398 PASTURAGE AND OVERSTOCKING. 



While the gay crocus and the violet blue, 

 Yield to their flexible trunks ambrosial dew." 



— Evans. 



The sugar-maple (Acer saccharinus) yields a large supply 

 of delicious honey, and its blossoms, hanging in graceful 

 fringes, will be alive with bees. 



In some sections, the wild gooseberry is a valuable help 

 to the bees, as it blossoms very early, and they work eagerly 

 on it. 



Of the fruit trees, the apricot, peach, plum, cherry and 

 pear, are great favorites; but none furnishes so much honey 

 as the apple. 



The dandelion, whose blossoms furnish pollen and honey, 

 when the yield from the fruit trees is nearly over, is worthy 

 of rank among honey-producing plants. 



The tulip tree (Liriodendron) is one of the greatest 

 honey-j>roducing trees in the world. As its blossoms 

 expand in successionj new swarms will sometimes fill their 

 hives from this source alone. The honey, though dark, is of 

 a good flavor. This tree often attains a height of over one 

 hundred feet, and its rich foliage, with its large blossoms 

 of mingled green and yellow, make it a most beautiful sight. 



The common locust (Fig. 153), is a very desirable tree 

 for the vicinity of an apiary, yielding much honey when it 

 is peculiarly needed by the bees. 



The wild cherry blooms about the same time. 



yOl. Of all the sources from which bees derive their sup- 

 plies, white clover (Fig. 154), is usually the most important. 

 It yields large quantities of very pure white honey, and 

 wherever it abounds, the bee will find a rich harvest. In 

 most parts of this country it seems to be the chief reliance 

 of the apiary. Blossoming at a season of the year when the 

 weather is usually both dry and hot, and the bees gathering 

 its honey after the sun has dried off the dew, it" is ready to 

 be sealed over almost at once. 



It is at the blossoming of this important plant that the 



