232 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
almond flavour of the hawthorn, and the resulting 
honey is easily the finest sweetmeat in the world. 
Wonder is often expressed that one of the most 
generally cultivated crops, the red-clover, is seldom 
visited by the honey-bee, although the bumble- 
bees fill it with their deep trombone-music at all 
times of the day. It is true that the tongue of the 
hive-bee cannot reach to the bottom of the long 
red-clover calyx, but this would not deter her if 
the nectar were worth the gathering. She would 
cut through the petal at its base, as she does with 
many other flowers, and so steal an effective march 
on her better caparisoned rival. But red-clover 
nectar is poor in consistency and coarse of flavour. 
When the main crop is in flower, it would yield a 
practically unlimited amount of honey, but this is 
just the time when the bee can employ herself 
more profitably elsewhere. After the red-clover 
has been cut, a second growth springs up, bearing 
flower-tubes less developed, and therefore shorter 
than those of the first crop. But now other and 
better sources of supply are rapidly failing. The 
bee—for whom, in prosperous times, nothing but 
the best is good enough—must revise her tastes 
to meet her necessities. At this time she is as 
busy as the rest in the red-clover fields. And when 
her clearer, sweeter note is heard there, mingling 
its contralto with the hoarser music of the bumble- 
bee, it is a token that the heyday of the year is. 
past : the honey-chambers must be taken off the 
hives without delay. 
