350 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



(if the lot, a distance of 35 rods. Then it was just 

 touched sufficiently to guide it round to the next 

 farrow, when it set itself, and went through with- 

 out a hand being touched to it. This is a quality 

 which has long been desired, and it is manifest that 

 ihe plough which can do its work well without be- 

 iniT held has little need of any other recommenda- 

 tion. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "MONSIEUR TONSON COME AGAIN." 



In the Lowell Courier of last week is published 

 a supplementary aigument in support of Mr. Whip- 

 ple's theory of insect depredations on the potato, 

 in which it is inferred from the fact that the 

 ■'grasshopper has sometimes destroyed entire fields 

 of grass or grain," that like destiuction may be 

 brought upon the potato, by insects. 



If this grasshopper illustration is rightly com- 

 prehended, it amounts to this, and no more. 

 Grasshoppers have always been here. Occasion- 

 ;iliy they eat up all the leaves of grass, rye, &c. 

 In like manner, aphides have always been here, — 

 but only for a few years have they depredated to 

 any considerable extent upon the potato. Hence 

 aphides are the cause of the potato rot. This is 

 what logicians would demonstrate a non sequitur. 



Are tiiere not two points in this argument thai 

 require confirmation 1 First, that aphides have 

 never injured the potato so much as since the oc- 

 currence of the potato rot; and second, that this 

 injury is the true cause of the rot. The assump 

 tion that aphides do more injury now, than liere 

 tofore, is altogether gratuitous. It may well be 

 asked what possible connection have aphides, or 

 any other insects, with potato rot'? Numerou!^ 

 '.•ases have been reported and come within our own 

 observation, where the whole crop of potatoes has 

 appeared perfectly sound, when first dug, and 

 where the potatoes proved good in cooking; but 

 months afterwards, the rot has been developed in 

 those in the cellar. Will it be said that this rot 

 was occasioned by the depredation of aphides or 

 any other insect 1 I am not surprised that the 

 scientific gentlemen who have taken part in this 

 potato discussion, have left the field to the exclu- 

 sive occupation of the gentlemen from Lowell; 

 who, if I do not mistake, are one of that class of 

 disputants, "although vanquished, can argue still." 



I trust they will pardon the suggestion, that pos- 

 sibly the argument may be so far extended tvithont 

 point, as to become as offensive as the roi itself. 

 October 2nd, 1851. * 



gave the honey and comb a disagreeable taste, and 

 I wanted some better mode to get the honey and to 

 save the bees. I went to work in the winter of 

 1835 and prepared my stuff for a house 8 feet by 

 10, to put my bees in the next summer, which I 

 did, and have kept them there ever since; the in- 

 side of the house I put up shelves, say 12 inches 

 wide and 12 inches apart, then I put the bees on 

 the shelf, and they went to work and have contin- 

 ued to work well. I put another swarm in the 

 other corner of the house, but the first one soon 

 robbed them; so I have kept only one swarin. I 

 have taken 145 lbs. of new white comb made the 

 same year, worth 12 1-2 cents per lb. I will say, 

 here, that it would be unnecessary to build a house 

 for bees, as it would be more expense than to finish 

 a room in the gable end of your barn or tlie attic 

 of your house and make it tight. The advantage of 

 a house is, you are not troubled w'ith their swarm- 

 ing, because they have room enough to work, and 

 when the weather gets cold the bees go into the 

 middle of the comb; then you may go in and cut off 

 as inuch comb as ycu want, only be sure and leave 

 enough for theni to live on till the next season. 

 Now I suppose our friend Conant would like to 

 know how I put iny bees into the house. Well, 

 sir, I took an old hive and nocked the top off, took 

 the cross sticks out, then I tied the top on so as to 

 keep it in place, then when my bees swarmed I 

 put this hive over them, and they soon went up in- 

 to it; at night I took them into the house and 

 slipped the top off, then I took a wing and brushed 

 them on the shelf. J. Brown. 



S. Thomaston, Me., Sept. 22, 1851. 



For the Nciv England Farmer. 



MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



Mr. Cole: — I have the last Farmer before me. 

 I see our friend B. F. Conant, in Lyme, N. H., 

 wants infoimation from those that keep bees before 

 he gives us his own experience; however, I will 

 szive him the history of my keeping bees. I be- 

 g:in to keep them about 1821 or 1822, in the old 

 iiishioned hives; they did very well till I got six 

 'ir eight hives, then the stronger swarms would of- 

 ien rob the weaker ones, and sometiines they 

 Aouldswam late and often go off, and I lost them; 

 :ii other times they would swarm when I was not 

 ■ I li'tine, and lose them; then in the fall, come to 

 i.'.!-;e them up and smother them with brimstone, it 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TO PREVENT MICE GNAWING TREES. 



Mr. Cole: — I have seen in your paper and in 

 the Boston Cultivator a remedy for keeping the 

 mice from gnawing apple trees; but I have not 

 seen my remedy spoken of, and that is, to tread 

 down the first two snows all round the trees, hard; 

 that is the way I serve my trees and I never had a 

 tree gnawed yet, while my neighbors have had 

 hundreds spoilt by mice. You take my word for 

 it, and I will warrant all trees that are served in 

 like manner, in the country where I live when at 

 home; the snow falls from two to four feet deep; 

 a neighbor of mine teamed wood across his field 

 last winter, and he told ine the mice did gnaw the 

 grass roots each side of the path; but they did 

 not trouble the grass in the path. If you think 

 this remedy worthy of notice, you can lay it be- 

 fore your readers, if you please. 



A subscriber, and well v.isher to your payer. 

 Andrew W. Sanborn. 



Sanbornton, N. H. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WHEAT. 



Mp. Editor: — Farmers in this vicinity in for- 

 mer years raised their "bread-stuff," almost uni- 

 versally, but since the "weevel" has been so de- 

 structive, the wheat culture has been abandoned by 

 many, and most have depended on the West for 

 their flour. I have sowed a little with hardly any 

 success fur six years past until the last season. On 

 the first day of April last, I sowed a bushel on a 

 high elevation, the poorest land I cultivate; and I 

 have a fair crop, of more worth than I could have 



