MAY j:.. 11115 



Headg (of Graie froim Differeimll Fields 



The Backlot Buzzer 



Yov don't /inrc to fht vtrii close to a heeywrd to 

 tell whether the fellov: who oii:n-i it is interested in 

 it or baseball. 



Aster Honey — Its Quality and Color 



Can ycni tjive me ^()Inl• rclialilc iiiforination ro- 

 Kardins aster honey? I wish to know of the color 

 and quality. I read an article by a correspondent of 

 Gr>EAXlXf;s some time ago in which aster honey is 

 described as light in color. Dr. Phillips questions 

 this statement, and I had always believed that aster 

 is a dark honey, though we get none here except 

 such as is mi.xed with other honeys. 



.\s you handle so much honey from so many dif- 

 ferent localities T thought that you might have seen 

 samples sufficiently pure to enable you to inform me 

 in regard to this particular point. 



.\tlantic. Iowa. Frank C. Pellett. 



(Tlic name " aster," when referring to a certain 

 honey, covers a multitude of sins. There are some 

 aster honeys that are comparatively light in color, 

 and not bad in flavor: 1)ut most of the asters that 

 we have fasted and marked as such are on the 

 light-aml.er order, and lacking body. Some would 

 call the flavors comparatively good, while others 

 would call them poor. .\ny one who has been edu- 

 cated to the use of clover honey, alfalfa, or mountain 

 sage, would call the aster flavor poor; but others 

 who liave lieen educated to eat aster honey might 

 call it of good quality. For example, a great many 

 people who live in New York like the buckwheat 

 flavor lu'cause they have been brought up to eat it 

 from ihiUlliood. But most people outside of that 

 state would prefer alinost any other flavor to buck 

 wheat. 



To answer your question more explicitly, we may 

 say *hat the general markets do not class aster as 

 a table honey. While it would hardly rank in flavor 

 witli most of the amber honeys, it is lighter in color 

 tlian llie average of the ambers. — Ed.] 



Why Aster Honey Makes Trouble Sometimes 

 and Not Others 



It is noteworthy that most of those beekeepers who 

 report liad results from using aster honey as a 

 winter food place their hives in cellars: while those 

 who have found it without ob.iection winter largely 

 outdoors. Prom this it is clear that aster honey 

 under proper conditions must be wholesome and 

 harmless, since if it were deleterious in itself there 

 would be uniformly bad results. 



Aster honey is open to two objections. First, it 

 crystallizes quickly, and at times in such a hard 

 form that it is partially unavailable. Thus occa- 

 sionally bees may starve with an abundance of 

 candied aster honey in the hive. Second, aster 

 honey is gathered so late that winter may begin be- 

 fore it has been properly ripened and sealed. If 

 the hives have been placed in a w^arm damp cellar 

 th honey may easily deteriorate or spoil, producing 

 dysentery among the bees; but probably any other 

 honey stored equally late, and not fully ripened, 

 would do the same. There has not yet been a par- 

 ticle of evidence offered to show that the chemical 

 constituents of aster honey are in any way injtirious 

 to bees or human beings. On the contrary, it is an 

 excellent table honey, and hundreds of colonies of 

 bees have wintered on it with very small loss. No 

 doubt it is often blamed for failures that are due 

 to other causes which the beekeeper has failed to 

 perceive. John H. Lovell. 



Waldoboro. Maine. 



What is Squash Honey? 



Mr. Newell, page 647, Aug. 15, 1914, under the 

 heading " Squash Honey," says of my communica- 

 tion on page 433, June 1, " If you can believe 

 your botany all alders bloom in spring. To contro- 

 vert this assertion I may be pardoned for mention- 

 ing what I find in Prof. Gray's School Botany, as 

 many readers of Gleanings do not possess a botan- 

 ical work, nor understand that common names of 

 plants are not distinctive. He chooses to use the 

 common name that would be misleading to some. 



Gray"s Botany, page 217, Sec. 19: Clethera, vchWe 

 alder (old Greek name of Alder, from some resem- 

 blance in the foliage). Flowers in summer. C. 

 alnifolia, the only common specie-s, in low ground 

 three to ten feet high, with wedge-obovate sharply 

 serrate, straight-veined leaves, and upright panicled 

 racemes of fragrant small flowers." 



Mr. Newell also says: "Our fall honey all comes 

 from squash-blossoms." For many years my bees 

 have collected quite a lot of goldenrod honey, de- 

 pending on conditions of weather. 



Further on he says. " If you know anything about 

 squashes you know the blossom is open only one 

 day." Having made a specialty of melons until I 

 was 67 years old, I know that squashes and cu- 

 cumbers have the pistillate and staminate in distinct 

 blossoms, the staminate appearing some time before 

 the pistillate, and very much more numerous, and 

 holding more than one day, while the pistillate 

 will close very soon after it is fertilized: but if not 

 fertilized it may hold for more than one day: but 

 as the bees are always numerous on them they are 

 very likely to be fertilized the first day. 



Bees work on many flowers which give only pollen : 

 and in my opinion that is why they work squash 

 and cucumbers. Dr. Miller has said in some of his 



