474 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



goon after went on an expedilion, but did not see 

 nny of the moms niullicaulis. lie also maile the 

 same request to Capt. H. Brown, ihe pilot of my 

 vessel, whose ceilificate I have obtained. His as- 

 sertion of my being a par'izan of Indian Key is 

 [incorrect.] I never myself disturbed a single mul- 

 berry plant, and but one was ever taken up by 

 any person under my command. 

 Very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



Edmund T. Shuerick. 

 Jlct. Lieut. U. S. N. 



[ Certificate.] 



Dr. Perritre requested me at Indian Key to pro- 

 cure him some mulberry plants from Dubose's 

 place at the Miami river. Having met a good 

 many which [ took to be the morus multicaulis, 

 I pulled up one to take as a specimen, and which 

 I planted at Soldier Key to preserve it until we 

 next went to Indian Key — and which I did with- 

 out either the order or knowledge of Lieut. Shu- 

 brick. Immediately on our arrival at Indian Key, 

 I informed Dr. Perrine of my having done this. 

 The plant was by accident left. Tlris is what 

 Dr. Perrine terms my confession of having pulled 

 up some large leaved mulberry plairts. 



Henry Brown. 



Sir — 1 request that you will do me the justice 

 to publish this in your next number. 



Edmund T. Siiubrtck. 



/Id. Lieut. U. S. N. 



Il is stateil in a work on agriculture, that a gen- 

 tleman in Petitrsylvania sowed a peck to the acre 

 the last of May — sowed (bur acres— cut nriddle 

 of August, and suffered to dry in the sun for two 

 or three days — produce 75 bushels of seed and one 

 and a half tons of fodder to the acre. Cattle re- 

 lish it. The produce per acre is frequently much 

 greater than stated above. It is olien cut in the 

 milk. It is first sown in drills about three feet 

 apart, and the plants should stand six inches from 

 each other in the rows after hoeitrg. In this lati- 

 tude (New Jersey) it may be sown Irom the mid- 

 dle of May to the 20ih of June. — Corr. Farmer^s 

 Cabinet. 



SUCKKUING INDIAN CORN. 



trnni tlie New Eiiglaiul Fainit'r. 

 The question is repeatedly proposed, is it best lo 

 sucker our corn ? We believe as a general rule 

 that no growing plant can be mutilated or stripped 

 of its crown, its limbs, or its leaves, without in- 

 jury ; or at least (hat it cannot be safely done be- 

 fore the seed is completely Ibrmed. There are 

 exceptions to this at least of a qualified nature, as 

 where a melon vine is slopped or a grape vine 

 girdled with a view of forwarding the ripening of 

 the fruit. The suckers of corrr are of course not 

 so important to the plant as the stalks ; and lire 

 Ibdder obtained by removing thorn will be sonre 

 ttrjuivaloirt for iha labor exj'ended in the o|)eralion. 



But upon the whole we hesitate in advising to it. 

 We once suckered a large field. The growth 

 was most extraordinai'ily luxuriatrt and lieavy ; 

 and a great deal of the corn was broken down by 

 the process. We did not accurately measure the 

 crop, which some accidental cirxumstances pre- 

 vented our doing ; but as well as we could judge, 

 the amount of produce was not increased, and the 

 whole field was materially injured. We know a 

 careful farmer in Middlesex county, who operating 

 on a small scale and with his own hands, in a case 

 too where the field is so small that he finds no dif- 

 ficulty in carrying out his suckei's, who believes 

 that he has derived some small advantage fr'ora it. 

 The Rev. Dr. Lyman, of Hatfield, gave to the 

 Massachusetts Society an account of an experi- 

 ment performed by him, of suckering a considera- 

 ble field some years since. We have not seen the 

 account for a long time ; but as well as we can re- 

 member, he regarded the increase of the produce 

 or the eavirrg of the fodder from the suckers as not 

 a compensation for the trouble and the injury to 

 the corn. The fodder from tiie sucker's is not lost 

 if left standirrg until the whole is gathered. Tlie 

 judgment of Lorain, whose authority in ail mat- 

 ter's pertaining to agriculture will not be ques- 

 tioned, is against suckering corn, or cutting the 

 stalks until the crop is fully ripened. 



In the southern states tlie leaves of Indian corn 

 are stripped off for the winter fodder of their 

 horses, and as their only practicable substitute for 

 fray. VV^e wish some intelligent southerrr cultiva- 

 tor, as our r'cspected friend Ruffrn, of the Farmers' 

 Register, if this should meet his eye, or the intel- 

 ligent editor of the Southern Agriculturist, would 

 give us their views on this subject and inform us 

 of any satisfactory experiments which may have 

 been made to lest the advarrtages or the injury of 

 the practice. If opportunity prescrrts, we shall 

 advert to the matter of topping stalks and gather- 

 ing the crop hereafter ; old matters indeed, and on 

 which we have nothing novel to recommend, but 

 in respect to which it may be useful to call to re- 

 collection some decisive and instructive experi- 

 ments which have been made. H. C. 



NATURAL HISTORY AND ECONOMY OF THE 

 HONEY BEE. 



From the Edlnburgli Encyclopjudia. 



The honey bee is either wild or domesticated, 

 and consists of numerous societies, composed of 

 from 10,000 to 30,000, perhaps 10,000 or 50,000 

 individuals. In the former state, it inhabits the 

 woods, in clefis of trees, and, it may be, the cavi- 

 ties of rocks also ; in the latter, it is kept by us in 

 wooden boxes, or coverings of straw or osiers, 

 commonly called hives in English, but more defi- 

 nitely skeps in the Scottish language, or old Eng- 

 lish:" (or, strictly speaking, hive signifies the co- 

 vering and its colorry ; and sioarm, that portion of 

 the bees which leaves the parent stock at a certain 

 season of the year, befor-e it is lodged under our 

 care. Each hive, by which we understand the 

 whole colony, contains three difierent kinds of 

 bees ; females, males, and wor'kers. The fennales, 

 of which not more than one can ever live in all 

 the great population of a hive, are called queens ; 

 the males, of which there are hundreds, aird some- 



