220 AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



cut a hole near the bottom and help themselves through it. The hole 

 once made, a number of insects, including bees, take advantage of it; 

 and if the bees do not work on the first crop, it is because there are 

 few hole-boring insects present." 



Here follows a brief report with nothing to indicate whether the bees 

 were seeking nectar or pollen : 



"Last year was very dry and there was scarcely any white clover in 

 blossom here; but the bees went fairly wild on the red clover, and it 

 was the first crop, too." — J. F. Brady, Deerfield, Minn. Gleanings, page 

 149, 191 L 



That the subject is not new will be found by examining the files of the 

 bee magazines of many years ago. Apparently, it has been a controverted 

 subject since beekeeping has been followed seriously in America. In the 

 first volume of the American Bee Journal, page 228, 1861, we find the fol- 

 lowing: 



"I noticed in August and the beginning of September, while the 

 bees were gathering honey from buckwheat, that they obtained pollen 

 of a brownish color from some source. On investigating the matter, I 

 found that they collected it from red clover. This somewhat surprised 

 me, as I had never seen them gathering honey from the red clover to 

 such an extent, particularly while other forage was plenty. * * * j 

 have also noticed that the bees visited only those heads that were im- 

 perfect, the tubes being shorter in consequence." 



The principal interest attached to the above is the statement that the 

 bees visited only the imperfect blossoms. On page 9 of the same volume 

 is a statement somewhat similar, reported in one of the German journals, 

 of Italian bees getting honey from red clover, in 1858. It is said that the 

 season was very dry and the blossoms somewhat smaller as a result. 



In 1899, page IS, American Bee Journal, we find another report of bees 

 working on it in dry weather: 



"My bees work more or less on it almost every year during hot and 

 dry weather, but it does not produce as fine honey as white clover; 

 when candied it is coarser grained, and has a water-soaked appearance. 

 I wish that my bees would let it alone, for we have plenty of white 

 clover when the red is in bloom. — Fred Bechle, Poweshiek County, 

 Iowa. 



Again, on page 27 of the same issue, Theo. Rehorst, of Fond du Lac 

 County, Wisconsin, reports: 



"The mammoth red clover produces good honey and all our honey- 

 bees can reach the nectar, although the corolla is far longer and 

 deeper than the common red clover. I never saw any honey from com- 

 mon red clover; only thin, red stufif, thin as water." 

 In 1903, E. E. Hasty, of Ohio, wrote, in the American Bee Journal, that 

 while he admitted that bees worked on red clover at times, he was ex- 

 tremely doubtful about their ability to get much honey from it. The 

 same doubt has been expressed by numerous observers from time to time, 

 the usual explanation being that the bees are gathering pollen, rather than 

 nectar. 



On page 49 of the 1903 volume of the American Bee Journal is re- 

 ported an interesting case of honeydew from red clover. Since it is the 

 only case of the kind found in all the literature consulted it is quoted quite 

 fully: 



