GOLDEN ROD 61 



found in quantity, it is valuable for bee pasture, and in some 

 seasons produces large quantities of nectar. It is not a depend- 

 able source, for it does not secrete nectar freely except in occas- 

 ional seasons. When conditions are favorable, it offers about 

 ten days of the finest honey flow possible. Some years immense 

 crops are stored from basswood, so that the bee-keeper who is 

 within reach of a considerable acreage of this forest can expect 

 great benefit every third or fourth year, with a splendid crop 

 once in ten or twelve years. The tree is a rapid grower, and will 

 begin to bloom freely after six or eight years. 



The wood is white, and much desired for making sections for 

 comb honey. It is also utilized for making packing boxes of 

 various kinds, some kinds of furniture, and for making paper. 



Buckwheat (Fagopyrum). — In parts of New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, and the New England States where buckwheat is raised 

 in large quantities, it is a very valuable honey plant. In some 

 sections several hundred colonies of bees are kept in one yard, 

 with buckwheat as the principal source of honey. Climatic con- 

 ditions of the eastern States seem especially favorable to nectar 

 secretion, and there it is very dependable, yielding some honey 

 nearly every year. In the Central West it is seldom of much 

 value for bee pasture, and yields only rarely. It is reported as of 

 little value in Texas, except to bridge over a time when little 

 else is blooming. In California there is another plant called 

 wild buckwheat which is said to be of considerable value as a 

 honey plant. 



Buckwheat honey is dark, of a heavy body and strong flavor. 

 Those who are accustomed to it often prefer it to milder flavored 

 honeys, but in western markets it moves slowly, and at a lower 

 price than the white honeys. 



In the East it is the source of very large crops in some seasons, 

 probably an average of fifty or more pounds per colony being 

 secured from this source alone, under favorable conditions. 



Golden Rod (Solidago). — The golden rods are of wide dis- 

 tribution, some species probably being found in every State in the 



