188 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



After swarming a number of times they grew very 

 cross. The eighth time they came out, they were 

 extremely cross, and as soon as they were laid on 

 the ground and a hive set over them, they all rose 

 instantly and started for the woods. We kept up 

 with them in an up-hill race, some one hundred 

 rods, when they passed over a steep ascent, dense- 

 ly covered with trees and bushes, and we relin- 

 quished the pursuit, and never learned what shelter 

 they had selected, to which they were so very par- 

 tial. This was a singular case. 



Bees leave the old hive with a full meal, and are 

 generally in a good humor; and maybe attended to 

 without any danger; but they are sometimes cross, 

 and it is well for the manager to be protected in 

 difficult places, as on high trees. A friend of ours 

 who had long experience in bees, laughed at our 

 idea of having any protection in managing bees, 

 but one sad case altered his mind. He was attend- 

 ing to a swarm in the tup of a high tree, and hun- 

 dreds attacked him simultaneously, so that he was 

 glad to make a precipitate r(!treat, and he narrowly 

 escaped with his life from the furious assault of so 

 many formidable warriors. 



If the operator is well protected, he can act de- 

 liberately in difficult cases. Take a piece of mil- 

 linet about two feet long and some eighteen or twen- 

 ty-five inches wide, and a piece of other thin cloth 

 sufficient to make about three feet in width, when 

 the two edges of each are sewed to each other, in 

 the manner of a bag without top or bottom; make 

 a wide hem at one end, and run in a string. Place 

 this end over your hat, with the millinet in front, 

 and draw and tie the string above the rim. Put on 

 your hat, and place the lower part of the protec- 

 tion under your coat or jacket, and button closely 

 over it. Leave it loose over the nose. We saw an 

 operator who was protected by a thin, white hand- 

 kerchief over his face, with a close fit to the nose. 

 He treated the bees roughly, and that prominent 

 member being the only part exposed, it became the 

 centre of hostile operations by the enraged enemy. 



The best thing to protect the hands is a pair of 

 thick fringed mittens, as the bees cannot reach their 

 stings through them, and they are not sufficiently 

 firm to retain the stings. Thick leather gloves or 

 mittens will serve as a protection, but all the bees 

 tliat attempt to sting through them lose their lives, 

 as they will leave their sting behind. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FOOD FOR COWS. 



Cows, when giving milk, are more in need of 

 the care of men of understanding than are any oth- 

 er kinds of stock. Chemistry sluiws us that milk 

 is composed of a variety of properties. These prop- 

 erties vary in different kinds of milk, and in the 

 milk of different animals of the same kind. It 

 should be tlie study of the farmer to know what 

 feed will supply the wants of the cow, that she 

 mav alli)nl a good quantitv of milk which shall be 



rich in its propeities of composition, and at the 

 same time afford the animal what is needed in form- 

 ing bone and muscle. 



A cow which gives milk that is rich in the prop- 

 erties which form bone and nrascle, if kept upon 

 such feed as supplies but a scanty amount of those 

 properties, will give too much away in her milk 

 and become weak in her own frame, and early be- 

 come feeble as though old. If scantily supplied 

 with the properties which form muscle, while af- 

 fording a good supply of the muscle-forming prop- 

 erties in her milk, she will become weak and tim- 

 id. 



Calves, for their strength of frame or strength of 

 muscle, depend very much upon the properties of 

 the milk with which they are nourished. The 

 milk depends on the properties which the cow re- 

 ceives in her food; for it must be evident that a 

 cow cannot give away in her milk what she re- 

 ceives not in her food. If we would have any 

 property, say phosphate of lime, in the frame of a 

 calf, it must be in the milk which nourishes him. 

 To have it in the milk, the cow that gives the milk 

 must possess it sufficiently; it must be in her food. 

 To produce food which contains it, the farmer must 

 know what to produce. When he knows what 

 crop to produce for this purpose, he needs then to 

 know what manures to feed the soil with that he 

 may produce the desired crop. 



Most of the pasture lands in IVew England are 

 unfit for the support of cows which give milk. 

 Cows may live in them and give milk; but they are 

 dwarfish in size, and their calves suffer also in the 

 same respect; while their milk is much less in 

 quantity, and much poorer in quality. We may 

 supply ourselves with other breeds, and expect to 

 remedy the evil. But time will show that our 

 stock does not hold its own. The remedy is not 

 there. We must know more about our profession. 

 We must pay our humble tribute to science, and 

 sit down willingly at the feet of instruction. 



Thousands of farmers are desiring to improve 

 their stock of cattle. The great portion of them 

 are waiting to see the market supplied from the 

 stock which has been imported. By the time that 

 such an event shall take place, the charm will be 

 gone; for the imported stock will, in too many 

 hands, have suffered from the evils which have been 

 referred to above. New importations will be made, 

 and monstrous piices paid. But all must come un- 

 der the same blighting circumstances, until the far- 

 mers of New England go to work in the right quar- 

 ter. When we do, we shall be surprised at the 

 worth of our "native breeds." 



It is not the object of this article to disparage 

 imported breeds of cattle. A higher and better ob- 

 ject is before us. We ought to learn how to make 

 the best of what we now have. 



The new lands of the West are now in a better 

 state to produce the necessary food for cows than 

 the old lands of New England. The time is fast 

 coming, however, when science must aid the West, 

 as her aid is now needed in the East. 



The blessings which God has placed within our 

 reach are abundant, and we ought to learn how to 

 improve upon them. c. 



Mason, May IG, 1851. 



1^ A pound of beef loses one-quarter by boiling; 

 an ounce more by roasting. 



