OCTOBER 1, 1914 



747 



land, but on side hills and waste lands. 

 The bees are hovering over it in great uum- 

 hers. The blossom is so small and insig- 

 nificant, and so destitute of odor, that one 

 can scarcely imagine why it should be so 

 attractive to them; but on leaving a field of 

 these asters, and going up on high ground 

 in the direction of the nearest beeyards, we 

 find tliat the bees are flying back and forth 

 I»y the thousands. Examination of the hives 

 shows a light-coloved honey; and while, of 

 course, it does not compare with white hon- 

 ey, or that from basswood or other hon- 

 eys, the flavor is fair; but Mr. Halter says 

 that, unfortunately, the bees will get too 

 much of it sometimes, so that cool weather 

 will come on before the honey is capj^ed 

 over. Then it causes trouble in the form of 

 dysentery. But it makes a very good win- 

 ter food, he says, Avhen ripened and capped 

 over; and for that reason we shall watch 

 the bees narrowly. If they have any of this 

 uncapped honey, we will take it away, of 

 course. 



There is another aster in our locality that 

 somewhat resembles the ^4. tradescanti, ex- 

 cept that it is of a blue or purplish blue, 

 with a little larger flower, but a shorter 

 plant. The bees work on it almost as freely 

 as on the other. As nearly as we can iden- 

 tify it, it is A. laevis. 



Another plant that the bees are working 

 on may be one of the helianthi. It may be 

 swamp sunflower (sneezeweed), Heleniwm 

 autumnale. In our last issue we reported 

 that it was the Jerusalem artichoke; but 

 further examination shows that it cannot be 

 that, as it has no tubers in the root, and, 

 moreover, the heads are different. We have 

 not positively identified the species as yet. 

 The bees are working on it vpry profusely, 

 and it appears to be one of the important 

 sources of nectar. 



There is a great variety of other flowers 

 still to come on that our bees at the swamp 

 will be getting honey from until the next 

 hard frost. It should be noted in this con- 

 nection that light frosts do not do any harm 

 to the asters and Iielianthi. They seem to be 

 proof against ordinary cold. It is also 

 somewhat remarkable that these plants will 

 secrete nectar when the mercury is as low 

 doAvn as 50 Fahrenheit — so cold, indeed, 

 that the bees toward night are often left in 

 the field to return next morning if it warms 

 up enough. These fall blossoms seem to 

 depart from the rule of summer flora that 

 require a warm and muggy atmosphere be- 

 fore they yield nectar. While the bees do 

 not work on them so heavily when the 

 weather is so cool or cold, they nevertheless 

 gather nectar. " Some of the bees were so 



cold dui'ing that last cold spell," said Mr. 

 Halter, " that they would be too chilled to 

 get into their hives. Hundreds and almost 

 thousands would be lying all over the 

 ground." He was inclined to think they 

 would be lost; but we assured him that, as 

 soon as the first warm sunshine came out, 

 they would go back to their hives. But, 

 nevertheless, such cold weather must be a 

 strain on the bees, and we therefore assume 

 that a large amount of nectar must be yield- 

 ed or the bees would not brave such cold. 

 Examination of som6 of the hives showed 

 that a few had brood on the outer edges 

 chilled. 



As we went over the waste land in the 

 vicinity of Hudson we found that recent 

 frosts had killed down all the heartsease; 

 but the asters and helianthi were as bright 

 and smiling as ever, welcoming the kisses 

 of the bees that were everywhere present. 



BEES PLY FURTHER FOR SWAMP PASTURAGE 

 THAN FOR ORDINARY CLOVER PASTURAGE. 



The reason of this is obvious. When 

 clover is in bloom it is so abundant that the 

 bees can usually get all they can take care 

 of, within a range of a mile or even half a 

 mile. In our locality bees seldom fly furth- 

 er than one and a half miles at most in 

 clover times; but at the Hudson swamp 

 we found our bees on some of these little 

 asters that had evidently come 3^2 miles, 

 because we readily recognized our own 

 leather-colored Italians, the nearest yard of 

 which was that far away. It is evident 

 that bees in the fall, when short of pastur- 

 age, make long excursions. These excur- 

 sions become more and more extended until 

 pasturage is found. When the first bees 

 find it, they are not slow in communicating 

 the good news to the rest. 



These swamj^s about Hudson look so good 

 to us that we are securing locations at 

 several points. The papers at Akron had it 

 that w'e were going to " buy up the whole 

 thousand acres" of swamp land; but we 

 would hardly do this even if we could. If 

 it could ever be drained it doubtless would 

 be converted into one vast truck garden ; 

 but we understand that this is not practica- 

 ble and ])robably will never be done. 



Report from the 

 f AgricM 



Stalteg Depar 



On pages 6 and 7 of the General Review 

 of Crop Conditions for September 1, 1914, 

 in Farmers' Bulletin No. 620, a general re- 

 port is given of the honey crop for 191-1. 

 Preceding the table of results is a summary, 

 agreeing closely with the reports that have 

 appeared in Gleanings. 



