FIFTY YEABS AMONG THE BEES 115 



a prairie State. I am at least a mile distant from prairie, soil. 

 I had an acre of as fine fig-wort as one would care to see. It 

 died root and branch the second winter; even the young plants 

 that had come from seed the previous summer. It was on the 

 lowest ground I had, very rich, and much like prairie. 



When the boom for Chapman's honey-plant {Echinops 

 spherocephalus) was on, I was among the first to get it, and I 

 succeeded in having a large patch. Bees were on it in large 

 numbers, but close observation showed that a great proportion 



Fig. 39 — Hive-stand. 



of them were loafing as if something about the plant had made 

 them drunk. I concluded I did not get nectar enough from it 

 to pay for the use of the land, to say nothing of cultivation. 



One year I raised half an acre of sunflowers, and I have 

 tried other things, but given them up. 



APPLE-BLOOM. 



Quite likely if a second crop of apple-bloom came a month 

 or two later than the usual time, I might get some surplus from 

 that; but coming so early I think there are hardly bees enough 



