NECTAR PRODUCTION 
129 
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON NECTAR PRODUCTION. 
L. A. KENOYER. 
Few people realize the importance that the beekeeping in- 
dustry is attaining in our state. For its size, Iowa is second 
in importance of the states of the union. The hives num- 
ber into hundreds of thousands, and the value of the product 
probably into millions of dollars. Aside from this is the great 
indirect value which comes from the pollen-carrying of our bees. 
Nevertheless very little is known regarding the plants that 
furnish pasturage for bees, and about the factors controlling 
nectar flow in these plants. Twenty-five bee men of this and 
neighboring states were asked recently concerning the weather 
conditions that permit of nectar production. Without a single 
exception they answer ‘‘warm’’ or “hot”, and almost without 
exception added “moist”. One man considers rather dry weath- 
er preferable, while some mention electric storms and one south 
winds as desirable. Clear weather is preferred by two or three ; 
others make a distinction between plants, basswood and smart- 
weed being said to demand cloudy weather, while clover and 
Spanish needle require clear. 
Gaston Bonnier, who wrote a lengthy monograph on nectar 
about thirty-six years ago, found that nectar secretion iiicreases 
with soil moisture, that it increases with humidity of the air, 
that it is greatest about the time of the fertilization of the 
flower, being later resorbed. He noticed, also, that nectar pro- 
duction is sensibly greater in the latitude of Norway than in 
that of France, and furthermore that it increases with altitude. 
This increase at high latitudes and altitudes, he suggests, may 
be due to the extreme between the maximum and minimum 
daily temperatures, but he gives no experimental data on the 
influence of temperature upon nectar. In fact, many of his 
tables seem to be quite contrary to the opinion of our bee- 
keepers, that warm weather is necessary. To him,^ nectar pro- 
duction seems almost wholly a matter of the accumulation of 
sugar in the vicinity of the ovary as a reserve in store for the 
development of the latter, and the secretion of this sugar be- 
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