94 THE apiary; or. 



that the bees prefer ; and there are certain well established conclusions 

 as to the kind of district and season which are the likeliest to 

 produce a good honey harvest. There is an old saying that a 

 country which produces the finest wool also yields the best honey; 

 and a pastoral district is decidedly better than one under tillage. 

 The principle of the matter is, that the bees are best suited with a 

 long dry season — an early spring, a hot summer, and a late autumn. 

 As not one of these blessings can be commanded by the apiarian, 

 his art must be applied to provide some mitigation of the injury 

 suffered by the bees when the season is short or wet. For early 

 spring, the crocus, the blue hepatica, and the violet, all afford good 

 supplies of honey, and if cultivated near the apiary, will be of great 

 service when the wild flowers are backward. All varieties of the 

 willow and poplar furnish early supplies of honey, as well as of the 

 propolis of which we have spoken ; the blossoms of the gooseberry 

 and currant are very useful for the bees in May. Wet, when it 

 enters flowers of any kind, prevents the proboscis of the bee from 

 reaching the secret source of honey. On this account, it is well 

 to know, as does the bee, that the drooping blossoms of the rasp- 

 berry escape the effect of the showers, and honey is gathered from 

 them when other flowers are drenched within as well as without. 

 For a similar reason, the borage (horago officinalis) is valuable for 

 bees ; and, also, because that plant continues to flower until the frosts 

 set in. The honey both from raspberry blossoms and borage is very 

 superior. Mr. Ijangstroth says that " the precipitous and rocky 

 lands of New England, which abound with the wild red raspberry, 

 might be made almost as valuable as some of the vine-clad terraces 

 of the mountain districts of Europe." The " golden rod," and also 

 asters, afford superior honey for autumn gathering. Dzierzon 

 strongly recommends buck-wheat being sown in the winter stubbles 

 on behalf of the bees, and he tries hard to persuade farmers that it 

 is to their interest to cultivate it. It should be named that all the 

 ordinary fruit blossoms, especially those of the apple, supply 

 abundant store for bees. 



Tt is, however, to wild or field flowers that the bee-master must 

 chiefly look for the raw material on which his myriad artisans shall 

 exert their skill. The white clover of the pasture— the wild thyme on 

 the hill — the heather on the moors — the furze and the broom on the 

 sandy waste — offer exhaustless stores for a greater number of bees 



