54 BULLETIN 685, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the mesquite, 2 per cent, wild buckwheat, 1.1 per cent, and 

 catsclaw, 0.8 per cent, are extremely important in the 

 regions of their growth. These are all plants of the semi- 

 arid regions. Gallberry, a type of shrub holly, furnishes 

 1.6 per cent, and sumac 0.7 per cent. Of berries, the wild 

 raspberry is locally important, blackberry and huckleberry 

 being less so. 



Of cultivated plants, cotton is most important, furnishing 

 4.0 per cent of the total supply. Buckwheat is a heavy 

 producer. It contributes 2.9 per cent. 



Of the weeds, goldenrod heads the list, producing 2.1 per 

 cent, its growth being very widespread. Heartsease or 

 heartweed, 2 per cent, and Spanish needle, 1.3 per cent, are 

 important in the Central West, and wild aster, 1.4 per cent, 

 has a very wide distribution. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF 

 IMPORTANT HONEYS. 



HONEYS OP THE WHITE CLOVER BELT. 



The white clover belt, marking the principal range of the 

 wild growth of this lowly but beneficent plant, wherein it 

 invades the grasslands, yielding nitrogen to the soil, food 

 to the grazing stock, nectar to the bee, and beauty to the 

 eye, includes all of the States from Maine southward to 

 Virginia and the Allegheny and Piedmont sections of the 

 southestern States, and all of the territory westward to 

 the beginning of the semiarid plains beyond the one hun- 

 dredth meridian of west longitude. White clover is also 

 becoming important in some western irrigated sections and 

 in the limestone and alluvial soils of Alabama, Mississippi, 

 and Louisiana. The white clover belt is the most impor- 

 tant honey-producing region, because it furnishes not only 

 the leading commercial type, but aU told more than haK of 

 the total honey crop of the entire country. The limpid 

 whiteness, heavy body, and distinct but delicate and dehcious 

 flavor of white clover, worthy of the dainty clustered blossom 

 whose aroma it bears, long ago estabhshed it as a standard 

 of excellence. It should not be asserted that this is the best 

 honey, but if it is said of a honey that it is '' as good as white 

 clover," it is considered sufficient praise. 



