GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



115 



Bu R. C. Aikin. 



ALFALFA HONEY: ITS CHARACTER; TENDENCY 

 TO GRANULATE. 



The quality of this honey is very good. My 

 experience is that it is fully the equal of white 

 clover in respect to color, though some from 

 other States or elsewhere report it as amber in 

 color. Possibly soil or other conditions have to 

 do with color; but my opinion is that the great 

 bulk of it is white. In body, it is very heavy. 

 It frequently becomes so very thick and tena- 

 cious that it can not be successfully extracted 

 unless at a temperature of nearly 90 degrees F. 

 In flavor it is quite mild. There is an entire 

 absence of that sharp twang peculiar to white 

 clover. Many people who could not eat honey 

 in the East are very fond of alfalfa, and eat it 

 with no evil effects. It is a rare thing to find 

 one who dislikes th alfalfa flavor if he likes 

 honey at all. and very many will eat it who 

 would not eat other honeys. 



Now, while the body, color, and flavor are 

 excellent, there is one feature that is against 

 it; and that is its tendency to granulate. Al- 

 falfa comb honey, as a rule, will not keep over 

 winter without granulating to some extent, 

 both in brood combs and sections. Let me say 

 right here that I anticipate a thumping from 

 some of the alfalfa-producers; but, thumping 

 or no thumping. I want to tell the truth If 

 telling this truth about it will injure its repu- 

 tation, it will have to bear it; but the fact 

 remains that its good qualities will find it a 

 market in spite of the one failing. 



Extracted honey will candy solid in ten days 

 to six weeks from extracting. With me it does 

 this every time. This candying is a more 

 serious question when extracting than if comb 

 is produced. If the last extracting be a month 

 later than the first, the first will be solid in 

 tanks, cans, or whatever in, before we have 

 time to get it in shape to retail. Wherever a 

 bit of the honey stands for two or three weeks 

 it must he heated to get it out This question 

 has become so serious with some of us that we 

 think of adopting altoeether different methods 

 from those now in vogue in the matter of mar- 

 keting extracted honey. The marketing ques- 

 tion I will handle by itself, so drop it here. 



OTHER HONEY-PLANTS. 



The noted Rocky Mountain bee-plant (cleome) 

 grows quite freely in some parts of the State. 

 This plant is a great favorite with the bees, 

 and, like the sweet clover, will be covered with 



bees. Several times I have had occasion to 

 photograph it, but it seemed that the bees could 

 not be kept off long enough to let it become 

 still. This plant is quite peculiar in some of 

 its habits. It seems to prefer a dry soil, often 

 growing on gravelly, barren-like places that 

 grow little else. While it will grow luxuriantly 

 on good soil, it evidently will not thrive with 

 "wet feet." It is strictly an annual, growing 

 two to six feet high. When crowded together, 

 plants usually attain an average height of two 

 to three feet; but if not crowded they grow 

 four to six feet, and spread their branches to a 

 diameter of three to four feet. Like nearly 

 every other plant that succeeds in dry soils, It 

 has the characteristic long tap root. The 

 bloom is a pinkish purple, and a very pretty one. 

 The cleome honey is just enough amber that 

 it can not be strictly called a white honey. 

 The flavor is a little bit rank at first; but when 

 well cured it becomes rather mild and not un- 

 pleasant. In flavor I would class it with 

 heart's-ease, and In color a little whiter than 

 heart's-ease. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



This plant is so well known that it needs no 

 detailed description. It also has the penetrat- 

 ing root, grows on almost any soil, and yields a 

 good grade of semi- white honey. The plant 

 has been said to prefer a dry soil. In Colorado 

 it grows well along ditch-banks, on bottom 

 lands, and near the margin of swamps. I 

 should say it favors a rich, moist, but well- 

 drained soil. I say it grows on ditch-banks, 

 and so it does. The Easterner would associate 

 a ditch with a swampy, heavy wet land. In 

 this country a ditch is rarely built for drainage 

 purposes in soggy land, but through high, 

 dry, rich farm land, to convey water to irrigate 

 growing crops. The soil is rather clayey, and, 

 though the ditch have a continual running 

 stream, the water does not " percolate " (seep 

 or waste through the soil) sufficiently to keep 

 alive a shallow-rooted plant a distance of one 

 rod from the ditch. Our ditch-bank, then, 

 means a well-watered, well-drained soil; and in 

 such, sweet clover thrives. 



I have no other honey-sources that give a 

 surplus except sometimes red clover. The red- 

 clover honey is almost an amber, and has the 

 decidi d clover twang. I would class it as first 

 grade, but at the bottom of the grade. 



We have a weed that I think is peculiar to 

 the West, and of which I can not recall the 

 botanical name. It has the sunflower form of 

 bloom, about one inch in diameter, and yellow. 

 The plant grows about one to three feet high, 

 and blooms in August and September. It Is 

 called here resin-weed, because the leaves and 

 branches have a glossy, gummy surface. It 

 yields much pollen and a little honey. The 

 honey has a golden tint and somev^^hat rank 

 flavor, though not bad, and candies very quick- 



