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Proportion possibly consumed by Stock. 

 Let us next consider what proportion of those few pounds of 

 honey could have found its way into the stomachs of the grazing- 

 stock if it had not been for the bees. It is known that during the 

 whole time the clover or other plants remain in blossom, if the 

 weather be favourable, there is a daily secretion of fresh honey, 

 which, if not taken at the proper time by bees or other insects, is 

 evaporated during the midday heat of the sun. It has been 

 calculated that a head of clover consists of fifty or sixty separate 

 flowers, each of which contains a quantity not exceeding one five- 

 hundredth part of a grain in weight, so that the whole head may 

 be taken to contain one-tenth of a grain of honey at any one time. 

 If this head of clover is allowed to stand until the seeds are ripened 

 it may be visited on ten or even twenty different days by bees, and 

 they may gather on the whole one, or even two, grains of honey 

 from the same head, whereas it is plain that the grazing-animal can 

 only eat the head once, and consequently can only eat one-tenth of a 

 grain of honey with it. Whether he gets that one-tenth grain or 

 not depends simply on the fact whether or not the bees have 

 exhausted that particular head on the same day just before it was 

 eaten. Now, cattle and sheep graze during the night and early 

 morning, long before the bees make their appearance some time after 

 sunrise ; all the flowering plants they happen to eat during that 

 time will contain the honey secreted in the evening and night-time ; 

 during some hours of the afternoon the flowers will contain no 

 honey, whether they have been visited by bees or not ; and even 

 during the forenoon, when the bees are not busy, it is by no 

 means certain that they will forestall the stock in visiting any 

 particular flower. If a field were so overstocked that every head of 

 clover should be devoured as soon as it blossomed, then, of course, 

 there would be nothing left for the bees ; but if, on the other hand, 

 as is generally the case, there are always blossoms left standing in 

 the pasture, some of them even till they wither and shed their 

 seeds, then it must often happen that after bees shall have visited 

 such blossoms ten or even twenty times, and thus collected one or 

 even two grains of honey from one head, the grazing-animal may, 

 after all, eat that particular plant and enjoy his one-tenth of a grain 

 of honey just as well as if there had never been any bees in the field. 

 If all these chances be taken into account it will be evident that out 

 of the 4 lb. or 5 lb. of honey assumed to be collected by bees from 

 one acre of pasturage probably not one-tenth, and possibly not 

 even one-twentieth, part could under any circumstances have been 

 consumed by the grazing-animals —so that it becomes a question of 

 a few ounces of f atteniug-matter, more or less, for all the stock fed 



