bee pasturage. 133 



the bees unlimited supplies of bee-bread and honey, 

 enabling them to propagate very rapidly, and to store 

 up immense quantities of honey, bidding defiance to 

 the moth, unless, perhaps, some disorganized colony 

 would fall a prey to their depredations. As the for- 

 ests were felled, and the country cleared and brought 

 into a state of cultivation, this source of pasturage 

 was in many places almost entirely cut off, until 

 their sole dependence was on the clover and buck- 

 wheat, which lasts but about two months of the 

 year ; the remainder of the season they cannot gather 

 sufficient honey to supply their immediate wants. 

 In such cases, men have provided pasture and made 

 suitable provision for all other kinds of domestic 

 stock, but the bee, the most faithful and productive 

 of all servants, is left to provide for itself; the in- 

 evitable result of which will be their total extinction 

 in old settled countries, unless a change is made in 

 this direction, and pasturage supplied for them, 

 which can be done with profit. 



BEST KINDS OF EARLY PASTURAGE. 



The alders, hazel and willows, some of which 

 yield honey and others pollen (most species of flow- 

 ers yield both. My observations lead me to believe 

 that the male flower yields pollen, and the female 

 honey ; I have frequently seen bees gathering both 

 honey and pollen from the same kind of flowers at 

 the same time. It can be tested by examining both 

 the honey sac and the baskets on the thigh,) are the 

 first to afford the bees provision in the spring; 

 12 



