GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



SUMAC. 



The Plant and Its Honey. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



In New England the honey-season shuts 

 down July 1st till the buckwheat or the fall 

 riowers start it up, unless the bee-keeper 

 lives in a locality where sumac abounds. 

 Where this plant fills every waste corner, 

 and is scattered over the hillside pastures, as 

 is the ease throughout much of Connecticut, 

 there the bee-keeper, if he knows his busi- 

 ness, is planning about July 1st for his chief 

 honey-flow, looking for it to open the sec- 

 ond week of July. Where the sumac is not 

 abundant, however, no dependence can be 

 put on it, and surprise is sure to come upon 

 the novice to go some July day to his apiary 

 and find the bees in a state of highest activi- 

 ty, and his hives rapidly filling with honey. 

 He is apt to gaze somewhat awestruck to see 

 the bees hurrying in with the yellow-dusted 

 abdomens distended with nectar — nectar at 

 a season when he had given up hope of more 

 honey'for weeks to come. Though the flow 

 is likely to last but three or four days, for 

 this bee-keeper, who lives where there is lit- 

 tle sumac, the supers are sometimes crowd- 

 ed full in that short time. 



It was not till three years ago that I be- 

 came acquainted with this plant, though I 

 had for years been acquainted with the sud- 

 den July flow that blessed Massachussetts 

 occasionally. Upon more than one occasion 

 during a hot wave in July 1 had tried to trace 

 the nectar to its source, and for some years 

 suspected it to come from chestnut-bloom. 

 The smell about the hives greatly resembled 

 the smell about a chestnut-tree in bloom, 

 and I called the honey chestnut honey till I 

 was^down on Cape Cod one July and there 

 saw the flow going on in a region where the 

 nearest chestnut-tree was twenty miles away. 

 I had also ascribed the honey to a certain 

 composite flower common in certain pastures 

 during June and July, though I could never 

 see a bee on that plant. Finally my suspi- 

 cions fell on the sumac, and I now know be- 

 yond the shadow of a doubt that this plant 

 is the source of our splendid July honey- 

 flow. 



It is not strange that this plant should 

 have escaped my notice, nor that its flowers 

 attract little attention. The bloom comes 

 during the heat of July when the people 

 keep out^of the hot fields; and as the flowers 

 have no bright color and no fragrance, 

 though the clusters have a beautiful grace, 

 they seldom find a place in bouquets. 



We have at least four sumacs in New Eng- 

 land, besides other members of the Cashew 

 family, but only one of them. Elms glabra, is 

 of much value as a honey-plant. Rims cop- 

 allina sometimes yields, but is unreliable; 

 yet when it does yield, following as it does 

 right after glabra, it serves to help finish off 

 the supers of sections. 



Rhus glabra, the plant pictured in the 

 photographs which accompany this article, 

 is a shrub varying in height from one to ten 



or more feet according to age and fertility 

 of soil. Its shoots, straight and rod-like 

 while young, by their irregular branching 

 make the older plants angular and strag- 

 gling. The wood is brittle, abounding in 

 central pith, furnishing the small boy with 

 material of which to make his pop-guns. 

 The leaves are compound, odd-pinnate, with 

 leaflets numbering from 11 to 31, the most 

 common number being nineteen. The leaf- 

 lets are a soft green while the stalk is often 

 reddish, and with this coloring, also because 

 the new growth is red, the growing plant is 

 more attractive than the flowering plant. 



The flowers are in terminal panicles, which 

 in full bloom are often large enough to fill a 

 peck measure. The buds appear in early 

 June, and develop rather slowly till the heat 

 of July causes them to mature rapidly. The 

 individual buds do not open all at one time, 

 but only scatteringly over the panicle. This 

 fact, together with "the fact that the bushes 

 do not reach the blooming period all on the 

 same day, serves to prolong the season to 

 about three weeks. This long season is of 

 sei'vice only in localities where the sumac 

 abounds. In Massachusetts, for instance, 

 the How from sumac, if it comes at all, usu- 

 ally lasts but three or four days. 



The plant flourishes on rocky hillsides, 

 yielding poorly on sandy and gravelly soils. 

 Much of the surface of Connecticut is covered 

 with glacial moi'aines, land with a rocky 

 subsoil, and farms bounded with stone walls. 

 In a word, where farmers can build their 

 boundary fences with stones, there will you 

 find the sumac in profusion, and there will 

 one find a good honey-region. 



A peculiarity of this plant is that sunshine 

 is necessary to develop the nectaries. Dur- 

 ing cloudy, foggy, or cool weather the flow- 

 ers, even though abundant, will not keep the 

 bees busy. But let the bloom have three 

 hours of hot morning sunshine, and the nec- 

 taries will yield throughout the I'est of the 

 day. Thus it is that the most profuse flows 

 come during the "hot waves" of July. 

 While the people are sweltei'ing in New York 

 and other cities, the bee-keepers of Connecti- 

 cut are smiling broadly with satisfaction as 

 they see the incoming honey crowding the 

 capacity of their hives. The cool spell, wel- 

 comed by the suffering city dwellers, takes 

 the smile right off the face of the bee-keeper, 

 as he knows full well that another year must 

 roll around before he again enjoys such 

 pleasure as has been his of late. 



The sumac-bloom is made up of a numer- 

 ously branched panicle with countless tiny 

 flowers, almost green in color. The little 

 shallow blossoms are broadly open, and, con- 

 sequently, the sumac at its best rivals the 

 buckwheat and the linden in the rapidity 

 with which it enables the bees to gather the 

 honey. Strong colonies have no ti'ouble in 

 gaining twenty pounds or more in a typical- 

 ly good day. 



The usual routine of the honey-flow is as 

 follows: From July 8th to the 15th the bees 

 are getting acquainted with the slowly open- 

 ing bloom, and get their brood-nests filled 



