370 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6. 



to the cattle without injury to the crop, I cut oft' 

 the tops from a row running through the middle 

 of a very luxuriant patch. Care was taken to cut. 

 them in that way which was supposed least likely 

 to prove injurious to the future growth of the 

 plants. The debilitated appearance of the second 

 growth of the tops, determined me not to risk the 

 second cutting of them. When the crop was 

 gathered, the roots in the row that had been cut 

 did not seem to be more than half as large as those 

 in the rest of the patch. 



In fact, I have never seen any advantage arise 

 either from carefully trimming, or ruggedly mutila- 

 ting annual plants; on the contrary, much injury 

 certainly ibllows. It is, however, probable that 

 good housewives and ignorant gardeners will con- 

 tinue to trim and mutilate the tops of their onions, 

 as long as the world may happen to last, for the 

 express purpose of making the roots grow more 

 luxuriantly; unless perchance, they may happen 

 to reflect, that the tops would not have existed, if 

 nature did not considerthem as necessary to the well- 

 being of the plant as its roots. Certain it is that 

 the writings of many gentlemen who ought to 

 have known better, are exactly calculated to con- 

 firm them in this truly savage practice. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 MANAGEMEJiT OF BEES. 



Mr. Tucker — In the Genesee Farmer of Au- 

 gust 1st, one of your subscribers from Onondaga 

 county writes — "I commenced keeping bees last, 

 spring on the plan of Ulmus, in a long box, &c. 

 but they have sent out swarms as usual, although 

 there is room enough at home. I wish I could 

 find some certain way of managing them, other 

 than in separate hives." R. Honey, also, of North 

 Union, says — "I wish that some of our corres- 

 pondents would be so kind as to give a description 

 through the medium of the Farmer as to the best 

 mode or manner they know of, by experimental 

 knowledge, of constructing a bee house, and give 

 the particulars of the internal regulation and ar- 

 rangement of their hives, boxes, &c. together 

 with the improvements they may have made," 

 &c. 



In compliance with their wishes, and those of 

 other gentlemen similarly expressed through dif- 

 ferent channels, I send you a statement of the 

 manner in which I have managed my bees of 

 late, together with a description of the hive re- 

 cently invented and patented by me. I would re- 

 mark that I have kept bees in a hive of the descrip- 

 tion given below four years, and in all that time 

 they have shown no signer inclination for swarm- 

 ing; and in consequence of ventilating the hive in 

 the manner I do, they have never been driven out- 

 side the hive to take fresh air, as they often are 

 out of our old fashioned hives for no other reason 

 than that the air becomes so heated as to be insup- 

 portable within. 



The hive should be made of boards, of a size 

 say three feet high, three feet eight inches long, 

 and one foot eight inches deep, (standing on legs 

 like a bureau,) or any other convenient size, to 

 suit the taste of the builder. This should be set 

 in a room in the upper story of a house, or other 

 building, with the backside against the wall of 

 the building. In the front side of this hive should 

 be a door sufficiently large, (say two feet high 

 from bottom, by one and a half feet wide,) to open 



and examine the internal concerns of the hive at 

 pleasure. This door should be cased within, and 

 hung with hinges in the ordinary way, with a 

 wooden button or a lock to hold it last when shut. 

 The cover to the hive also, which should be 

 made of a board an inch thick, should be hung 

 with hinges on the backside, precisely in the man- 

 ner of a chest lid, and may have a lock to fasten it 

 in front, if necessary. The cover should project 

 over the hive in front and at the ends, sufficient- 

 ly to receive mouldings underneath. These moul- 

 dings, as also the casing inside the door, will be 

 essentially necessary, in order to hide the cracks 

 and thereby shut out all destructive insects, and 

 also to exclude the light. Underneath this cover, 

 in the top of the hive, are to be four small open 

 boxes, each extending from the front to the back- 

 side of the hive, and sufficiently wide, so as in the 

 aggregate to just fill the top of the hive. They 

 should fit so close as not to admit of the bees 

 passing up and down around the sides of the box- 

 es, and they should each be about ten inches deep. 

 They should be placed in an inverted position in 

 the hive, and should rest upon a tier of slates, or 

 narrow strips of board, extending from end to end 

 of the hive, and placed at about half or three- 

 fourths of an inch from each other. About one 

 foot below these slats should be placed another 

 tier, in like manner as the first, with the exception 

 that the last may be placed a little wider apart 

 than those on which the boxes rest. These tiers 

 of slats should severally rest upon two narrow 

 strips of board nailed or screwed on the end boards 

 of the hive, and the slats themselves should all be 

 fastened in their places by nails or screws. 



It is intended that the bees, in their accustomed 

 manner of working, shall first fill the boxes, then 

 work from the slats below down to the second tier 

 of slats, and from these again down to the bottom of 

 the hive. In the back side of the hive should be 

 three apertures, which should extend through the 

 wall of the house or building, into which three 

 tubes should be inserted of sufficient length to 

 reach from the inside of the hive to the outside of 

 the house, the ends being cut slanting on the up- 

 per side to make a lighting place for the bees. 

 These tubes should be placed in a triangular po- 

 sition, one above and two below. The upper one 

 should enter the hive just below the upper tier of 

 slats on which the boxes rest. The entrance 

 through this tube should be four inches wide, by 

 half an inch deep. The two lower tubes should 

 enter the hive just below the second tier of slats, 

 and should each be three inches wide, by half an 

 inch deep. All the tubes should be inclining a lit- 

 tle downward from the inner to the outward ends, 

 that the water from without may drop off at the 

 ends, and not run into the hive. These tubes 

 should be the only places for the bees to pass into 

 and out of their hive. In the four boxes above 

 mentioned, there should be holes cut three inches 

 wide by half an inch deep near the upper side of 

 the boxes, so that the bees may pass freely from 

 one box into another, as occasion may require. 

 There should also be three small apertures cut in 

 the side of the boxes directly over the holes last 

 mentioned, to the top of the boxes, three inches 

 Ions; by one-fourth of an inch, or a little more, in 

 width, extending up to the cover of the hive. 

 These should be'eovered by a piece of millinet 

 laid loose on the top of the boxes, to prevent the 



