BEE FOOD PLANTATIONS. 305 



preserved free from moisture and damps. The bee 

 will travel to the distance of six or seven miles in 

 search of food, guided hy an instinctive power of 

 smelling at a distance, that which is most agreeable 

 to its nature. It has the labour of returning home 

 laden, and of repeating that labour through the day. 

 All keepers of bees, therefore, who desire to profit 

 by them, should plant, to a certain degree, for their 

 provision, perhaps in any situation ; but in those 

 which are unfavourable, ample successions of the 

 shrubs, flowers, or plants, most agreeable to their 

 taste, should be cultivated. It is obvious, the shorter 

 journeys the bees have to make, the quicker and 

 more ample will be their returns, and that chosen 

 food of the best species must also contribute to ex- 

 cellence in the quality, as well as the utmost increase 

 in quantity, of the honey and wax produced. Here- 

 after follows a list of the chief articles of BEE FOOD, 

 which may easily be enlarged, if necessary, by inqui- 

 ries in the country. 



Lisle and the old bee-masters recommend turnips 

 to be kept, the blossoms of which are the earliest 

 spring food ; the meadow and hedge-row flowers soon 

 succeed. The blossoms in May, of all fruit-trees ; all 

 of the turpentine or pine class, and the linden tree. 

 Vetches, beans, white clover, lucern, and sanfoin ; but 

 it is said the humming or humble-bee only is able to 

 feed on broad clover, from the length of its proboscis. 

 Buck wheat is an article of great consequence where 

 food is raised expressly for the use of bees. Heath, 

 furze, and broom stand in the first rank, as most 



