No. 10. 



Practical Remarks on Keeping Bees. 



159 



a favorable change did not occur until I used 

 this tea, which I did upon the recommendation 

 of a citizen of one of the upper counties of 

 North Carolina. 



Its leaves and stalk, in the green state, are 

 preferred to any other provender. 1 have 

 thrown green grass and fodder into one heap 

 and sunflower leaves in another, to try the 

 cattle and they have ever commenced eating 

 the latter first ; this I have tried often with 

 the same result. The whole plant, cut up in 

 the green state, and boiled with cotton seed, 

 or a little meat, affords a delicious food for 

 cattle or hogs. To be convinced of this let one 

 taste the bruised leaves or stalk of the plant; 

 he will find its flavor aromatic, like that of the 

 parsnip, with more sweetness.— Souf/tern Ag- 

 ricullurisl. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Messrs. Editors: — 



Permit me to suggest to your Corres- 

 pondents the expediency of signing their prop- 

 er names and address, that they may be com- 

 municated with by mail ; I have obtained much 

 advantage from this source. Also, in all 

 statements relative to crops to give a full de- 

 scription of the nature and quality of the soil. 

 I am gratified to find your useful Cabinet 

 growing more and more interesting. 

 Yours respectfully, 



David L. Dodge. 



Cedar Brook, Plainfield, N. J,, Dec'r., ib37. 



From ihc London Weclianics' Jlagazine. 

 Practical remarks on Keeping Bees* 



Sir, — Having been requested by some per- 

 son desirous of keeping bees, to give, through 

 the niedmm of the Mechanics' Magazine 

 my opinion as to the best method of manag- 

 ing these useful insects, I beg to solicit the 

 favor of the following observations being in- 

 serted. 



1 have kept bees nearly twenty years, and 

 practised various plans with a view to gain 

 the greatest produce in honey and wax with 

 the least trouble, but more particularly with 

 a view to the preserving the lives of the bees, 

 and feel confident that the story-fying sys- 

 tem, which I believe Wildman practised, is 

 the best. I tried for six or eight years the 

 plan Mr. Nutt advocated, which, by-the-bye, 

 is as old as any of the plans known, but 

 without meeting with any thi.ig like the suc- 

 cess of the common cottage hive. A strong 

 stock in the latter had produced me an early 

 swarm and cast, the swarm produced in a 

 good season upwards of forty pounds of honey, 

 and the cast fifteen pounds, the slock being 

 kept five or six years. The honey thus pro- 

 cured is always of good color, and fit for sale ; 

 and when after six seasons the parent stock 



is destroyed, the honey, being dark, may be 

 used to make meed, or sweeten wine with, a 

 strong swarm being kept to. supply its place. 

 This plan requires the destruction of the 

 bees, and is therefore censured as inhuman ; 

 but to me is not more so than destroying bea- 

 vers or cats for their skins, or catching fish 

 to manure the land with ; the consumer never 

 considering how produce is procured, and 

 should therefore, be considered the most cul- 

 pable, if such acts are breaches of humanity. 

 Tlie hives I now prefer are flat, having 

 wooden tops fixed on'witii wires. The iii- 

 side should be twelve or thirteen inches clear, 

 and about seven inches high, the top having 

 a centre hole, and three or four others round 

 it near the outside, each hole being two or 

 three inches diameter, and fitted with nice 

 bungs. If no swarms are wanted, a large 

 glass, or small straw hive may be put on the 

 top about the end of March, or a small glass 

 to each hole, previously pulling out the bungs, 

 gently turning them round first, each glass 

 having a bit of paper pasted on it, stating its. 

 , weight when empty ; such glasses being kept 

 from the light, by an empty hive being 

 placed over them. Every ten or twelve 

 days they should be examined and when 

 [filled may be removed, and others put on, as 

 long as the season permits. If a stock is 

 jweak, a new swarm or a cast may be put on 

 the top of it, and the entrance closed till 

 J eight or nine o'clock the following night. 

 [These stocks may be preserved seven or 

 eight years, but should he hept in a house or 

 shed ; and when the winter begins, the bungs 

 having been replaced, should be covered over 

 I with sacking or other warm articles. Glasses 

 may be put on a swarm immediately after 

 hiving them, removing them in three or four 

 weeks, to enable the bees to procure enough 

 for the winter. The boards above mentioned 

 should be made of pine plank, half an inch 

 thick. The bottom boards should be made of 

 ;the same, one inch or one inch and a half 

 thick, having a piece projecting for the bees 

 to light upon. By pursuing this plan, any 

 number of stocks may be kept with but little 

 trouble, and the bees saved ; but the placing 

 the glasses on empty hive is essentially ne- 

 cessary. 1 am. Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



G. L. Smartt. 



Enfield, Feb. 10, IS.'??. 



Statistics of £ggs. 



M.-.\. Legrand, of .Paris, says the number ofeggse.x- 

 ported from France, from having been je.ss than two 

 niillinns in lrii:i, increased in ]8J2, to neaily tifty-five 

 millions. In ls2-l, ninety and a half millions. In ]^'35, 

 75 millions were cxpurlfd to England, (J0,8i)0 to Bel- 

 gium, JO, 093 to the United States, and nearly as many 

 to i3[iain and Switzerland. In F'aris t:veiy[soul eats 

 over U5 eggs a year! in all the le.-i nf France over 

 seven millions are consumed. Wliat hens the Frenert 

 must ha\e I 



