222 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



closed, I found that I had learned many things about bees but 

 no one thing, no magic key with which I could unlock each secret 

 door of my bees' strange world. And I kept repeating still, 

 "What is a honey flow?" 



In my bee journal there is a department called — "Gleaned by 

 asking" — and many questions asked there by beginners even I 

 could readily answer, but never did I see my question there asked 

 by another perplexed beginner. It was too simple a term to be 

 explained in my books. How stupid a pupil I was ! I could not 

 bring myself to publicly ask so foolish a question as this. If 

 from these books of mine so complete in their explanations I 

 could not "glean" the meaning of this constantly used term, no 

 one could make me understand. Perhaps the bees would tell 

 me if I watched and listened patiently and alertly enough. So I 

 waited until the stimmer came again, and I have been rewarded — 

 for I have shared in the jubilee of the bees at each successive 

 honey flow this season and I hold a key that opens many doors 

 revealing wonderful things. 



Glancing over my record of the season these items appear: — 

 May 12 — on — warm, sunny days. 



apple and pear trees remarkably full of bloom. 

 June I — white clover opening. 



locust and a few tulip trees blooming. 

 June 7 — air fragrant with locust. 



vipers bugloss opening. 

 June lo — hives full of locust honey. 



June 12 — bees on alsike clover. 



July 6 — sweet clover in full bloom. 



July lo — basswood blooming. 



July 13 — sumac, stag horn, very full bloom — ^bees wildly ex- 



cited. 

 July 17 — on — rain 



buckwheat opening. 



rain. 



robbing. 



heartsease blooming — no bees on blossoms. 

 July 26 — basswood gone. 



sumac nearly gone 



buckwheat and goldenrod blooming. 



rain. 



