JUNE 15, 1916 



477 



colonies stored 12,000 

 pounds of white-clover 

 honey and increased to 

 240 colonics. From the 

 same apiar_y in the fol- 

 lowing- year the product 

 was 30,000 pounds, while 

 in 1908 drouth reduced 

 the crop to 15,000 

 pounds. 



The flowers of white 

 clover are familiar to 

 every one since the plant 

 finds a congenial habitat 

 in the vicinity of human 

 dwellings. It carpets the 

 lawns, fringes the paths 

 and roads, and is com- 

 mon in the fields and 

 pastures. There are in 

 each head or flower-clus- 

 ter from 57 to 89 small 

 florets. At first all the 

 florets stand erect, but 

 as the marginal ones are 

 pollinated they cease to 

 secrete nectar and are 

 bent backward and 

 downward agatinst the 

 stem. By preventing 

 useless visits this change 

 in position is beneficial 

 to both flower and insect. 

 When they expand the 

 flowers are white, but 

 they often turn reddish after they are re- 

 flexed. The calyx is only three millimeters 

 long, so that not only honeybees, but many 

 other insects are able to reach the nectar. 

 Honeybees also often gather loads of green- 

 ish pollen, altho this is not abundant. 



DISTRIBUTION OF WHITE CLOVER. 



White clover is very widely distributed 

 in the north temperate zone of both hem- 

 ispheres. The factors controlling the secre- 

 tion of nectar are very imperfectly under- 

 stood. While in the United States and 

 England it is usually a good honey-plant, in 

 France and Switzerland, in fact, thruout 

 continental Europe, one may travel for 

 sevei-al kilometers and not see a bee on it. 

 At Rouen, France, during one day of white- 

 clover bloom a hive on scales actually lost 

 300 grams in weight. In various localities 

 in the United States it is also reported to 

 be an almost total failure. At Plainfield, 

 N. J., altho the ground is often white with 

 the bloom a good flow is obtained only 

 about once in ten years. One beekeeper 

 says: "As an actual fact, the amount of 

 clover honey is not measured by the quan- 



White-clover blossom — second stage. 



tity of bloom; for I have seen the fields 

 white with an abundance of it, but only a 

 fair crop. I can remember one year when 

 we had a great scarcity of bloom, and yet 

 we had a good crop of clover honey. I 

 have also seen fields white with clover but 

 no honey." In the southern and extreme 

 western states white clover is of little im- 

 portance to the beekeeper, not so much be- 

 cause it does not secrete nectar as because 

 it is not sufficiently common. In many dis- 

 tricts the climate is too dry. The nectar 

 secretion also varies greatly from day to 

 day according to weather conditions. 



White clover is at its maximum as a hon- 

 ey-plant in what is known as the " white- 

 clover belt " — that is. in the blue-grass re- 

 gion of Kentucky, in Oliio, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Missouri, Iowa, southern Minnesota, 

 and southern Wisconsin, Iowa, and southern 

 Illinois being in the heart of the belt. Even 

 here the nectar yield is often very variable. 

 In some years it is enormous. In others no 

 surplus is stored. At Richmond, Kentucky, 

 according to Virgil Weaver, a normal year 

 comes only once in every five years, viz., 

 1807, 1902, 1906, 1910. Two full crops 



