NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the A^cw England Farmer. 

 COLONIZING BEHS. 



BY P. L. CONVERSE. 



Gentlemen: — I saw in a late Farmer, a com- 

 munication from J. Brown, in relation to coloniz- 

 ing- bees, which he seems to think is the best way 

 of managing them; and as I differ with him in 

 opinion, permit me to state my objections, hoping 

 it will lead able pens to give iis more light on the 

 subject. 



In the first place, he says, "they did very well 

 till he got six or eight hives, then the stronger 

 swarms would often rob the weaker." In reply, 

 I would say, there is no necessity of having weak 

 swarms; if instead of the prevailing fashion of di- 

 viding swarms, and crowding out weak swarms 

 and casts, (that are good for nothing themselves 

 and only weaken the parent stock) it siiould be the 

 fashion to take exactly the opposite course, and 

 double weak and moderate swarms, (which is very 

 easy and practicable) and prevent their swarming 

 as much as possible, there would be no occasion to 

 complain of so much robbing as is common. . 



Bees will sometimes, under the best manage- 

 ment, engage in fighting and robbery, and if your 

 correspondent is troubled that way, I will tell him 

 the means by which I escape the most of the evil, 

 never having had a swarm robbed and but very 

 little fighting. In the latter part of summer, as 

 soon as flowers begin to fail, I commence closing 

 up the entrances of all my hives by degrees, by 

 means of a slide, before fighting is likely to take 

 place, until in the height of the robbery season, I 

 leave scarcely an inch open, and if they need air 

 I give it to them inside the house. I have found 

 by experience that they will rarely attack a very 

 small hole, with a moderate number of guards 

 around it, unless excited by previous success. 



In the next place, as to sinothering them with 

 brimstone, killing the bees and spoiling the honey, 

 I think there is a better mode. The method I use 

 is as follows, viz : — I enter my bee-house, close 

 the doors and windows, take the hive from the 

 shelf, smoke two or three whiffs of tobacco smoke 

 into the hive, keep it closed a few minutes, turn it 

 bottom upwards, cut out the comb, knocking the 

 bees on to the floor — (they cannot fly because they 

 are drunk,) as I proceed, I take the queen bee 

 away from the swarm, collect the whole in a box, 

 put them over another swarm, and the operation 

 is completed, having saved your honey free from 

 smell, and your bees from death, to be useful to 

 you the next spring. In the next place, as to col- 

 onizing, he says, "in the summer of 1836, he put 

 a swarm into a house, and took 145 pounds from 

 them in one year," without saying how much he 

 took in the other years. 



Let us examine the case. Bees under good man- 

 agement will usually average one good swarm 

 each year, from each hive, and each such swarm 

 usually swarms the next season. Suppose the 

 swarm of 1836 had been put into a common sized 

 hive, and been suffered to swarm once a year after- 

 wards, how would the matter stand now in point of 

 profit? 



In 1810 they would have increased to 16 swarms; 

 allowing those 10 swarms to afford only 8 swarms 

 per year to keep the stock good, he would have 

 4 swarms each year to sell, worth $5 each, with- 

 out the hive, and as each stock hive will make at 

 least 10 pounds per year, which will amount to 



160 pounds, worth one shilling per pound, at 

 wholesale, worth say $26,00, he would gel year- 

 ly $16,00, instead of 145 pounds, worth $24,00, 

 and no swarms, and that, too, without running the 

 risk of losing the entire stock by any single casu- 

 alty that might happen. 



It will be recollected, that this calculation, 

 (which I believe from experience is below the av- 

 erage) is made near Boston, where probably not 

 one-half the honey can be made per swarm, that 

 can be made in Maine, wiiere the other method is 

 tried. 



One of my neighbors has tried this method in 

 the way your correspondent describes, and the re- 

 sult is as follows: — 



The bees have been'colonized 8 or 10 years, and 

 the yearly profit is about 15 or 20 lbs. of honey, 

 and of course no swarms, while the bees have not 

 increased beyond the size of a good strong swarm. 



Writers on bees are almost invariably against 

 the practice, and certainly my own observation and 

 experience teaches me that it is not profitable. 

 Yours, p. L. c. 



Wohurn Centre, Nov. 1, 1851. 



Remauks. — In order to a full understanding 

 of his operations, our correspondent should state 

 how his Bee House is constructed, how he gets 

 light to work by to find the Queen Bee, &c. — 

 These minute particulars are important to those 

 who wish to adopt a new mode of procedure. 



Fnr the New Enu'land Farmer. 



POTATOES AND POTATO ROT. 



BY A. G. COMINGS. 



In my last communication upon the subject of 

 the disease among potatoes, it was my aim to set 

 forth distinct peculiarities which I had observed, 

 hoping thereby to render some service to cultivators 

 of this root. I have no confidence that any man 

 can search out the cause of it, entirely. Like the 

 numerous diseases to which man is subject, predis- 

 posing causes may be ascertained; but the produc- 

 ing cause will yet, in a great proportion of cases, 

 remain a mystery. The wind blows where it 

 pleases, but its course is known only by the effects 

 produced by its progress. So, in a measure, are 

 pestilences; whether the animal or the vegetable 

 kingdom furnishes the victims. The diseases of 

 vegetables are not more within the power of man's 

 knowledge than diseases which afflict animal life. 

 But to the subject. 



At the time of writing my last communication, 

 where the tops of my potatoes remained so green 

 and fair that no one would suppose them to be dis- 

 eased, the tubers had been diseased for more than 

 three weeks. At the expiration of about four 

 weeks from the time I first discovered any in the 

 second stage of disease, that is, the decayed part 

 dark colored, there came a shower of rain upon 

 them; following wiiich, in less than forty-eight 

 hours, the tops began to turn dark colored, and in 

 a very short time not a green leaf could be found. 

 The shower was so light that it did not wet the 

 soil to the depth of an inch. By a full and crit- 

 ical examination, I found that the tubers were not 

 affected injuriously by the shower, while the tops 

 appeared to have been killed by it. It is my opin- 

 ion that the disease was inevery part, tubers, stalks 



