52 



AiMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



white clover. It is interesting and 

 encouraging to note, however, that 

 the farmers of this area are sowing 

 an increasingly large acreage in al- 

 sike clover every year, either alone 

 or, more often, with the red clover, 

 and for that reason the honey-flows 

 are gaining in amount pretty steadily 

 of late years. White clover alone in 

 this region is not dependable. If the 

 farmers of the section named ever get 

 to sowing alsike clover for seed, as 

 they are doing in western Ohio, for 

 example, the beemen there will find 

 they are located in one of the very 

 best parts of Indiana. Along the east- 

 ern side of the region white sweet 

 clover is decidedly increasing, both 

 sown and as a volunteer, and the 

 writer has bought considerable honey 

 from beemen of that part, which has 

 had more of sweet clover in it than 



j^^Ve Xn'K\\inc»n..^ 



white clover, though sold primarily as 



a white clover honey. 



Region 4; Best Sweet Clover Region 



The east portion o' the State is the 

 part especially hopeful for honey 

 from sweet clover, for in general, the 

 soil is thin or gravelly and clayey in 

 nature, broken in large portions, and 

 often acid. This plant, with white 

 clover about once in five years, makes 

 about all that most of this section 

 can count on for surplus honey, with 

 the exception of a narrow strip near 

 Wells county, where the good white 

 clover belt overlays this region. 

 Region 5 — Locust 



While it is hardly fair to call locust 

 a main source of surplus honey, it 

 comes nearer to being that in south- 

 ern Indiana than anywhere else in 

 the United States. Locust (Robinia 

 pseudacacia) in this part lof Indi- 



1 ^ 7)nf\»-n-Q-; 



KeT)t\ickv^ 



Principal honey regions of Indiana 



Region 1 — — Kankakee Kiver marsh lands. 



Region 2 — xxxxxxxxx — Best white clover and basswood. 



Region 3 — oooooooooo — Fair white clover, with alsike and sweet clover increasing. 



Region 4 — o-o-o-o-o-o — Best sweet clover. 



Region 6 — vvvvvvvvv — Locust. 



Region 6 — xoxoxoxox — Climbing milkweed. 



Region 7 — -x-x-x-x-x-x — Sraartweed or heartsease. 



Circle — Poorest region for commercial beekeeping. 



ana is so common that it is met with 

 in the woods about as commonly as 

 oaks further north, or beeches in mid- 

 dle Indiana. In fact, it is one of the 

 most common trees there. If the lo- 

 cust-leaf Miner, a troublesome pest 

 on the leaves of the tree in May and 

 June, can be controlled or eradicated, 

 the tree bids fair to be a source of 

 considerable surplus honey to the 

 best beekeepers. We say best, for 

 only those can secure crops from a 

 blossom that comes so early and lasts 

 so short a time. The writer, at the 

 State fair in Indianapolis, saw and 

 tasted honey that was called locust 

 honey, and which he is fully con- 

 vinced was mainly from that source. 

 Needless to say, colonies must be 

 strong early to secure any surplus 

 from locust. It so happens, too, that 

 this very part of the State is the 

 best apple and fruit section, and early 

 strong colonies can get a start in the 

 supers from that source. 



Red bud (Cercis Canadensis) is very 

 common in this part of Indiana, and 

 is an aid to good work in the brood- 

 chambers and in the supers as well. 

 In pioint of time, it is the precursor of 

 fruit bloom, as the latter is of locust. 

 The main sources of surplus honey in 

 the section named must ever be from 

 fall flowers. Goldenrod yields here 

 and with asters and some Spanish 

 needle often makes out a fair crop. 

 Rarely white clover gives a lift, as 

 it did in 1918. 

 Poorest Part of the State for Honey 



The most unpromising part of In- 

 diana for honey, and the one that 

 offers least attractions to the com- 

 mercial producer, is that marked with 

 the circle in the accompanying map. 

 It has a few beemen that by good 

 management do secure sometimes a 

 fair crop, but it is hilly, poor soil, 

 rough and acid, and has little to rec- 

 ommend it apiculturally, for it is not 

 the native habitat of any plant or 

 tree that is extremely good in nectar 

 secretion. 



Region 6; Vining Milkweed 



It is a truism, in Florida, that it is 

 but "two whoops and a holler" from 

 the best to the poorest honey re- 

 gions of the State. The same is true, 

 if one steps from the poor section 

 just considered, to the extreme so'Uth- 

 west of the State of Indiana. That is 

 called by some, the very best honey 

 region of any. It is the unique region 

 of the vining milkweed (Gonolobus 

 laevis), in the bottom lands of the 

 lower White River, the lower Wa- 

 bash, and about 60 miles of the Ohio 

 River. (See map. See also, Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, October, 1920). Not 

 •only is the vining milkweed, or blue- 

 vine the main source of honey here, 

 but the honey is delicious and exceed- 

 ingly fine for table use, light colored 

 and of a good body. It is almost a sure 

 yielder, is absolutely so if the weather 

 remains dry during the blossoming 

 period. One beeman in that region 

 owns and operates over 600 colonies, 

 another reports 175 pounds per col- 

 ony, average, in five months, from 

 this source, and much larger gains 

 have been reported. The commercial 



