114 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



Goldenrod (Tig. 52) grows in abundance in several vari- 

 eties, and while other insects may be seen npon it in great 

 numbers, a bee is seldom seen upon it. Much the same may be 

 said of the asters (Figs. 53 and 54). In some other places both 

 these plants are '-iaid to be well visited by the bees. 



The summer of 1902 was very wet, and for the first time in 

 my observation heartsease (Fig. 55) was busily worked upon by 

 the bees. Probably it was not plentiful enough before. At any 

 rate it has now become a honey-plant of importance. In some 

 localities heartsease is, I believe, the chief honey-plant pro- 

 ducing amber honey. But I think it yields \ery light honey 

 here. 



CUCUMBERS. 



1 think the white-clove l' crop, for some reason, is more 

 unreliable than it was years ago. Some years there is a pro- 

 fusion of clover bloom, but there seems to be no nectar in it. 

 As some compensation, I think there is more fall pasturage than 

 formerly. One reason for this is that two pickle-factories are 

 located at ^Marengo, and my bees have the run of one or two 

 hundred acx'es of cucumbers. And yet I must confess that I am 

 not at all sure what cucumber honey is. Sometimes the honey 

 stored at the time of cucumber bloom is objectionable in flavor, 

 and sometimes the flavor is fine. Two or three years the bees 

 at the Hastings apiary stored in the fall some fine honey, re- 

 markable for whiteness, and I've no idea what it was gathered 

 from unless it was heartsease. On the whole I am in a poor 

 honey region, and would have sought a better one long ago but 

 for ties other than the bees. 



ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE. 



1 have made some effort to increase the pasturage for my 

 bees. Of spider-plant I raised only a few plants. It seemed 

 too difficult to raise to make me care to experiment with it on a 

 larger scale. Possibly if I knew better how to manage it, the 

 difficulty might disappear. Or, on other soil it might be less 

 ditlicult to manage. The same might be said of the other things 

 I have fried. My soil is clay loam, and hilly, although I live in 



