48 BULLETIN 685, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGKICULTURE. 
SOURCES OF POLLEN AND NECTAR. 
The honeybee derives its suppHes from the successive 
bloom of a great variety of trees, shrubs, and cultivated and 
wild plants and flowers, of which the family of the Legimii- 
nosse is by far the most important. Many plants that are 
not sources of surplus honey are of great importance in the 
economy of the hives, furnishing the necessary supplies of 
pollen and nectar to enable the colony to increase the num- 
ber of bees and thus build up its strength in the spring and 
to carry it through the winter or through periods of light 
honey flow during the summer. The average dates of bloom 
of the most important plants in the different States are 
shown in Table XIV. The dates given are only rough 
approximations, being merely the averages of the dates 
reported from the different States, and the bloom may be 
earlier or later in portions of paiticular States, especially 
those of large area or great diversity of climate. 
Table XV. — Sources of surplus honey. 
Clovers. 
Trees. 
Co 
o 
ft? 
yden- 
o 
State. 
(Melilot 
bloom. 
•poo 
locust ( 
nia). 
g 
ood (Ox 
drum). 
poplar ( 
endron). 
<s 
>> 
P. 
Alfa 
Alsi] 
1 
Whi 
Frui 
Bass 
HoU 
Blac 
Pers 
Soui 
Tuli 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. Ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
P. ct. 
Maine 
6.0 
1.0 
53.3 
0.2 
8.0 
2.1 
New Hampshire 
32.0 
4.3 
40.8 
8.5 
1.6 
Massachusetts 
.5 
2.1 
25. 5. 
12.3 
Khode Island 
10.0 
Connecticut 
1.2 
20.3 
4.4 
3.5 
1.2 
New York 
1.6 
2.1 
30.2 
.6 
9.9 
.2 
New Jersey 
11.2 
1.5 
17.3 
.8 
1.5 
Pennsylvania 
2.1 
13.1 
.8 
6.7 
Delaware 
48.0 
2.0 
2.0 
2.0 
5.0 
Maryland 
3.1 
1.9 
26.0 
.8 
2.0 
4.2 
15.6 
Virginia 
26.7 
26.8 
1.2 
3.0 
3.4 
1.4 
12.2 
7.8 
West Virginia 
1.1 
10.7 
.7 
3.5 
10.3 
North Carolina 
6.0 
1.0 
5.0 
6.0 
2.0 
1.2 
10.0 
8.5 
2.0 
3.0 
1.0 
3.0 
3.0 
20.0 
1 Including red and crimson clover. 
