232 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



almond flavour of the hawthorn, and the resulting 

 honey is easily the finest sweetmeat in the world. 

 Wonder is often expressed that one of the most 

 generally cultivated crops, the red-clover, is seldom 

 visited by the honey-bee, although the bumble- 

 bees fill it with their deep trombone-music at all 

 times of the day. It is true that the tongue of the 

 hive-bee cannot reach to the bottom of the long 

 red-clover calyx, but this would not deter her if 

 the nectar were worth the gathering. She would 

 cut through the petal at its base, as she does with 

 many other flowers, and so steal an effective march 

 on her better caparisoned rival. But red-clover 

 nectar is poor in consistency and coarse of flavour. 

 When the main crop is in flower, it would yield a 

 practically unlimited amount of honey, but this is 

 just the time when the bee can employ herself 

 more profitably elsewhere. After the red-clover 

 has been cut, a second growth springs up, bearing 

 flower-tubes less developed, and therefore shorter 

 than those of the first crop. But now other and 

 better sources of supply are rapidly failing. The 

 bee — for whom, in prosperous times, nothing but 

 the best is good enough — must revise her tastes 

 to meet her necessities. At this time she is as 

 busy as the rest in the red-clover fields. And when 

 her clearer, sweeter note is heard there, mingling 

 its contralto with the hoarser music of the bumble- 

 bee, it is a token that the heyday of the year is 

 past : the honey-chambers must be taken off the 

 hives without delay. 



