1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



;i 



where alfalfa is an important crop. 

 In the southern states, cotton is the 

 one field crop grown on a sufficient 

 scale to offer ideal conditions for the 

 beekeeper. However, cotton is fickle 

 in its behavior, and cannot always be 

 depended upon to produce nectar, no 

 matter how abundant the crop. In 

 some cotton-growing districts the 

 beekeepers swear by cotton, while in 

 other localities they declare that it is 

 of little value. The character of the 

 soil seems to be a very important 

 factor in the secretion of nectar by 

 this plant. The vigor of the growth 



must be just right, and that don't 



come often. The honey is the same 



grade as most honeydews." 



In contrast, we find the following 



report of good honey and abundant 



yield, in American Bee Journal for 



1907. page 267: 



"Cotton blossoms furnish a great 

 deal of excellent honey, and the 

 theory that it explodes or ferments 

 is all bosh. It makes an excellent 

 rich honey, oily, and it is not liked 

 so well by some until they get used 

 to it.— Jules Belknap, M. D., Sul- 

 phur Springs, Ark." 



Cotton ready to pick. U. S. Department of Agricultu 



and the amount of available plant 

 food in the soil are also important. 

 Reports from different sections indi- 

 cate that the quality of the honey 

 varies in different sections. 



W. D. Null, of Demopolis, Ala., 

 wrote to the author as follows : 



"This, you know, was for sixty 

 years the heaviest cotton-growing 

 section in the nation. Bees will 

 not work cotton if they can work 

 anything else, even bitterweed. It 

 yields honey of very poor quality, 

 and never very much, some years 

 none at all. Weather conditions 



When the writer made his first trip 

 through Georgia he was much puz- 

 zled by the different reports of ap- 

 parently good observers in different 

 parts of the State. The matter was 

 finally explained by a beekeeper who 

 had lived in different localities, by 

 the variation in behavior of the 

 plant under different conditions. 

 There is perhaps no important honey 

 plant which varies so much, in the 

 quality of its nectar, as does cotton. 

 The poor quality in some places can 

 doubtless be explained by the fact 

 that the flow is not abundant, and is 



mixed with other low-grade stores. 

 However, honeydew is also some- 

 times reported from the plant itself. 

 "Sometimes, during a damp spell, 

 the cotton gets covered with vast 

 numbers of aphis, and the upper 

 side of the leaves will first get 

 gummy and then will even drip a 

 kind of dirty-looking sweet fluid. 

 If there is anything else on hand 

 the bees will not touch it." — W. H. 

 Alder, Callallen Co., Tex., page 334, 

 American Bee Journal, 1899. 

 It is needless to say that this would 

 make a poor product, and it is not 

 improbable that honeydew is some- 

 times secured from cotton in locali- 

 ties where it seldom yields nectar. 

 The secretion is apparently depend- 

 ent far more upon soil, than upon 

 any other condition. Upon the black 

 waxy lands of Texas and upon other 

 soils, it reaches its highest develop- 

 ment. The boundary of the belt, 

 where cotton yields freely and where 

 it does not, is very marked in Texas. 

 Xorth of the escarpment which runs 

 across Bexar county, Texas, near San 

 Antonio, it is an important source. 

 South of that line few beekeepers re- 

 port it as dependable. North of this 

 line the soil is black and heavy; 

 south it is sandy. Wherever the 

 writer has found beekeepers on 

 sandy soil, they have reported the 

 yield from cotton as uncertain; while 

 on the heavy soils they report it as 

 fairly constant, with suitable weather 

 conditions. The map shown herewith 

 roughly outlines the heavy section 

 where honey from cotton is import- 

 ant in Texas. Cotton is grown east, 

 south, and, to some extent, west of 

 th it line. In east Texas, cotton is re- 

 ported as yielding well on river bot- 

 tom lands and but little on the hills. 

 In the southern sections, and also in 

 other States, an occasional crop is 

 reported where it does not yield 

 regularly : 



"We had a very dry, sultry spell 

 here the latter part of last August, 

 and up to that time the bees were 

 living from hand to mouth. All at 

 once they began storing from the 

 cotton bloom, though it looked as 

 though cotton was going to die in 

 the fields from drought and heat, 

 yet it yielded until the bees had 

 stored from 30 to 60 pounds per 

 colony." — J. J. Wilder, Cordele, Ga., 

 American Bee Journal, page 141, 

 1906. 



On suitable soils it is one of the 

 most dependable sources of nectar : 

 "The apiarist who has his bees 

 located within range of extensive 

 cotton areas can count on at least 

 an average crop year after year, 

 with more certainty than many of 

 the other numerous honey yielders 

 which we have." — Louis Scholl, page 

 652, Gleanings, 1912. 



"My main sources for surplus are 

 mesquite trees and the cotton 

 ■ fields, cotton being the second of 

 importance in the central and 

 northern parts of the State, or 

 throughout the black land region. 

 On sandy or light soil, cotton yields 

 very little honey. * * * 



"The yield is good, averaging 

 about 73 pounds of bulk comb 



