AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



527 



Report of the Indiana State 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY WALTER 8. POUDER. 



(Continued from page 496.) • 

 Pres. Russell — The next In the order 

 of our programme is an essay by Mrs. 

 Alice S. Moore, of Greeusburg, Ind., on 



What are the Honey-Plants of the 

 State of Indiana P 



•' How doth the little busy bee 

 Improve each shining: hour ? 

 It gets a hustle on itself, 

 And robs the early flower." 



Honey is not made by the bees, but 

 nature has provided the delicious nectar 

 in myriads of beautiful flowers that deck 

 forest, field and garden in quantities far 

 exceeding the wants of bees, and they 

 store it away and man utilizes it for his 

 pleasure and profit. 



Honey and pollen are supplied by 

 nearly all the flowering trees, shrubs, 

 vines and plants of the vegetable king- 

 dom, and our own State is well furnished 

 with fine nectar-yielders, and the bees 

 are always the first to detect the earliest 

 flowers. In writing of some of Indiana's 

 honey-plants, I will include a few that 

 are so universally cultivated that they 

 might almost be classed as natives. 



First come the alders, soft maples and 

 willows. These are very early, and 

 furnish the bees an acceptable change 

 from the spare winter diet. Then the 

 hard or sugar maple throws out its 

 golden tassels, and " the little brown 

 pets " have another supply of nectar and 

 pollen. The peach, pear, quince and 

 plum, rich in honey and pollen, later ex- 

 tend an invitation which is never slighted 

 by provident bees, and then the apple- 

 blossoms afford a real harvest. 



For bee-pasturage the cherry has 

 never been fully appreciated. Several 

 of the early varieties bloom in a time 

 when most needed by bees, and the 

 latest are fully improved by them. The 

 raspberry continues in bloom over two 



weeks, and few flowers furnish so large 

 a quantity of purest nectar; it is a crop 

 of great value to bee-keepers. Straw- 

 berry and blackberry blooms also yield 

 nectar. 



Next come the clovers. The sweet 

 clover blooms and yields honey continu- 

 ously from June until August, with 

 usually a second crop of bloom lasting 

 until late fall, and the honey is unsur- 

 passed in color and flavor. Melilot 

 clover is said to be worth the cost of 

 cultivation to the bee-keeper because its 

 flow of nectar is not affected by atmos- 

 pheric changes, and is second to none in 

 flavor. Alsike clover is also a good 

 honey-plant, and the bees have no 

 trouble in finding it. Italian bees gather 

 considerable honey from the red clover. 

 The well-known white clover fills the 

 air with its ambrosial perfume, and the 

 bees in myriads sing from flower to 

 flower, and never succeed in gathering 

 all its honey. 



Honey from buckwheat is rich but 

 dark. Mustard is most profitable as a 

 honey-plant ; it keeps branching and 

 blooming all summer. Catnip will repay 

 cultivation for honey alone. It con- 

 tinues to blossom for a long time, the 

 bees working on it with the greatest 

 assiduity from "early morn till dewy 

 eve." Hoarhound, peppermint, spear- 

 mint, wild balsam, teasels, thistles, bur- 

 docks, wild snap-dragon, columbine, 

 plantain, wild geranium, may apple, 

 wild sedums, violets, wild oxalis, the 

 bell-flowers, field larkspurs, blood-root, 

 all the milk-weeds, tongue-grass, know- 

 weed daisies, wild lettuce, iron-weed, 

 blue-curls, cardinal flower, wild lobelia, 

 wild hydrangea, starwort, wild parsnip, 

 wild rose, trumpet creeper, wild agertum, 

 rap-weed, sumac, leather-flower, etc., 

 are all natives of Indiana, and are all 

 honey-plants. 



Motherwort cannot be too highly com- 

 mended as a honey-plant. It blooms 

 from July until frost, and grows in great 

 abundance. The figwort, also exten- 

 sively advertised as " Simpson's honey- 

 plant," is a native of Indiana. It is a 

 large, coarse-growing plant with in- 

 numerable small flowers, with an open- 

 ing at the base of the seed-ball which is 

 hollow and filled with the purest honey, 

 and so rapidly is it deposited that in two 

 minutes after being taken out by a bee, 

 it is again filled with a shining drop of 

 nectar. So freely does it yield honey, 

 that a branch removed and given a 

 sharp shake, the honey will fall in drops. 

 It blooms from July until frost. 



Ground ivy, a creepiTig vine that 

 covers the ground in many parts of the 



