PASTURAGE. 55 



CHAPTER IV. 



PASTURAGE. 



IT is of the first importance to the success of an 

 apiary, that it should be in a neighbourhood 

 where the bees can be supplied with an abundance 

 of good pasturage, as upon that will depend the 

 fecundity of the queen and the harvest of wax and 

 honey. 



If Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) be neither 

 grown abundantly by the neighbouring farmers, nor 

 the spontaneous growth of the surrounding country, 

 the apiarian should, if possible, crop some ground 

 with it himself, as it is one of the grand sources 

 from which bees collect their honey in the spring, 

 and indeed during a considerable portion of the 

 principal gathering season. From the value of 

 clover in this respect, one species of it (Trifolium 

 pratense) has acquired the name of Honey-suckle 

 clover. Yellow trefoil also (Medicago lupulind), 

 though not so great a favourite with the bees as 

 Dutch clover, is nevertheless a valuable pasturage 

 for them, in consequence of its blossoming earlier 

 than the clover. 



Though I have made Dutch clover take prece- 

 dence of every other bee pasturage, a precedence 

 which in this country at least it is fairly entitled 



