PASTURE FOR BEES 77 



large areas are overflowed, this plant often 

 comes up over large areas and yields heavily to 

 the bees in mid-summer. Plants like catnip, 

 which are not abiindant, but yield large quan- 

 tities of nectar, add to the sum total of the sea- 

 son's production. 



Locality is the beekeeper's big problem. If 

 the locality is poor little can be done to improve 

 it unless some profitable nectar-yielding plant 

 is generally introduced into the neighborhood. 

 The commercial growing of cucumbers and 

 cantaloupes furnishes splendid pasturage for 

 the bees during the season of bloom. Buck- 

 wheat is one of the main sources of dependence 

 in New York and other Eastern States, yet in 

 Iowa it seldom amounts to much as a honey 

 plant. 



It often happens that a season is unfavor- 

 able in one place while a fair crop is gathered 

 not more than ten to twenty miles distant, be- 

 cause of rains or some other local condition. 



