NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



199 



BEES AND HONEY. 



I have seen a communication in your paper, 

 signed " S. W. R.," Darlington, Beaver county, Pa., 

 on removing or transferring bees from hive to hive, 

 for the purpose of cleansing from worms, or taking 

 the honey. The way stated may be good, but I think 

 my plan better. It is said to be the French mode, 

 as practised by the honey raisers of France — that is 

 to say : take an empty gum or hive precisely of the 

 same size and dimensions of the one you Avish to 

 change or transfer, turn the full hive bottom upwards, 

 and place the empty one on top ; tie a cloth around 

 the middle to prevent the bees from coming out 

 ■where the two hives join ; then take a stick and 

 crack around the full hive, and the bees will all run 

 up into the empty hive. By putting your ear close 

 to the hive you can hear them passing up. When 

 you have reason to believe they are principally all up, 

 lift off the top hive, set it down on the bench, and 

 take away the hive -with the honey, some eight or 

 ten yards from the bee bench, and take out the honey. 

 What bees may have adhered to the honey-comb 

 ■v\-ill fly back to the new hive. In this -way you need 

 not kill a single bee intentionally. I have practised 

 this plan with success when the season is good for 

 honey-making, which is not every year. Bees are 

 like every thing else ; there are good and bad seasons 

 for them. Sometimes they will hardly make enough 

 to keep them through the winter, and other years 

 they will make as much again as is necessary to keep 

 them. When I have no other object in view than 

 the honey, I rob them in this way from July till 

 August. They will, if a good season, as I before 

 observed, fill the second hive before frost. There are 

 various opinions as regards the size of the beehive. 

 I generally make them from eight to twelve inches 

 square. The proper time for transferring them is 

 early in the morning, or when it is rainmg, as the 

 bees then are all in the hive. T. M. 



Neav C.\.stle City, Del., 1849. 

 — Dollar Newspaper. 



BEANS. 



There is, perhaps, nothing grown by the farmer 

 more profitable than white beans. The small, round 

 kind is preferred to any other, and may be raised as 

 easy as other kinds. The labor required is not as 

 much as some suppose. Beans may be raised with 

 less labor than a crop of corn. An acre will yield 

 from twenty to thirty bushels, and as a bushel is 

 worth from !|!l 25 to $1 7o, the straw and pods being 

 the best kind of fodder for sheep, there can bo no 

 more profitable crop grown. It is a mistaken idea to 

 think that it will not pay to plant beans on good soil. 

 They will grow better than any thing else on a poor 

 one, but they will yield much more abundantly on 

 good. Beans grow best on gravelly soil, neither wet 

 nor cold, but moderately moist. But they may be 

 planted to advantage on any ground where corn will 

 grow. From an experience of six years, I have 

 adopted the following method of culture : I mark 

 the field, after being ploughed in furrows about one 

 foot or a little less apart, and drop four or five beans 

 in a hill, and then cover sHghtly, as the beans reciuire 

 all the heat of the sun to germinate c^uickly. I plant 

 from the 10th of May to the 20th. Tliey generally 

 want but one hoeing, unless the ground is very 

 grassy, when they re<iuirc two. When sufficiently 

 ripe, — of which the farmer must bo the judge, — I pull 

 them, throwing four rows together, and let them lie 

 a day or two to dry, when I draw them on a sled to 

 the barn, and thresh with a fiail. I am careful not 

 to let them lie long before winnowing, as, if they are 

 not perfectly dry, they mould or turn black, which 



renders them worthless, except for sheep. It is best 

 after winnowing to spread them on a floor until they 

 are perfectly dry, when they may be put in barrels or 

 bins without danger. Choose a time when rain may 

 not be expected, to pull beans, for if they become 

 Avet they may be injured. — Selected. 



LIGHTNING RODS. 



Why do not the farming portion of our community 

 pay more attention to lightning rods ? Their utility, 

 and the trifling expense of putting them up, are 

 generally acknowledged. Any man, with a little 

 assistance, can accomplish the work. Procure a rod 

 of sufficient size, say of three quarters of an inch in 

 diameter, and attach it to your building, or to a lofty 

 pole beside, being careful that it passes through good 

 glass insulators, where it is fastened to the building. 

 The parts of the rod had better be connected by 

 screws than by links, as the latter are apt to become 

 rusty or displaced in time, and thus the continuity of 

 the rod is broken. The rod should terminate in a 

 sharp silver point at the top, and in moist ground 

 beneath, which varies with different soils, but which, 

 during the dry summer months in our latitude, is 

 not less than four or five feet beneath the surface. A 

 rod put up in this way will effectually protect a cir- 

 cular space around it whose radius is equal to twice 

 its height above the building ; e. g., if the rod ex- 

 tends ten feet above the building, it will protect a 

 space of twenty feet around it on every side. Con- 

 ductors carefully put up will scarcely fail to secure 

 their purposed end, and thus be of important service. 

 Let the farmer think of this, and profit by the reflec- 

 tion in this season of comparative leisure, this period 

 of the year so favorable for their erection. M. 



Mekceu Co., N. J., 1849. 

 — Dollar Magazine. 



AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLASTING. 



We have lately seen a very simple invention of 

 Mr. Thomas S. S^jeakman, of this city, which, as an 

 improvement in the operation of blasting rock and 

 coal, seems to be founded upon a correct principle, 

 and in practice is said to produce very important and 

 satisfactory results. In blasting, the hole bored is 

 usually widest at the top, and the rock, if very hard, 

 or more obstinate than the tamping, or earth which 

 is filled in to confine the powder, will cause the pow- 

 der to blow out vertically in the direction of the 

 least resistance, without producing the elfect in- 

 tended. In the invention of Mr. Speakman, the 

 powder is contained in a conical or wedge tube. 

 The greater body of the powder being at the bottom 

 of the tube, the pressure against the tamping is re- 

 duced to the surface of its upper point or edge, 

 throwing the whole force of tlie explosion laterally, 

 or against the sides of the rock to be split, and of 

 course giving it the greatest possible effect, the same 

 as driving a wedge. The tube is made of stiff water- 

 proof paper, and it may be so placed as to sjjlit the 

 rock in any direction desired. It is very cheap in its 

 construction, and requiring less powder, saves enough 

 cost, in this particular alone, to more tlian pay for 

 the use of it, besides doing double the amount of 

 efi'ectivc work. — Dollar jyctr^2'aper. 



To CATCH Rats. — Set a common fox trap ; over 

 which spread a piece of cotton or linen cloth, suffi- 

 ciently large to cover, and sjirinklc some meal over 

 the i)an — and you /lave liirn ; at least I did. — Gen- 

 esee Fanner. 



