252 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1917 



LOVED AND HATED 



The 



AD A N D E- 

 lion blooms 

 on Glean- 

 ings cover this 

 month. A few 

 days more and 

 this same modest 

 and brilliant, 

 humble and tyrannical, hated 

 plant will be blooming over large areas of 

 North America, Europe, and Asia — and 

 how many other continents the botanist will 

 not say nor deny. 



Nearly every beekeeper whom we have 

 met in our travels over the clover section 

 of the country has acknowledged that he 

 is '' in bad " with many of his fellow- 

 townspeople because they allege that the 

 bcemen are scattering dandelion and sweet- 

 clover seed in their locality. " Why," 

 they say, ' 'dandelions are more numerous 

 in this town than anywhere else; and 

 surely Mr. Beekeeper has been scattering 

 the seed around town for the sake of his 

 bees." 



In some localities where the soil is just 

 right (a little acid), and where bees are 

 kept, dandelions thrive tremendously. Bee- 

 keepers do not scatter the dandelion seed, 

 but the bees so thoroly pollinate the blossoms 

 that practically every seed matures. With 

 the same soil conditions and no bees, 

 dandelions do not appear to thrive. Here 

 in Medina, where bees have been kept for 

 fifty years, dandelions grow so rank and 

 thick some springs that they seem to be 

 about the only early-summer vegetation to 

 thrive on our village lawns. This rank 

 growth of dandelions extends even beyond 

 the limits of our town, and a perfect sea 

 of yellow fills the landscape in every 

 direction. 



One day when coming into Medina on a 

 street-car a lady who was a resident of 

 Medina (somewhat on "the spinster order, 

 and who knew everything 

 and everybody's else busi- 

 ness) said to another lady 

 in the same seat with her 

 and within the hearing of 

 Gleanings' editor: "You 

 will soon be coming to 

 the dandelion town of 

 Medina." 



It was in the spring, 

 when the dandelions were 

 out in all their glory ; and 

 when the ear arrived at 

 our home town the anti- 

 dandelion lady proceed- 

 ed: 



" Yes, you sec there is 



Dandelion as a Honey-plant 

 and as a Nuisance 



By E. R. Root 

 and loved 



no grass grow- 

 ing here — noth- 

 ing but dande- 

 lions. You can 

 see that it is all 

 yellow as far as 

 the eye can 

 reach. This is 

 the town where that man Root has scattered 

 seed of the Giant variety all over the town. 

 He keeps bees here, and the dandelion is a 

 great honey-plant ; but it is the ruination of 

 all the lawns in the town. He ought to 

 have to get down on his knees and pull 

 every one of 'em up, so he had. It would 

 just do that man good to have to get down 

 on his knees in real earnest onoe. We call 

 these miserable weeds ' Root's roses.' " 



The landscape from the car window 

 seemed to support unquestionably the in- 

 dictment and warrant the punishment — 

 from the home-owner's view. 



A striking proof of how bees (not their 

 owners) promote the growth of dandelions 

 was given in this vicinity several years 

 ago. A man living 12 miles from Medina 

 but where there were no bees, being very 

 fond of dandelion greens, attempted time 

 and again to propagate dandelions near his 

 home, and he failed utterly. 



Dr. C. C. Miller once told us that he was 

 a very much despised man when the dande- 

 lions came into bloom. 



The dandelion's one good excuse for ex- 

 istence is found in its great service to the 

 honeybee in producing abundant pollen. 

 It yields little or no hpney. 



While there is no question that dandelions 

 are a nuisance on a lawn, and require con- 

 stant warfare, they make fine pasturage for 

 milk cows, and make excellent greens. 

 Their beauty would be widely proclaimed if 

 not so common and so unfortunately as- 

 sociated with injury to lawns. Give a cow 

 her choice and she will grab up the suc- 

 culent leaves of the dan- 

 delion in preference to 

 almost any other grass; 

 and such milk! the very 

 fip.e-;t and best that one 

 (an have. 



While we do not advo- 

 cate, and never have, the 

 scattering of dandelion 

 seed, 3'et, if weeds must 

 be, tlie dandelion is far 

 from being the worst of- 

 fender on the weed list. 

 Most weeds are just to be 

 hated. The dandelion has 

 some lovers — the bee, the 

 A Dandelion Lover. COW, and the beekeeper. 



