96 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



EXCHANGES. 



(Continued from p. 39, Vol. III.) 



Apiculture and Agriculture, 

 BY T. J. M. — Let us next con- 

 sider what proportion of those few 

 pounds of honey could have found 

 its wa}^ into the stomachs of the 

 grazing stock if it had not been 

 for the bees. It is known that 

 during the whole time the clover 

 or other plants remain in blossom, 

 if the weather be favorable, there 

 is a daily secretion of fresh honey, 

 which, if not taken at the proper 

 time by bees or other insects, is 

 evaporated during the mid-day 

 heat of the sun. It has been cal- 

 culated that a head of clover con- 

 sists of 50 or 60 separate flowers, 

 each of which contains a quantity' 

 not exceeding l-500th part of a 

 grain in weight, so that the whole 

 head may be taken to contain one- 

 tenth of a grain of hone}^ at any 

 one time. If this head of clover 

 is allowed to stand until the seeds 

 are ripened it may be visited on 

 ten, or even tvvent}' different da3-s 

 by bees, and they may gather on 

 the wliole, one, or even two grains 

 of honey from the same head, 

 whereas it is plain that the graz- 

 ing animal can only eat the head 

 once, and consequently can only 

 eat one-tenth of a grain of honey 

 w'ith it. Whether he gets that one- 

 tenth grain or not depends simply 

 on the fact, whether or not, the 

 bees have exhausted that particular 

 head on the same day just before it 

 teas eaten. Now, cattle and sheep 

 graze during the night and early 

 morning, long before the bees 

 make their appearance some time 

 after sunrise ; all the flowering 

 plants they happen to eat during 

 that time will contain the honey 

 secreted in the evening and night 

 time ; during some hours of the 

 afternoon the flowers will contain 

 no honey, whether they may have 

 been visited b}' bees or not ; and 



even during the forenoon when the 

 bees are most busy, it is by no 

 means certain that they will fore- 

 stall the stock in visiting any par- 

 ticular flower. If a field were so 

 overstocked that every head of 

 clover should be devoured as soon 

 as it blossomed, then, of course, 

 there would be nothing left for the 

 bees ; but if, on the other hand, as 

 is generally the case, there are al- 

 waj's blossoms left standing in the 

 pasture, some of them even till 

 they wither and shed their seeds, 

 then it must often happen that af- 

 ter bees shall have visited such 

 blossoms ten or even twenty times, 

 and thus collected one or even two 

 grains of honey from one head, the 

 grazing animal may, after all, eat 

 that particular plant and enjoy bis 

 one-tenth of a grain of honey just 

 as well as if there had never been 

 any bees in the field. If all these 

 chances be taken into account, it 

 will be evident that out of the four 

 or five pounds of honey assumed 

 to be collected by bees from one 

 acre of pasturage, probably not 

 one-tenth, and possibl}' not even 

 one-twentieth, part could, under 

 any circumstances, have been con- 

 sumed by the grazing animals — so 

 that it becomes a question of a feio 

 ounces of fattening matter, more or 

 less, for all the stock fed upon an 

 acre during the whole season ; a 

 matter so ridiculously trivial in 

 itself, and so out of all proportion 

 to the services rendered to the 

 pasture by the bees, that it may 

 safel}^ be left out of consideration 

 altogether. 



There is still one point which 

 may possibly be raised by the ag- 

 riculturist or land-owner : "If the 

 working of bees is so beneficial to 

 my crops, and if such a large quan- 

 tity of valuable matter may be 

 taken, in addition to the ordinary 

 crops, without impoverishing my 

 land, why should I not take it in- 

 stead of another person who has 



