430 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



OUR OWN APIARY AND HONEY FARItt. 



the spider plant ( Cleome Pungens) in OCT. 



fjO-DAY is the 11th of October. 

 This morning, I got up before 6 o'clock. 

 — ' I had been reading, the night before, in 

 Muller's book, "The Life of Trust," and 

 I was particularly impressed with what he 

 says about early rising, and the blessings God 

 sends to those who make it a point to rise 

 early, and give their best and freshest 

 thoughts to him. I put the book away, and 

 went right to bed, that I might get up early. 

 The gray of approaching daylight heralding 

 in this warm autumn day met my gaze, as I 

 sallied forth toward the factory. I opened 

 my mouth, and took in the fresh pure air, and, 

 as I opened my eyes to the beauty of the 

 world we dwell in, I opened my heart in 

 thankfulness to Him who gave it all. As I 

 came near the garden, I was surprised to 

 hear a loud humming so early. It was not 

 robbing, but it was a hum of rejoicing. 

 How strange it is, that bees will make this 



happy hum over the honey from the flowers, 

 but never over syrup from any kind of a 

 feeder. The sound led me to the spider 

 plant. It had been bearing honey a couple of 

 months, at night, and early in the morning, 

 but I had no idea that they ever made so 

 much noise over it as now. I approached 

 leisurely, but was startled to And that each 

 floweret contained a large drop of some liq- 

 uid, so large, in fact, I thought it must be 

 dew, and not honey. I touched my tongue, 

 and behold it was fair honey, of a beautiful 

 limpidity and taste, and then I understood 

 the humming. As a bee alighted, and made 

 his way down between the stamens, I watch- 

 ed until he spread out that delicate, pencil 

 like tongue, and began to draw in the nectar. 

 Surely no bee can take in so large a drop ; 

 and so it proved. He lapped as long as he 

 could and then rested awhile; again he 

 sipped the "sparkling ambrosia," and again 

 he stopped. I could imagine him soliloquiz- 

 ing as he dipped into it a third time. 

 "Did any body ever before hear of a sin- 



MRS. MOLLIE O. LARGE S SPIDER PLANT, THE GREAT HONEY PLANT OF THE AGE. 



gle floweret containing more than a bee 

 could carry?" 



He finally spread his wings, and essayed 

 to fly, but his greed had been too great, and 

 when he bumped against a Simpson plant, 

 which is now out of bloom, down he went on 

 his back in the dirt. Others did the same 

 way, but soon they tried again, and I presume 

 created a commotion in the hive, by coining 

 in, podded out with such a load. Now will 

 our friend, Mollie O. Large, tell us if she has 

 ever seen the like among her plants ? An 



acre would furnish whew ! I should not 



be surprised if it made a barrel of sweet- 

 ened water, any way, every morning. Now 

 I want four acres of the Simpson honey plant, 

 and four more of the Mollie O. Large honey 

 plant; if the name was not so long, we 

 would call it so, for the credit she deserves 

 for calling attention to it. Dear me ! the 

 honey farm will not be large enough. I have 

 set the hands, to-day, to doing more under- 

 draining, and I am going to plow up all cor- 

 ners, and work up close to the fences, for we 

 cannot afford to have a weed grow on the 

 premises, so long as there are plants that 



bear honey like this. These plants are in our 

 flower garden, close by the building, and have 

 had a very rich deep soil. This, perhaps, 

 may account for such large amounts of hon- 

 ey. This plant is strikingly like the Rocky 

 Mountain bee plant of which I have given 

 you a picture already, but it is so much larg- 

 er, and bears so much more honey, that I can 

 hardly think it worth while to offer the seed 

 of the latter for sale any more. Our engrav- 

 er has given you a picture of the plant, as it 

 appears in our garden. 



The picture scarcely needs explanation. 

 On one side, is the beautiful leaf of the plant ; 

 on the other, one of the flower stalks, of 

 which there are from 12 to 20 to each plant. 

 As the flowerets, shown in the centre, keep 

 blossoming each evening, the stem grows 

 out in the centre, until it becomes, finally, 

 two feet long or more, and lined with seed 

 pods its whole length. These seed pods, 

 when ripe, break open, and the seed must be 

 gathered daily, or it is lost. Each floweret 

 opens twice, but the honey is only yielded 

 from the first blooming. In the centre of 

 the picture, a single floweret is shown, with 



