AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 79 



"Sometimes, during a damp spell, the cotton gets covered with vast 

 numbers of aphis, and the upper side of the leaves will first get gummy 

 and then will even drip a kind of dirty-looking sweet fluid. If there is 

 anything else on hand the bees will not touch it." — W. H. Alder, Calla- 

 han County, Texas, page 334, American Bee Journal, 1899. 



It is needless to say that this would make a poor product, and it is 

 not improbable that honeydew is sometimes secured from cotton in lo- 

 calities where it seldom yields nectar. The secretion is apparently depend- 

 ent far more upon soil than upon any other condition. Upon the black, 

 wavy lands of Texas and upon other soils, it reaches its highest develop- 

 ment. The boundary of the belt, where cotton yields freely and where it 

 does not, is very marked in Texas. North of the escarpment which runs 

 across Bexar County, Texas, near San Antonio, it is an important source. 

 South of that line few beekeepers report it as dependable. North of this 

 line the soil is black and heavy; south it is sandy. Wherever the writer 

 has found beekeepers on sandy soil, they have reported the yield from 

 cotton as uncertain ; while on the heavy soils they report it as fairly con- 

 stant, with suitable weather conditions. The map shown herewith, Fig 46, 

 roughly outlines the heavy section where honey from cotton is important 

 in Texas. Cotton is grown east, south and, to some extent, west of that 

 line. In east Texas cotton is reported as yielding well on river bottom 

 lands and but little on the hills. In the southern sections, and also in other 

 States, an occasional crop is reported where it does not yield regularly: 



"We had a very dry, sultry spell here the latter part of last Au- 

 gust, and up to that time the bees were living from hand to mouth. 

 All at once they began storing from the cotton bloom, though it looked 

 as though cotton was going to die in the fields from drought and heat, 

 yet it yielded until the bees had stored from 30 to 60_ pounds per col- 

 only."^. J. Wilder, Cordele, Ga., American Bee Journal, page 141, 1906. 

 On suitable soils it is one of the most dependable sources of nectar : 



"The apiarist who has his bees located within range of extensive 

 cotton areas can count on at least an average crop year after year, 

 with more certainty than many of the other numerous honey yielders 

 which we have." — Louis Scholl, page 652, Gleanings, 1912. 



"My main sources for surplus are mesquite trees, the cotton 

 fields being the second of importance in the central and northern parts 

 of the State, or throughout the black land region. On sandy or light 

 soil cotton yields very little honey. * * * 



"The yield is good, averaging about IZ pounds of bulk comb honey 

 per year. One year it was over 100 pounds. Honey from cotton is very 

 light in color, the comb very white, and of excellent flavor when well 

 ripened. As soon as cool weather sets in this honey fairly draws out 

 in long strings, when handled with a spoon." — Gleanings, page 1313, 

 1907. 



From the above it will be seen that cotton honey is of good quality, at 

 least in some localities Samples said to be from cotton from Georgia, 

 are strong and of rather poor quality, while cotton honey received from 

 Texas is light in color, of mild and rather pleasing flavor. The honey 

 from Cotton granulates very quickly. That produced in the Southeastern 

 States also has the effect of bursting the containers, possibly from the 

 effects of fermentation. The humidity of the atmosphere evidently has a 



