654 
PHACELIA 
slow to granulate, and extracted lioney two 
years old still remained liquid. It forms 
an excellent blend with the honey of white 
clover. 
The sweet pepperbush region of Massa¬ 
chusetts extends from Middleboro to Sand¬ 
wich on Cape Cod and to New Bedford on 
Buzzard’s Bay. At Westport, Mass., where 
it blooms during the last of July or early 
August, 900 pounds of pepperbush honey 
have been gathered by three colonies in a 
single season. Often there are 7 or 8 supers 
on one hive. It is an uncertain yielder, and 
there is usually one poor year in every 
three, owing to late frosts, damp or cloudy 
weather, or other causes. In 1916 there 
was a large surplus, but in 1917 the foliage 
turned a dark brown and very little nec¬ 
tar was gathered. In 1918 there was a fair 
yield. In 1919 at Lakeville, Mass., seven 
4-frame nuclei in 10-frame hives filled the 
brood-chamber, and produced 12 supers of 
comb and extracted honey. In Rhode Is¬ 
land sweet pepperbush often yields no sur¬ 
plus, but sometimes there is a “flood” of 
nectar. A prominent beekeeper reports 
the honey as aromatic flavored and very 
white. It should not be removed until late 
in the season. 
In southern Georgia in the great swamps 
pepperbush gives a good surplus and main¬ 
tains brood-rearing, when there are few 
other honey plants in bloom. The flowers 
appear early in July, and the blooming 
period is of long duration. It is more or 
less abundant thruout the Coastal Plain 
from Virginia to Mississippi, but it never 
grows very near the coast. 
PEPPER TREE (Schinus molle ).— 
From Peru. This is really not a pepper 
tree at all; its flowers and the honey have 
a peppery flavor, and the seeds resemble 
pepper. It is a magnificent shade tree, and 
in California has been very largely planted. 
The honey is thick and dark, but it serves a 
very useful purpose in helping the bees to 
tide over bad times without feeding. It is 
under a ban now, as it is supposed to har¬ 
bor injurious insects; but it seems proba¬ 
ble these pests would still exist even if all 
the pepper trees were destroyed. 
PERFORATED ZINC.— See Drones. 
PHACELIA (Phacelia tanacetifolia ).— 
Fiddle-neck. A hairy herbaceous annual, 
6 inches to 2 feet tall, with bluish flowers 
in scorpioid racemes, 3 to 4 inches long, 
common from Sacramento Valley to south¬ 
ern California. It blooms in about six 
weeks from seed and furnishes an excel¬ 
lent bee pasturage for about the same 
length of time. The honey is amber-col¬ 
ored with a mild aromatic flavor. The 
color of the pollen is blue. It was former¬ 
ly very abundant in California, but owing 
to the over-pasturing of the cattle ranges 
it has almost disappeared from thousands 
of acres of wild land. It is now found 
chiefly in the underbrush where it can not 
be reached by cattle. It has been intro¬ 
duced into Europe where it has been high¬ 
ly praised as a honey plant. In Sweden 
on a trial plot of 500 square meters one 
kilogram of phacelia seed was broadcasted 
and harrowed into the soil. The plants 
came up in 8 or 10 days, and by the middle 
of August had reached maturity, averaging 
a half meter in height. Eight weeks after 
planting they began to bloom, and the 
blooming period lasted for about 4 weeks. 
Thruout the entire time the field was con¬ 
stantly visited by bees from 3 o’clock in 
the morning to 9 :30 at night. The field is 
estimated to have yielded 50 to 60 kilos of 
honey, and if the summer had not been dry 
the crop would undoubtedly have been lar¬ 
ger. The honey was clear and thin, and 
excellent in quality. 
The racemes of the caterpillar phacelia 
(Phacelia hispida ) are coiled and covered 
with slender white hairs, whence the com¬ 
mon name. Its range is from Santa Bar¬ 
bara County to San Diego County. It was 
formerly very abundant in Ventura Coun- 
ty, but it has be^n largely destroyed by 
mountain fires. It grows luxuriantly if 
there have been abundant winter and 
spring rains, and attains a height of 2 to 
4 feet. One season M. H. Mendleson of 
\ entnra secured from this honey plant a 
large surplus. The honey was extracted 
into a seven-ton tank; and, before the tank 
was full, it granulated at the bottom. A 
few feet of liquid honey were drawn off, 
and about 3 feet of solid candied honey 
were then shoveled out. “The honey,” 
writes Mendleson, “is water white and has 
a fine mild flavor; in the candied condition 
it is like a fine flour paste. I have never 
