BEES AND PLANTS 201 



lasts only two or three years, it is perennial on rich, 

 moist lands. It is a cosmopolitan plant and may be 

 found in almost all regions of the temperate zones. 

 It is an ideal plant for pastures and should be estab- 

 lished everywhere on land not under the plow. It 

 shows well its partnership with the bee by turning 

 down its flowerets as soon as they are fertilised, and 

 leaving those in need of pollen still erect. We have 

 seen a head of white clover with a single floweret, 

 erect and white, calling to the bees, while all of its 

 sister flowerets were deflected and brown. 



Among the medics we find the veteran of all 

 clovers, the alfalfa, which has been under cultivation 

 for twenty centuries, and came to America with the 

 Spanish invasion. It was established in California 

 in 1854, and has worked its way eastward. But 

 it is only recently that it has been practicable to 

 grow it in the East. This has been made possible 

 by the discovery that it will grow on soil inoculated 

 with its root bacteria. Alfalfa is a true perennial and 

 may be cut for hay three times a season, and is of 

 highest value as fodder or forage. It is a superb 

 honey-plant, furnishing great quantities of light- 

 coloured and excellent honey. It will support more 

 bees to the acre than any other plant known. For 

 artificial pasturage it is the most promising of all 

 honey-plants. 



Buckwheat is, in many localities, doubly profitable 

 as a grain and as a honey-plant ; especially is it so in 

 middle and western New York, where the hills in 

 autumn are made brilliant with great fields of the 



