PASTURAGE, 361 



The Linden blossoms soon after the white clover begins 

 to fail, and a majestic tree covered with its yellow clusters, 

 at a season when very few blossoms are to be seen, is a 

 sight most beautiful and refreshing. 



" Here their delicious task, the fervent bees 

 la swarming millions tend : around, athwart, 

 Through the soft air the busy nations fly, 

 Cling to the bud, and -with inserted tube. 

 Suck its pure essence, its etherial soul." 



Thomson. 



Our villages would be much more attractive, if instead of 

 being filled as they often are, almost exclusively with maples 

 and elms, they were adorned with a greater variety of our 

 native trees. The remark has often been made, that these 

 trees are much more highly valued abroad than at home, 

 and that to see them in perfection, we must either visit their 

 native forests, or the pleasure grounds of some wealthy 

 English or European gentleman. 



Of all the various sources from "which the bees derive 

 their supplies, white clover is the most important. It yields 

 large quantities of very white honey, and of the purest 

 quality, and wherever it flourishes in abundance, the honey- 

 bee will always gather a rich harvest. In this country at 

 least, it seems to be the most certain reliance of the Apiary. 

 It blossoms at a season of the year when the weather is 

 usually both dry and hot, and the bees gather the honey 

 from it, after the sun has dried off the dew : so that its 

 juices are very thick, and almost ready to be sealed over at 

 once in the cells. 



Every observant bee-keeper must have noticed, that in 

 some seasons, the blossoms of various kinds yield much less 

 honey than in others. Perhaps no plant varies so little in 

 this respect, as the white clover. This clover ought to be 

 much more extensively cultivated than it now is, and I consid- 

 er myself as conferring a benefit not only on bee-keepers, but 



