=Filbert bushes=, useful for wind-breaks and for their nuts, yield
pollen in February and March.
=Rape= can be grown successfully in the North for pasturage, for
green manuring, or for seed, and when permitted to blossom yields
considerable pollen and honey. Winter varieties are sown late in the
summer or early in the autumn, and blossom in April or May following.
This early yield forms an excellent stimulus to brood rearing. Summer
or bird rape, grown chiefly for its seed, blossoms about a month after
sowing. It does best during the cooler months of the growing season.
=Russian or hairy vetch= is a hardy leguminous plant of great
value for forage and use in green manuring. The blossoms appear early
in the season, and, where there is any lack in early pollen, especially
in northern and cool regions, this vetch will be found of great value
to the bees.
=Fruit blossoms=--apricot, peach, pear, plum, cherry, apple,
currant, and gooseberry--yield pollen and honey in abundance during
April or May; strawberry and blackberry are sometimes visited freely by
bees, but are generally far less important than the others mentioned.
Colonies that have wintered well often gather during apple bloom 12 to
15 pounds of surplus honey of fine quality. The raspberry secretes a
large amount of nectar of superb quality, and coming in May or June,
thus later than the other fruit blossoms and when the colonies are
stronger and the weather is more settled, full advantage can nearly
always be taken of this yield. Grape and persimmon blossom also in
June; the latter is an excellent source. In subtropical portions of the
country orange and lemon trees yield fine honey in March and April, and
the cultivation of the banana has added a profuse honey yielder which
puts forth successive blossoms all through the summer months.
=Locust=, =tulip tree= ("poplar," or whitewood), and
=horse-chestnut=, useful for shade, ornament, and timber, are all
fine honey producers in May. The locust yields light-colored, clear
honey of fine quality, the others amber-colored honey of good body and
fair flavor.
=Clovers.=--Crimson, blossoming in April or May, yields fine,
light-colored honey; white, alsike, and mammoth or medium, blossoming
in May, June, and July, give honey of excellent quality and rich yellow
color.
=Mustard= grown for seed flowers from June to August. The honey is
somewhat acrid and crystallizes soon, yet the plant, where abundant, is
of much importance to the bees and the bee keeper in case other forage
is scant at the time.
=Asparagus= blossoms are much visited by bees in June and July.
=Esparcet=, or =sainfoin=, yields in May and June fine honey,
almost as clear as spring water. It is a perennial leguminous plant,
rather hardy, an excellent forage crop, and particularly valuable for
milch cows. It succeeds best on a limestone soil or when lime is used
as a fertilizer, and is itself an excellent green manure for soils
deficient in nitrogen and phosphoric acid.
=Sulla, or sulla clover=, a perennial plant, closely related to
esparcet or sainfoin, succeeds, like the latter, best upon limestone
soil or when fertilized with lime. It yields a splendid quality of
honey from beautiful pink blossoms, which continue during May and
June. The plant is an excellent soil fertilizer and of great value in
connection with the feeding of stock, particularly dairy animals. It
is, however, much less hardy than esparcet, and success with it can
therefore hardly be looked for above the latitude of North Carolina
and Arkansas. When the qualities and requirements of this plant
were brought by the writer to the notice of a prominent scientific
agriculturist of the South, this gentleman suggested as very probable
that the black belt of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas would
be well adapted to it, the lands of this region being exceedingly
strong in lime. In portions of southern Europe sulla clover is a most
important forage crop for farm stock as well as for honey bees.
=Serradella= is an annual leguminous plant which will grow on
sandy land, and which yields, besides good forage, clear honey of good
quality in June and July.
=Chestnut=, valuable for timber, ornament, shade, and nuts, yields
honey and pollen in June or July.
=Linden=, =sourwood=, and =catalpa=, fine shade,
ornamental, and timber trees, yield great quantities of first quality
honey in June and July.
=Cotton.=--In the South cotton blossoms, appearing as they do in
succession during the whole summer, often yield considerable honey. It
would appear, however, that when the plants are very rank in growth the
blossoms--being correspondingly large--are too deep for the bees to
reach the nectar.
=Chicory=, raised for salad and for its roots, is, whenever
permitted to blossom, eagerly visited for honey in July and August.
=Sweet, medicinal, and pot herbs=, such as marjoram, savory,
lavender, catnip, balm, sage, thyme, etc., when allowed to blossom,
nearly all yield honey in June, July, or August. Where fields of them
are grown for the seed the honey yield may be considerable from this
source.
=Alfalfa= furnishes in the West a large amount of very fine honey
during June and July. Its importance there as a forage crop is well
known, but how far eastward its cultivation may be profitably extended
is still a question, and even should it prove of value in the East as
a forage plant, its honey-producing qualities there would be still
uncertain.
=Parsnips=, when left for seed, blossom freely from June to
August, inclusive, and are much frequented by honey bees.
=Peppermint=, raised for its foliage, from which oil is distilled,
is most frequently cut before the bees derive much benefit from it, but
whenever allowed to blossom it is eagerly sought after by them, and
yields honey freely during July and August.
=Bokhara=, or =sweet clover=, is in some sections of the
country considered a valuable forage crop. Animals can be taught to
like it, and it is very valuable as a restorer of exhausted lime soils,
while in regions lacking in bee pasturage during the summer months it
is a very important addition. It withstands drought remarkably well and
yields a large quantity of fine honey.
=Cucumber=, =squash=, =pumpkin=, and =melon=
blossoms furnish honey and some pollen to the bees in July and August.
=Eucalypti=, valuable for their timber and as ornaments to lawn
and roadside, are quick-growing trees adapted to the southern portions
of the United States. They yield much honey between July and October.
The =carob tree=, whose cultivation has been commenced in the
Southwest, is an excellent honey yielder in late summer. It is an
ornamental tree and gives, in addition to honey, another valuable
product--the carob bean of commerce.
=Sacaline=, a forage and ornamental plant of recent introduction,
is a great favorite with bees. It blossoms profusely during August,
is a hardy perennial, and thrives in wet and also fairly in dry
situations, withstanding the ordinary summer drought of the Eastern
States because of its deeply penetrating roots.
=Buckwheat= is an important honey and pollen producer. Its
blossoms appear about four weeks after the seed is sown, hence it may
be made to fill in a summer dearth of honey plants.