490 



THE FARM^S' REGISTER. 



clearly that carbon must be rurnii=hed to plants, (in 

 earbonic acid,) and in large proportion ihrqugh 

 the roots, as well as through the leaves of" plants . 

 and, as clearly, that Liebig is wrong in supposing 

 ihe former mode of supply to be so very small, 

 and furnished almost entirely in (he early growth, 

 or before the leaves are developed, and enabled to 

 draw the supply of carbon from the atmosphere. 

 —Ed. F. R.] 



THE BEE-MOTH. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet, 



Mr. Editor, — It would appear that "Bee- 

 breeding" is to share a large portion of the atten- 

 tion of tlie community the next year. Ii is a de- 

 serving object, and might be made boih profita- 

 ble and agreeable, in proper situations and under 

 careful management ; but neither will that or any 

 other pursuit suci-eed, unless ii be well attended 

 to and made a regular business. Already there 

 are numerous contrivances to stop the ravages of 

 the bee-moth, but to me, in this, as in most other 

 cases, it seems by far better \o prevent the evil by 

 keeping the bees strong and healthy ; and it is 

 only a part of the system which I have laid down 

 for myself, to consider the moth the effedi rather 

 than the cause of the destruction complained of. 

 1 believe tliat the moth has no desire to deposite its 

 eggs in a hive, until it knows by instinct that the 

 swarm is unhealthy ; by the putridity which is 

 then engendered, it is taught that its services will 

 soon be required, according to that beautiful theo- 

 ry so well set forth by Agricola, " wherever ani- 

 mal or vegetable substances are in the pronrress of 

 decay, mouths are found ever ready to convert 

 dead matter into food for living things." 



And this is no new idea ; I knew, many years 

 ago, a person who kept from 20 to 30 hives of 

 bees with uniform success, but he was peculiarly 

 attentive to the moths, and when he saw them 

 flitting around the entrance ofany particular hive, 

 he knew that the bees were sickly, and he would 

 immediately remove them to a clean hive, by 

 turning the box which contained them, placing 

 upon it an empty hive; and by giving the lower 

 box a lew gentle blows, the bees would ascend 

 and take possession : this was done in the even- 

 ins, after the bees had returned from their labors, 

 and the next day they would be found busily em- 

 ployed on their new premises, without any fear of 

 the moth. Now it is all very pretty — these in- 

 genious contrivances to deceive the moths by 

 furnishing them with large and convenient en- 

 trances to sham boxes, brushed over with honey 

 or wax, while the bees are restricted to one small 

 and inconvenient hole of entrance — but I do not 

 consider that nature is so imperlect as to be so 

 easily bamboozled ; I believe the moths know 

 full as well as the man, when they are inside the 

 hive, and that they will not be induced to deposite 

 their eggs in an out-house where there is no food 

 for their young when they come into existence. 

 I beg therefore to repeat, I consider the moth 

 the ej^ecif and not the cause of the mischief; the 

 sickness of the bees and the ptjiridity of the inter- 



nal atmosphere of the hive being the true cause 

 teaching them that the labors of their progeny 

 will soon be required to act the part of the turkey- 

 buzzard. Remove the cause, therefore, and the 

 effiect will cease — depending upon it, that " when 

 the constitution is in a healthy state, there is little 

 liability to infection of any kind." 



Let, then, all those who enter the race of bee- 

 breeding be attentive to this, and by shifting the 

 swarms to other boxes so soon as they perceive 

 them attacked by the moth, they will, I am per- 

 suaded, find that prevention is much easier than 

 cure. With me, there is no doubt, the cause of 

 sickness often arises from the system of withdraw- 

 ing the honey by means of boxes and glasses pla- 

 ced on tfie top of the hive reducing the bees to the 

 necessity ol ever breedmg in the same cells, by 

 which tliey become filthy and putrid ; I therefore 

 much pretier to add another box below, on remov- 

 ing one from above, according to the plan propos- 

 ed in that interesting little work, " Bee-breeding 

 in the West." which is quite a manual of the art. 

 In Weeks' late work on the same subject, the evil 

 here pointed out is admitted to its full extent, but, 

 strange to say, it is proposed to lie remedied only 

 by transferring the bees to another hive; it ig 

 said, " when bees have occupied one tenement 

 ibr several years, the comb becomes thick and 

 filthy by being filled up with the old bread and co- 

 coons made by young bees when transformed from 

 a larva to the perfect fly ; and are so contracted 

 that the bees come Ibrlh but mere dwarfs, and 

 cease to swarm ;" and yet, l>y the use of the Ver- 

 n)ont hive, they are compelled to breed in the 

 same cells continually. It would appear, there- 

 lore, that these patent palaces are constructed on 

 false principles. Vir. 



"AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS CORRECTED. 



For the Farmer's Register. 



An article with the caption ^^ Agricultural sta- 

 tistics furnished in connexion with the late census 

 of the United States.'"' having been published 

 over the signature of X. in the July number of 

 the Farmers' Register, which is calculated to 

 make false impressions, relative to the statistical 

 inlormation otitained in connexion with the late 

 enumeration of the people of the I'nited States, 

 it is deemed proper to reply and inform the public, 

 through the same medium chosen by X., that the 

 extracts from the agricultural statistics, which 

 were sent to the senate on the 24th February last, 

 by the secretary of state, were intended as mere 

 samples of the unexamined and uncorrected re- 

 turns of the marshals, and are published as such 

 only. See Senate Document 219. Those returns, 

 owing, it is presumed, to the short time allowed 

 the marshals to make up their aggregates, have 

 been found to abound with errors, all of which 

 are undergoing the process of examination and 

 correction at this time, in the proper department 

 of the government. 



In the attempt to mislead the public, X. has 

 either himself made an egregious blunder, or 

 falsified a public document. It will be perceived 

 by referring to his article, page 437 July number, 

 Farmers' Register, in the paragraph relative 

 to tobacco, he there states (hat Tennessee produce 



