54 BULLETIN 685^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the mesquite, 2 per cent, wild buckwheat, 1.1 per cent, and 
catsclaw, 0.8 per cent, are extremely important in the 
regions of their growth. These are all plants of the semi- 
arid regions. Gallberry, a type of shrub holly, furnishes 
1.6 per cent, and sumac 0.7 per cent. Of berries, the wild 
raspberry is locally important, blackberry and huckleberry 
being less so. 
Of cultivated plants, cotton is most important, furnishing 
4.0 per cent of the total supply. Buckwheat is a heavy 
producer. It contributes 2.9 per cent. 
Of the weeds, goldenrod heads the list, producing 2.1 per 
cent, its growth being very widespread. Heartsease or 
heartweed, 2 per cent, and Spanish needle, 1.3 per cent, are 
important in the Central West, and wild aster, 1.4 per cent, 
has a very wide distribution, 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF 
IMPORTANT HONEYS. 
HONEYS OF THE WHITE CLOVER BELT. 
The white clover belt, marking the principal range of the 
wild growth of this lowly but beneficent plant, wherein it 
invades the grasslands, yielding nitrogen to the soil, food 
to the grazing stock, nectar to the bee, and beauty to the 
eye, includes all of the States from Maine southward to 
Virginia and the Allegheny and Piedmont sections of the 
southestern States, and all of the territory westward to 
the beginning of the semiarid plains beyond the one hun- 
dredth meridian of west longitude. White clover is also 
becoming important in some western irrigated sections and 
in the limestone and alluvial soils of Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana. The white clover belt is the most impor- 
tant honey-producing region, because it furnishes not only 
the leading commercial type, but all told more than half of 
the total honey crop of the entire country. The limpid 
whiteness, heavy body, and distinct but delicate and dehcious 
flavor of white clover, worthy of the dainty clustered blossom 
whose aroma it bears, long ago established it as a standard 
of excellence. It should not be asserted that this is the best 
honey, but if it is said of a honey that it is as good as white 
clover," it is considered sufficient praise. 
