94 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



tinct implements — and it will simplify things 

 for all time to come to give to each its own ap- 

 propriate name. 



By this time, doubtless, most of your read- 

 ers and many thousands more know what is 

 meant by the term. S. T. PfiTTiT. 



Belmont, Ont., Can., Jan. 6. 



[The dividers that you sent here, friend Pet- 

 tit, had their slats spaced about '4 inch plump; 

 tut one thing I did not observe before is, they 

 (the slats) were quite narrow, only 3's inch — 

 much narrower than those we use. I am not 

 surprised tiiat you had trouble with such nar- 

 row slats. I can not help feeling that, with 

 wider ones, and close spacing, we shall be 

 able to secure almost if not quite as good re- 

 sults as will your divider having holes in it. 

 Yes, I am with you exactly in believing that 

 we should have short terms, and that is why I 

 proposed " fence " for " double-cleated sepa- 

 rator ; " but the reason I used the term " per- 

 forated divider " in the footnote in question 

 was to distinguish it from the other divider 

 made of slats. Too much brevity in some in- 

 stances might lead to confusion. — Ed.] 



I '^ ^^ ^ -i^^i^ OL^ ^ S^ S^^ ^ i 



PI^ANTING FOR HONEY. 



Question. — What is the best kind of tree to 

 plant for bees? I am thinking of planting 

 quite a large number this spring, if I can find 

 out what will be best. 



Ansivcr. — The matter depends ver\' largely 

 on where the person lives who wishes to plant 

 trees for honey. In all northern localities 

 there is no tree that gives as great a yield of 

 honey as the linden (orbasswood, as it is more 

 familiarly known ); and were I north of lati- 

 tude forty, that would be the tree I would 

 plant, were I to plant any exclusivel}- for hon- 

 ey. This tree is also very valuable for lumber; 

 but unless planted too closely to do the best 

 for honey, lumber of little account could be 

 gotten from it on account of its growing so 

 low and branching. 



For fruit and honey combined, there is prob- 

 ably nothing better than the apple. Some 

 years, when the weather is just right during 

 its blossoming, it will yield honey nearly if 

 not quite equal to basswood as to quantity, 

 and in quality it is second only to white clover 

 and basswood, if allowed to stay on the hive 

 for a month or two, or if kept in a warm dry 

 room for two or three months till thoroughly 

 thickened and ripened. Then the apple blos- 

 soms at a time when a little stimulation in 

 the shape of nectar from the fields is of the 

 greatest value to the apiarist in populating his 

 hives with brood, which will arrive on the 

 stage of action just in time to take advantage 

 of the honey-flow from white clover and bass- 

 wood, which makes the honey which does 

 come from it of double value. So if I were 



to plant trees for honey I would include the 

 apple as one of those trees, as it possesses the 

 advantages of giving a good honey, giving said 

 honey just at a time when it is of the greatest 

 benefit to the apiarist, and gives, in addition, 

 a kind of fruit that is desired by everybody to 

 eat out of the hand, and for cooking purposes, 

 and which always commands a ready price in 

 any market of the world. 



Then I would plant of basswood largely 

 liere at the north ; and if I lived so far south 

 that basswood would not thrive, nor apple ei- 

 ther, tlien, from what correspondence I have 

 had, I would plant the black locust or sour- 

 wood, as I understand that each of these gives 

 good yields of honey in most of the States 

 south of latitude forty. But, to be candid, I 

 am not sure that I would plant any of the trees 

 very largely for honey, having that as the 

 main object, unless I were looking forward to 

 generations yet unborn, for there is little use 

 of setting out any tree with the expectation 

 of gaining any immediate benefit ; and if set 

 out for those who are to come after, in all 

 probabiHly the place would change occupants, 

 or ihe occupants conclude that the land could 

 be occupied more profitably with something 

 else, when, in either case, our labor in plant- 

 ing would have been mostly in vain. It takes 

 along time for any 1ree to grow to where it 

 will yield honey of any great amount, as I well 

 know; for when I moved where I am now lo- 

 cated. I set out both apple-trees and basswood; 

 and although that was twenty -two years ago, 

 the bees have done very little on them yet, as 

 compared with trees of more advanced age. 

 Father set some basswood-trees in the open 

 field thirty years ago, and on those the bees 

 find sufficient work to make quite a good busi- 

 ness at it, but nothing on these equal to a 

 tree that I helped him set out near the old 

 home where I was raised, forty odd years ago. 

 From what I know, I should saj' it takes at 

 least fifty years from the time of planting for 

 a basswood-tree to yield its maximum flow of 

 honev, and basswood is one of the most rapid- 

 growing trees within my knowledge. 



HONEV-PLANTS FOR BEES. 



Question. — What seed is best to sow next 

 spring for honej'-plants for bees? 



Ansicer. — White clover, alsike clover, buck- 

 wheat, melilot (or sweet clover), rape, mus- 

 tard, pleurisy-root, spider-plant. Rocky Moun- 

 tain bee-plant. Chapman honey-plant, golden 

 honey -plant, etc., in about the order named ; 

 but with the exception of the first six, I do 

 not think I would sow any of them, only by 

 way of experiment or as a source of amuse- 

 ment; for I do not think it can be made to 

 pay to occupy good land with any kind of 

 plant that gives nothing of value except hon- 

 e}^ because it takes acres of any kind of plants 

 for the bees to gather enough nectar to store 

 any surplus from. It may pay to sow any of 

 these in waste places, as they would take the 

 place of plants which were worse than useless, 

 through the burrs and noxious weeds they pro- 

 duce. Neither would I plant rape and mus- 

 tard, except where there was a call for the 

 seed which would be sufficient to pay for its 



