In the more southern States fruit bloom is far from being as great a source of honey as in the North, though with the extension of orange groves in Florida and Louisiana an increased production of very fine honey maybe looked for in those States. The titi, magnolia, palmetto, and black mangrove yield well in some parts, and sour gum (tupelo or pepperidge), cotton, and pennyroyal are sources not to be overlooked. In Texas horsemint and mesquite, the latter also extending farther West, furnish fine yields, while many mountain localities of southern California are clothed with white and black sages—wonderful honey producers. In certain localities there the orange and other fruit orchards, and also wild buckwheat, give the bees excellent pasturage for a portion of the year.
Certain small homopterous insects, such as plant-lice, bark-lice, mealy-wings, and some leaf-hoppers, which congregate on the leaves or bark of various plants and trees, notably pines, oaks, and beeches, and suck their juices, secrete a sweet liquid, which is often taken up by bees as it falls on the surrounding vegetation. This secretion, commonly known as honeydew, or plant-louse honey, is usually of an inferior qua lit y, though that from pine-tree aphides is sometimes fairly good. Most of it granulates very soon after having been gathered, sometimes even before the cells have been sealed.
Under peculiar conditions of the atmosphere sweet exudations, also known as honeydew, drop from the leaves of certain plants and are eagerly taken up by the bees. This substance is sometimes very abundant and of excellent quality. It should not, however, be confounded with the secretions of extra-floral glands such as are possessed by the cowpea, horse bean, partridge pea, and vetches. These seem to be natural productions for the purpose of attracting insects to the plants, while the former is apparently an accidental exudation through the plant pores, brought about very likely by some sudden change of temperature. Both are, however, merely the saccharine juices of the plant, and when refined by the bees may become excellent honey.
CULTIVATION OF HONEY PLANTS
In all localities there will probably be found intervals during the working season when bees will find very little or even nothing gather, unless supplied by cultivation. When possible it is ah best to till in such intervals with some honey-producing plant which at the same time furnishes some other product—fruit, grain, forage, green manure, or timber. The attempt to cultivate any plant for its honey alone has not thus far been found profitable, in practice, however promising it may seem theoretically. Catnip (Nepeta cataria), motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), globe thistle (Echinops sphærocephalus), figwort (Scrophularia nodosa), bee balm (Melissa officinalis), borage (Borago officinalis), Rocky Mountain cleome (Cleome serrulata), melilot or sweet clover (Melilotus alba), and linden (Tilia americana) have all been recommended repeatedly and tried here and there somewhat extensively. But thus far the hope of securing a sufficient increase in the crop of honey to pay for the cultivation of these plants has in all cases had to be abandoned. With the appreciation in value of agricultural lands the prospects for the profitable cultivation of any crop for honey alone are still further removed. Yet the writer is fully convinced that in the future, especially in the older portions of our country, eminent success in bee raising will require much more attention to the furnishing of artificial pasturage for the bees, a close study, in fact, of the bee flora of one's locality, and a systematic effort to supply the deficiencies by sowing self-propagating honey plants, and such as may be cultivated with profit for other reasons besides their honey yield.
Fig. 45.—Wagner a flat pea (Lathyrus sylvestris wagneri).
Fig. 46.—Dwarf Essex or winter rape (Brassica napus).
Among those plants which have just been mentioned as having been cultivated at various times for their honey alone, the linden for shade and ornament as well as for timber, catnip for sale as an herb or to secure its seed, and melilot for forage or green manuring are the only ones which, under present conditions, might in some cases be profitably cultivated. There may be introduced with advantage, however, all such honey-producing plants as, with one sowing or planting, will readily propagate themselves and without cultivation extend their area along roadsides and over waste lands, always excepting of course such as may become troublesome weeds. For this purpose most of the plants referred to above are available, and many others which like these are adapted to one portion or another of our country might be added, as, for example, pleurisy root or butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Indian currant or coral berry (Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos), viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), lady's thumb (Polygonum persicaria), horsemint (Monarda citriodora), willow-herb (Epilobium angustifolium), etc., but of course it can not be expected that they will thrive and thoroughly establish themselves without further attention, except in such localities as present very favorable conditions for their growth. Furthermore, there is always the risk that a plant which yields honey abundantly in one part of the country may not do so in another region, even though it grows well, so that it is necessary in most cases, especially with wild plants, to test them anew before extensive introduction, no matter how well established their reputation as honey producers may be elsewhere.