OLOTEB. 



381 



701. Of all the sources from which bees derive their 

 supplies, white clover (Fig. 123), is usually the most 



Fig. 123. 

 WHITE CLOVER. 



important. It yields large quantities of very pure white 

 honey, and wherever it abounds, the bee will find a rich 

 harvest. In most parts of this country it seems to be the 

 chief reliance of the Apiary. Blossoming at a season of 

 the year when the weather is usually both dry and hot, and 

 the bees gathering its honey after the sun has dried off the 

 dew, it is ready to be sealed over almost at once. 



It is at the blossoming of this important plant that the 

 main crop of honey usually begins, and that the bees prop- 

 agate in the greatest number. 



The flowers of red clover (fig. 124) also produce a large 

 quantity of nectar ; unfortunately its corollas are usually 

 too deep for' the tongue of our bees. Yet sometimes, in 

 Summer, they can reach the nectar, either because its 

 corollas are shorter on account of dryness, or because they 

 are more copiously fiUed. 



