52 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



mation, equals in flavor the cultivated and much- 

 prized Cuthbert,* of which our wild berry is the 

 pai-ent. I find that the birds, especially' the sparrows, 

 indigo buntings, yellowbirds, and chickadees, are 

 especially fond of raspberries, and at no time can I 

 enter a broad patch without stirring up a score or so 

 of little fellows, who do not leave the spot until they 

 have feasted to complete satiation. 



Among the blossoms which afford the best-flavored 

 honey for the bee, those of the raspberry rank higher 

 than white clover. In the valley of the Hudson 

 River, where raspberries are extensively cultivated, 

 in early morning, during the period of blossoming, 

 the whitened patches ai-e fairly resonant with the 

 hum of a million busy bees who leave everything else, 

 even the earliest and the sweetest of the garden 

 flowers, for the coveted sweets of the very ordinary- 

 looking raspberry blossom. Not the sweetest flowers 

 are always sought by tlie bee, far from it ; for, al- 

 though white clover and orange blossoms afford much 

 honey, the trailing arbutus, with its delicate muscatel 

 odor, is said by apiarists to be quite honeyles8,f while 



* I believe the Cuthbert is a cross between the foreign berry, 

 called Antwerp, and aur own Rubus strigosiis. The Tnrner is also 

 an improved form of M. sfrigosus. 



f Not ill my opinion, however, as I am quite sure of having 

 tasted the sweetness in the blossoms. I certainly have concurrent 

 testimony from Mr. Clarence M. Weed, who records the fact that 



