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICUIiTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



71 



Although Northampton has somewhat stinted the cups in 

 comparison with last year, we must not forget that these are 

 generally subscribed for, and thai the subscriptions, it appears, 

 being few, accounts for the decrease. It is quite evident that if 

 fanciers wish for good prizes and a number of classes, they must 

 support the Show with their purses, which, it may be remarked, 

 they do not to the extent they should. 



Before concluding, the following improvements might be made 

 for the future :— That the restricted price ('20,s.) of the Selling 

 class be raised to at least '30s., asit is well known that a thoroughly 

 good Rabbit cannot be bought for the former ; that the second 

 and third prizes be of greater value, even if this has to be 

 deducted from the first one, and I repeat what was said before 

 regarding the class for Belgian Hares and Patagoniaus. 



Taken altogether, Northampton is still worthy of being one 

 of our leading exhibitions, if not the leading one ; and I 

 sincerely hope that fanciers will support it with large entries 

 now, and next year with greater and more numerous subscrip- 

 tions and gifts for estra prizes and classes. — E. 



BEE PASTURAGE. 



As " C. H. E." and others are anxious to obtain a complete 

 list of plants that yield honey, it will be well to consider the 

 subject in a longer notice than is generally admitted into the 

 " Letter Box." Dr. Watts, in his beautiful hymn, has spoken 

 of the busy bee gathering "honey all the day from every open 

 flower." 1 should like to hear the word "many" used instead 

 of " every," for there are hundreds of flowers and plants which 

 do not produce honey. 



It is beyond the powers of the best informed mind to name 

 every plant and flower found in this country which yields 

 honey. Bees have been seen at work on the dock, daisy, and 

 dandelion in places and times of scarcity ; yet no writer, 

 probably, would venture to put these in the list of honey- 

 producing plants. Of these the following list contains tlie most 

 valuable, and also some that are of comparatively little value 

 to bees. 



"Winter Acomte. 



Tussilago. 



Rosemary. 



Crocus. 



WUlow. 



Osier. 



Hepatica. 



Violet. 



"Veronica. 



CyanuB (Blue-bottle). 



Syringa. 



Hjaeinth. 



Almond. 



Borage. 



Single "Wallflower. 



Apricot. 



Gooseberry. 



Peach. 



Plum and Cherry. 



Pear and Apple. 



Currant. 



Baspberry. 



35rambleberry. 



Mignonette. 



Laurel. 



Hazel. 



Turnip. 



Cabbage (all the Erasslca tribe). 



Broom. 



Gorse or "WTlin. 



Berberiy. 



Sweet Briar. 



Bibes sanguineum. 



Mallow. 



Maple. 



Sycamore and Plane. 



Lime. 



Bean. 



Field Mustard (Sinapis arvensis). 



Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus 



and major.) 

 St. John's-wort. 

 Honeysuckle. 

 Buckwheat. 

 Hyssop. 

 Nasturtium. 

 "Viper's Bugloss. 

 White Clover. 

 Hollyhock. 

 Heliotrope. 

 Thyme. 

 Ivy. 



Melilotus leucantha. 

 Heather (Heaths of all kinds). 



In early spring crocuses, border hyacinths, single wallflowers' 

 some kind of willows (Salix) are welcomed and much visited 

 by bees, and it is believed all of them yield both honey and 

 pollen. Then follow the flowers of the gooseberry, cherry, plum, 

 pear, and apple, all of which are rich in honey of exquisite 

 flavour. Before the apple blossoms fade the sycamore produces 

 its flower, which is scarcely equalled for the abundance and 

 richness of the honey it produces. In this country honey is 

 not distilled (does not drop) from the flowers of the sycamore 

 tree, but it literally lies on them, and is clammy to the hand. 

 The sycamore continues a long while ii> flower, filling up the 

 interval between the fall of the fruit-tree blossoms and the 

 blooming of the white clover. Field beans flower about the 

 same time — rather later, perhaps, than sycamores, and furnish 

 bees with large supplies. Field mustard, which is a weed 

 covering many a corn field in some parts of the country, flowers 

 about the same time as field beans. It, too, yields large supplies 

 of honey, which speedily crystallises. In"yorkshire and Derby- 

 shire this plant is called ketlock ; in Lanarkshire it is called 

 skellock ; in "Wigtonshire it is termed ranches ; and here, in 

 Lancashire and Cheshire, it is called the yellow weed. 



The reader may be interested to know that no two kinds of 

 plants produce honey alike. "White clover is in this country the 

 queen of honey plants. It continues a long time in flower, and 

 yields a large quantity of rich transparent honey of excellent 

 flavour. It is, perhaps, one of the most sensitive of our honey 

 plants — sensitive, I mean, to the change of weather, and produces 

 but little honey in the face of an east wind. Even mignonette, 



which is a great favourite with bees, is not so easily affected 

 by cold weather as white clover. Red clover is doubtless a 

 honey plant, but its petals are too deep for the proboscis of the 

 honey bee. It cannot reach the receptacles of honey at the 

 bottom of the petals. This remark applies also to flowers of 

 beans, but these are tapped or pierced at their bottoms, just 

 opposite the honey-nectar, and through these pierced holes the 

 rich treasure of bean flowers is extracted. It is a question whether 

 the flowers are tapped by humble bees or our own little workers. 



There has been so much written about bees on the moors and 

 heather honey that I need not add much here. Heather comes 

 into blossom about the beginning of August, and continues to 

 flower for a month or five weeks. Very large harvests of honey 

 are obtained from the moors. Some hives of bees gather 50 lbs. 

 and upwards in three weeks from the tiny blossoms of heather. 

 The moorland honey differs greatly in taste and appearance from 

 all other kinds obtained in Great Britain. Some English 

 gentlemen like it ; but the English palate, generally speaking, 

 prefers the milder honey gathered from fruit trees, sycamore, 

 and clover. Heather honey is largely produced and highly 

 esteemed in Scotland. 



The honey seasons of Great Britain may be divided into three 

 periods — viz., 1st, April and May; 2nd, June and July; 3rd, 

 August. The fruit trees are the great honey-producers during 

 the first period; for the second we have sycamores, beans, field 

 mustard, limes, and white clover. There are dozens of honey 

 plants flowering at this season, but they are unimportant com- 

 pared to those named. Lastly comes the moorland heather, so 

 valuable to the bee-farmer. 



One or two hints will be enough for the intelligent reader. 

 The first is to endeavour to have strong hives of bees in spring 

 ready to gather the honey so abundantly produced by fruit trees. 

 The hives of many bee-keepers are so weak in spring that little 

 advantage is gained from our orchards, whereas those who keep 

 large hives and manage them better often find their hives 

 increase daily in weight from 2 lbs. to 5 lbs. each in fine weather 

 during the first season of honey-gathering. The story of the 

 value of strong hives has never been told, neither is it pos- 

 sible to describe the industry of the honey bee. 



Borage, mignonette, and C^entaurea Cyanus are three annuals 

 whose flowers are very rich in honey, and " C. H. E." cannot 

 have too much of these in the vicinity of his apiary. — 

 A. Pettigkew, Sale, 



BEES IN 1874. 



Se"veeal of your staff or other correspondents have been 

 forward in giving ns their benediction this new year in the 

 matter of flowers, and poultry, and Pigeons, &o. Let not us 

 bee-keepers be behind in wishing each other health and pro- 

 sperity, and our insect friends great encouragement and success 

 in the main business of their lives. This business consists in 

 two important things — first, the maintenance of their race and 

 its multiplication ; secondly, as a means to that end, the harvest- 

 ing in its proper season of what is to them " the staff of life " — 

 namely, honey of excellent quality and in good abundance. Be 

 it so. Our disappointments have been great in this last respect. 

 May both the farmer and the bee-keeper have reason to speak of 

 the whole of Great Britain as a " land flowing with milk and 

 honey ! " That the two products thus connected together in the 

 language of the Bible are with good reason coupled together has 

 been remarkably sho"wn this last season, because both milk and 

 honey have been together less abundant than usual ; and I 

 believe, as I have stated before, from the same cause — namely, 

 the excessive saturation of the soU by the unusual rainfall of 

 last winter, and the gi-eat deficiency of sun-power throughout 

 the spring and summer. No weather-augury can be otherwise 

 than a more or less fortunate surmise ; but we may reasonably 

 hope that in this respect 1874 will be widely different from 1873. 

 Certainly, no deficiency of honey next summer can be put down 

 to an excessive rainfall this winter. It has been splendid 

 hitherto. 



Apart from the question of honey and the "proper increase of 

 our apiaries, there is another matter in which we may look 

 forward to 1874, from our point of view, with much interest a,nd 

 hopefulness. There is likely to be a grand display of apiarian 

 paraphernalia and a show of hives and honey in the Crystal 

 Palace some time next autumn ; nor will the year close without 

 the formation of some sort of national society of apiculture, to 

 which we cannot otherwise than heartily vrish well. In due 

 time these matters will be brought before us. Perhaps, also, 

 something like decisive knowledge will be gained in reference to 

 certain things which cannot yet be said to fall within our actual 

 observation. The question "What is honey?" may be solved 

 in this year of grace, if Mr. Pettigrew and his co-religionists 

 will but verify their surmises. Indeed, your correspondent, " A 

 South Lancashire Bee-keepee," would seem to have solved it 

 already : for does he not tell us he has " found it out by acci- 

 dent ". . . . and " exactly as described ? " No one can fail to 

 see the immense value and importance of such a discovery; 



