76 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



made yard or terrace flourisli better than those plant- 

 ed in an old yard. Will this rule not hold good with 

 corn ? 



Mr. Hershey believed in cheekering, three feet 

 apart each way, planting three grains and thinninj; 

 out the stalks to two in a hill. In this way 10.5 

 bushels to the acre had been produced. Was in favor 

 of high cultivation before and after planting. He 

 had noticed that his neighbor, who sliovel-plowcd his 

 corn twice, had better crops. lie then adopted the 

 same plan, and raised as good crops as his neighbor. 



Mr. Stauffer gave the physiological view of 

 the question. The seed must not be planted so 

 deep that light, air and warmth will not reach it, nor 

 so shallow that it will not attain the other essential 

 conditions of germination — darkness, moisture and 

 nutriment. The roots instinctively seek darkness, 

 moisture and nutriment — the plant light, heat and 

 air. The plant feeds on the i)lant-food which the 

 small fibres instinctively reach out for. There should 

 be sufficient looseness for the air to penetrate, and 

 not enough to weaken the support of the roots. 



Mr. Engle wanted to make sure that this society 

 did not endorse the doctrine, that ploughing five 

 inches deep was sufficient, but he was gratified that the 

 gentleman who advanced this theory had subsequently 

 materially modified his statement. He admitted 

 that soil which will not give deejier fertility will not 

 bear deep plowing profitably, until it is made deeper by 

 manuring:, which sliould be the first aim of a good 

 farmer. He is satisfied that soil for corn cannot he 

 enriched too deeply. In the West, where the soil is 

 from six to eight fleet deep, they have grown good 

 crops for a succession of forty years. In our bottom 

 soils where the roots can penetrate deeply corn ma- 

 tures well. He cannot, therefore, agree with Mr. 

 Reist, that the roots must strike the hard-pan before 

 the ear will mature. He was glad that the majority 

 of those present are in favor of good tillage. As a 

 general thing we draw our conclusions too loosely from 

 isolated results. We should try both methods side by 

 side, under the same conditions, giving the larger 

 growing corn the more space, for to give the smaller 

 varieties an equal chance it is apparent they should 

 be planted more closely. Good weather at earing 

 season generally produces a good crop, even on stalks 

 of moderate growth, and I'ice versa. He had a 

 promising crop spoiled by a drouth at earing time, 

 while, during the same season, a crop planted later 

 which hit favorable weather when coming into ears, 

 gave an excellent yield, notwithstanding the first had 

 been well matured and the other had not. All these 

 questions must be settled by actual test, and he 

 doubted whether any present were prepared to set- 

 tle the disputed points on this basis. It had been 

 demonstrated by a trial test that drilling in rows 

 fifteen inches apart produced the most bushels to the 

 acre, when properly cultivated; but this is difficult 

 and expensive, as it must be done by hand. He 

 furrowed one way with the plow and cross-scored 

 with chains attached to a pole, and found it equally 

 good and more expeditious. 



Mk. Landis concurred in Mr. Engle'sviews. When 

 in Montgomery, Alabama, his attention was attracted 

 to a load of corn which weighed (jl and 62 pounds to 

 the bushel. It had been planted on scored ground and 

 only one stalk to the hill. The yield was good and 

 the quality the best he had ever seen. This showed 

 how crops are affected by varying conditions. 

 Hungarian Grass. 



Mf{. Reist inquired fV)r information concerning the 

 proper time for sowing Hungarian grass. Mr. Engle 

 rciilicd that it may be sown at any time within sixty 

 days before frost, as it requires that time to mature. 



it can be sown now and cropped in sixty days and 

 then seeded from second croj) if desired. He thinks 

 it an imxiortant crop, in the cultivation of which our 

 neighliors of Chester county are far ahead of us. 

 Influence of Country Life. 



The Chair announced that Simon P. Eby, Esq., 

 had been appointed essayist for the next meeting. 

 His subject would be, "The Inlluence of Country 

 Life." 



Questions for Next Meeting. 



The following questions were placed on the minutes 

 for discussion at next meeting : 



1. When is the best time to cut clover and timothy 

 grass to make the best hay? 



3. When is the best time to cut wheat ? 



The society adjourned to meet on Monday, the 7tli 

 of June, at one o'clock p. m. 



The Pork Question. 



The deficiency of the hog-croji in the west for 1874 

 is very perceptible, without considering the increase 

 of population. This will no doubt be remedied tor 

 the present year, as we notice at a number of import- 

 ant iioints that farmers are opening their eyes to the 

 fact that the most profitable disposal of their corn 

 croi> is to feed it. The transportation by rail being 

 now fixed at a reasonable figure, hog-feeding will 

 doubtless become more and more a specialty in west- 

 ern farming. — Gcnmuitoii'ti Tditjriipk. 



"Large bounties to bestow wc wish in vain. 

 But all may shun the guilt of giving pain." 



BEES AND BEE CULTURE. 



Artificial Swarming of Bees. 



Dr. S. J. Parker, of Tompkins county. New York, 

 communicates some interesting and valuable infor- 

 mation on this subject to the Germantown Telet/raph. 

 Premising that the natural method of multiplying 

 colonies of bees is by swarming, he says : Altliough 

 artificial swarming is done in several ways, yet no 

 art of man can equal for general usefulness that im- 

 pressed on the natural instincts of bees by their all- 

 wise Creator. Thus, dividing the combs of movable 

 comb-hives often enables one to numlier by scores 

 and by hundreds his hives vastly bevond the natural 

 increase ; but as the queens supplied are artificial, in 

 the sense of compelling the bees to produce queens 

 out of season, these swarms so produced are weak in 

 numliers, and are very apt to die in the following 

 winter, of which I could name instances of such se- 

 vere loss as forty hives out of fifty ; and in one case 

 a hundred and twenty-eight out of a hundred and 

 thirty-five. To a limited extent, with the natural 

 surplus of queen-cells which each swarm of hives 

 provides itself, a reasonable artificial swarming, by 

 duplication of movable combs, may be had often 

 quite satisfactorily. But the objection to this is that 

 it needs a large apiary, and a skilled expert in bee- 

 culture. One of these plans for this is: With ten 

 large strong hives with movable combs, find one 

 about to swarm ; take out a comb from it with a 

 queen-cell nearly ready to open. Put it in a hive, 

 leaving the mother-queen in the old hive. Now add 

 to this comb with queen-cell one comb from each of 

 the other nine hives, each comb with plenty of brood, 

 and no queen or queen-cell. Of course the old bees 

 will go back to their respective hives, but the young 

 workers will stay in the new hive, and so will the brood 

 as it hatches new queen and youug bees. This seems 

 to be a very plausilile method, as it gives healthy, 

 natural queens. But the reader will see that when 

 the hives have been robbed each of the ten combs, 

 the chances are that at least a third of them have not 

 built the new frames full of nice brood-cells during 

 the time they were being robbed of their combs, and 

 hence the result is at least a third weak old hives, 

 and by mishap at least a half of the new hives are 

 weak. So one has, as I often see in apiaries where 

 it is practiced, out of, say ninety-nine hives, but a 

 dozen really strong, prosperous liives, and eighty-six 

 weak hives. But some one will say ten hives are not 

 enough to use such a system on. True. But the 

 results in ten hives are but little changed in the use 

 of fifty or twb hundred hives. That is the robbing 

 pf ten, twenty, one hundred, or of five hundred hives, 

 each of a comb, and repeating it until the number 

 of hives are doubled, leads substantially to the same 

 results. 



Hence, as seen in this example, the advocacy of ar- 

 tificial swarming finds friends mainly in those en- 

 gaged in the culture of queens for sale, and in some 

 special money-makiuif plan. And for ordinary farm- 

 ers, and a few hives for any family, it is not to be 

 thought of. But the keeper of his ten to fifty hives 

 awaits the time, usually in northern latitudes in June 

 and July, for his ears to be greeted with the hum of 

 the swarm, sees them light and hives them, easily 

 and quietly. Thus he doubles them in numbers, and 

 does it as nature dictates, and not by the uncertain- 

 ties of any human plan, even though others may suc- 

 ceed by artificial swarming whose whole time is given 

 to bees. 



How to Italianize Your Bees. 



To Italianize your bees safely and in the most profi- 

 table way, you must send for a good Italian queen to 

 introduce in the strongest colony of your apairy. As 

 soon as the new queen has arrived, take another 

 empty hive of the same size, without bees, and insert 

 a division board so that you will have on your left 

 hand a little room in the hive for four frames. Now 

 take from the colony, which shall have the «ew 

 queen, two combs with plenty of sealed brood. On 

 one of these combs cage the new queen and bring her 

 with the second brood-comb and all aflhering bees, 

 but without the old queen, in that little room, and 

 give still two other combs containing only honey. 

 The other brood-combs of the colony transfer with 

 the old queen and bees in that room on your right 

 hand, close the hive and then set it on the old stand. 

 After two or three days confinement of the new queen 

 take out the two combs from the little room at your 

 left hand, cut out every queen cell and set at liberty the 

 new queen. The bees of this little colony will do her 

 no harm. From this time you will have two queens 

 in onc> hive, and each queen will till the cells with 

 eggs in proportion to the number of her worker bees 

 in her room. After some days, at your leisure, you 

 may hunt out the old queen in the strong colony. 

 This done you open some passage of the division 

 board cut in it, and I'losed before you have inserted it. 

 Having opened the passages, the strong colony will not 

 build queen cells, and so become acquainted with each 

 other, ."\fter one day Or two you remove the division 

 tioai'd, fill up its place with a comlt from the room at 

 jour left hand, and you have safely and in the most 

 jirotitable way a new queen to a strong colony. 



In the same way I have described, you will divide a 



strong colony early in the spring, we will say at the 

 close of A])ril or at the beginning of May, as the 

 weather is favorable and the colonies are sufficiently 

 strong. Give the little colony brood-combs with 

 sealed brood, and eggs and larva, and let it rear a 

 queen. (To give it a queen cell would be of great 

 advantage.) Do this early that you may have a fer- 

 tile queen in that little colony in the beginning of the j 

 swarming season. | 



To make an artificial swarm, proceed as follows : 

 Hunt out the queen of the little colony after she has 

 laid her first eggs, cage her and bring her with some 

 brood-combs in a new hive of the same size, remove 

 the old stock from its place and bring the new one 

 with the young queen on the old stand. After two 

 or three days, in the evening release the young queen 

 and you will have a strong swarm. The old stock 

 you may remove to any jilaee you like. As the old 

 colony has a fertile queen it will increase. Do not 

 forget to give it some water in a sponge at the entrance 

 durina: the first two or three day after you have the 

 artificial swarm. — Cor. Xational Agriculturist. 



A Home-Made Bee Hive. 



A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette gives 

 such plain directions for making a bee hive, that 

 every boy on a farm with a bit of taste for mechanics, 

 can readily make one for his own bees. He says : In 

 the first place, you want rabbets half an inch deep, 

 at each end of the hive, to receive the ends of the 

 frame ; next, you want your frames made true, so 

 that they will hang plumb in the hive. Next, pre- 

 pare your bottom-board and lay it level. Put your 

 hive on the board so that the frames will run from • 

 front to rear; then elevate your hive about three 

 inches, and j'our hive is ready for the bees. Make 

 your frames just three-fourths of an inch shorter than 

 the inside of your hive, and have them so that they 

 will not touch at either end, nor swing against each 

 other. I have a centre opening that is very convenient, 

 and different from any that I have seen. I wish it 

 understood that, when I raise the rear of the hive, I 

 raise the bottom board with it. If your hive leans 

 to one side, the bees will build across the frame. I 

 have my bees in a yard, and each hive is covered with 

 a cover, made by nailing two boards together, and 

 resting it on the top of the hive. I make the top 

 board of my hive in three pieces, by nailing two cleats 

 on them and making two holes to run across the 

 frames, each hole six inches long. This is to make 

 room for the bees to pass into the surrounding honey 

 boxes. When the boxes are on, the cover alluded to 

 rests on the box. 



Bee Veils. 



A correspondent says every one — no matter who, 

 whether he leads what is called a charmed life or not 

 — requires the person protected while at work among 

 his bees. To those who are commencing, and until 

 familiarity causes the loss of fear, a pair of good 

 gauntlet gloves and a veil are necessary, but afterthe 

 fear and trembling occasioned by the thought of 

 opening a hive full of bees has ceased to have its hor- 

 rors, all protection except- the veil will be dispensed 

 with. A good bee veil is made by taking a yard of 

 black netting — costing usually about twenty cents — 

 and sewing the ends together, thus making a bag, 

 open at top and "bottom. Then with a half yard of 

 good strong rubber cord, run through the meshes at 

 the ends, you have a veil which will slip on over the 

 crown of an old hat, and by drawin"; up and tying at 

 the neek, you have all the protection re(piired, for, if 

 properly made and adjusted, no bee can touch your 

 face or neck, consequently, there be no fear of stings, 

 and besides if it is light, one can see through it nearly 

 as well as if not worn. 



The Enemies of Bees. 

 Never put a new swarm of bees in an old hive, as 

 there will almost certain be the egii^s of the honey 

 moth deposited in the crevices of the hive, which wiil 

 hatch out and probably destroy the swarm. When the 

 moth once gains an entrance to the hive the bees ap- 

 pear powerless to exjiel them. When the maggots 

 begin to eat their way into the combs, the sooner the 

 bees are luniiL'ated tin' lictter. Do not have a large 

 round entrance to the hive, convenient to mice, slugs 

 and other enemies; have an entrance of only a quar- 

 ter of an inch in height, and from an inch in winter to 

 four inches in length in summer. Should wasps or 

 other bees attack a hive, the only plan is to narrow 

 the entrance, so that only one or two bees can pass at 

 a time. To destroy wasi)s, saturate a piece of woolen 

 rag with spirits of turpentine, put it into the entrance 

 to the nests, and leave it there one night. The next 

 morning every wasp will be dead. 



Joining Swarms. 



Should you wish to join two swarms, lay down two 

 short sticks nine inches apart; take one of the hives 

 and knock it on the ground two or three times until 

 the bees are all shaken out of the hive; then sprinkle 

 them quickly with thin syrup, place the hive with the 

 other swarms on the stick over those shaken on the 

 ground for the night, and they will be found peace- 

 ably united with one dead queen in the morning. 



