of honey, exposed, to carry lionie. Re 

 reiiiaiiied a few iiiiimtes talUiiij>:, before 

 jiettiiiji ill his busjiy, and a few bees, scent- 

 inK' tlie lioney, followed him. lie held the 

 honey, and his wife drove. The next 

 day 1 saw him, and he said he bad a dread- 

 ful time witli tbat honey. But for his 

 wife's ridicule, be said, lie would have 

 thrown it away a hundred'tiuies. Tlie bees 

 followed a lonji distance. ' I said, " 1 prefer 

 bees to bullets." lie replied, " tastes differ, 

 1 prefer bullets to bees." 



Mr. Wallace states that the comb was 

 white, which shows that it was of tliat 

 season. lie is such a close observer, that 

 had the comb differe<l materially in size or 

 structure from that of the houey bee of his 

 native land. England, he would, unques- 

 tionably, have noticed it. I am sure you 

 all now feel as if you would like to be in 

 just such a situation as Mr. Wallace was 

 that day, and provided with a movable 

 comb liive, and all other requisites to trans- 

 fer comb and bees, and await tiie results to 

 report to the readers of The American 

 Bee Journai,. E. Pakmly. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Mignonette for Bee Forage. 



Last season, I was induced to sow a bed 

 of Mi^iionette to give my bees an opportun- 

 ity of tindiug forage, when other plants 

 failed. I accordingly procured the seed of 

 seven different kinds of that plant to ascer- 

 tain which would best answer the purpose. 



Although not put in the ground until 

 after the middle of April, it appeared to be 

 too early, for it remained about; two weeks 

 before showing itself, and then it was such 

 a little tiny thing, that it appeared as if it 

 would never turn to any account. 



I planted them about a foot distant in the 

 row, and made the rows two feet apart. I 

 scarcely got one plant for ten seeds that 

 were planted. At first I got quite dis- 

 couraged when I saw in many spots not 

 more than one small plant in four feet, and 

 then so late springing up, that the weeds 

 had almost choked them before they 

 attained sufficient size to admit of being 

 worked. However, I set to work with my 

 pocket knife and cleaned out the largest por- 

 tion of the plat, though I had to abandon 

 some on the poorest portion of the land. 



After being started under diligent culti- 

 vation, it was astonishing to see the rapid 

 progress which they made. The plants soon 

 covered the ground where the soil was good, 

 and were out in blossom in a short time, and 

 from that time forward, the bees were work- 

 ing on them by the thousand, from morn- 

 ing until late in the afternoon. I have seen 

 them thick on it by eight o'clock, and not 

 leave it until late in the afternoon. It 

 yields pollen as well as honey, and you can 

 easily know the bees that have beeii gather- 

 ing from it as their Miiulis are red, whereas, 

 almost all the other pollen is yellow, or ditt'- 

 erent shades. I intend to plant a larger 

 plat this season, with seed of my own 

 raising; sow in a bed, planting about a foot 

 distance in the row, with the rows two feet 

 aiiart and in this way have full opportunity 

 of hoeing it and keeping it perfectly clean. 

 By thus getting it started in bloom early in 

 May, I expect to have continuous bloom 

 luitil frost, and even latter if the frost is not 

 sevei'e. I have said it will blossom from 



early summer until frost; this however, 

 must be taken in a qualified sense. Take 

 any single plant that blossoms out early, 

 and, unless in very moist ground, it will be 

 exhausted in its blossom by about the mid- 

 dle of August; but when you grow different 

 kinds, some will bloom later than others, 

 and these will continue correspondingly 

 later, so by mixing different varieties, we 

 can have continuous blossom from May un- 

 til Scptenihcr or October; or by making a 

 second planting, say in June, we can have 

 the best kind of fall plants, from which to 

 furnish the bees with the best kind of 

 honey to winter, and thus be enabled to put 

 them safely into winter quarters. I had 

 plants which I set out in the very dryest 

 time in July, that, when 1 left Algonac. in 

 October, were just nicely started into blos- 

 som, and I distributed them among my 

 friends for bouquets. 



It has been stated that the bees work 

 more upon theconnnon sort {reseihi odoni- 

 Ui) those of the larger varieties. This how- 

 ever, I have not noticed in my observations. 

 On the contrary, have found that on account 

 of the spikes of the blossom being so much 

 longer, the bees work most on the larger 

 varieties. The common sort strikes earliest 

 into bloom, but it is earliest to decay. I 

 have some sorts which stand about two feet 

 liigh, and grow like a tree, the spikes being 

 from eight to ten inches long; while others 

 do not grow so tall, they branch out and 

 cover a space more than two feet square. 

 On one of them, the largest of the lot, I 

 counted three hundred spikes of flowers, 

 and thicker than in the common sort. 



A correspondent from California, stated 

 that he thought " an acre of Mignonette 

 would be adequate for a hundred colonies". 

 This no doubt is correct— not that any per- 

 son would say, that if there were nothing 

 else to subsist upon this would be adqeuate 

 —but when you give them this, in addition 

 to what they otherwise would have, it will 

 certainly secure an immense increase in the 

 honey produced. He also, stated that he 

 thought "3 lbs. of seed to the acre would be 

 sufficient." My own impression is, that 

 managing it as stated above, it will not take 

 more than half that amount. 



He adds: " Mignonette is reckoned one of 

 the sweetest scented of garden plants, and 

 is only valuable for its purfume, or its 

 forage properties for bees. There is no 

 plant, within the range of our knowledge, 

 as valuable for bee forage as mignonette. 

 And why? It will keep in bloom year after 

 year, if not disturbed by frost, and it gives 

 a longer period of bloom than any other 

 plant. It gives more blossoms in a given 

 space, and therefore more forage than any 

 plant we have ever seen. Honey made 

 from this plant has the most delicious fra- 

 grance of any that we have ever tasted, and 

 when it has been tested in market, is far 

 ahead of California, or any other brands of 

 honey in worth, and brings much higher 

 price. We think that our acre of mignon- 

 ette will make enough forage for one or 

 two hundred colonies of bees — We place 

 mignonette in the lead of all other plants 

 we know of, as a crop to cultivate for bee 

 forage." 



As for as my observation goes, I confirm 

 the above statement. I distributed consid- 

 erable of my extracted honey to my neigh- 

 bors, who said they had never tasted any- 

 thing so fine before. Wm. Thomson. 



