THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



from their blossoms would appear 

 to be evident from the fact already 

 referred to, that those plants have 

 actually thrown off the honey from 

 the sujyerfiuity of their saccharine 

 juices, as a matter which they 

 could no longer assimilate. There 

 would appear, on the other hand, to 

 be good reason to believe that the 

 plants themselves become daily 

 more nutritive during the period of 

 their giving off hone}^, that is, from 

 the time of flowering to that of rip- 

 ening their seeds. This is a point 

 upon which, I believe, all agricul- 

 tural chemists are not quite agreed, 

 but the testimony of Sir H. Davy 

 is very strong in favor of it. In 

 the appendix to his work already 

 quoted, he gives the results of ex- 

 periments made conjointly by him- 

 self and Mr. Sinclair, the gardener 

 to the Duke of Bedford, upon near- 

 ly 100 different varieties of grasses 

 and clovers. These were grown 

 carefully in small plots of ground 

 as nearly as possible equal in size 

 and quality ; equal weights of the 

 dried produce of each, cut at differ- 

 ent periods, especially at the time 

 of flowering and at that of ripened 

 seeds, were " acted upon by hot 

 water till all their soluble parts 

 were dissolved ; the solution was 

 then evaporated to dryness by a 

 gentle heat in a proper stove, and 

 the matter obtained carefully 

 weighed, and the dry extract, sup- 

 posed to contain the nutritive mat- 

 ter of the plants, was sent for 

 chemical analysis." Sir H. Davy 

 adds his opinion that this " mode 

 of determining the nutritive power 

 of grasses, is sufficiently accurate 

 for all the purposes of agricultural 

 investigation." Further on he re- 

 ports, " In comparing the composi- 

 tions of the soluble products af- 

 forded by different crops from the 

 same grass, I found, in all the 

 trials 1 made, the largest quantity 

 of truly nutritive matter in the crop 

 cut wiien the seed was ripe, and 



the least bitter extract and saline 

 matter — and the most saccharine 

 matter, in proportion to the other 

 ingredients, in the crop cut at the 

 time of flowering." In the instance 

 which he then gives, as an example, 

 the crop cut when the seed had rip- 

 ened, showed nine per cent, less of 

 sugar, but eighteen per cent, more 

 of mucilage and what he terms 

 " truly nutritive matter" than the 

 crop cut at the time of flowering. 

 From this it would follow, that dur- 

 ing the time a plant is in blossom 

 and throwing oS a superfluity of 

 saccharine matter in the shape of 

 honey, the assimilation of true nu- 

 tritive matter in the plant itself is 

 progressing most favorably. In 

 any case it is clear that the honey, 

 being once exuded, may be taken 

 away by bees or any otlier insects 

 (as it is evidently intended to be 

 taken) without any injury to the 

 plant, by which it certainly cannot 

 be again taken up, but must be 

 evaporated if left exposed to the 

 sun's heat. 



There is, however, a plea put in 

 by the agriculturist on behalf of 

 his grazing stock, and one which he 

 generally seems to consider unan- 

 swerable ; he says, " even if it be 

 admitted that the removal of the 

 honey from my farm is neither ex- 

 hausting to the soil nor injurious to 

 the plants of the standing crops, 

 still it is so much fattening matter, 

 which might be consumed by my 

 stock, if it had not been pilfered by 

 the bees." Now it may at once be 

 admitted that hone}^ consists, to a 

 great extent of fattening matter, 

 though it may be allowable to 

 doubt whether, in that particular 

 form, it is exactl}^ suitable as food 

 for grazing cattle. Although it is 

 quite true that the saccharine mat- 

 ter assimilated in the body of a plant 

 tends to the formation of fat in the 

 animal which eats and digests that 

 plant, still one may question the 

 propriety of feeding the same ani- 



