238 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



am aware that Mr. S. is supported by Langstroth, 

 Wagner and others, and I fear relies too much on 

 their support. Notwithstanding their testimony may 

 be, as he says, perfectly reliable, it may not be appli- 

 cable to this country, or at least our section of it. 

 There are, according to Mr. Wagner, the gentleman 

 who furnished much matter for Mr. Langstroth, trans- 

 lated from the German, in the honey-raising countries 

 of Europe, many crops cultivated that produce great 

 quantities of honey, which are unknown here. In 

 this country three principal sources of honey are 

 clover, bass-wood and buckwheat; where all three 

 abound there must be a good district for bees, yet 

 but few places produce all in abundance. The yield 

 from bass-wood is of the shortest duration, and that 

 from white clover the most valuable. Without one 

 of these sources at hand as a dependence, it would 

 be a useless effort to try to keep more than a very few 

 stocks. There are many other honey-yielding flowers 

 that are particular favorites with bees. The red rasp- 

 berry, motherwort, catnip, and a few others, alone 

 would be visited to the entire neglect of clover, if 

 they were in sufficient abundance ; yet I never saw 

 enough of them in any one locality for large apiaries. 

 It is evident to all, that however much honey these 

 flowers may furnish, there is a limit to the supply; 

 and when there are bees enough to take all that is 

 secreted, if any more is introduced into the same 

 field each bee must obtain a less quantity. Twenty 

 hives might prosper greatly and store a surplus ; yet 

 one hundred might starve in the same place." 



