84 
from the willow, or the oak ? or do you comply with 
the requisitions that the laws of nature enjoin upon 
you to obtain them ? So it is in the cultivation of the 
bee. There are portions of our country (though hap- 
pily they are few,) where honey-producing plants and 
trees, are too limited, without the aid of man, to secure 
a large amount of honey. 
It is known that the only food of the bee is the 
nectar and pollen of the flowers, and that different 
varieties produce these deposits in greater or less 
abundance. • 
Then, if we would prosper in our endeavors to multi- 
ply their species with success, we must cultivate those 
plants and trees, (where nature does not spontaneously 
produce them,) that will yield their flowers longest, and 
secrete the greatest amount of saccharine matter, within 
the reach of the bee. You may grow acres of blos- 
soms, that will secrete thousands of pounds of honey, 
and still be beyond the reach of your bees. 
Our purpose is to consider these flowers, that furnish 
saccharine matter in their blossoms. "Whether these 
deposits are caused by exudations, or by the chemical 
action of the atmosphere upon the flowers, or by con- 
densation, to us is a matter of but little moment at 
present ; but to know that these flowers are reservoirs 
that yield the finest sweet that nature produces, is of 
vast importance to us if we can make them available. 
There are many kinds of flowers that are receptacles 
of honey, and this honey varies in quantity, and 
quality, according to the flower that secretes it. These 
miniature laboratories stamp with faultless certainty 
these luscious sweets with a color and flavor peculiar 
to themselves. Thus the white clover ( trifolium 
