268 VARIETIES OF FOOD THE APIARY. 



ries and raspberries, should be planted. The sun- 

 flower, holly-hock, and poppy. Burrage-flowers, 

 from their long blooming, are of the greatest use. 

 Marsh-mallows abound in farina. Melilot, a bien- 

 nial plant found in hedges and underwood, which 

 flowers in July, is much sought by bees, and greatly 

 productive of honey. It was formerly said to equal 

 lucern as food for horses, thence worthy of a mo- 

 dern trial, which I gave it in 1828 and 1829, on 

 various soils, finding it immensely productive. It 

 is, however, not a favourite food with horses or cat- 

 tle, until they become accustomed to it ; the case 

 with nearly all . artificial grasses ; yet it is in con- 

 stant use on the continent, and was formerly cul- 

 tivated in this country. Mignionette is supposed to 

 be the richest in honey of all flowers ; bees are par- 

 ticularly fond of those of the verbinia and ster- 

 tian, cabbages and cauliflowers : in Autumn, oak- 

 leaves, and those of all trees on which the honey- 

 dew is found. 



The APIARY should be fixed in a dry and shel- 

 tered situation, and so far detached that it may be 

 well defended from every kind of vermin, the bee 

 having many enemies. A south-west aspect is re- 

 commended by the elder apiarians, on the ground 

 that, from the South-East, the bees are disturbed 

 too early, and thence do not work so late in the 

 evening, by which they are losers. Whether the 

 use or curiosity of this idea predominate, I have not 

 sufficient experience to decide ; but certainly in 

 some situations a S.W. aspect may be improper, 

 and shelter from high winds is at any rate indispen- 



