< State Bee-Keepers' Association. 45 



"As soon as the winter weather grows milder the elms, willows, poplars, 

 maples, hazel nuts, sumacs, horse chestnuts, dandelion, and many others 

 attract the bees, either by their pollen or by their nectar, or by both. 



"The happy humming of our pets working on the trees, still destitute of 

 leaves, announce the return of spring. 



"These first flowers are soon followed by those of the cherry, plum, 

 peach and apple trees, &c. Yet these flowers, notwithstanding their large 

 numbers, do not give any surplus honey, for all this crop is wholly 

 consumed ty bees to raise theii young and fill their hives with innumerable 

 multitudes of workers ready to gather the honey of white clover, which 

 blooms along the roads and in all the pastures, and which gives the main 

 crop of the State; a crop whose quality is unsurpassed. 



"The clover blossoms are hardly passed away when the Cottonwood 

 begins to bloom, in the countries where these trees grow, as also a great 

 Vciriety of mints and other odoriferous weeds of the same family, and the 

 milk weeds, &c. 



"Such is the succession of spring flowers in average years ; besides, 

 when the weather is warm and damp the blooming of clover may continue 

 till August, then the honey crop is exceedingly larger. Sometimes the 

 cowllus of the red clover being shorter, or more filled with nectar, increases 

 the harvest. 



"The month of August, unless too dry', and September offer to bees a 

 number of fall flowers : buckwheat, Spanish needles, willow herbs, sun- 

 flowers, asters, &c. 



"The honey crop in the river bottoms comes from a great many plants 

 and bushes, such as crow foot, button weeds, button bushes, gum trees, dog 

 woods, marsh sunflowers, &c. 



"Careful bee-keepers can enlarge their crop by sowing alsike instead of 

 red clover in their timothy meadows, or by spreading in waste places, the 

 seeds of sweet clover, catnip, &c. But we do not think it advisable to 

 cultivate a tract of land for the honey crop alone. 



"The consumption of honey has been keeping pace with its production, 

 and even in the very disadvantageous circumstances in which the bee-keeper 

 finds himself to-day, being in direct competition with the sugar producer, 

 who has been allotted a bounty .of two cents per pound, there is still some 

 prospect for bee-keeping. 



"But the injustice done him by giving a bounty to the producers of other 

 sweets, cane and maple sugar, should be corrected. If these have a right 

 to be helped by the general government, the beekeeper has the same right, 

 for the lower prices of all sweets is surely affecting the price of honey." 



