THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



453 



The white sage yields honey in the 

 forenoon, but not much in the after- 

 noon. It is thin when compared to 

 that whicli comes from the bhick, and 

 in color and flavor it does not rank in 

 the same class with the former at all. 



I know whereof I speak. I have 

 seen the two grow on the same bee 

 range, very many times, but not on 

 the same ground. For the habits of 

 the two plants are as unlike as need 

 be. The black sage chooses the sides 

 of mountains and foot hills. It can 

 hardly, if ever, be found on flat land, 

 but the highest peaks of the coast 

 range of mountains in California, 

 seldom get too- high for the black 

 sage to tluive and do well, and this is 

 one of the best evidences of its superi- 

 ority as a honey plant. It is a long 

 and well-established fact, that the 

 best honey producing plants grow on 

 the highest land. The white sage is 

 a lover of the bottom lands of the 

 canyons, along the banks of streams, 

 very rarely getting 200 yards from 

 high water mark. It throws up a 

 number of stalks from the root every 

 spring, that bloom the same season, 

 and then die. It does not resemble 

 a bush or shrub, but has the appear- 

 ance of ii weed. It is a most profuse 

 bloomer,— while the black sage is a 

 bush, a shrub, with hard solid wood, 

 hence the substantial foundation for 

 the best honey in the world to come 

 from. When there is plenty of rain 

 the black sage blooms for six or eight 

 weeks, yielding honey like but very 

 few plants do yield, aud of a quality 

 that is XXX. 



Water Valley, N. Y. 



For tlie American Beo JoumaL 



The Season in Southeastern N. Y- 



HOWARD T. BUSH. 



About Aug. 1, it became very dry, 

 and we have had no rain to speak of 

 since ; we have cold nights, so cold 

 that bees cannot work until 8 a.m.; 

 they work while the dew is on, and 

 then lie still the rest of the day. We 

 have had two frosts this week ; the 

 bees just about make a living. I shall 

 not get a pound of buckwheat honey ; 

 goldenrod is coming in bloom, but if 

 it stays dry, I shall get no honey from 

 that source, so I think that my honey 

 harvest is over for this season. I 

 used two-pound, one-pound and half- 

 pound sections. I sell two-pound and 

 one-pound sections for 15 and 20 cents 

 per pound, and half-pounds for 25 

 cents a pound, in my home market; 

 and I get 10 cents for extracted. I 

 have sold all of my half-pound sec- 

 tions but a few that I want to exhibit 

 at our county fair, on the first of 

 October. I mail a few bees from my 

 apiary. I want to know what kind 

 of bees they are. Are they the brown 

 German or black beesV Tlie queens 

 are very large, about one-third larger 

 than Italian queens. 

 Monticello, N. Y., Aug. 31, 1883. 



[They are of the brown German 

 race.— Ed.] 



I began the season with 41 colo- 

 nies, spring count ; it was very cold 

 and wet all the spring. Apple bloom 

 came the last of May. My bees gath- 

 ered some honey from it, and 

 about that time I transferred 23 colo- 

 nies, and I fed them the waste honey 

 that I obtained from those that I stim- 

 ulated to brood-rearing. I worked 

 them on Mr. Uoolittle's plan, and 

 when my honey harvest came, on 

 June 6, my bees were very strong, but 

 it was cold and wet. Raspberry 

 bloomed on June 6, and my first 

 swarm came out on the 9th, and I be- 

 gan to extract on the loth ; and from 

 then until the first of July, I took off 

 1,000 pounds of honey (700 pounds of 

 comb and 300 pounds of extracted). 

 White clover came in bloom about 

 June 10, but it was so very wet that 

 the bees did not work on it. In the 

 last week in June, sumac came, and I 

 never saw such abloom. The weather 

 became clear, and I never saw bees 

 gather honey so fast. On July 4, my 

 bees began to kill the drones, and in 

 one week you could not see a single 

 drone. On July 15, basswood bloomed, 

 but there is not enough here for bees 

 to make any more than a living, and 

 hardly that, so my bees have been 

 idle from July 20 until about two 

 week ago ; then buckwheat bloomed. 



Read before the Maine Convention. 



Profitable Pasturage for Bees. 



ISAAC F. PLXJMMER. 



By request of one of the members 

 of this association, I have taken up 

 this subject to give you a few 

 thoughts on my experience and ob- 

 servation in regard to planting and 

 cultivating flowers, trees, shrubs, etc., 

 for artificial pasturage for bees. 



I have not had great experience in 

 this line, but I have had enough to 

 know that to a certain extent it pays 

 to plant for bees, and when we are 

 planting fruit trees and small fruits, 

 we should remember we shall some 

 day reap a rich harvest of honey as 

 well as a harvest of golden fruit, and 

 thus reap two profits to pay for our 

 labor. I believe, and have always 

 thought that orcharding and the cul- 

 ture of small fruits should go haudjn 

 hand with bee-keeping for the reason 

 of the honey which fruit trees will 

 produce when they are in bloom. So 

 let us greatly extend our orchards, 

 and in a few years we shall see our 

 bees getting more honey, and that we 

 are getting more and better bee pas- 

 turage in our State. 



There are but few farmers and bee- 

 keepers in our State who have not 

 more or less waste pieces of land 

 around fence corners, roadsides and 

 side hills ; and what better purpose 

 can such pieces of land be put to than 

 by sowing them to sweet clover, 

 which is one of the greatest honey- 

 producing plants we have in this 

 country, and how much better such 

 pieces of land would look to the eye 

 and at the same time have the bees 

 gathering honey, the sweetest of all 

 sweets from the flowers that such 

 places will jirodiice by a little of our 

 time and care spent in such a noble 

 purpose. Who says it will not pay V 

 I for one say it will pay. 



Another great honey-producing 

 plant, and one that will hold in bloom 

 from July to the first of September or 

 October, is a plant called •' borage." 

 It has a blue flower, and is a very 

 attractive flower for either field or 

 garden culture, but it needs a deep 

 rich soil in order to grow to perfec- 

 tion. I sowed some in my garden 

 last spring. It came up well, made a 

 very fine and rapid growth and 

 bloomed finely. It was just remark- 

 able to see how bees worked on it. Its 

 flowers kept dropping and kept blos- 

 soming until the dry weather dried it 

 all up, and I know it would have kept 

 in bloom a number of weeks longer 

 if it tiad not been for the drouth. I 

 like to see the bees work so well on 

 this plant, that I shall sow a lot 

 another season, if nothing prevents. 



Of the other honey-producing plants 

 that are highly recommended, somei* 

 of which I know by experience are 

 very good for bees, and will pay to 

 cultivate on a small scale. To go with 

 bee forage may be mentioned the 

 following : Catnip, motherwort, 

 boneset, flgwort, spider plant, mig- 

 nonette, Chinese mustard, cleome, 

 golden honey plant, etc. I think if 

 we give this branch of our business 

 the same attention we give to other 

 branches of bee culture, we soon will 

 see our bees gathering more honey, 

 and if we get more honey we shall "et 

 more money out of our bees. Now 

 let us try and see what we can do to 

 advance bee-culture in our State, and 

 if we can do so by planting for our 

 bees, let us do it ; and if we can do so 

 by improving our hives and honey 

 boxes, let us do so by all means, and 

 I know by improving our bees and 

 breeding them up to higher standard 

 of excellence, and at the same time 

 give them plenty of liowers from 

 which to gather honey, that we must 

 be successful in bee culture in this 

 State and in all other States. I will 

 bring this to a close by saying to 

 Maine bee-keepers, plant largely of 

 honey producing plants, and you will 

 not be sorry for your time, pains and 

 the pleasures it vvill give you, aud the 

 land that you will use for this purpose 

 will be well improved. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keepers' Week at the Southern 

 Exposition. 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



The Southern Exposition Company 

 is composed of wealthy business men 

 who, of course, know nothing of bee- 

 culture. It was hardly to be expected 

 that they would bestow special favors 

 upon bee-keepers ; hence, it became 

 necessary to apply to the Agricultural 

 department of our State for accommo- 

 dations. The same course was pur- 

 sued by the Horticultural Societies, 

 and nobly did that department re- 

 spond to our wishes. Prof. Todd, 

 chief manager of the Agricultural 

 deiiartmeut of the State of Kentucky, 

 is a man of broad views, and so inter- 

 ested was he in our new (?) enterprise 

 that he gave us special favors and 

 attention. Had we known before 



