428 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER 



[No. 7 



and chess. Experience shows that an endless va- 

 riety of shades can be produced by sowing differ- 

 ent varieties of wheat in tlie same field, or so that 

 the pollen can intermix li-eely witli the different 

 flowers, the product however as we believe being 

 some variety of wheat, and never chess or any of 

 its varieties. We have never met with any evi- 

 dence that the mnsk-melon lias changed to the 

 water-melon, or the cocoanut squash to the cu- 

 cumber, though frequently planted in the vicinity 

 of each other; the changes are confined to the va- 

 rieties, and rarely or never reach the species. 

 The remark, therefore, of Mr. Buckingham, that 

 in the vegetable kingdom like does not always 

 produce like, is correct if restricted to varieties, 

 but incorrect if extended to species. 



From the New England Farmer. 

 THE QUEEN BEE. 



Having read some of the various theories on the 

 honey bee and compared what I read with my 

 own observation on the bees themselves, I have 

 become satisfied, that notwithstanding so much 

 has been written, very little is known of the go- 

 vernment, police, or interior arrangements of the 

 inmates of a bee-hive. 



Writers informs us that a " swarm of bees con- 

 tains one queen, five hundred drones and nineteen 

 thousand four hundred and ninety-nine neuters.'''' 

 Who knows any thing about this? Could we at 

 pleasure examine the inside of an inhabited hive 

 and closely watch the movements therein, we 

 might form some opinions as to this army of neu- 

 ters marshalled by a queen and drones, but hu- 

 man ingenuity can devise no way in which this 

 can be done with any degree of exactness; we 

 can only look around us and see how it is with 

 other insects and animals that can be examined 

 with impunity. Where throughout animated na- 

 ture can we find a parallel? Does nature usually 

 form neuters, or are bees an exception? 



But neuters are not my object in this communi- 

 cation, I am even so much of an infidel as to 

 doubt the existence of a queen bee. My doubts 

 are caused in part by the fiillowing circumstances. 

 I have carefully examined several swarms of bees 

 after suffocating them with fire and brimstone, 

 without being able to find her majesty of " about 

 eight lines and one-half in length, her wings so 

 short as scarcely to reach past the third ring, and 

 her color a deep yellow. The present season, one of 

 my hives swarmed and settled on the limb of a 

 young apple tree near the ground. In a few minutes 

 after, another hive swarmed and collected on the 

 same limb nearer its end, leaving a space of about 

 two inches between the swarms. The addition- 

 al weight of the last swarm brought the limb so 

 near, that the winds swung it against the ground so 

 as to incommode the last comers. Theybewan to 

 gather up the limb nearer the first swarm and 

 finally formed one cluster of bees, which I put into 

 a flour barrel. They commenced working, and 

 have now every appearance of prosperity. In 

 this case where were the iwo queens who " are 

 infused with the most deadly haired and the most 

 insatiable thirst for each other^s life, which no- 

 thing but actual death can appeaseV About sun- 

 set on the sixth of the present month I accident- 



ally noticed a great stir amongst my bees, and on 

 examination Ibund a constant passing and re|)as9- 

 ing between an old hive and a late swarm fi'om 

 the same old hive, standing some eight or ten rods 

 apart. The following morning at daylight the 

 same intercourse was continued. The bees pass- 

 ed by thousands, and both hives appeared alive 

 with bees. Although very anxious to find out 

 what they were about, yet as there was every ap- 

 pearance of perfect harmony in their proceedmgs, 

 be they what they might, J left them to settle 

 their own business in their own way, and on my 

 return after an absence of two days (()und that 

 the old swarm had abandoned their hive to the 

 bee moth and gone to reside with their children, 

 having removed every particle of honey to their 

 new habitation, leaving comb, bee bread, and 

 moths in the old hive. Where were "'he rival 

 queens, who always lead the swarms, and cannot 

 dwell in the same hive?" 



In what acre of the world the discovery was 

 made that a hive of bees contained but one female 

 and that one the ruler of the swarm, is unknown, 

 probably when a great taste for the marvellous 

 was in fiishion, and Huber and subsequent wri- 

 ters could adopt a plausible theory with much 

 greater safety than to thrust their heads into a 

 bee-hive and watch the bees for somedays. 



J. B. T. 



August 18, 1838. 



THE PEACH TREE. 



From a desire to encourage the culture of the 

 peach tree, we offer the following as the result of 

 experiment and observation. 



It is generally known that worms, near the sur- 

 face of the earth, destroyed them by eating the 

 bark; the object is, therefore, to find a preventive, 

 in order that the trees may become aged in a 

 healthy state. 



It is evident that these worms pass through 

 the common change and assume the form of mil- 

 lers, early in the summer, and deposit their eggs 

 on the bark as low as they can find access to it; and 

 that the worms proceeding from them begin to 

 operate in the latter part of the summer, when 

 they have been found the size of a common pin. 

 If suffered to remain they grow to the thickness 

 of a rye straw; each of them girdles the tree about 

 an inch, and the wood from the wounds to the 

 heart dies. Hence it is, that a single wound im- 

 pairs the vigor of the tree and a number of them 

 will kill it. The point to be gained, is to protect 

 the tree from the millers, and by a simple method, 

 we have succeeded for several years, which is re- 

 commended with full confidence. 



About the first of May remove the earth fi-om 

 the body of the tree, and shift it to the height of 

 15 or 16 inches, in such manner as to exclude the 

 millers, burying the lower part of it in the earth. 

 We have used straw cut to the length and about 

 half an inch in thickness, bound on with twine. 

 This should be removed about the first of Septem- 

 ber, as we have sometimes found the young worms 

 in the upper part of the straw, being then readily 

 discovered on Ihe surface of the bark, covered by a 

 little gum. The process should be commenced 

 when the tree is young — they have been found 



