78 AMERICAN HOXEY PLANTS 



brought to tliis country as early as 1621, and has been the most important 

 plant grown on southern plantations since the early development of the 

 country. 



The plant thrives in a warm and humid climate, and needs five to six 

 months of warm weather. However, it is grown successfully under semi- 

 arid conditions in parts of Texas and other Southern States. The so-called 

 cotton belt extends from the nortwhest corner of Texas south to the Rio 

 Grande, and east to the Atlantic seaboard. A limited acreage is grown in 

 California, but, excepting very restricted areas, it is not important outside 

 the territory mentioned. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia are 

 perhaps the most important of the cotton-growing States. The Carolinas, 

 Louisiana and Oklahoma also grow it in large areas. 



Honey production reaches its highest development in localities where 

 good nectar-bearing plants are grown in large acreage. Hence we find 

 beekeeping thriving in dairy communities, where alsike and white clover 

 are grown abundantly. We also find the beekeepers prosperous where 

 alfalfa is an important crop. In the Southern States, cotton is the one 

 field crop grown on a sufficient scale to otTer ideal conditions for the bee- 

 keeper. However, cotton is fickle in its behavior, and cannot always be 

 depended upon to produce nectar, no matter how abundant the crop. In 

 some cotton-growing districts the beekeepers swear by cotton, while in 

 other localities they declare that it is of little value. The character of the 

 soil seems to be a very important factor in the secretion of nectar by this 

 plant. The vigor of the growth and the amount of available plant food 

 in the soil are also important. Reports from different sections indicate 

 that the quality of the honey varies in dift'erent sections. 



W. D. Null, of Demopolis, Ala, wrote to the author as follows : 



"This, you know, was for sixty years the heaviest cotton-growing 

 section in the nation. Bees will not work cotton if they can work 

 anything else, even bitterweed. It yields honey of very poor quality, 

 and never very much, some years none at all. Weather conditions 

 must be just right, and that don't come often. The honey is the same 

 grade as the most honeydews." 



In contrast, we find the following report of good honey and abundant 

 yield in American Bee Journal for 1907, page 267: 



"Cotton blossoms furnish a great deal of excellent honey, and the 

 theory that it explodes or ferments is all bosh. It makes an excellent 

 rich honey, oily, and it is not liked so well by some until they get used 

 to it."— Jules Belknap, M. D., Sulphur Springs, Ark. 



When the writer made his first trip through Georgia he was much puz- 

 zled by the different reports of apparently good ol)servers in different 

 parts of the State. The matter was finally explained by a beekeeper who 

 iiad lived in different localities, by the variation in behavior of the plant 

 under different conditions. There is perhaps no important honey plant 

 which varies so much, in the quality of its nectar, as does cotton. The 

 poor quality in some places can doubtless be explained by the fact that 

 the flow is not abundant, and is mixed with other low-grade stores. How- 

 ever, honeydew is also sometimes reported from the plant itself. 



