100 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



I will now mention a few of the 

 plants that we should see are growing. 

 We will commence with soft maple. 

 This sometniies as early as February 

 22 is a good yielder, and also has an 

 abundance of pollen, and the bark may 

 be punctured so that the sap will run 

 down the tree, making a place where 

 the bees can gather water and also 

 sweet. The elm comes a few days 

 later, and is also a honey producer. 

 Next comes the plum, the cherry, ap- 

 ple and other fruit blooms ; the dande- 

 lion is coming on very fast, and is a 

 good honey producer. Then the rape 

 and mustard, and a great variety of the 

 crucifferous order of plants. Then the 

 yellow sweet clover and the raspberry, 

 followed by the alfalfa, and a little 

 later the sweet clover. Then comes 

 the bass wood, blooming about the first 

 of July. About this time the cleome 

 commences to bloom and keep up a 

 continuous bloom until checked by 

 frosts. The Simpson honey plant, 

 which grows along the water's edge, is 

 a fine honey plant. There are a num- 

 l:)er of species of the mint family that 

 come in from June to August 1 ; the 

 wild horse mint, catnip and hoar- 

 hound. Then come the fall blooms ; 

 the asters, goldenrods, and many other 

 of the composotie family. 



I have now outlined what nature 

 has done for us — yet there is not a bee- 

 keeper who has a locality so good that 

 he does not wish it were better, and it 

 is now my aim to show how it may be 

 made better. The soft maple is very 

 easily produced from seed; all that is 

 necessary is to secure the seed, plant 

 them in good loam soil, and the next 

 spring they will come up in abundance. 

 They are large enough at four years 

 old to plant for shade trees or for for- 

 estry. They bloom at a time of the 

 year when the bees so much need the 

 honey and pollen to stimulate brood 

 rearing. The black locust is also easily 

 raised from seed; the timber is valu- 

 able for posts; it blooms in May, and 

 is a great honey yielder; it should be 

 planted for shade, and also for for- 

 estry. The basswood has been wonder- 

 fully neglected. It is as hardy and is 

 as rapid a grower as the cottonwood. 

 It has no enemies in the way of borers 

 or worms to feed on the leaves ; the 

 lumber and wood is valuable, and will 

 always be in demand and at the time 

 of blooming you will aways find the 

 trees heavy with the busy bees. It is 

 so profuse in secreting honey that ynu 



can see the drops of honey at the base 

 of the petals. I had a hive in Wis- 

 consin that gave me forty-five pounds 

 in three days, and seventy pounds in 

 six days. 1 thought that a good yield, 

 but Brother Gill has one that very 

 much surpassed that. When living in 

 Greeley 1 sent East and procured a 

 pound of basswood seed. I put the 

 seeds in wet sand and buried them 

 where they would be frozen througli 

 the winter. In the spring I planted 

 them in rows and mulched with leaves. 

 I had nearly all the seed germinate, 

 and it was a pleasure to see those trees 

 grow. This summer, when I was m 

 Greeley. I found the trees thirty tc' 

 forty feet high and loaded with bloom. 

 There are a few trees in Denver — 

 some on the North Side, some in the 

 City Park, and some on Wheat Ridge 

 — and every year they are full of bloom 

 and covered with the busy workers. 

 Whenever these trees are seen they are 

 always the same — free from worms and 

 borers, no aphids or insects on the 

 foliage. The branches are tough and 

 pliable, and do not break with early 

 and late snows, as do many of our 

 shade trees. There should be thou- 

 sands of this timber planted each year. 



The locust and maple are covered 

 with the disgusting cottony aphid; the 

 box elder and willow with the green 

 aphid; but the old basswood stands out 

 clean and beautiful, free of all pests 

 and hardier than the cottonwood. 

 There should be thousands of them 

 planted in towns and cities, also in the 

 forestry. Let the young beekeeper wake 

 up and look to his future! When I 

 lived in Greeley there was a general 

 complaint against a gardener who sent 

 East and got a package of dandelion 

 seed, that he might have some for 

 greens. I am also fond of greens, and 

 ten years ago, if I wanted a mess of 

 greens, I only knew of one place they 

 grew — one mile east of Westminster. 

 Now the country is covered with them, 

 and we note that bees get through the 

 spring much better than they did in the 

 early beekeeping of Colorado. 



The trouble with Colorado is, that 

 there is a long time from March 1 to 

 June IS, when alfalfa blooms, that is 

 without flowers. I have had bees do so 

 well on apple blossoms that they built 

 queen cells and were planning to swarm 

 when the apple bloom matured and fell. 

 The bees find themselves without nec- 

 tar, tear down the queen cells, destroy 



