AND H O K T 1 C U L T U 11 A L II E (i I S T i: K . 



PUULISH&D BV JOSEPH BRECK «t CO., NO. 6S NOKTH MARKET STREET, (AoRicutTimAL WA»Biiouii.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WKDNKSOAY KVIl.NINO, AUGUST 4, 1811. 



[NO. n. 



N. E. FARMER. 



For iba New England Farmer. 



SALT FISH AS A MANURK, &c. 



Mr F'utnam — Sir — If you can deem it cxpcdi- 

 snt to givo a little intonnatioii as to tlie beat man- 

 ner of making compost witli salted fish, you will 

 :>blige one, and perhaps many, if the article is of 

 loy value. 



I have six barrels of fish vith about half of a 

 lushel of salt, (most of the salt beincj wasted with 

 Jie brine,) deposited in two loads of loam, which 1 

 ixpect will be soft enough to "pick up" in a few 

 nreeks. I design to mi.x with It five or si.x buck 

 oads of muck, and as many bushels of old slacked 

 ime soon, and then turn it again in the fall, and 

 et it remain till spring. Is there any better way .' 

 should there be any quick lime used at any time 

 n this compost? Will there be too much salt in 

 his, (sny 4 lbs. fish to 1 cubic foot,) if I foot of 

 :ompost is put in S hills of corn or potatoes ? 

 »Vould It be belter to spread it and plow under ? 



Fruit Trees. I have had se»eral fruit trees 

 hat formerly auffered very much from drought, 

 reatly improved by the following experiment. A 

 ittle manure was first spread and dug in, some 

 Iry leaves added, then soil of a loamy clinractcr to 

 he depth of about four inches. The produce lins 

 een greatly increased and the quality was unu- 

 ually fine. 



Have you the description of any varieties of 

 ilun trees not subject to warts, possessing good 

 iroperties for preserves — Clingstones, firm flesh 

 ind plenty of acid ? 



My plum trees are troubled by an insect in 

 hape like a beech nut, and about three sixteenths 

 if an inch in length, having wings but seldom using 

 hem — often congregating, and when in that state 

 esenible a bunch of moss. Do not these insects 

 Buse the excresences ? Perhaps the wash made 

 f whale-oil soap applied the last week in May, 

 vould destroy it. I think I shall try it, if I liave 

 n opportunity. 



Yours, &c. 



Eatt Hartford, July iolh, 1841. 



(XT^W'e have never used salt fish for the pur- 

 ■ose of enriching the earth, and cannot furnish our 

 orrespondent with any information upon the sub- 

 ect. The preparation he is making seems to be 

 udicious, and we do not advise any departure from 

 IS course. Though in reply to his question whclh- 

 r we should use any r/uicklime, we say, yes. Per- 

 aps no advantage would be derived from it, but 

 ve should expect that its use would be quite efii- 

 acious in removing the acidity of the muck and 

 endering that better manure. The quantity of 

 alt we judge to be no greater than may be applied 

 ritlioiit danger of harm. The sea-marl or mus- 

 le-bed, which ia constantly put upon tlio lands 

 lere, is, probably, as salt as will be the compost of 

 >ur correspondent, and this marl ia one of our best 

 nanures. 



We believe there is no valuable plum in this 

 vicinity that is not subject to the disease referred 

 to.— Kn. 



" BKE-BREKDING IN THE WKST." 



This is the title of a small work by Thomas Af- 

 fleck, (yincinnnll. It was received several weeks 

 since, but it has not been convenient for us to look 

 at it until now. Wo find it interesting and instruc- 

 tive. Its main purpose is to show how, by the use 

 of the "subtended hive," bees may be kept from 

 destruction by the moth. — Though bees have al- 

 ways been on our homestead as far back as we can 

 remember, and thougli we have often ai^sisted in 

 hiving them, and in destroying them when the hon- 

 ey was to be obiained, yet our observation of them 

 has never been minute and accurate enough to give 

 us much confidence in our own ability to judge of 

 the merits of any book relating to thcin. Our opin- 

 ion, therefore, in regard to Mr Affleck's work, may 

 be of little worth — but wo were very favorably im- 

 pressed by its perusal. Its accounts of the natu- 

 ral habits of the bee, as far as we can judge, are 

 correct; and we think tliat all who arc interested 

 in this curious insect, will find in this book instruc- 

 tion enough to pay lliein well for a perusal. 



One point which tho author deems important, 

 and which he would have kept constantly in view 

 is, that the bees always work downwards. In de- 

 monstration of this he says : 



" When left to itself to seek a honie ir) the 

 woods, it pitches upon a hollow tree or a crevice 

 in the cliflTs, and commences at the extreme top, 

 there forming its first comb. As the cells are 

 formed, the Queen Mother deposites her eggs in 

 them, regularly using the new ones for this pur- 

 pose, and that only once; she rarely places an 

 egg in the same cell a second time, so long as 

 there is space for the fonnalion of new ones. So 

 soon as the young bee leaves the cell, tho workers 

 clean it out, removing every thing but the nymphal 

 robe, or white covering within which the larva; un- 

 derwent its transformation, which is pressed down 

 to the bottom and covered over with a thin coat of 

 wax. This, of course, diminishes the size of the 

 cell, which is then used for the reception of honey ; 

 while the succession of eggs, as before remarked, 

 the Queen's instinct teaches her to deposite in the 

 newly formed, full sized cells. So long as their 

 supply of food is abundant, and suflicient space is 

 allowed them bdow, they go on increasing ; but to 

 what extent has not yet been determined. It 

 seems probable that there must be a limit to the 

 procreative powers of the Queen ; and as no two 

 ((ueens can exist, in a state of freedom, in the same 

 hive, all plans which are intended to prevent their 

 following their natural mode of increase — by 

 swarming — must end in failure. 



"They thus go on, as is their habit both in a 

 wild and domesticated state, working always down- 

 ward, leaving their winter's store of honey at the 

 top of the hive, and congregating with their <|ueen, 

 round those cells which contain their eggs and lar- 

 vse. 



" It was his observation of this fact, that such 



was their invariable practice, that led the French 

 writer to whom I am indebted for the first idea of 

 the subtended hive, and who originated the two- 

 storied hive, to adopt the plan of adding his boxes 

 below, and allowing the bees to follow their iiatii- 

 ral course. In his treatise, he remarks, that " it is 

 evident, if we intend to rob bees, thus lodged in a 

 hollow tree or cleft of a rock, without injuring 

 them, we must attack the store at the top. There 

 the combs are easily removed, because the bees 

 have left them, and are busily engaged in llie low- 

 er part of the hollow or crevice, and do not even 

 perceive the theft ; nor do they sutTcr by being de- 

 prived of these upper combs, which have become 

 superfluous by the new stock of provisions, which 

 they go oh instinctively accumulating in their 

 uninterrupted descending operations. Hern the 

 whole secret of nature is laid open — how to rob 

 them without doing them the least injury." 



"Those who have adopted the plan of adding an 

 empty box on top of the peruianent hive, think they 

 have made the same discovery, and that they are 

 acting up to it. But they overlook, in their meth- 

 od, several most important facts — that it compels 

 the bees to breed, year after year in the same box ; 

 and of course they must use the same cells for the 

 repeated hatchings, which thus become continually 

 diminished in size, by the addition of two or three 

 nymphal robes in a season; until the difiereiice 

 betwcer the bees from such i. ' '"e and from a 

 thriving young one, is appa.ent to the most care- 

 less observer. Then when so managed, they breed 

 but little ; the swarms occasionally thrown off arc 

 weak and inefticient, and rarely exist through the 

 first winter unassisted." 



"The Bee Moth. About the year 1800, tho in- 

 sect now familiarly known as the " Bee-moth," first 

 made its appearance about Boston — or rather, its 

 ravages did not until that time become generally 

 complained of. It is considered by naturalists to 

 be, like the insect on which it preys, a native of 

 Europe, and if so — and we are much inclined to 

 doubt It — must have found its way here in some 

 inexplicable manner. 



"In 1*^05, it showed itself in and about Wall- 

 ingford, Connecticut, where it soon became the 

 pest of the apiaries. 



" It is noticed as being already very trouble- 

 some about Philadelphia, in 1812 — but it was not 

 until fifteen years afterwards that it showed itself 

 as far west as the Ohio line, and did not spread 

 over the State until some years after. 



« About 1630, it appeared in the vicinity of Cin- 

 cinnati. It seemed to continue its course slowly 

 and gradually westward, almost exterminating the 

 bee lis it went ; people did not know to what to as- 

 cribe the destruction. Those few, who in that day, 

 were subscribers to an agricultural paper, were 

 informed of the cause and were able to keep it 

 somewhat in check ; particularly where their apia- 

 ry happened to be on a high, airy situation. Gen- 

 erally speaking, however, its ravages were such, 

 that instead of finding the usual stock of from fifty 

 to a hundred stands round the gardens of the in- 



