If _Dutch clover_ (_Trifolium repens_) be neither grown abundantly by the neighbouring farmers, nor the spontaneous growth of the surrounding country, the apiarian should, if possible, crop some ground with it himself, as it is one of the grand sources from which bees collect their honey in the spring, and indeed during a considerable portion of the principal gathering season. From the value of clover in this respect, one species of it (_Trifolium pratense_) has acquired the name of Honey-suckle clover. _Yellow trefoil_ also (_Medicago lupulina_), though not so great a favourite with the bees as Dutch clover, is nevertheless a valuable pasturage for them, in consequence of its blossoming earlier than the clover. Though I have made Dutch clover take precedence of every other bee pasturage,--a precedence which in this country at least it is fairly entitled to,--yet it is by no means the first in the order of the seasons. "First the gray willow's glossy pearls they steal. Or rob the hazel of its golden meal, While the gay crocus and the violet blue Yield to the flexile trunk ambrosial dew." +Evans+ The earliest resources of the bee are _the willow, the hazel, the osier, the poplar, the sycamore_ and _the plane_, all which are very important adjuncts to the neighbourhood of an apiary. The catkins of several of them afford an abundant supply of farina, and attract the bees very strongly in early spring when the weather is fine. Mr. Kirby, in his _Monographia Apum Angliæ_, considers the _female_ catkins of the different species of Salix as affording honey, the _male_ ones, pollen. To these may be added _the snowdrop, the crocus, white alyssum, laurustinus_, &c. _Orange_ and _lemon trees_ also, and other _green-house plants_, afford excellent honey, and might be advantageously presented to the bees at this season. _Gooseberry, currant_ and _raspberry trees_ likewise, with _sweet marjoram, winter savory_ and _peppermint_, should not be far off them. From the early blossoming of the two first, and from their yielding an extraordinary quantity of honey, they form some of the first sources of spring food for the bees, and in all probability furnish them with the pale green pellets, then seen upon their thighs. _The peach, nectarine_, &c. are also valuable, on account of their blossoming very early. _Apple_ and _pear trees_, which in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, during several weeks of spring, seem to form "One boundless blush, one white empurpled shower Of mingled blossoms," and give those counties the appearance of a perfect paradise, "may be said to constitute a second course for the bees, after their earlier spring feast on the bloom of the currants, gooseberries, and all the varieties of wall fruit."