258 
COTTON 
ber region he never obtains any surplus 
from cotton, but that five miles southward 
on the black land of the prairie he secures 
a large amount of honey. On the lighter 
and drier soils of the uplands the color of 
the honey is reported to be lighter than on 
the bottom lands. 
Thruout the larger part of the Atlantic 
and Gulf Coastal Plain cotton does not 
secrete sufficient nectar to afford a surplus. 
Opinions differ greatly as to its value as a 
honey plant and are often contradictory. A 
series of accurate observations in the dif¬ 
ferent states by a flower biologist is greatly 
to be desired. In North Carolina the cot¬ 
ton belt, which occupies a portion of the 
Coastal Plain, is the poorest section of 
the State for beekeeping. Altho cotton 
covers over 2,000,000 acres of South Caro¬ 
lina there are no reports of a surplus from 
this source. At Cordele, Ga., from one to 
three supers of cotton honey may be stored, 
and in other portions of southern Georgia 
it is apparently of value; but in northern 
Georgia it is a minor honey plant. In Ben 
Hill County it was formerly an excellent 
source of honey, but since the advent of the 
boll weevil the cotton fields do not supply 
much nectar. In Alabama at Demopolis a 
beekeeper states that bees will’ not work on 
cotton if they can find anything else, even 
bitterweed. In Talladega County, north¬ 
ern Alabama, cotton does not yield a sur¬ 
plus but furnishes a part of the winter 
stores. A beekeeper at Greenville in the rich 
Yazoo bottoms along the Mississippi, a cen¬ 
ter of cotton production, is positive that the 
greater part of his surplus comes from cot¬ 
ton, but another beekeeper in the same 
town is just as positive that none of his 
surplus comes from this source. In west¬ 
ern Tennessee a part of the surplus is re¬ 
ported to come from cotton. In Louisiana 
bees are said to be seldom seen on cotton, 
altho it is the staple crop. In the Arkan¬ 
sas River Valley in Arkansas there is an 
immense acreage of cotton, and 96 pounds 
per colony in an apiary of 12 colonies was 
obtained chiefly from this source. In Pu¬ 
laski County at Sulphur Springs a great 
amount of cotton honey is secured. In 1918 
the surplus was 40 pounds per colony, but 
in 1919 only 20 pounds. In Oklahoma cot¬ 
ton ranks next to corn both in acreage and 
value. Temperature and rainfall permit 
of its cultivation in every part of the State 
except along the north border. A dense 
area occurs near the center of the State, 
and another in the southwest counties. The 
humid conditions required to stimulate the 
secretion of nectar occur only occasionally, 
and it is consequently a very unreliable 
honey plant. It is, however, frequently re¬ 
ported as furnishing more or less surplus, 
the flow in Love County lasting from July 
20 to September 30. 
It is in Texas that cotton rises to the 
rank of a great honey plant, where it 
yields nearly one-fifth of the entire crop 
of honey produced in this State. Altho 
there are 10,000,000 acres of cotton under 
cultivation it is chiefly in the Black Prairie 
that cotton secretes nectar abundantly. 
Either to the east or west of this belt the 
honey flow shows a marked decrease. In 
Metagorda County on the coast cotton se¬ 
cretes nectar well only occasionally. At 
Bay City cotton is not dependable, but in 
some seasons good yields are secured from 
it. At New Braunfels and northward to 
Waxahachie cotton is the main dependence 
for honey. “In an average season,”' accord¬ 
ing to Scholl, “a good yield may be ex¬ 
pected from cotton in the black land dis¬ 
tricts and the river valleys. Under favor¬ 
able conditions it is not excelled by any 
other nectar yielder in the cotton-growing 
belt. On poor soil and on sandy land it 
does not secrete nectar plentifully and in 
some sections under certain weather condi¬ 
tions not at all.” On the bottom lands of the 
Brazos River there are cotton plantations 
which are several thousand acres in extent. 
Cotton is the only source of nectar, and an 
average of about 75 pounds of bulk comb 
honey is secured annually; one season the 
surplus exceeded 100 pounds per colony. 
In 1919 one of the larger producers of the 
cotton belt, before the beginning of the 
fall flow, had taken off 20,000 pounds, and 
there still remained in the hives 10,000 
pounds to be extracted. For the fall flow 
5,000 pounds would not be an overestimate. 
Waco, McLennan County, is near the cen¬ 
ter of the cotton belt; and in this county 
and around Waxahachie more than 500,000 
acres of cotton are cultivated. The api¬ 
aries are numerous and often average per 
colony 60 to 70 pounds of honey. In Hunt 
