WHERE THE BEE SUCKS 231 
does not seem to be commonly known that the 
female catkins continue to secrete abundant nectar 
often up to the end of May. 
Good honey-years are scarce under the changing 
English skies; yet Nature’s design for the hive- 
people is obviously to give an unbroken succes- 
sion of honey-yielding plants throughout the whole 
spring and summer, and pollen whenever a bright 
break of sunshine may lure them out of doors. 
The white-clover is seldom ready until the first 
week in June; but, from the earliest willows in 
March until the last of the flowering seed-crops 
is down in late July, there is abundance of pro- 
vender, if only the fickle sun will do its part in the 
matter. The clover, as farming goes nowadays, 
is the great main source of honey, in southern 
England at least; but the connoisseurs are at vari- 
ance as to what yields the absolute perfection of 
honey. Scotsmen are all of one mind, for a rare 
chance, in this; and will hear of nothing but the 
heather, carefully discriminating between the bell- 
heather, which is good, and the ling-heather, which 
is immeasurably better. Yet there is a honey, or 
rather a honey-blend, which far outstrips them all, 
though it is as rare and almost as priceless as the 
once famous Comet vintages. It is to be had only 
when the apple-blossom and the hawthorn come 
into full flower together, and this is only when a 
chill April has delayed the one and a summer-like 
May has forced on the other. Then, to the mellow 
refinement of the apple-nectar, is added the delicate 
