220 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



thus guilty, and Mr. Bidwell tells me he has frequently seen 

 bees rend sound grapes, which they did with their feet. 

 Yet, if this is the case, it is certainly of rare occurrence, 

 and is more than compensated by the great aid which the 

 bees afford the fruit-grower in the great work of cross-fertili- 

 zation, which is imperatively necessary to his success, as has 

 been so well shown by Dr. Asa Gray and Mr. Chas. Darwin. 

 It is true that cross-fertilization of the flowers, which can only 

 be accomplished by insects, and early in the season by the 

 honey-bee, is often, if not always, necessary to a full yield of 

 fruit and vegetables. I am informed by Prof. W. W. Tracy, 

 that the gardeners in the vicinity of Boston keep bees that 

 they may perform this duty. Even then, if Mr. Bidwell and 

 Prof. Riley are righti and the bee does, rarely — for surely this 

 is very rare, if ever — destroy grapes, still they are, beyond any 

 possible question, invaluable aids to the pomologist. 



But the principal source of honey is still from the flowers. 



WHAT AKE THE VALUABLE HONEY PLANTS? 



In the northeastern part of our country the chief reliance 

 for May is the fruit-blossoms; willows, and sugar maples. In 

 June white clover yields largely of the most attractive honey, 

 both as to appearance and flavor. In July the incomparable 

 basswood makes both bees and apiarist jjibilant. In August 

 buckwheat oifers a tribute, which we welcome, though it be dark 

 and pungent in flavor, while with us in Michigan, August and 

 September give us a profusion of bloom which yields to^o 

 other in the richness of its capacity to secrete honey, and is not 

 cutoff till the autumn frosts — usually about September 15. 



Thousands of acres of golden rod, boneset, asters, and 

 other autumn flowers of our new northern counties, as yet 

 have blushed unseen, with fragrance wasted. This unoccu- 

 pied territory, unsurpassed in its capability for fruit production, 

 covered with grand forests of maple and basswood, and spread 

 with the richest of autumn bloom, offers opportunities to the 

 practical apiarist rarely equaled except in the Pacific States, 

 and not even there, when other privileges are considered. In 

 these localities, two or three hundred pounds to the colony is 

 no surprise to the apiarist, while even four or five hundred 

 are not isolated cases. 



