CHAPTEE YI. 



BEE PASTURAGE. 



Bees obtain their food from such a variety of sources that there are 

 few locahties in our country where a small apiary could not be made to 

 yield a surplus above its own needs. Even in the center of our larger 

 cities bees placed on the roofs of stores and dwellings have often fur- 

 nished quite a surplus gathered from the gardens of the city and its 

 environs. Again, in regions where the soil is too light, rocky, or wet 

 to admit of profitable cultivation, it is often the case that honey-pro- 

 ducing plants abound; indeed, waste land is frequently far more profit- 

 able for the honey-producer than fields that have been brought under 

 cultivation, especially when the latter are mainly devoted to grain or 

 potato raising, for insignificant weeds in field or swamp often yield 

 honey abundantly, and among the best yieklers are certain forest trees, 

 whose blossoms, by reason of their distance from the ground and in 

 some instances their small size, escape notice. Showy flowers made 

 double by the gardener's skill, such as roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, 

 etc., have rarely any attraction for our honey bees. Moreover, the small 

 number of these ornamental plants usually found in any one locality 

 renders the honey yield, even in case they are abundant secreters of 

 nectar, so slight that they are of little value. The novice who is seek- 

 ing to determine the honey resources of his locality should therefore 

 not be led into error by these. He should compare the flora of his 

 locality with reliable lists of honey-producing plants, and, if possible, 

 consult some practical beemaster familiar with his surroundings. And 

 all information on this score should be fully accepted only after care 

 ful' verification, as it is very easy for anyone to be deceived regarding 

 the sources of given honey yields — plants which produce abundantly 

 one season not always yielding the next, or those that produce honey 

 freely in one portion of the country not yielding anything in another. 

 Soil and climate, the variations of successive seasons, and all other 

 conditions affecting plant growth — conditious which even the most skill- 

 ful scientific agriculturists admit are exceedingly difficult to understand, 

 and in many respects, as yet unexplainable — influence the amount and 

 quality of nectar secreted by a given plant 



The danger of overstocking is largely imaginary, yet in estab- 

 lishing a large apiary it is of course essential to look to the natural 

 resources of the location, and especially to decide only upon a place 

 where two or more of the leading honey-producing plants are pres- 

 ent in great numbers. In the North, willows, alder, maples, dan- 

 delion, fruit blossoms, tulip tree (frequently called whitewood), locust, 



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