FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 123 



unreliable than it was years ago. Some years there is a profu- 

 sion of clover bloom, but there seems to be no nectar in it. As 

 some compensation, I think there is more fall pasturage than 

 formei'ly. One reason for this is that two piekle-factories are 

 located at Marengo, and my bees have the run of one or two 

 hundred acres of cucumbers. And yet I must confess that I am 

 not at all sure what cucumber honey is. Sometimes the honey 

 stored at the time of cucumber bloom is objectionable in flavor, 

 and sometimes the flavor is fine. Two or three years the bees 



Fig. 39 — Hive-stand. 



at the Hastings apiary stored in the fall some fine honey, re- 

 markable for whiteness, and I've no idea what it was gathered 

 from unless it was heartsease. On the whole I am in a poor 

 honey region, and would have sought a better one long ago but 

 for ties other than the bees. 



ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE. 



I have made some effort to increase the pasturage for 

 uiy bees. Of spider-plant I raised only a few plants. It seemed 

 too diflflcult to raise to make me cai'e to experiment with it on a 



