1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



839 



porlance of (hose animals which will produce the 

 largest quantities of milk and butter. When it is 

 considered that Durham cattle, lor beef and the 

 dairy taken together, are much superior to any 

 other breed, their value lor real use may in some 

 degree be appreciated. 



2. Suppose that their ultimate price will fall to 

 only twice the present value of our common cat- 

 tle, and that half a century will be required for 

 them to increase suiTicienlly to supply the whole 

 country, a little calculation will show the safety 

 of paying ten times that amount lor them now 

 for the purpose of increasing their number. For 

 when we remember the enormous increase (i-om 

 a single cow in that period of time, it will be ev- 

 ident that the present price of such an animal, 

 though it be a thousand dollars, will bear an ex- 

 ceedingly small ratio to the ultimate value ol her 

 progeny. 



This subject may perhaps be rendered clearer, 

 by supposing an analogous case. Suppose that 

 a variety of wheat may be obtained which will 

 produce, with the same culture, five bushels more 

 to the acre than our, common wheat. Of course 

 the farmer who sows a hundred acres, would gain 

 by the use of such seed, from five hundred to a 

 thousand dollars annually at the present price. In 

 buying the seed, therelbre, (two hundred bushels 

 or less,) he could well afford to pay more than 

 twice the coaimou price of wheat. Consequently, 

 in bujnng wheal (or the exclusive purpose of grow- 

 ing for seed, he could pay twenty times the com- 

 mon price. Reasoning iti this way, it will be seen 

 that a single pint, for increasing as seed, would at 

 first be cheap at a thousand dollars ; and until the 

 country were generally supplied, the price might 

 safely be put at many times its ultimate value. 



Analogous reasoning will show that the price 

 of Durham cattle is not fictitious, but depends on 

 their real value. J. J. T. 



RECEIPT TO CURE AN EGG-SUCliING DOG. 



From the Fianlilin Farmer. 



Many a brave and good dog has lost his life by 

 too great a fondness lor eggs, to avoid which here- 

 after, take three grains of tartar emetic and a tea 

 spoonful of grated or scraped Indian turnip, stir 

 them well together in an ess, give it to your dog 

 and he will ever afterwards turn of! in disgust it 

 you offer him an egg — a simple, safe and certain 

 remedy. W. P. Hart. 



MANAGEMENT OP BEES. ' • 



From tlie Maine Farmer. 



'Bees. — The following remarks on the manage- 

 ment of bees, we copy from a small treatise on 

 this subject by J. M. Weeks, of Salisbury, Vermont. 

 Bees swarm from nine o'clock in the morning to 

 three o'clock in the afiernoon on a fiiir day, differ- 

 ing in the season according to the climate. In 

 Vermont they generally swarm from the middle 

 ol" May to the fifteenth of July ; in late seasons, 

 some later. I have known them to swarm as early 

 as seven in the morning, and as laic as lour in the 

 afternoon. I have also known thein to come forth 

 when it rained so hard as nearly to defeat them, 

 by beating down many to the ground which were 



probably lost li-om their colony: and I once had a 

 swarm come forth on the sixteenth day of August. 



I know of no rule by which the exact day of 

 their first swarming can be known with certainty. 

 The apiarian will estimate near the time by the 

 number of bees in and about the hive, as it will 

 become very much crowded. 



The day of second swarming, and all after that 

 during the same season, may be most certainly 

 predicted as follows : Listen near the entrance of 

 the hive in the evening. If a swarm is coming 

 forth the next day, the queen will be heard giving 

 an alarm at short intervals. The same alarm may 

 be heard the next morning. The observer will 

 generally hear two queens at a time in the same 

 hive, the one much louder than the other. The 

 one making the least noise is yet in her cell and 

 in her minority. The sound emitted by the queens 

 is peculiar, differing materially from that of any 

 other bee. It consists of a number of monoto- 

 nous tones in rapid succession, similar to those 

 emitted by the mud-wasp, when working her 

 mortar and joining it to her cells, to raise miss- 

 wasps. If. after all, the weather is unfavorable to 

 their swarming several days while in this peculiar 

 stage, they will not be likely to swarm again the 

 same season. 



Experience and observation have taught that 

 the queen leaves the old stock first, and her colony 

 rapidly follow. They fly about a few minutes, 

 apparentely in the greatest conflision, until the 

 swarm is principally out of the hive. They then 

 alight, generally on the limb of some tree, shrub 

 or bush, or some other place convenient for them 

 to cluster in a bunch not far from the old stock, 

 and make their arrangements for a journey to a 

 new habitation. Perhaps not one swarm in a thou- 

 sand know where they are going until after they 

 have left the old stock, alighted and formed into a 

 compact body or cluster ; and not then until they 

 have sent off an embassy to search out a place 

 (or their future residence. Now if the bees are 

 hived immediately after they have alighted, before 

 they send off their embassy to si^ek a new tene- 

 ment, they will never fly away, admitting they 

 have sufficient room, (for it is want of room that 

 makes them swarm in the first place,) and their 

 hive is clear of every thing that is offensive to them. 



No confusion or noise which is uncommon to the 

 bees should ever be made during their swarming 

 or hiving. The only effect of noise, ringing of 

 bells, &c. that I could ever discover, was, to render 

 them more hostile and unmanageable. 



A clean hive is all that is needed for a swarm of 

 bees, with careflil and humane treatment. 



A cluster of bees should never be shook or 

 jarred any more than merely to disengage them 

 from the limb or place where they are collected, 

 nor should they fill any great distance, because 

 their sacks are full when they swarm, which ren- 

 der them both clumsy and harmless, and harsh 

 treatment makes them irritable and unmanageble. 



When a swarm comes forth and has alighted, 

 cut off the limb if convenient, unless a hiver is 

 used— shake it gently, so as to disengage the bees 

 and let them fall geii'tly on to the table, board or 

 ground, (as the case may be,) place the hive over 

 them before many rise into the air, taking care at 

 the same time to lay one or more sticks in such 

 a manner as to raise the hive so as to give the 

 bees rapid ingress and egress. If the bees act 



