322 



NEW ENGLAND FAJtMER. 



July 



explanatory, will soon demonstrate, that however 

 useless may be other State expenditures, that which 

 is applied for the advancement of agriculture is 

 not thrown away. 



For the Nete England Farmer. 



BEES. 



I asked a simple sort of a fellow to assist me to 

 lift a new hive of bees to the platform where they 

 were to remain, and discovered that a bee was to 

 him the next thing to the very evil one to be 

 shunned. I went up to the hive and took right 

 hold of it ; the man kept walking around the hive, 

 rubbing his arms with increasing alarm and getting 

 farther and farther off from me. "I'd just as lief 

 help ye as not," he kept saying, "if the plaguey crit- 

 ters wouldn't sting like the" — but no matter, it was 

 in vain to reason, the hive had to stay where it was 

 for awhile. 



Now there are a good many people, some of your 

 excellent readers, perhaps, that think bees are only 

 dangerous insects, and do them the grossest injus- 

 tice by not knowing them better. 



I was favored a year or two ago, with a visit from 

 Mr. L. L. Langstroth, then of Greenfield, (is he 

 there still?) and obtained from him much valuable 

 information. You will remember introducing Mr. 

 Langstroth to me in July. Mr. L. said that he un- 

 derstood I had purchased one of his "movable comb 

 hives," but, as yet, had got no bees into it. He 

 wanted to go home with me and put in a swarm. I 

 asked him how he knew that my bees were in a 

 condition to swarm that day ? Mr. L. would "take 

 care about that." 



The bees in the best hive were smoked a little at 

 the commencement of operations, Mr. Langstroth 

 had a piece of dry, rotten wood — maple, I believe — 

 and this, partially ignited, furnished the necessary 

 smoke. The bees did not relish this much, and con- 

 sidered it a warning to prepare to quit the hive, so 

 they immediately filled themselves with honey, a 

 good store for a sudden journey. Bees filled with 

 honey, Mr. L. said, were not disposed to sting, and 

 were easily managed. This was all new to me. Of 

 course, Mr. L. said, their Creator intended that 

 they should be managed in some way, and when in 

 this condition, they could be handled with almost 

 impunity. 



In a minute or two we took the hive ofi" a rod 

 and set it down bottom upwards. There was the 

 comb all covered with a mass of agitated bees. A 

 box was now put over the hive — it was a common 

 yellow soap box, with the edge bevelled with a knife 

 — and the hive smartly drummed with our open 

 palms to frighten the bees out. I could see bees going 

 up in through. The new empty hive was placed on 

 the ground near, with a sheet spread down in front. 

 Mr. Langstroth took off the soap box with a half 

 peck of bees, and jerked them out of it down upon 

 the cloth as unceremoniously as you would cast away 

 some bad potatoes. I asked leave to run away. I 

 began to fear for such rashness ! We should be 

 stung to death certainly! Mr. Langstroth only 

 laughed, and said there was not the slightest dan- 

 ger. He sat down on the edge of the sheet, where 

 the bees were lying as helpless, apparently, as if 

 their wings had been singed ! Mr. L. was armed 

 with a big iron spoon, and began spooning over the 

 bees to show us the queen. (My sister had ventured 



quite up to the curious exhibition.) But the queen 

 kept her long, slim, royal person out of sight, and 

 was not found. Mr. L. thought, however, that she 

 might have gone into the new hive towards which 

 the spoon was directing her charming tempered 

 subjects. Pretty soon they were all in, and the hive 

 was set away. A decoy hive had been temporarily 

 set upon the stand. This was taken off, and the 

 brood hive returned again to its place. What would 

 the old hive do for a queen ? Hatch out one from 

 a royal cell, of which the hive had several. 



My man John didn't like this new way of swarm- 

 ing bees. He enjoyed the fire ladders and the hand- 

 aw excitement mucti better. So at night when I 

 came home, he was ready to dash my expectations 

 of seeing my new hive of bees, with the pleasant 

 intelligence that they had all gone out ! I was sor- 

 ry enough. The next morning I was to meet Mr. 

 Langstroth again, and I reported the poor luck. 

 He said he feared that we didn't drum out the 

 queen ; but he would ride up again and carry a 

 queen which he could take from a hive which had 

 full royal cells. 1 asked how he knew that my bees 

 would be loyal to a foreign queen ? "Oh," said he, 

 "in their destitution they will gladly obey her." 



I now saw him take out the whole comb of a hive, 

 which hung in regular sheets in the simple movable 

 frames, that are such a feature of his system. The 

 comb was covered with bees. Mr. Langstroth 

 looked over each sheet of comb, and finally saw the 

 queen which he took in his hand. I asked him if 

 he was not afraid of being stung by the queen. He 

 replied that there was no danger. The queen had 

 a very powerful sting, which was never used except 

 to sting a rival. 



Mr. Langstroth was kind enough to come again 

 and drum out the bees as before. The queen was 

 put in and the hive prospered. This article is too 

 long to add more. w. D. B. 



Concord, Mass., May 19, 1857. 



For the New England Fanner. 



HOW TO DESTEOY CATERPILLARS. 



Mr. Editor : — I send you, (I hope in season 

 for this week's paper,) a method of destroying cat- 

 erpillars, which I have found very efficient for the 

 purpose, and which has the merit of being very at- 

 tractive to the boys, enabling them to direct their 

 surplus energy, which is too often used for mischiev- 

 ous purposes, to a valuable end. My method is to 

 take the common fire cracker, which, as now used, 

 is an annual source of terror to all nervous persons, 

 and is the "great glory of all the boys," and put it 

 in the end of a split stick or pole, light it and al- 

 low it to explode beneath or in the nest of the des- 

 tructive vermin. If the nest is small, one cracker 

 is generally sufficient for the purpose; if large, sev- 

 eral may be required. In this neighborhood the 

 boys are glad to have as many crackers for this 

 purpose as the people will furnish them, and so 

 honestly did they do their work last year that but 

 few nests have made their appearance this spring. 

 This is much better than "cutting down the wild 

 cherry in order to prevent the insect from breed- 

 ing," as I have seen suggested, the only effect of 

 which would be to drive them to other more valu- 

 able trees. K- U- P. 



J^orth Wohurn, May, 1857. 



