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.