72 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



White or Dutch clover is the queen of honey-plants. 

 It is widely cultivated in this country, and continues to 

 flower a long time. In Scotland the farmers use more 

 white clover seed in laying down the land in grass than 

 the farmers of England ; hence the clover-fields are tet- 

 ter there than here. And the use of lime and hone-dust 

 as manures has a great influence in the production of 

 clover. In travelling to Edinburgh some years ago hy 

 the Caledonian line, whole fields white with clover- 

 flowers caught my eye, and made me take a second look 

 to see if the whiteness came from daisy-flowers. Whole 

 districts, unsurpassed for excellence, met my eye during 

 a visit to my native land, many of which hardly ever 

 received a complimentary visit from bees, and for this rea- 

 son, that there were no hee-keepers in these districts. 



I verily believe there is more wealth (in honey) in the 

 clover and heather fields of Scotland than there is in the 

 gold-fields of Sutherland — if not of California; but few 

 people know it, otherwise bees would be kept to collect it. 



Pastures eaten bare by cattle are, of course, not so 

 good for honey as those less severely eaten. And apart 

 altogether from the bee-keeper's view of the matter, the 

 wisdom of the farmer in putting too many cattle into his 

 fields is not very evident. Bare pastures keep cattle con- 

 stantly on the trudge, wasting their substance in seeking 

 food which, when easily obtained where grass is abundant, 

 goes to form either milk or fiesh. 



Sheep are fonder of clover than cattle, and more able to 

 nibble off its young heads ; hence sheep-pasture is infe- 

 rior in a honey point of view to cow-pasture. "A land 

 of milk and honey," is a more congruous term than one of 

 " mutton and honey." 



Clover is jnore uncertain in its yield of honey than 

 most other plants, inasmucli as it is more easily affected 



