Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-03-26
IS THERE A HONEY PLANTr
frying to Find One at the Michigan Ag-
ricuits-al Experiment station.


Trying to Find One at the Michigan Ag-
ricritss-al Experiment Station.
Professor A. j. Cook has been expert
me4ting with three so called honey
plants, in the hope that he might find
something that could be relied ON year
after year to furnish bee nectar. The
three plants were the Cleome integrifo-
liz, OF Rocky Iaounta:a honey plant, the
Echinops spheroceplalus or Chapman
honey plant, and foreign mint Of the
genus Melissa The bees visited the
echinops freely and obtained consider
able honey just at tie time Of year
hen other blossoms were scarce. But
the plant does not bloom until the sec
ond year, and seed must be planted every
year Even this weld not be so dis
couraging. but the seed may fail to ger
inmate at any time and so prove a fail
ure. So the experiment with the echi-
nops was unsuccessful. The cleome
must be planted in autumn. Professor
Cook obtained some of it fresh from
Colorado and planted it. He found it
did not come up well in Michi-
gan, though some of it was plant
ed upon sandy soil and other upon
clay ground. Again, the flowers did
not secrete nectar, and the bees worked
on them only occasionally. The cleome
also was disappointment.
OF the melissa Professor Cook says:
The melissa is an annual. We planted
it for two successive years. 1t did well,
blossomed freely and was visited very
generally by the bees 1t grows well ON
both sand aud clay, and by sowing early
viii commence to bloom early in July
and continue to bloom for month or
more. | regret to say that it will not
self seed, anl must be planted annually.
This is expensive, and it is doubtful if it
will pay. It Is to be said, however that
melissa, in common with the other
minis, seems to attract the bees at all
times of bloom. whatever the season. So
| am of the opinion that if any plant viii
pay exclusively as a money plant it will
be some mint. Many of these are peren-
NAL As the three acres of melissa last
season was singing with bees all through
the time of blossoming. and as our bees
swarmed in early August, thing I'M
arecedented in Michigan, it gives reason
to hope That with large average we
might secure honey crop each year
despite the season.
Thus / believe our experiments indi-
cate that special planting for honey
alone is Of doubtful practicability; that
echinops and cleome, at least, are not
the plants for such special planting if it
is ever to be a success, and that while
melissa or bee balm is not profitable, as
it is an annual, it is possible that the
perennial nints are the plants, if any
such there be- that viii pay us to grow
exclusively rs honey plants.
Unless cleome viii seed itself it is not
the plant even for wayside planting. |
think we must look to some Of the per-
sistent minis. or more probably to some
plant valuable for other purposes even
to plant on the roadside and in waste
places.
! hope next to try melilot or sweet
clover, not so much to find whether it is
a valuable honey plant, as we know that
now, but rather to find If this luxuriant
and vigorous clover may not have other
important uses; possibly for silage. I
shall also hope to plant small beds of
promising minis, in hopes for hints of
some plant that will pay just for nectar
and nothing else