The silk or milk-weed furnishes abundant nectar from June to frost, as there are several species of the genus Asclepias, which is wide-spread in our country. This is the plant which has large pollen masses which often adhere to the legs of bees ([Fig, 87]), and sometimes so entrap them as to cause their death. Prof. Riley once very graciously advised planting them to kill bees. I say graciously, as I have watched these very closely, and am sure they do little harm, and are rich in nectar. Seldom a bee gets caught so as to hold it long, and when these awkward masses are carried away with the bee, they are usually left at the door of the hive, where I have often seen them in considerable numbers. The river bank hard by our apiary is lined with these sweet-smelling herbs, and we would like even more.
| Fig. 87.—Pollen of Milk-weed. | Fig. 88.—Black Mustard. |
Black mustard, Sinapis nigra ([Fig, 88]) white mustard, Sinapis alba, and rape, Brassica campestris ([Fig, 89]), all look much alike, and are all admirable bee plants, as they furnish much and beautiful honey. The first, if self-sown, blooms July 1st, the others June 1st; the first about eight weeks after sowing, the others about four. The mustards bloom for four weeks, rape for three. These are all specially commendable, as they may be made to bloom during the honey dearth of July and August, and are valuable plants to raise for the seed. Rape seems to be very attractive to insects, as the flea beetles and the blister beetles are often quite too much for it, though they do not usually destroy the plants till after they have blossomed. I have several times purchased what purported to be Chinese mustard, dwarf and tall, but Prof. Beal, than whom there is no better authority, tells me they are only the white and black, and certainly, they are no whit better as bee plants. These plants, with buckwheat, the mints, borage and mignonette, are specially interesting, as they cover, or may be made to cover, the honey dearth from about July 20th to August 20th.
Fig. 89.—Rape.
The mustards and rape may be planted in drills about eight inches apart, any time from May 1st to July 15th. Four quarts will sow an acre.
Fig. 90.—Tulip
In this month blooms the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera ([Fig, 90])—often called poplar in the South—which is not only an excellent honey producer, but is one of our most stately and admirable shade-trees. Now, too, bloom the sumacs, though one species blooms in May, the wild plum, the raspberries, whose nectar is unsurpassed in color and flavor, and the blackberry. Corn, too, is said by many to yield largely of honey as well as pollen, and the teasel, Dipsacus fullonum ([Fig, 91]), is said, not only by Mr. Doolittle, but by English and German apiarists, to yield richly of beautiful honey. This last, too, has commercial importance. The blackberry opens its petals in June, and also the fragrant locust, which, from its rapid growth, beautiful form and handsome foliage, would rank among our first shade trees, except that it is so tardy in spreading its canopy of green, and so liable to ruinous attack by the borers, which last peculiarity it shares with the incomparable maples. Washing the trunks of the trees in June and July with soft soap, will in great part remove this trouble.
Fig. 91.—Teasel.