516 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



F(rr the New England Fanner. 



GROWTH OF SaUASH VIITES-CAN WE 

 SEE PLANTS GROW? 



Messrs. Editors: — On the morning of the loth 

 ult., I measured accurately two squash Aines, and 

 on the following morning, at the same hour, again 

 measured them ; one of them had gro\\7i over nine, 

 and the other over ten inches during the twenty- 

 four hours. The night could not have been very fa- 

 vorable for growth, as with us the wind was from the 

 east. The more rapid grower of the two is from the 

 seed of a California squash, purporting to weigh one 

 hundred and sixty pounds. I observe that the fe- 

 male flowers of this vine have ten divisions to the 

 stamen instead of eight, which is the number in the 

 flower of the common squash. " You can see them 

 grow," we sometimes say, to indicate a maximum of 

 growth. For a loose hyperbole, tliis is passable, 

 among the thousands of other innocent exaggerations 

 which serve to give life to conversation and open folks' 

 eyes, withal ; but it would be more accurate, to say 

 that we can see that they have grown ; for, if we 

 reflect a moment, we perceive that a growth of 

 twelve inches in twenty-four hours would be, on an 

 average, half an inch per hour ; now, as I draw my 

 thumb along on the table, v^•ith one eye on the clock 

 above, I perceive that the slowest motion possible 

 for me to detect with the unaided eye, must pass 

 over one inch in from two to four minutes, so that 

 it may be safely affirmed that a growth, to be per- 

 ceivable with the unaided eye — without the micro- 

 sco])e — must be at the rate of from thirty to sixty 

 feet in the course of twenty-four hours ! a growth, 

 as we are all well aware, attained by few, if any 

 plants in the tera2:)erate zone during the entire sea- 

 son. 



What revelations the microscope might make 

 we cannot say ; though from the above facts one 

 would think in the case of these vines, that M'ith a 

 power of from thirty to sixty, it might be possible 

 to witness that most wonderful of all vegetable 

 phenomena, the growth of plants ; and with one of 

 still higher powers to investigate still more deeply, 

 perhaps, even to the detecting of the elaboration 

 and circulation of the vegetable juices ! That final 

 wonderful transformation of elements into vegeta- 

 ble tissue, analogous to the change of elements in 

 the capillary vessels of animals into bone, muscle, 

 &c., must, in like manner, probably ever remain 

 hidden from man's feeble jiowers. 



Yours truly, James J. H. Gregory. 



Marblehead, Sept. 25, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SEED POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor: — Much has lieen vmtten about 

 seed potatoes, some advocating the planting of small 

 potatoes. Now that small potatoes will sometimes 

 produce large ones, I do not doubt ; but that is not 

 the rule. "lake j)roduces like," is a law of nature, 

 and until that law is abrogated, as we plant, or sow, 

 in the physical, vegetable and the moral kingdom, 

 that shall we also reap. Why don't those writers 

 who recommend small potatoes for seed, recom- 

 mend small corn, small beans, and small, inferior 

 seeds of all kinds. This they ought to do to be con- 

 sistent. I had the curiosity, last sj)ring, to try the 

 experiment of small potatoes to satisfy myself, al- 

 though pretty well satisfied in my own mind be- 

 er . 



I paid a dollar a bushel for some good sized pota- 

 toes, and planted them, putting one in a hill with- 

 out cutting, except a few of large size, then I had a 

 few small ones of the same kind which grew with 

 the others, and were sorted out about as large as rob- 

 in's eggs, some a little larger, and ])lanted them side 

 by side, with the same mamn-e and cultivation, and 

 I have just dug them, and found that twenty hills of 

 the large seed produced more in measure, and lar- 

 ger in size, than thirty of the small ones. On a small 

 patch where I did not ex])ect more than 15 bush- 

 els, it being dry green sward, I had 25. Will some 

 one give the result of his experiences. 



Yours, N. 



South Abington, Sept. 17, 1855. 



BEES. 



Any body can manage bees. It is the easiest 

 thing in the world to do it, just as it is to make an 

 egg stand on end, — after one knows how. A man 

 who knows their nature, and habits, and can avail 

 himself of their instincts, can make them do just 

 what he jileases. Ten thousand men have kept 

 bees for thousands of years, and have watched their 

 doings, and many have written learned treatises up- 

 on the economy of their Commonwealths. But it 

 has fallen to Huber and Langstroth and a few others 

 to discover the few simple secrets which, while they 

 are unknown, have rendered their movements so 

 mysterious. Any body can move a liive of bees 

 from its stand, invert it and call them out, and han- 

 dle them as he pleases, and restore them to the 

 hive with perfect safety, and the bees will be all 

 the time perfectly good-natured, and not an indi- 

 vidual among them will offer to sting him, and yet 

 very few persons dare make the attempt, and still 

 fewer know how to do it with safety. The object of 

 the miser is to lay up treasure. This occupies his 

 thoughts and his hands day and night. His heart 

 is with his gold. It is the god of his worship. He 

 has no place in his mind for any other thought. 

 Upon the slightest alarm, he grasps his money bags. 

 If he hears a step at the door in the darkness of 

 night, he deems liis treasure in danger. He believes 

 all others attach the same value to it, and that 

 when they ajjproach his premises, they can have no 

 other object but to gain possession of it. The bees, 

 in their way, are perfect misers. They labor inces- 

 santly for about eight months in the year, to amass 

 honey. They undergo the severest toil to search it 

 out, and transport it to their storehouses. In the 

 early s])ring, from the flowers of the willow, of the 

 alder and the maple, from the blossoms of the 

 cherry and the nectarine and the peach, and through 

 the heat of summer, from the bean and clover, and 

 a thousand sweet flowers, and as the autumn ap- 

 proaches, from the mature juices of the plum, the 

 peach, the pear and the apple, they suck the sweet 

 nectar, and bear it with unfailing instinct to the 

 storehouse which their fellows have built to receive 

 it. This is the great work of their lives, the one 

 end of their being. To lay up, secure and defend 

 their treasure all their instincts are directed. — 

 When engaged in their daily work, they have no 

 other purpose. When attacked, all their movements 

 have reference to the security of their honey. 

 When bees are alarmed, they believe with the miser, 

 that their treasure is the object of the invader ; as it 

 is the only treasure of any object to them, they act 

 on the belief, that it is of equal value to others. If 



