232 AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



see whether there are not sections better adapted to its growth. 



The following article by C. P. Dadant, reprinted from the American 

 Bee Journal, page 790, 1904, will give some information about the value of 

 the plant in European countries: 



"Sainfoin, otherwise called esparcet, is widely cultivated in Europe, 

 especially in France. Its name, "sainfoin," is French, and literally 

 means "healthy hay" — sain-foin. It is a perennial, gives a splendid 

 hay crop, and in some sections of the European continent it is a first- 

 class honey-producer. 



"The small province of France, formerly called "Gatinais," is the 

 leading producer of sainfoin honey. According to the best authorities, 

 the honey of Gatinais has the reputation of being of the whitest color 

 and sweetest taste, and is said to be in no way surpassed by white clo- 

 ver honey. 



"Gaston Bonnier, the eminent professor who was President of the 

 International congress of beekeepers at Paris in 1900, says in his 

 book, the 'Cours Complet d'Apiculture,' that sainfoin honey is one of 

 the best appreciated grades. He ranks it next only to the honey of 

 the Alpine hills of eastern France and Switzerland. 



"From immemorial times the honey crops of Gatinais have been 

 considered as leading in the amount of production, and this was all 

 credited to the sainfoin, which is grown there in immense quantities, 

 somewhat as alfalfa is grown in the irrigated plains of the West. It 

 was in Gatinais that the custom of inverting hives began, in order to 

 secure the largest possible quantity of honey from the bees, regardless 

 of future consequences. For that reason the beekeepers of Gatinais 

 were compelled to replenish apiaries every season with bees brought 

 from away, as their only aim was to secure the largest possible quan- 

 tity of sainfoin honey during the short period of the bloom, and inany 

 of their bees perished the following winter. 



"Although sainfoin has already been tried in the United States with 

 unfavorable results, I believe it is worth while to try it again, espe- 

 cially in the countries where alfalfa succeeds so well. It might prove 

 a useful honey plant. 



"We must, however, not close our eyes to the fact that honey 

 plants do not yield honey in the same proportion in all localities. White 

 clover, which is the source of so large a crop of white honey in this 

 country, is absolutely useless as a honey producer in some other coun- 

 tries. Edouard Bertrand, the editor of the Revue Internationale, told 

 me positively that there never had been any white clover honey har- 

 vested in Switzerland by any of his friends, although it is quite com- 

 mon in the Swiss meadows." 



SALAD-TREE, see Red-Bud. 



SALAL (Gaultheria shallon). 



Salal is an evergreen shrub, one to five feet high, common from cen- 

 tral California north to Washington. It grows abundantly in the redwood 

 forests commonly covering the ground. The flowers occur in racemes 

 three to six inches long and are pink or pinkish white. 



It blooms with salmon-berry, wild blackberry and chittam, so the honey 

 is seldom secured unmixed. 



SALIX, see Willow. 



