ornamental trees and it gives a great amount of dark, rich honey. In New York it blossoms in May and June and, like the locusts, is a great help to the bees after the fruit-bloom is over. This is a common tree in the woods of the South and is not rare in Northern forests. It should be planted even more generally than it is at present, for the sake of the bees.
The basswood, of all honey-producing trees, is the most important and most beloved by the bees. It blooms in July and only for a brief season; therefore, it is important that the colonies be strong and able to make the most of these few precious days of harvest. Basswood honey has a strong flavour when first gathered. But after it is ripened and sealed it has a delightful flavour. The way our forests have been stripped of basswood during the past twenty-five years is nothing less than heart-rending to the bee-keeper; for to him this tree ranks next to the white clover in importance. Mr. Root had a single colony take forty-three pounds of honey in three days from basswood, and Mr. Doolittle had a colony take sixty pounds in the same period. The tree is beautiful, and might well be used for shade along roadsides and also in ornamental planting. It grows rapidly; young trees, transplanted from the woodland, blossom in five or six years thereafter. No bee-keeper should allow the basswood to be cut on his premises; and he should grow as many young trees as possible.
Other honey-producing trees of note are the sour-
