GOLDEN ROD 61 
found in quantity, it is valuable for bee pasture, and in some 
seasons produces large quantities of nectar. It is not a depend- 
able source, for it does not secrete nectar freely except in occas- 
ional seasons. When conditions are favorable, it offers about 
ten days of the finest honey flow possible. Some years immense 
crops are stored from basswood, so that the bee-keeper who is 
within reach of a considerable acreage of this forest can expect 
great benefit every third or fourth year, with a splendid crop 
once in ten or twelve years. The tree is a rapid grower, and will 
begin to bloom freely after six or eight years. 
The wood is white, and much desired for making sections for 
comb honey. It is also utilized for making packing boxes of 
various kinds, some kinds of furniture, and for making paper. 
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum).—In parts of New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and the New England States where buckwheat is raised 
in large quantities, it is a very valuable honey plant. In some 
sections several hundred colonies of bees are kept in one yard, 
with buckwheat as the principal source of honey. Climatic con- 
ditions of the eastern States seem especially favorable to nectar 
secretion, and there it is very dependable, yielding some honey 
nearly every year. In the Central West it is seldom of much 
value for bee pasture, and yields only rarely. It is reported as of 
little value in Texas, except to bridge over a time when little 
else is blooming. In California there is another plant called 
wild buckwheat which is said to be of considerable value as a 
honey plant. 
Buckwheat honey is dark, of a heavy body and strong flavor. 
Those who are accustomed to it often prefer it to milder flavored 
honeys, but in western markets it moves slowly, and at a lower 
price than the white honeys. 
Tn the East it is the source of very large crops in some seasons, 
probably an average of fifty or more pounds per colony being 
secured from this source alone, under favorable conditions. 
Golden Rod (Solidago).—The golden rods are of wide dis- 
tribution, some species probably being found in every State in the 
