298 



Irrigation, Limn and Manure. — The Honey Bee. Vol. VII. 



acid gas is formed to feed them, and a cold 

 soil is rendered warmer by increasing its 

 friability. Lime preserves vegetable ma- 

 nure, and causes its action to be continued 

 for a longer time ; it neutralizes acidity in 

 the soil by its alkaline properties; it dimin- 

 ishes the injury from drought, and acts as a 

 specific food for plants, as is evident from its 

 being found in them as a component part of 

 their structure. 



The "Small Farm" principle upon a large 

 scale, page 262, last number, is in my view, 

 the most valuable essay in the number, and 

 ought to be read attentively by every farmer. 

 Some more " last words" from the same au- 

 thor, would be very acceptable. The rota- 

 tion of crops there laid down, cannot be 

 beat; it gets the manure out early in the 

 spring, when it should always go to the 

 fields, instead of rotting and wasting all 

 summer in the barn-yard. Top-dressing is 

 the thing to make grass grow, and then 

 plough it down, and grain or any thing else 

 will grow and flourish; no mistake about it, 

 try it yourself, and see if it won't do better 

 than the old plan, of wasting one half and 

 misapplying the other half, at the worst 

 season of the year for applying barn-yard 

 manure. Top-dressing has always been old 

 mother nature's plan of applying nutriment 

 to plants ; she seems never to have changed 

 it, which it is probable she would if it had 

 not been the best way. Let us go on then, 

 and assist her in carrying out her plans for 

 our benefit, and see if it won't work well. 

 I had intended to make some remarks on 

 other essays in the same number, but I fear 

 too much space has already been occupied 

 in your valuable journal. Agricola. 



The Honey Bee. 



The following extracts are from a delight- 

 ful article on the Honey Bee, in the last No 

 of the London Quarterly Review. 



The "masses" of every hive consist of 

 two kinds of bees, the workers and the 

 drones. The first are undeveloped females, 

 the second are the males. Over these pre- 

 sides the mother of the hive, the queen-bee. 

 The number of workers in a strong hive is 

 above 15,000, and of drones, about one to 

 t°n of these. This proportion, though sel- 

 dom exact, is never very much exceeded or 

 fallen short of. A single family, where 

 swarming is prevented, will sometimes 

 amount, according to Dr. Bevan, to 50,000 

 or 60,000. In their wild state, if we may 

 credit the quantity of honey said to be 

 found, they must sometimes greatly exceed 

 this number. 



"Sweet is the hum of bees," says Lord 

 Byron ; and those who have listened to this 

 music in its full luxury, stretched upon some 

 sunny bed of heather, where the perfume of 

 the crushed thyme struggled with the faint 

 smell of the bracken, can scarcely have 

 failed to watch the little busy musician, 

 "with honey'd thigh, 



That at her flowry work doth sing," 

 too well to require a lengthened description 

 of her; how she flits from flower to flower, 

 with capricious fancy, not exhausting the 

 sweets of any one spot, but, on the principle 

 of "live and let live," taking something for 

 herself, and leaving as much or more for the 

 next comer, passing by the just-opening and 

 faded flowers, and deigning to notice not 

 one out of five that are full-blown, combin- 

 ing the philosophy of the Epicurean and 

 Eclectic; — or still more like some fastidious 

 noble, on the grand tour, with all the world 

 before him, hurrying on in restless haste 

 from place to place, skimming over the sur- 

 face or tasting the sweets of society, carry- 

 ing off some memento from every spot he 

 has lit upon, and yet leaving plenty to be 

 gleaned by the next traveller, dawdling in 

 one place lie knows not why, whisking by 

 another which would have amply repaid his 

 stay, and still pressing onwards as if in 

 search of something, he knows not what — 

 though he too often fails to carry home the 

 same proportion of happiness as his compeer 

 does of honey. 



"A bee among the flowers in spring," 

 says Paley, "is one of the cheerfulest ob- 

 jects that can be looked upon. Its life ap- 

 pears to be all enjoyment : so busy and so 

 pleased." 



The drone may be known by the noise he 

 makes. Hence his name. He has been the 

 butt of all who have ever written about bees, 

 and is indeed a bye-word all the world over. 

 No one can fail to hit oft" his character. He 

 is the " lazy yawning drone" of Shakspeare. 

 The 



"Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula 

 fucus," 

 of Virgil. "The drone," says Butler, " is a 

 gross, stingless bee, that spendeth his time 

 in gluttony and idleness. For howsoever 

 he brave it with his round velvet cap, his 

 side gown, his full paunch, and his loud 

 voice, yet is he but an idle companion, liv- 

 ing by the sweat of others' brows. He 

 worketh not at all either at home or abroad, 

 and yet spendeth as much as two labourers: 

 you shall never find his maw without a good 

 drop of the purest nectar. In the heat of 

 the day he flieth abroad, aloft, and about, 

 and that with no small noise, as though he 



