364 



Pasturage of Bees. — The Plough— Bee Moth. Vol. VIII. 



too, may be sown for this purpose to great 

 advantage. By pursuing this plan, it may 

 also be borne in mind, that the manure heap 

 is materially benefitted, and perhaps more 

 fodder obtained, than can be in any other 

 way, from the same space of ground. 



W. R. 



Pasturage of Bees. 



Next to the situation of the bee-hive, is 

 the consideration of the bees' pasturage. 

 When there is plenty of the white Dutch 

 clover — sometimes called honeysuckle — it is 

 sure to be a good honey year. The red clo- 

 ver is too deep for the proboscis of the com- 

 mon bee, and is, therefore, not so useful to 

 them as is generally supposed. Many lists 

 have been madeof bee-flowers, and of such as 

 should be planted round the apiary. JVligni- 

 onette, and borage, and rosemary, and bur- 

 gloss, and lavender, the crocus for the early 

 spring, and the ivy flowers for the late au- 

 tumn, might help to furnish a very pretty 

 bee garden ; and the lime and the liquid 

 amber, the horse chesnut and the sallow, 

 would be the best trees to plant around. 

 Dr. Bevan makes a very good suggestion, 

 that lemon-thyme should be used as an edg- 

 ing for garden walks and flower beds, instead 

 of box, thrift, or daisies. That any material 

 good, however, can be done to a large colony 

 by the fevj plants that, under the most fa 

 vourable circumstances, can be sown around 

 a boe-house, is, of course, out of the ques- 

 tion. The bee is too niucli of a roamer to 

 take pleasure in trim gardens. It is the 

 wild tracts of heath and furze, the broad 

 acres of bean fields and buckwheat, the lime 

 avenues, the hedgerow flowers, and the clo- 

 ver meadows, that furnish his haunts and fill 

 his cell. Still it may be useful for the 

 young and weak bees to have fodd as near 

 as possible to their home; and to those who 

 wish to watch their habits, a plat of bee 

 flowers is indispensable. — Quarterly Review. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Plough— Bee Moth. 



In a communication dated at the Patent 

 office, Jan. 31st, 1844, from Charles G. Page, 

 Examiner of patents, to H. L. Ellsworth, 

 Commissioner, iSjc, he makes the following 

 remarks in relation to subsoil ploughing, 

 which show that not only in our own State, 

 but in Virginia also, is this more complete 

 and thorough mode of tillage, beginning to 

 be properly appreciated. As produce de 

 clines in price, the farmer will feel com- 

 pelled to use every means to draw from the 

 tields which he cultivates, the maximum of 



produce which they are capable of yielding: 

 he must make up in abundance, the defici- 

 ency in price ; and in order to accomplish 

 this, we must be ready to lay hold of any 

 improvements in the mode of cultivation, 

 which the experiments of others may have 

 proved to be beneficial. Statements have 

 sometimes been made, attempting to show 

 that the subsoil plough is advantageously 

 used on all soils: this I do not however ap- 

 prehend is the case: in the light sandy, 

 porous and shallow soils, of some neighbour- 

 hoods, there can be no advantage in throw- 

 ing up the gritty, yellow earth, beyond the 

 ordinary r6ach of the plough. Indeed many 

 of our farmers are fearful that even in their 

 stiff" clay lands, the extra cost of the process 

 will not be compensated by any addition 

 they may derive from it to their crop: and I 

 would very much like to see in the Cabinet, 

 the results of some actual experiments in 

 subsoiling, by which we might be enabled 

 to form a decided judgment of its profitable- 

 ness, or otherwise. For corn, and wheat 

 and rye, turnips, beets, &,c., the impression 

 is favourable to subsoilmg — but the grand 

 question to the practical farmer, who makes 

 his living by his business, is not so much — 

 will it increase mycrop^ but will it increase 

 it sufficiently to compensate me for the extra 

 expense!* 



" A variety of plough," says the commu- 

 nication above referred to, " particularly de- 

 serving of notice, is the Anti-friction wheel 

 plough, invented first in England, in 1814, 

 and but recently introduced here, with im- 

 portant modifications. The friction, or more 

 properly, anti-friction wheel, is placed in the 

 rear part of the plough, and saves the fric- 

 tion and wear of the sole, and also answers 



* After all, our correspondent has struck upon the 

 true spirit of the inquiry to be made by the " farmer 

 who makes his living by his business." It is an easy 

 matter for the man who has plenty of money, to en- 

 rich his land— he may make it as productive as he 

 will, and there is but little merit, comparatively, in 

 his farming well: but to the man who has his family 

 to support— his rent to pay— or his mortgaged farm to 

 redeem, the question is all-important— how shall my 

 lands be improved advantageously to my i nterests? what 

 manures are cheapest, and best adapted to my soils? 

 what crops will suit them, and be most profitable in 

 reference to the markets on which I depend ? Here is 

 abundant room for the exercise of a sound and dis- 

 criminating judgment, as well as for the untiring in- 

 quiries of one who is disposed to give his energies un- 

 derstandingly to his occupation. It was long ago 

 said— and the triteness of the remark has neither di- 

 minished its truth, nor narrowed the braadth of its 

 application- "knowledge is power:" and we could 

 point among our agricultural friends to numerous in- 

 I stances, illustrative of the proposition.— Ed. 



