296 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



by frost in Winter.- It also yields a heavier second crop than the 

 common white clover." 



The blossoms of buckwheat often furnish, late in the 

 season, a very valuable bee-food.* 



Buckwheat is uncertainf in its honey-yielding qualities, 

 and, in some seasons, hardly a bee will be seen upon large 

 fields of it. Our best agriculturists are agreed that, on 

 many soils, it is a very profitable crop, and every Apiary 

 ought to have some in its vicinity.J 



The Canada thistle yields copious supplies of very pure 

 honey, after the white clover has begun to fail. If 

 farmers will tolerate its growth, it is interesting to know 

 that it can be turned to so good an account. 



The raspberry furnishes a most delicious honey. In 

 flavor it is superior to that from the white clover, while 

 its delicate comb almost melts in the mouth. The sides 

 of the roads, the borders of the fields, and the pastures of 

 much of the "hill-country" of New England, abound 

 with the wild red raspberry, and, in such favored loca- 

 tions, numerous colonies of bees may be kept. When it 

 is in blossom, bees hold even the white clover in light 



* This honey is usually gathered when the atmosphere is moist, and in wet sea- 

 sons, is somewhat liable to sour in the cells. Honey gathered when the atmosphere 

 is dry is usually of the thickest consistency. 



t The secretion of honey in plants, like the flow of the sap from the sugar-maple, 

 depends on a variety of causes, many of which elude our closest scrutiny. In 

 some seasons the saccharine juices abound, while in others they are so deficient 

 that bees can obtain scarcely any food from fields all white with clover. A change 

 in the secretion of honey will often take place so suddenly, that the bees will, in a 

 few hours, pass from idleness to great activity. 



$ Dzierzon says : " In the stubble of Winter grain, buckwheat might be sown, 

 whereby ample forage would be secured to the bees, late in the season, and a remune- 

 rating crop of grain garnered besides. This plant, growing so rapidly and maturing 

 BO soon, so productive in favorable seasons, and so well adapted to cleanse the land, 

 certainly deserves more attention from farmers than it receives ; and its more 

 frequent and general culture would greatly enhance the profits of bee-keeping. Its 

 long-continued and frequently-renewed blossoms yield honey so abundantly, that 

 * populous colony may easily collect fifty pounds in two weeks, if the weather is 

 favorable." 



