. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. April, 1916. American Hee Journal Honey Flora of New England BY JOHN H. LOVELL. {Pkotogral^hs bv the author.) MOT so very long ago, as geologists reckon time. New England was covered with an immense sheet of ice thousands of feet in thickness. Slowly the great glacier moved sea- ward. The downward pressure was enormous—450 pounds to the square inch for every thousand feet of ice. The forests, the entire vegetation, even the soil was swept away. The underlying rocks were planed, furrowed, ground down, pulverized as by a huge mill- stone. There was visi
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. April, 1916. American Hee Journal Honey Flora of New England BY JOHN H. LOVELL. {Pkotogral^hs bv the author.) MOT so very long ago, as geologists reckon time. New England was covered with an immense sheet of ice thousands of feet in thickness. Slowly the great glacier moved sea- ward. The downward pressure was enormous—450 pounds to the square inch for every thousand feet of ice. The forests, the entire vegetation, even the soil was swept away. The underlying rocks were planed, furrowed, ground down, pulverized as by a huge mill- stone. There was visible only a bar- ren sheet of ice and snow. But at last the ice melted and the rivers were filled with floods and the valleys with great lakes. The new soil, composed of clay, sand, grave) and boulders, with large areas of barren ledges, was far from being propitious to a new growth of plants. Do you wonder that New England has a mea- ger flora, or that its vegetation is starved and scanty ? How widely dif- ferent are the conditions in California, which was never covered with ice. Here the valleys and foot-hills display a multitude of beautiful and varied flowers with more species than are to be found elsewhere in this country in an equal area. oAsa result of the glacial period New England contains comparatively few honey plants. Most of the honey is stored from white clover and the gold- enrod, although in special localities sumac, fruit bloom, tobacco and other species rise to local importance. The majority of the apiaries are of small size, averaging from four to six colo- nies, although in favored sections 100, or a larger number have been reported. According to the census of 1910, there was during the preceeding ten years a. Fig. I—Common hoary alder [Al/nis imiuut (/..} Mociich). The alder is the earliest com- mon source of pollen in New England. The flower-buds are formed the preceding sea- son and open long before the leaves have appeared. The flowers are wind-polli-
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
