574 



tinue to win the admiration of all ar- 

 dent lovers of nature. Indian and 

 sweet corn contain considerable pollen, 

 and the latter some honey, which is very 

 thin and of poor flavor. I cannot say 

 with certainty that bees gather honey 

 from Indian corn, but think they do. 

 Catnip is rich in honey, and blooms from 

 July till frost. Very little of the plant 

 is grown for honey, as it is a weed which 

 is hard to destroy. 



In August the cultivated buckwheat 

 blossoms, if sown from the 20th of June 

 to the 1st of July. The honey from 

 buckwheat is very dark, and is of an in- 

 ferior quality ; the flowers are rich with 

 nectar. About the 15th of August the 

 bergamot opens its beautiful yellow co- 

 rollas, ready to let the bee sip its nectar. 

 Bergamot is only adapted to sandy soil. 

 Goldenrod, belonging to the Solidagoes. 

 is one of the latest honey plants of the 

 season, and can be found growing on all 

 soils— in the marshes, on the prairies. 

 and on the uplands. The honey is of 

 fine quality, and in flavor cannot be ex- 

 celled. The asters bloom about the 

 same time, and are found growing more 

 abundantly in the marshes and along 

 the water-courses. 



This makes up the list of most of the 

 honey plants of Western Wisconsin 

 that I am most familiar with. Not be- 

 ing an expert in botany, I presume 

 errors have been made in this essay ; 

 but it was not my object to give you the 

 botanical names and descriptions, but 

 merely a simple description of the honey 

 plants, that beginners may be guided. 



LaCrosse, Wis., Sept., 1880. 



Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa. 



Various adverse circumstances, which 

 were unavoidable, tended to make our 

 eighth semi-annual meeting a very light 

 one, among which are prominent the 

 universal failure of the honey crop this 

 year, the great political campaign being 

 so near its close, and many members who 

 would have been present, but, at the 

 last hour almost, were detained at home 

 by other pressing business. Neverthe- 

 less, those who were at New Boston on 

 the 14th and 15th of October, 1880, en- 

 joyed themselves very much, and the 

 discussions, though limited as to deba- 

 ters, were as animated as of yore. Sev- 

 eral essays were read which drew out 

 lively discussions. 



The meeting was called to order by 

 the President, L. H. Scudder, who is 

 ever prompt and at his post. Letters 

 were received from many of the mem- 

 bers regretting their inability to be pres- 

 ent and wishing the meeting all success. 



The first question very naturally taken 

 up was 



Why the Small Crop of Honey this Year 1 



All seemed willing to give a theory, 

 but no satisfactory conclusions were 

 reached, except it be in the mind of each 

 individual. 



Jas. A. Simpson. I would like to see 

 that question answered. It is the first 

 time in my experience when all things 

 were favorable ; it seemed as though 

 every condition was right for the secre- 

 tion of honey, and yet no honey flowed. 

 I always thought that when plants blos- 

 somed and produced seed, we ought 

 to get honey from them. But this sea- 

 son was an exception ; bees were starv- 

 ing in our hives when white clover was 

 in bloom. I saw a bee go to 67 heads 

 of white clover, and yet she had no load. 

 The heads were short, but the bees ac- 

 cumulated nothing. 



E. I). Godfrey. I think the bees were 

 about as much disgusted as you 



Jas. A. Simpson. They seemed so. 



D. D. Palmer. The last two seasons 

 were very short crops ; this year we get 

 none. From our 201 colonies I only ob- 

 tained 10 lbs. Some others report large 

 crops. 



E. D. Godfrey. Messrs. Dadant write 

 me they hauled 115 colonies to the river 

 bottom's to get 25 lbs. average to the 

 colony. The only reason why they did 

 not get 10,000 lbs. was they did not go 

 soon enough. I rather attribute our 

 failure to get honey in the fall to wet 

 weather ; it was very warm , and the rain 

 washed all the honey from the flowers ; 

 I obtained 110 sections of comb honey, 

 but had 1,000 lbs. of extracted from 25 

 colonies. 



Jas. A. Simpson. I have heard it said 

 many times by wise men, who thought 

 they knew it all at least, that when 

 honey-dews were prevalent, we can look 

 for no honey from flowers. 



E. D. Godfrey. I must say I am very 

 much puzzled over this subject. 



L. H. Scudder. Yes, it is so all over 

 the country; there seemed to be no 

 honey in any of the flowers. Some 

 years ago I obtained 200 or 300 lbs. of 

 honey-dew honey ; I sent it to Chicago, 

 expecting, of course, slow sale for it, 

 but the result was I obtained 25c. per 

 lb. for it. That was 8 or 9 years ago, 

 and right following it we had a good 

 yield in the fall. I take one or two old- 

 liners and put 6-lb. boxes on them, and 

 sections on others, to see if there is any 

 difference in the using; it looks as 

 though the separators keep the bees out 

 of the boxes ; have had some colonies 

 till several cases full of sections when 

 none was put in the 6-lb. boxes. So it 



