420 PASTURAGE AND OVERSTOCKING. 



Strange to say, the principal crop of honey in a country 

 may be harvested from a flower which yields nothing in 

 other countries. The white clover, so well known in the Mis- 

 sissippi valley as the very best melliferous plant, yields 

 nothing in Switzerland. The alfalfa, mentioned as the prin- 

 cipal crop of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, is not a honey pro- 

 ducer in Illinois. Some plants also attract the bees con- 

 tinuously, by their fragrance, which yield little or no nectar. 



The Er3rngium giganteum is one of these. Mr. Bertrand 

 tested its yield by marking with flour bees that were working 

 upon it. The same bee was seen to work about the same 

 bunch of thesf flowers, for five consecutive hours, without any 

 apparent result. He nicknamed this plant "the honey-bee's 

 bar-room" because the more they sip, the drier they are. 



As a rule it is not advisable to plant for honey anything 

 that has not value otherwise either as forage, ornament or 

 shade. For this very reason, however, there are foreign 

 forage plants which would be desirable everywhere. We will 

 name among these the Crimson Clover and the Sainfoin or 

 esparcet, of which we give engravings, figs. 184 and 185. The 

 Sainfoin (healthy hay) is a very desirable forage plant. 



Overstocking, 

 our country not in danger of being overstocked with 



BEES. 



5'0'J'. If the opinions, entertained by some, as to the 

 danger of overstocking were correct, bee-keeping in this coun- 

 try would always have been an insignificant pursuit. 



It is difiioult to repress a smile when the owner of a few 

 hives, in a district where hundreds might be made to pros- 

 per, gravely imputes his ill-success to the fact, that too many 

 bees are kept in his vicinity. If, in the Spring, a colony of 

 bees is prosperous and healthy, it will gather abundant stores, 

 in a favorable season, even if many equally strong are in its 

 immediate vicmity; while, if it is feeble, it will be of little 



