590 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



Economic Plants and Trees for Cultiya- 

 tion for Honey and Pollen 



Except as a means of bridging over 

 gaps in the natural pasturage, special 

 crops for honey alone are not profitable, 

 but where other utilities besides that of 

 honey yield can be combined with it, 

 there is some advantage to be gained. 



Filbert Bushes. — Useful for wind breaks 

 and for their nuts, yield pollen in Febru- 

 ary and March. 



Rape. — Can be grown successfully in 

 the North for pasturage, for green manur- 

 ing, or for seed, and when permitted to 

 blossom yields considerable pollen and 

 honey. Winter varieties are sown late 

 in the summer or early in the autumn, 

 and blossom in April or May following. 

 This early yield forms an excellent stim- 

 ulus to brood rearing. Summer or bird 

 rape, grown chiefly for its seed, blossoms 

 about a month after sowing. It does 

 best during the cooler months of the 

 growing season. 



Russian or Hairy Tetch. — Is a hardy 

 leguminous plant of great value for for- 

 age and use in green manuring. The 

 blossoms appear early in the season, and, 

 where there is any lack in early pollen, 

 especially in northern and cool regions, 

 this vetch will be found of great value 

 to the bees. 



Fruit Blossoms. — Apricot, peach, pear, 

 plum, cherry, apple, currant, and goose- 

 berry, yield pollen and houey in abun- 

 dance during April or May; strawberr.v 

 and blackberry are sometimes visited 

 freely by bees, but are generally far less 

 important than the others mentioned. 

 Colonies that have wintered well often 

 gather during apple bloom 12 to 15 

 pounds of surplus honey of fine quality. 

 The raspberry secretes a large amount of 

 nectar of superb quality, and coming in 

 May or June, thus later than the other 

 fruit blossoms and when the colonies are 

 stronger and the weather is more settled, 

 full advantage can nearly always be taken 

 of this yield. Grape and persimmon blos- 

 som also in June; the latter is an excel- 

 lent source. In subtropical portions of 

 the country orange and lemon trees yield 

 fine honey in March and April, and the 



cultivation of the banana has added a 

 profuse honey yielder which puts forth 

 successive blossoms all through the sum- 

 mer months. 



Locust, Tulip Tree ("poplar," or white- 

 wood), and Horse-Chestnut. — Useful for 

 shade, ornament, and timber, are all fine 

 honey producers in May. The locust 

 yields light-colored, clear honey of fine 

 quality, the others amber-colored honey 

 of good body and fair flavor. 



Clovers. — Crimson, blossoming in April 

 or May, yields fine, light-colored honey; 

 white, alsike, and mammoth or medium, 

 blossoming in May, June, and July, give 

 honey of excellent quality and rich yel- 

 low color. 



Mustard. — Grown for seed flowers from 

 June to August. The honey is somewhat 

 acrid and crystallizes soon, yet the plant, 

 where abundant, is of much importance 

 to the bees and the bee keeper in case 

 other forage is scant at the time. 



Asparagus. — Blossoms are much visited 

 by bees in June and July. 



Esparcet, or Sotnfoin.— Yields in May 

 and June fine honey, almost as clear as 

 spring water. It is a perennial legumin- 

 ous plant, rather hardy, an excellent for- 

 age crop, and particularly valuable for 

 milch cows. It succeeds best on a lime- 

 stone soil or when lime is used as a fer- 

 tilizer, and is itself an excellent green 

 manure for soils deficient in nitrogen and 

 phosphoric acid. 



Sulla, or Sjilla Clover. — A perennial 

 plant, closely related to esparcet or sain- 

 foin, succeeds, like the latter, best upon 

 limestone soil or when fertilized with 

 lime. It yields a splendid quality of 

 honey from beautiful pink blossoms, 

 which continue during May and June. 

 The plant is an excellent soil fertilizer 

 and of great value in connection with 

 the feeding of stock, particularly dairy 

 animals. It is, however, much less hardy 

 than esparcet. and success with it can 

 therefore hardly be looked for above the 

 latitude of North Carolina and Arkansas. 

 When the qualities and requirements of 

 this plant were brought by the writer to 

 the notice of a prominent scientific agri- 

 culturist of the South, this gentleman 



