son, but this species is no relative of the early-blooming alder that grows so plentifully about the borders of ponds, streams and rivers. Following the river-alder, and only a few days later, there are two species of poplar trees in bloom. From both of these the bees gather pollen and, possibly, a small quantity of honey.

About the same time the elm bears flowers profusely, upon which the bees will be found at work. They also work upon the arbutus or mayflower, which is one of the sweetest and earliest of spring flowers. This grows mostly in the woods and the bees can work on it only in a very warm day, or when it grows in an open place in the sunshine.

The first honey in sufficient quantity to supply the bees with enough for their daily use comes from the soft maples, of which there are at least two species in this locality. Sometimes the yield of honey from these trees allows the bees to make a little addition to their stores. The flowers of these maples, the willow, the river-alder, the poplar and the elm, all appear before the leaves. The red maple is out of blossom in April or the first part of May. From this time until the close of the season in the Fall, there is scarcely a fine day when we cannot find flowers with bees at work upon them. There are several species of willow which they visit, the first blossoming very early, and one a month later.

All flowers do not yield nectar, but all staminate flowers are supposed to yield pollen. But the nectar in such flowers as yield it is not always within the reach of honey bees, and the pollen of many plants is not agreeable to them and they never gather it. It is probable, also, that the flowers of some plants secrete a nectar that bees do not like and never gather. A wise writer of a kind that often appears in print says that bees cannot now be successfully cultivated because so many of them are killed by the poison from sprayed potato plants. The fact is: bees are never seen at work on potato blossoms. The beauty of the flowers

might attract them, but they look for something more than beauty, being wiser than some men.

While there are a large number of flowers that yield no nectar, at least for the honey-bee, there are seasons when the best honey plants yield no honey or so little that the bees seldom visit them. I have known the ground to be white with the bloom of clover, and no bees to be found at work upon it, yet in most localities in the North white clover is considered the principal honey-yielding plant. It is only in a few exceptional years that it is not. All honey-producing plants have seasons of failure. It is not enough that the plant should be in full bloom; in needs the right kind of weather to secrete honey just as it needs the right kind of weather for the flow of sap from the sugar maple. The flowers of some kinds of plants may yield honey late in the day when there is none in the morning. More frequently there is a yield of honey in the forenoon and less or none late in the afternoon. Upon other plants the bees will keep steadily at work from morning till night.

A knowledge of the plants from which the bees gather their stores, the time of the year when such plants are in bloom, and the time of day when the bees will be most likely to visit them, is a valuable part of the bee-hunter's lore. The common names of most of the plants in this locality from which the bees collect either honey or pollen, not including those before mentioned, are given below. I have used the generic or specific name of the botanies in a few cases, in which the name is in common use, or in which there is no well-known common name. The plants are named in the order of their season, beginning the latter part of April and continuing until October: Saxifrage, hepatica, erythronium, currant, gooseberry, bush-honeysuckle, sugar-maple, apple and other fruit trees, dandelion, strawberry, raspberry-several species. blackberry, radish, cabbage, white clover, basswood, gill-over-the-ground, sweet elder, grape, snowdrop, several species of the poppy family, locust—

many essential variations this almanac will answer for New England, New York and other northern territory. The red raspberry is here one of the best honey-yielding plants. The blossoms begin to appear before the end of May and continue until the fruit begins to ripen in July. When the raspberry bloom is in its prime the bees are busy gathering the nectar from morning till night.

The best part of the white-clover season is in June, though in a favorable locality in a good season, a few whiteclover plants can generally be found in blossom until late in the Fall. White clover yields the most honey when it is dry. The bees will therefore be found upon white clover most plentifully after the dew has completely evapor

ated, but when the weather is warm and dry they sometimes visit it early in the morning. Next to white clover the linden or basswood tree is generally the most productive source of honey. It blossoms about the middle of June in warm situations and continues in bloom in high altitudes until the middle of July. It is in full bloom only once in two years, but there are a few odd trees that can be found in full bloom any year, and a few blossoms may be found on some trees that bore full the previous year. When everything is favorable for the yield of basswood honey, hundreds of bees may sometimes be found at work on single tree, making a humming that can be distinctly heard by any one passing near. Coming under a bass

wood tree at such a time, the uninitiated frequently thinks he has found a wild swarm of bees, and puts his mark on the tree. I have seen several basswood trees so marked.

Bees may be found at work in the cornfields in July and August. They work here only in the forenoon or when there is a humid atmosphere. The corn tassels yield an abundance of pollen, but the bees cannot gather it and pack it in the little baskets on their hind legs unless it is moist. There are only three or four hours of an ordinary day when they frequent cornfields. Buckwheat is another cultivated plant yielding both honey and pollen, neither of which the bees can gather when the plant is dry. Great numbers of bees visit the buckwheat fields from eight o'clock in the morning until a little past noon. No honey bees will be found on a buckwheat field much after noon on a fair day, but sometimes they may be found there in the afternoon when the forenoon has been rainy and the afternoon is clear.

St. Johnswort is a wild plant which bees frequent in a dull or cloudy day, or early in the morning before the dew is off. The common Canada thistle, when, as sometimes happens, it yields honey, is visited by the bees at all times of the day. Though formerly quite plentiful, this plant is now fortunately almost extinct in this country. We have a species of spirea or hardhack, a shrub two or three feet high bearing beautiful small red or white flowers in numerous, slender, tapering panicles on the ends of the upright branches. It is in blossom in July, August and September. Bees may generally be found at work upon it through the day, but in some seasons they hardly visit it at all. It is very common in old pastures and waste lands. Meadow-sweet is another species of spirea, having white or slightly pink flowers which the bees also frequent.

The staghorn sumac blossoms in June, and another kind of sumac in August; both kinds are much frequented by bees. In some parts of Vermont immense quantities of shrub

by cinquefoil have lately overspread old neglected pastures, taking complete possession of the soil. It bears a yellow flower about half an inch in diameter, appearing on some of the earlier plants in June, and may be found until late in Autumn. Bees may, at times, be seen upon the flowers quite plentifully, which is the only thing that can be said in defence of this intruding shrub.

Of all plants from which bees gather either honey or pollen the goldenrod is the most practically useful to the bee-hunter. The earlier species begin to blossom the last days of July, and from that time until late in September it is not difficult to find some kind of goldenrod in blossom. About thirteen different species have been identified within a small area in this localityone with white flowers. I think that bees find something to gather from all these kinds. I have seen bees at work upon nearly all of them. The white goldenrod is one of their especial favorites. In general, they will be found most plentifully upon the late kinds, as the rough-leaved goldenrod (Solidago rugosa) or the blue stemmed goldenrod (S. caesia and S. latifolia). The goldenrods are widely distributed and can be found in their season almost everywhere, growing by the roadside, on the borders of fields, in old pastures, in swamps and in the open woods. When the weather is not too cool the bees work upon the goldenrod from morning until late in the afternoon. I have started more wild swarms from bees caught from the goldenrod than from any other plant. Besides, I have had thrown in with the hunt beautiful golden views in the landscape. No dishonest gold was this.

After the goldenrod come several species of wild asters, upon which bees may be found in warm, pleasant days late in autumn. The large blue aster, which grows in swamps or in wet places, is one of the most common and one that remains in blossom latest. It is the last of the season except onethe witch hazel, which puts forth its blossoms in October, after the leaves

have fallen. In very warm days, a few bees may sometimes be seen on the flowers of the witch hazel, but, with the failure of the asters, their field labors are subsequently closed for the season, and they have nothing left but to go into winter quarters.

Nathan was my bee-hunting companion. Not my only one, for I have had many others, including some near the natural condition of man, some highly cultivated students, professors, clergymen and successful business men; but Nathan was the bee-hunting partner of my youth when we were both students of the art, and I remember him as the one of a score or more of co-hunters who was most apt to learn the ways of wild bees, and who had the most enthusiastic appreciation of bee-hunting.

On one occasion, occurring the last week in July, when we were in the midst of the haying season, there was a slight sprinkle of rain in the morning, and it had been decided not to mow more grass that day. Though the honey-bee does not work in the rain, Nathan and I were so eager for a hunt that we started out with our bee boxes for a place near the foot of a mountain about four miles away where we knew there was a small field of buckwheat in full bloom. On the Sunday previous we were picking blueberries and passed by this field. It would have been considered very wicked to hunt bees Sunday, but it was quite respectable to pick berries on that day. By what process of reasoning the dif ference between the two was established we never stopped to inquire, but took our little part of the great world as we found it, except that sometimes we indulged in private opinions which we were too prudent to make public.

We were, therefore, picking blueberries on the Sunday before, when we found the field of buckwheat without turning out of our way. It was densely covered with fresh flowers. The morning sun was fast dissipating the dew from the mass of white blossoms, and the air was filled with fragrance that was plainly perceptible at a consider

able distance. I knew that if there were any bees having their home within one or two miles of this field they would be represented here at this time, and I tarried a few minutes to take observations. My eye caught a heavily laden bee high up in the air flying slowly from the field in a straight line towards the woods. After a little experience in lining bees one can generally tell whether a bee is flying directly home to deposit its load or whether it is flying in a contrary direction without a load. If the bee is heavily laden with pollen and honey-they always collect both at the same time when the flowers yield both-the flight is slow, labored and direct. When the bee reaches the hive or the hollow in the tree, which serves equally well its purposes, both the pollen and honey are quickly deposited, and it returns for another load with a lighter, swifter and more irregular flight. It has spent not more than five minutes in the hive. In some cases, when the flowers are yielding abundant stores, the bee remains in the hive only two or three minutes. It seems to understand the need of the utmost economy of time, for the yield may last but a few hours. Bees can gather honey, from buckwheat only when the flowers are moist. In a pleasant day the honey in the buckwheat flowers becomes too thick to be sucked up into the gathering-sac of the bee before two o'clock in the afternoon. There may be more than fifty thousand bees at work on an acre of buckwheat half an hour before noon. At two o'clock in the afternoon it might be impossible to find a single. bee on the field.