Several attempts have been made to outline the principal regions of the
United States. A careful examination of all these outlines brings out
serious discrepancies. There are too many small regions within larger
ones to permit of anything like accuracy with the present data and the
present knowledge of the honey plants. In general, white clover may
be said to be the principal honey plant of all the region from Nova
Scotia west to eastern Dakota and south to Tennessee and Arkansas.
Yet within that large area, there are many places where white clover
is unimportant, and where other plants furnish the principal surplus.
In much of Michigan white clover is of first importance, yet in the
cut-over districts of the northern part of the State, raspberry,
fireweed and milkweed furnish nearly all the honey that goes to market.
It is good clover territory, and with the ultimate development of the
region, clover will predominate.
In the irrigated regions of the Rocky Mountain States, alfalfa is the
principal source of surplus, but sweet clover is rapidly crowding it
for first place.
Basswood was once a very important source of honey over all the
Northeastern States. The cutting of the basswood forests has gradually
reduced the basswood area until there are now few localities, in
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois or Iowa, where it is really an important
honey source. In parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario,
basswood is still sufficiently plentiful to yield large quantities of
honey, but there it is being rapidly reduced.
In the cotton belt, where cotton would naturally be expected to be the
principal source, the area would be divided into many small regions.
Cotton may yield much honey in a locality where the soil is heavy and
rich, while a few miles distant, where soils are light and sandy,
there is little honey from cotton, although the plant is just as
commonly cultivated. In the cotton region there would be a great many
sub-divisions. In parts of Texas, mesquite is the principal source,
in others catsclaw and huajilla (wa-he-ya), while in eastern Texas
basswood yields heavily. Buckwheat is important principally in the
region about the Great Lakes and south in the higher elevations to
Virginia and Tennessee. Goldenrod is one of the most important sources
of nectar in New England, while it is seldom of much value west of the
Mississippi River, although growing abundantly.
In California and Florida there are several entirely different regions
within the State. There is no one plant of major importance over all
parts of either State. A large amount of work still remains to be done
before the honey resources of America can be mapped out with anything
like accuracy. Changing conditions are rapidly removing one plant and
substituting another in many sections. When the author visited west
Texas he was told by the beekeepers there that the clearing of the land
and planting it to cultivated crops was rapidly curtailing the bee
range, as no cultivated crops being planted were equal to the desert
flora which was being removed.
In other sections, the planting of forage crops which are good sources
of nectar, like alfalfa and sweet clover, is greatly increasing the
available bee pasturage. In parts of California, the extensive growing
of garden seeds is providing pasture sufficient for producing surplus
honey of a kind seldom heard of in the markets a few years ago. Parsnip
and celery honey are examples.