6 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Methods of bee culture have changed radically within recent 

 j^ears, apparatus has been improved and more nearly standardized 

 and bee-keeping thereby made less laborious. To aid in extending 

 bee-keeping in this State and to make it easier and more profitable 

 are the objects of this bulletin. 



PASTURAGE. 



Bees may be kept almost anywhere, but to make them profitable 

 several factors must be considered. The first and most important is 

 the pasturage, for if that is not good, all the skill in the world mil 

 avail but little. 



The sources of honey in Rhode Island grouped in the order of their 

 appearance are willows, maples, elms and other less numerous trees 

 ^^■hich furnish the bees with the early supply of pollen and honey so 

 useful and so needful in building up the bee population preparatory 

 to the harvest in which the bee-keeper shares. 



Next come the fruit blossoms, plum, peach, cherry, pear, apple, 

 raspberries, huckleberries and blueberries which, when the spring is 

 favorable, yield good crops of honey. In some places dandelions are 

 an important addition to the fruit bloom, though not always coming 

 at the same time. In several parts of the State there are large areas 

 of locust. This blooms the latter part of May and when conditions 

 favor, yields for about eight da3's, a hea\'y water white honej'. The 

 clovers usually follow this, but are of consequence only under favor- 

 able conditions of rainfall, save in a few sections where soil conditions 

 afford abundant moisture. 



In many sections sumacs furnish the next crop, and where they are 

 abundant the bee-keeper may rightly look for a good crop of a very 

 fair honey. 



In some of the more swampy and less settled sections, button bush, 

 clethra (sweet pepper bush) and clematis jdeld a white and highly 

 flavored honey, that from clematis being of the very highest quality. 

 But the yield from these plants is irregular, in some years being almost 

 absent. 



