MARIGOLD 
589 
Marigold, great honey plant of Texas, but found all over the United States. 
MARIGOLD (Gaillardia pulchella ).— 
An annual, diffusely branched herbaceous 
plant, very common on the prairies and 
by the roadsides from Nebraska southward 
to Louisiana and Texas. It is a species of 
.Compositae, and the showy heads are 1 to 
3 inches broad with numerous yellow rays. 
The leaves are 2 or 3 inches long, toothed, 
and without stems. As a honey plant it 
is valuable chiefly on the Black Prairie of 
Texas and the neighboring limestone hills. 
It is not abundant on sandy or clay soils. 
It begins blooming in May, and at San 
Gabriel an average of 30 pounds of honey 
per colony was obtained in 1920. Large 
crops from this source are occasionally re¬ 
ported. The honey is amber-colored and 
inferior in quality, but finds a market. The 
comb honey is golden yellow, not white. 
MARKETING HONEY.—It is one 
thing to produce a crop of honey and quite 
another thing to sell it. During the period 
of the Great War when sugar could be ob¬ 
tained only in very limited quantities there 
was no difficulty about selling honey either 
in small lots or car lots at high prices. 
Shortly following the armistice there was 
a period where there was a buyers’ strike, 
when practically all commodities, includ¬ 
ing honey, were a drug on the market. The 
result was that producers all over the 
country were trying to sell in a retail, 
wholesale, or jobbing way. It was then 
