1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



4S5 



ascribe her difiht, as that of the youtiff queens, 1o 

 ihe resistance she experiences." These observa- 

 tions greatly increase the dilficuhy of nilempting 

 to account tor swarming : we acknowledge that 

 liere we can find no satislactory explanation. The 

 old queen, it has been supposed, becomes agitated 

 by the presence of so many royal cells, and at the 

 prospect of liie combats in which she lias to en- 

 gage, and she also communicates her agitation to 

 the workers. The agitation of the females excites 

 moti(in in the workers, which increases their ani- 

 mal heat, and raises the temperature of the hive 

 to such an insupportable degree, that they hasten 

 to leave it. In a populous hive, where the ther- 

 mometer stood I'rom 92^ to 97° in a fine summer 

 day, it rose above 104° during the tumult which 

 preceded swarming. 



The extraordinary instinct and precautions so 

 conspicuous in bees, are apparently affected during 

 the period of swarming. We cannot admit, with 

 those observers, who seem more actuated by the 

 love of the marvellous than an exposure of trulh, 

 that they are endowed with that prescience which 

 induces them, before their departure, to prepare a 

 place Ibv their reception. On issuing from the hive, 

 bees, so neaily as we can determine, have no object 

 in view; and they ofien resort to situations the most 

 unlikely, and evidently unsuitable for their conve- 

 nience or preservation. After rising in the air, it 

 is commonly some tree that arrests their progress, 

 and the queen frequently alights at the unsheltered 

 extremity of a branch, where the bees that may 

 have formed into various clusters in the vicinity, 

 come to surround her. JBut we jiave known them 

 repeatedly swarm on the grass, near the hive they 

 had Ibrsaken, notwithstanding trees were at no 

 great distance. 



J3ees swarm only during the best weather, and 

 in the finest part of the day. Sometimes all the 

 precursors of swarming, disorder and agitation, 

 have been seen : but a cloud passed before the 

 6un, and tranquillity was restored. 



If a hive swarms oltener than once, the new 

 swarms consist of those bees that have been 

 abroad when the first event took place, added to 

 young ones come from the eggs, laid by the queen 

 belbre her departure. Each is led out by a young 

 queen, as there are usually several royal cells in a 

 hive: but the bees can prevent the whole queens 

 nearly of an equal age from leaving their cells, 

 though come to maturity: and when ihey do libe- 

 rate them, it is according to their age, which tiiey 

 have some secret means of ascertaining ; for the 

 oldest are invariably liberated first. 



The young swarm, whether removed from the 

 place where i't settles or not, begins to work ; cells 

 are constructed of wax from the honey the bees 

 have carried along with them ; and nature has so 

 arranged it, that the first eggs laid by the queen 

 produce the operative part of the community. 



on the usual carelessness in saving 

 silk-worms' eggs. 



To tlic Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Stafford, jJugnst 5th, 1S39. 

 I am highly gratified that you have given tlic 

 agricultural community a caution about silk-worm 

 eggs. At least two-thirds of the fiailuree in rear- 



ing silk-worms in this country may with propriety 

 be attributed to bad eggs. JViany persons raise 

 silk-worms for the sole purpose of speculating on 

 the eggs, and are probably not aware of the ne- 

 cessity of care.fiji management to procure good 

 eggs. Prevailing thoughtlessness on this subject, 

 which I know exists extensively, if not checked, 

 will throw serious obstacles in the way of this im- 

 portant culture, which I firmly believe is destined 

 to ropopulate the poor land districts in \ irginia 

 and iNlaryland. I will add a caution which may 

 be of service to the inexperienced. If the cocoons 

 intended for seed are tlirown into a heap, and per- 

 mitted to remain for several hours, when the 

 weather is warm, the eggs produced will generally 

 be worthless. I know this to be the fiict from dear 

 bought experience. 



"When silk-worms are to be raised, the eggs to 

 be procured from the cocoons, must be thought of 

 before any thing else. Now-a-days when the co- 

 coons are collected, it is the custom to keep them 

 altogether upon the fi-ames. Some persons not 

 having time to reel all their silk, butterflies are 

 seen to go out and lay eggs almost immediately. 

 The accumulation of cocoons produce a kind of 

 fermentation, and Ihe heat causes the butterflies 

 to hatch before the proper period. This prema- 

 ture developement has never any good results, for 

 the butterflies are sick ; and fi-om thence it comes 

 that the gilk-worms produced from their e<rgs, are 

 affected by diseases fi-om the moment of' their 

 hatching. 



"The cocoons for reproduction ought to be sepa- 

 rated, and put in a ivcll aired chamber, and spread 

 upon very clean mats, a layer of the thickness of a 

 single cocoon only.'''' ( Chinese Treatise, published 

 by P. Force, p. 150.) 



I have about 40,000 silk-worms of seven varie- 

 ties. They are remarkably health}^, and a large 

 portion of them spinning in handsome style. In 

 September I will furnish you a meteorological re- 

 cord, with explanating remarks. 



Respectllilly yours, 



Layton Y. Atkins. 



P. S. There is no advantage to be derived 

 fi^om a forced and premature developement of the 

 silk-worm in any of its stages. Tlie nearer the 

 time of spinning to the natural period of its life, as 

 staled by Dandolo, the better. The precocious 

 and the tardy are always feeble, and eggs should 

 never be saved from them. I have made nine 

 rearings of the "two-crop" white, and of the co- 

 coons formed between the 25th and 30th days it 

 has required from 700 to 800 to weigh a pound, 

 and so of tha last which spin; but' of cocoons 

 formed from the SOih to the 35lh day, 350 to 400 to 

 maki^ a pound. Depend upon it modern writers 

 on siil.-cuUure are promulgating a pernicious error 

 on this point; and before the learned silk-ivorm 

 doctors publish any more infallible prescriptions, I 

 advise them to put on their spectacles and bring 

 their remedies to bear on four or five cases. 



If a forced and premature developement is so 

 important what reason or sense would there be in 

 the following passage from the Chinese Treatise : 



"The moths which come out the first day are 

 called grass moths. The last of all are called vio- 

 gnn, (that is to say, the last butterflies.) Neither 

 of these ought to be kept.'''' 



Mark the care of this people about procuring 



