306 AUSTRALASIAN 



grazing stock if it had not been for the bees. It is known that 

 during the whole time the clover or other plants remain in 

 blossom, if the weather be favourable, there is a daily secretion 

 of fresh honey, which, if not taken at the proper time by bees 

 or other insects, is evaporated during the mid-day heat of the 

 sun. It has been calculated that a head of clover consists of 

 50 or 60 separate flowers, each of which contains a quantity 

 not exceeding l-500th part of a grain in weight, so that the 

 whole head may be taken to contain one-tenth of a grain of honey 

 at any one time. If this head of clover is allowed to stand 

 until the seeds are ripened it may be visited on ten or even 

 twenty different days by bees, and they may gather on the 

 whole one, or even two grains of honey from the same head, 

 whereas it is plain that the grazing animal can only eat the 

 head once, and consequently can only eat one-tenth of a grain 

 of honey with it. Whether he gets that one-tenth grain or not 

 depends simply on the fact, whether or not the bees have ex- 

 hausted that particular head on the same day just before it icas 

 eaten Now, cattle and sheep graze during the night and early 

 morning, long before the bees make their appearance some 

 time after sunrise ; all the flowering plants they happen to. eat 

 during that time will contain the honey secreted in the evening 

 and night time ; during some hours of the afternoon the flowers 

 will contain no honey, whether they may have been visited by 

 bees or not ; and even during the forenoon, when the bees are 

 most busy, it is by no means certain that they will forestall the 

 stock in visiting any particular flower. If a field were so 

 overstocked that every head of clover should be devoured as 

 soon as it blossomed, then, of course, there would be nothing 

 left for the bees, but if, on the other hand, as is generally the 

 case, there are always blossoms left standing in the pasture, 

 some of them even till they wither and shed their seeds, then 

 it must often happen that after bees shall have visited such 

 blossoms ten or even twenty times, and thus collected one or 

 even two grains of honey from one head, the grazing animal 

 may, after all, eat that particular plant and enjoy his one-tenth 

 of a grain of honey just as well as if there had never been any 

 bees in the field. If all these chances be taken into account, 

 it will be evident that out of the four or five pounds of honey 

 assumed to be collected by bees from one acre of pasturage, 

 probably not one-tenth, and possibly not even one-twentieth 



