306 AUSTRALASIAN 
erazing stock if it had not been forthe 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 1-500th 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 net the bees have ex- 
hausted that particular head on the same day just be/ore it was 
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 ecllected 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 ky bees from one acre of pasturage 
probably not one-tenth, and possibly not even one-twentieth, 
