360 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



early, and yield an abundance of both bee-bread and honey. 

 All the willows furnish an abundance of food for the bees ; 

 and as there is considerable difference in the time of their 

 blossoming, it is desirable to have such varieties as will 

 furnish the bees with food, as long as possible. 



The Sugar Maple furnishes a large supply of very deli- 

 cious honey, and its blossoms hanging in drooping fringes, 

 will be all alive v(rith bees. The Apricot, Peach, Plum 

 and Cherry are much frequented by the bees ; Pears and 

 Apples furnish very copious supplies of the richest honey. 

 The Tulip tree, lAriodendron, is probably one of the great- 

 est honey-producing trees in the virorld. In rich lands this 

 magnificent tree will grow over one hundred feet high, and 

 ■when covered with its large bell-shaped blossoms of mingled 

 green and golden yellow, it is one of the most beautiful trees 

 in the world. The blossoms are expanding in succession, 

 often for more than two weeks, and a new swarm will fre- 

 quently fill its hive from these trees alone. The honey 

 though dark in color, is of a rich flavor. This tree has 

 been successfully cultivated as a shade tree, even as far 

 North as Southern Vermont, and for the extraordinary beau- 

 ty of its foliage and blossoms, deserves to be introduced 

 wherever it can be made to grow. The Winter of 1851-2, 

 was excee"dingly cold, the thermometer in Greenfield, Mass. 

 sinking as low as 30° below zero, and yet a tulip tree not 

 only survived the Winter uninjured, but was covered the 

 following season with blossoms. 



,The American Linden or Bass Wood, is another tree 

 which yields large supplies of very pure and white honey. 

 It is one of our most beautiful native trees, and ought to be 

 planted much more extensively than it is, in our villages and 

 country seats. The English Linden is worthless for bees, 

 and in many places, has been so infested by worms, as to 

 make it necessary to cut it down. 



