WHERE THE BEE SUCKS 231 



does not seem to be commonly known that the 

 female catkins continue to secrete abundant nectar 

 often up to the end of May. 



Good honey-years are scarce under the changing 

 English skies ; yet Nature's design for the hive- 

 people is obviously to give an unbroken succes- 

 sion of honey-yielding plants throughout the whole 

 spring and summer, and pollen whenever a bright 

 break of sunshine may lure them out of doors. 

 The white-clover is seldom ready until the first 

 week in June ; but, from the earliest willows in 

 March until the last of the flowering seed-crops 

 is down in late July, there is abundance of pro- 

 vender, if only the fickle sun will do its part in the 

 matter. The clover, as farming goes nowadays, 

 is the great main source of honey, in southern 

 England at least; but the connoisseurs are at vari- 

 ance as to what yields the absolute perfection of 

 honey. Scotsmen are all of one mind, for a rare 

 chance, in this ; and will hear of nothing but the 

 heather, carefully discriminating between the bell- 

 heather, which is good, and the ling-heather, which 

 is immeasurably better. Yet there is a honey, or 

 rather a honey-blend, which far outstrips them all, 

 though it is as rare and almost as priceless as the 

 once famous Comet vintages. It is to be had only 

 when the apple-blossom and the hawthorn come 

 into full flower together, and this is only when a 

 chill April has delayed the one and a summer-like 

 May has forced on the other. Then, to the mellow 

 refinement of the apple-nectar, is added the delicate 



