86 BEE-FARMING 



wretched honey-harvest, she can often glean about 40 lbs. 

 of rich white honey from each stock. So we asked her 

 opinion as to where her bees pastured. Her reply was 

 quite characteristic ; pointing to the long level stretch of 

 sheep lands lying before us, she said, " Ah ! if I kept a 

 cow, I could not even be allowed to turn her in the lanes, 

 and if I allowed her to stray in the fields I should be fined, 

 but they cannot fine my bees, and these can pasture upon 

 all the duke's lands." 



We have known a single hive gain as much as 10 lbs. 

 of honey per day from the clover blossoms. 



The heather has been highly extolled as a rich honey- 

 yielding plant, in fact, hundreds of hives are taken to the 

 moors in the autumn by Lancashire cotton operatives; 

 these are brought home sometimes exceedingly heavy ; but 

 we prefer the clover honey. 



To mention all the honey-yielding plants would take 

 up too much space, though some are preferable to others, 

 such are the wallflower, mignonette, some of the old 

 fashioned roses, the fruit-trees, &c. The borage, mustard, 

 and raspberry are also excellent honey plants, still, being 

 limited in cultivation, the supply of honey from them is 

 uncertain. 



The famed Narbonne honey is said to be collected 

 from the wild rosemary, which is as abundant on the hills 

 of the South of France as the wild thyme is in England. 



Honey-dew — a sticky exudation of the aphis — found on 

 the upper surface of leaves on lime and other trees, is often 

 collected in large quantities by our bees, but we cannot 

 trace any difference produced by it in the honey, perhaps be- 

 cause it is largely mixed with honey gathered from flowers. 



Honey harvests are not equally good or large in all 

 years. As a rule wet summers are the least productive of 

 honey, but the best for swarms. Every fourth or fifth 

 year we observe an enormous yield of honey : it is wise to 



