AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



813 



commonly called "jimsoa," is visited 

 late in the evening, and very early in 

 the morning, but the bee is unable to 

 procure any honey except from the 

 largest flowers. Several species of wild 

 bees (solitary) enter it, and some species 

 gnaw into the flower at the base, for 

 the purpose of obtaining the abundant 

 supply of nectar which this flower 

 evolves. 



Corn (zea mays, Linn) tassel yields 

 pollen early, and some honey later on. 

 If the weather is favorable for the re- 

 production of plant-lice, we may expect 

 them to attack the tassel, making the 

 top leaves sticky and discolored by 

 their dejections. I have seen bees 

 "pile" on the tassel until you could 

 scarcely have seen anything but the 

 bees gathering this " honey-dew." The 

 honey thus obtained is dark, but of very 

 fair flavor. 



The entomological history of these 

 plant-lice (aphids) is very interesting to 

 the student of nature, and to those who 

 are interested I will refer you to the 

 original article, written by me, in the 

 May number of the American Bee 

 Journal, 1880, from which I have 

 drawn largely for the production of this 

 essay. I will mention here that there is 

 another product denominated "honey- 

 dew," which is observable on plants 

 after very dry weather, and consists of 

 extravasation or oozing of the sap from 

 the leaves. 



Horsemint {vi07iarda). This plant 

 furnishes an excellent quality of honey, 

 equal to white clover, finely flavored ; it 

 is the best honey-plant we have ; it 

 grows on all our prairies, stands the 

 drouth well, and comes into bloom just 

 when our bees are in their working 

 strength ; it blooms rather after the 

 middle of June, and gives a succession 

 of flowers for 1^4 months, or rather 

 more than 40 days. We all rejoice 

 when our bees are safely through to the 

 horsemint. 



There are several species of this plant 

 here which furnish more or less honey; 

 the most valuable are M. ciliata and if. 

 punctata. The first mentioned is nearly 

 a month earlier in flowering, though 

 both are valuable honey-plants, and de- 

 serve attention in the way of cultivation. 

 I believe some of our apiarists have cul- 

 tivated horsemint for its honey qualities. 

 It yields no pollen worth mentioning ; 

 the anthers project in a direct line with 

 the upper cleft of the flower, dusting its 

 pollen-grains over the body of the visit- 

 ing bee. Too much cannot be said for 

 horsemint as as honey-plant. 



Although I have had no bees for the 



past nine years, and have had little 

 opportunity to converse with honey-pro- 

 ducers in the region where this plant 

 abounds, from general observation I am 

 led to believe that this plant has for 

 years at a time been very scarce, and 

 has not yielded the abundance of honey 

 it once did, and that some seasons it has 

 failed almost entirely. 



Pigweed {chenopodium album, Linn). 

 This very common weed in fields and 

 gardens, blooms about the first of Au- 

 gust, and furnishes an excellent quality 

 of pollen ; unimportant as a honey- 

 plant. 



(Concluded next week.) 



Bees in Florida and Minnesota. 



I had much fun with the " Crackers " 

 of Florida the past winter, handling bees 

 in the swamps, and surprised every one 

 by taking a colonyout of a gum tree, and 

 in 60 days they filled the hive, stored 

 60 pounds of nice orange-blossom honey 

 in IJ^-pound boxes ; and the day before 

 I left (May 5th) they cast a fine swarm. 

 I hived them in a 3-story hive, with 

 room for 60 pounds of comb honey, and 

 expect to find themO. K. on my veranda 

 in front of the house, in November, 

 when I return. 



A bee-keeper with 30 colonies there 

 did not get 10 pounds of honey. He says 

 that my bees took all the honey ! There 

 is a difference in handling bees properly, 

 or letting them go it alone. 



My bees wintered poorly here ; 135 

 days in the cellar. I lost 40 per cent. ; 

 the balance hard at work now. Dande- 

 lions are the only flowers yet. 



C. F. Greening, 



Grand Meadow, Minn., June 10. 



Convention I\otices. 



NORTH CAROLINA.— The Carolina Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its sixth semi- 

 annual meeting- on July 20, in Charlotte, N. 

 C, at the Court House, at 10 o'clock a.m. All 

 persons interested in bee-keeping are invited. 



Steel Creek, N. C. A. L. Beach, Sec. 



INTERNATIONAL.— The North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its 24th 

 annual convention on Oct. 11, 12 and 13, 1893, 

 in Chicago, Ills. Not only is every bee-keeper 

 In America, whether a member of the society 

 or not, invited to be present, but a special in- 

 vitation is extended to friends of apiculture 

 it every foreign land, Frank Benton. Sec. 



Washington, D. C. 



A Binder for holding a year's num- 

 bers of the Bee Journal we mail for 

 only 50 cents ; or clubbed with the 

 Journal, for $1.40. 



