Bees also get some honey from oozing sap, some of questionable repute from about cider mills, some from grapes and other fruit which have been crushed, or eaten and torn by wasps and other insects. That bees ever tear the grapes is a question of which I have failed to receive any personal proof, though for years I have been carefully seeking it. I have lived among the vineyards of California, and have often watched bees about vines in Michigan, but never saw bees tear open the grapes. I have laid crushed grapes in the apiary, when the bees were not gathering, and were ravenous for stores, which, when covered with sipping bees, were replaced with sound grape-clusters, which in no instance were mutilated. I have thus been led to doubt if bees ever attack sound grapes, though quick to improve the opportunities which the oriole's beak and the stronger jaws of wasps offer them. Still, Prof. Riley feels sure that bees are sometimes thus guilty, and Mr. Bidwell tells me he has frequently seen bees rend sound grapes, which they did with their feet. Yet, if this is the case, it is certainly of rare occurrence, and is more than compensated by the great aid which the bees afford the fruit-grower in the great work of cross-fertilization, which is imperatively necessary to his success, as has been so well shown by Dr. Asa Gray and Mr. Chas. Darwin. It is true that cross-fertilization of the flowers, which can only be accomplished by insects, and early in the season by the honey-bee, is often, if not always, necessary to a full yield of fruit and vegetables. I am informed by Prof W. W. Tracy, that the gardeners in the vicinity of Boston keep bees that they may perform this duty. Even then, if Mr. Bidwell and Prof. Riley are right, and the bee does, rarely--for surely this is very rare, if ever--destroy grapes, still they are, beyond any possible question, invaluable aids to the pomologist. But the principal source of honey is still from the flowers. WHAT ARE THE VALUABLE HONEY PLANTS? In the northeastern part of our country the chief reliance for May is the fruit-blossoms, willows, and sugar maples. In June white clover yields largely of the most attractive honey, both as to appearance and flavor. In July the incomparable basswood makes both bees and apiarist jubilant. In August buckwheat offers a tribute, which we welcome, though it be dark and pungent in flavor, while with us in Michigan, August and September give us a profusion of bloom which yields to no other in the richness of its capacity to secrete honey, and is not cut-off till the autumn frosts--usually about September 15.