74 A Modern Bee-Farm 



to stand too long before being mown. Even for the sake 

 of the bees, most crops should not stand until the greater 

 part of the heads die off, as such ripening process destroys 

 the chance of a second crop. As a rule, those 



Plants should be Grown that are Useful for Hay 



after the bees have had their gathering. There is only one 



kind that I can recommend tor bees which is unsuitable for 



cattle, and that is Borage. There may be many others 



that give much honey, but there is this about them — they 



require constant care and attention to keep the ground 



clean, therefore for honey alone such plants are quite out 



of the question. Borage, however, can take care of 



itself; outgrows everything else, yields the best of honey, 



and requires only that the ground be turned or ploughed, 



in the case of Borage every winter. This plant comes best 



with the ground turned up roughly and needs no further 



care ; Melilot (Melilotus Alba) is a most valuable honey 



plant, and when seeding down requires that the earth be 



harrowed and then rolled as often as possible whenever 



the surface is dry. Do not neglect to roll again the second 



year, both before and after the leaf begins to show. The 



omission of this very important matter is why the crop 



fails with many. We are sometimes told that this plant 



does well on poor ground ; I have had it on both that and 



rich land, with the advantage of three to one in favour of 



the latter. 



For a Succession, 



the following will be found most serviceable. Italian 

 crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatuni) is an excellent 

 honey plant used for early greenmeat, flowering generally 

 in May, but can be sown to give a good succession. White 

 or Dutch clover would follow at 15th of June till first week 

 in July. Alsike cut for greenmeat just before it would 



