1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



347 



The species were chiefly cod, with a few lithe, a 

 gurnard, and a small grilse, or sea-trout. 



We were considerately affected by the tenderness 

 of feeling which seemed to exist between most of 

 these fishes and their ancient feeder. They had 

 entire confidence in each other, and this Avas, no 

 doubt, the foundation of their mutual respect and 

 happiness, as it is that of all the domestic affection. 

 Tame fish are now quite out of fashion, although we 

 hope that their recent introduction into the vivaria 

 of our zoological gardens may revive the taste. 

 We may add that fish are great favorites in Otaheite. 

 Mr. Ellis informs us that he has frequently accom- 

 panied a young chieftain to the side of a hole. So 

 soon as a whistle was sounded, an enormous eel 

 would show itself upon the surface, where it fed 

 fondly and familiarly from its master's hand. — 

 Blackwood. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ON BEES. 



Me, Editor : — For a few years past I have been 

 happy to observe that in this community there is a 

 growing interest in the raising of honey and the 

 domestication of the honey bee, and what has sur- 

 prised me most is, that so little is said in the agri- 

 cultural papers and various reports, on this inter- 

 esting branch of farm economy. In the different 

 Patent Office reports, with one or two exceptions, 

 nothing whatever is said on the subject. In that 

 of 1845 there may be found a short article. What 

 I would like to see is, a series of short, practically 

 written articles on the management of the honey 

 bee. Will not some one of the thousand readers 

 of the JVtio England Farmer take this matter in 

 hand and give us the desired information ? 



Until this spring 1 had never hardly given a 

 moment's thought to these industrious "little fel- 

 lows," who, by their industry, economy, content- 

 ment and system, put most of us to shame. My 

 fii'st business after receiving my colony, was to 

 make myself as fully acquainted with their history 

 and habits as reading different treatises on the sub- 

 ject could do. But I have not yet been able to pro- 

 cure such a work as I think the novice, like my- 

 self, wants. There is no lack of books, and some of 

 them, I should judge, safe ones to follow, but out of 

 four different works which I have lately procured, 

 and carefully read, neither of them come up to my 

 ideas of what such a work should be. Instead of 

 a treatise on bees and their management, they are 

 rather a book advertisement of some particular 

 patent hive, and the instructions given are for the 

 use of the hive, and not for the management of the 

 bees, as adapted to such a hive as any common far- 

 mer with ordinary ingenuity can construct. All 

 the writers agree that the honey bee can be easily 

 managed, and made profitable, by proper care. — 

 Without intending any disparagement of others, 

 those which come the nearest to what such a work 

 ought to be, I may mention Dr. Eddy's and Mr. 

 Weeks's, yet each was written to promote the sale, 

 probably, of a particular kind of hive. This sub- 

 ject must be a very interesting one to those fully 

 initiated into its mysteries. There are many such 

 no doubt, who read the JVew England Farmer, 

 from week to week. Let me say to such, give us 

 the desired information through the medium of the 

 JVew England Farmer, without any reference to 

 any thing more than the old-fashioned hive, and I, 



for one, will hold the writer in ever grateful re- 

 membrance. On the mnnagement of the honey 

 bee, as adapted to the common box hive, who will 

 give us his experience ? Norfolk. 



June 10, 1856. 



Remarks. — Persons writing upon bees, it is pre- 

 sumed, give the results of their experience, and 

 that experience, now-a-days, is generally with other 

 than the common box hive. Has the writer seen 

 Langstroth's work on the honey bee, which is, per- 

 haps, the most perfect system promulgated. We 

 have had a good deal of experience with bees and 

 hives, and would not any longer use the common 

 box. Eddy's and Weeks's we have not tried. We 

 find nearly every conceiveable convenience in 

 Langstroth's. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WHEAT ON THE POTOMAC LANDS. 



Mr. Editor : — I must be allowed to embrace an 

 occasion to express my entire satisfaction with your 

 usefid, interesting and cheap publication, one of 

 great value to every farmer, and especially in New 

 England. No money can the tiller of the soil in- 

 vest to more advantage. 



As I am a farmer, near the Potomac River, on 

 Nanjemoy Creek, in Charles County, I avail my- 

 self of the occasion to make a statement to show 

 what our lowlands, in the low counties of Mary- 

 land can do. Last year my field of wheat, less 

 than 250 acres, following a corn crop on the same 

 land, produced 3G50 bu. of good marketable wheat, 

 58 lbs. to the bushel, which I sold during the au- 

 tumn, before the rise of prices, for $1,92 per bush- 

 el. My overseer, a truthful man, in whom I have 

 confidence, has furnished me what he calls "a plot 

 of the piece of land on which the 84 bushels of 

 wheat were made the last season." About one- 

 third of the wheat on the piece fell down in a bloom 

 state, where I consider the yield was not more than 

 half in consequence. 



I used guano to advantage on about a third of my 

 wheat field ; but not on the 1| acre lot that made 

 the most productive ) ield. It had been for many 

 years a peach orchard. I can not pretend to say 

 how many years it had been thrown out of cultiva- 

 tion ; but certainly for more than twenty years, 

 during which it has been a clover lot, but rarely if 

 ever gi-azed. No manure has been put upon this 

 plot for many years. Respectfully, 



Benjamin Ogle Tayloe. 



Washington, D. C, June, 1856. 



N. B. This year my plantation will not produce 

 half a crop of wheat because of the unfavorable 

 spring, that has been equally if not more destruc- 

 tive along the tide water counties of Maryland, 

 Virginia, and probably as far as the Blue Ridge in 

 Virginia. 



Od^" The income of Ohio, last year was about four 

 and a quarter millions of dollars, and its expenditure 

 three millions and a half. It has 800 miles of ca- 

 nals, 600 of navigable rivers, and 2000 miles of 

 railroad. Its wheat crop last year was 30,000,000 

 bushels, and com 80,000,000. 



