590 
Economie Plants and Trees for Cultiva- 
tion for Honey and Pollen 
Except as a means of bridging over 
gaps in the natural pasturage, special 
crops for honey alone are not profitable, 
but where other utilities besides that of 
honey yield can be combined with it, 
there is some advantage to be gained. 
Filbert Bushes.—Useful for wind breaks 
and for their nuts, yield pollen in Febru- 
ary and March. 
Rape.—Can be grown successfully in 
the North for pasturage, for green manur- 
ing, or for seed, and when permitted to 
blossom yields considerable pollen and 
honey. Winter varieties are sown late 
in the summer or early in the autumn, 
and blossom in April or May following. 
This early yield forms an excellent stim- 
ulus to brood rearing. Summer or bird 
rape, grown chiefly for its seed, blossoms 
about a month after sowing. It does 
best during the cooler months of the 
growing season. 
Russian or Hairy Vetch—Is a hardy 
leguminous plant of great value for for- 
age and use in green manuring. The 
blossoms appear early in the season, and, 
where there is any lack in early pollen, 
especially in northern and cool regions, 
this vetch will be found of great value 
to the bees. 
Fruit Blossoms.—Apricot, peach, pear, 
plum, cherry, apple, currant, and goose- 
berry, yield pollen and honey in abun- 
dance during April or May; strawberry 
and blackberry are sometimes visited 
freely by bees, but are generally far less 
important than the others mentioned. 
Colonies that have wintered well often 
gather during apple bloom 12 to 15 
pounds of surplus honey of fine quality. 
The raspberry secretes a large amount of 
nectar of superb quality, and coming in 
May or June, thus later than the other 
fruit blossoms and when the colonies are 
Stronger and the weather is more settled, 
full advantage can nearly always be taken 
of this yield. Grape and persimmon blos- 
som also in June; the latter is an excel- 
lent source. In subtropical portions of 
the country orange and lemon trees Yield 
fine honey in March and April, and the 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
cultivation of the banana has added a 
profuse honey yielder which puts forth 
successive blossoms all through the sum- 
mer months. 
Locust, Tulip Tree (“poplar,” or white. 
wood), and Horse-Chestnut.—Useful for 
shade, ornament, and timber, are all fine 
honey producers in May. The locust 
yields light-colored, clear honey of fine 
quality, the others amber-colored honey 
of good body and fair flavor. 
Clovers.—Crimson, blossoming in April 
or May, yields fine, light-colored honey; 
white, alsike, and mammoth or medium, 
blossoming in May, June, and July, give 
honey of excellent quality and rich yel- 
low color. 
Mustard.—Grown for seed flowers from 
June to August. The honey is somewhat 
acrid and crystallizes soon, yet the plant, 
where abundant, is of much importance 
to the bees and the bee keeper in case 
other forage is scant at the time. 
Asparagus.—Blossoms are much visited 
by bees in June and July. 
Esparcet, or Sainfoin.—Yields in May 
and June fine honey, almost as clear as 
spring water. It is a perennial legumin- 
ous plant, rather hardy, an excellent for- 
age crop, and particularly valuable for 
milch cows. It succeeds best on a lime- 
stone soil or when lime is used as a fer- 
tilizer, and is itself an excellent green 
manure for soils deficient in nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid. 
Sulla, or Sulla Clover—A perennial 
plant, closely related to esparcet or sain- 
foin, succeeds, like the latter, best upon 
limestone soil or when fertilized with 
lime. It yields a splendid quality of 
honey from beautiful pink blossoms, 
which continue during May and June. 
The plant is an excellent soil fertilizer 
and of great value in connection with 
the feeding of stock, particularly dairy 
animals. It is, however, much less hardy 
than esparcet, and success with it can 
therefore hardly be looked for above the 
latitude of North Carolina and Arkansas. 
When the qualities and requirements of 
this plant were brought by the writer to 
the notice of a prominent scientific agri- 
culturist of the South, this gentleman 
