AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 13 



The huajilla (pronounced "wa-he-ya") grows abundantly over a wide 

 territory in southwest Texas and, as it requires but a small amount of 

 moisture, makes beekeeping profitable where it would otherwise be a 

 precarious business. Large quantities of white honey of mild flavor and 

 fine quality are stored from this source. In a journey of several hundred 

 miles among the beekeepers of Texas, the author found this plant, together 

 with catsclaw and mesquite, to be the principal source of surplus south 

 and west of San Antonio. Various sources were reported, but in nearly 

 every case these three plants were mentioned as heading the list. Huajilla 

 ranks high in both quantity and quality of nectar produced. 



The catsclaw (Acacia greggii), known in some localities as paradise 

 flower or devil's claw, is a low spreading, bushy shrub or small tree with 

 curved thorns, hence the name, "catsclaw." This is a close rival of huajilla 

 for first place as the source of white honey in much of southwest Texas. 

 The far-famed Uvalde honey is largely huajilla and catsclaw. In many 

 places the yield of surplus honey is being reduced through the clearing of 

 the land for farming purposes. Both these plants grow in very dry sec- 

 tions, on land which until recently was thought to be of little value for 

 any purpose without irrigation. 



Scholl lists the round-flowered catsclaw (Acacia roemeriana Schlect) 



as a heavy yielder of honey of good quality, but plants are not abundant. 

 He also lists Acacia amentacea as a source of pollen and some honey, 

 but not in sufficient quantity to be important. 



ACER, see Maple 

 ADAM'S NEEDLE, see Yucca. 

 AESCULUS, see Buckeye. 

 AGARITES, see Barberry. 

 AGAVE, see Century Plant. 



ALABAMA — Honey Sources of. 



There is a large district in Alabama where sweet clover is the princi- 

 pal source of surplus honey. In this region good crops are the rule, since 

 it yields from early June till late in August. In addition, rattan, tulip- 

 poplar, black gum, hawthorne, field peas, privet, locust, redbud, cotton, 

 bitterweed, asters and occasionally white clover, yield honey. There is 

 the usual spring stimulation from fruit blossoms and willows in Alabama 

 and a large number of minor sources which add something to the total 

 yield, but which alone are unimportant. 



ALASKA — Honey Sources of. 



By the accounts given in Bancroft's History of Alaska and in transla- 

 tions made for me by Rev. George Kotteometinoff from the records of the 

 Orthodox Russo-Greek Church at Sitka, the honeybee was first introduced 

 into Alaska in 1809 by a monk named Cherepenin. These bees came from 

 the Department of Kazan, in Siberia, and were brought that honey might 



