218 



FARMERS' REGISTER— BEES— SALT ON ASPARAGUS BEDS. 



Guinea Grass, and of its immense product per acre, 

 1 determined last spring to ascertain if our climate 

 is genial to its cultivation. I therefore got a friend 

 to procure me some seed, but they came to hand 

 too late to sow, with any reasonable prospect of 

 gain ; however, I decided to make a trial, and ac- 

 cordingly 1 sowed a few seed in a box, also some 

 in a small bed in my garden the latter part of June 

 They vegetated tolerably early after sowing, and 

 the grass looks well. So much am I pleased with 

 it, I intend to procure more seed this winter, and 

 sow them, or rather plant them, if practicable, be- 

 tween the 20th January and 10th February. If I 

 succeed, I will send you some of the grass, when 

 in a proper state for using green, also some after 

 curing it. 



MOTH-WEEVIL. 



* * * * Do you know that if wheat 

 is stacked in a cool day, and put into large stacks, 

 that it will be free from weevil, or, in other words, 

 the weevil will not hatch.'' Straw being a non- 

 conducter, the heat does not penetrate into a large 

 stack, and the wheat being put into the stack when 

 cool, will remain so. You must know, too, that I 

 am of the opinion of Mr. Smith of Scotland Neck, 

 Halifax county, that the weevil is a vegetable in- 

 sect, produced not from the procreation of its kind, 

 but a spontaneous creation. For ten years I had 

 been ashamed to advance this opinion, but since I 

 saw it asserted as the opinion of Mr. Smith, I tind 

 it is not new, though singular, and I may add, very 

 extraordinary. # # # 



It would be gratifying (o many of our readers to have 

 laid before them the reasons on which this opinion of 

 Mr. Smith's is founded — as well as those which support 

 any of the other various and discordant opinions as to 

 the mysterious origin of the moth-weevil. We know 

 of some experiments now in progress, instituted for the 

 purpose of throwing light on this subject, the result of 

 which will be reported in the Farmers' Register. 



[Ed. Farm. Reg. 



QT7EKT TO RICE GROWERS MARSH MUD. 



Queen jinn's County, Maryland. 



* * * * I understand that the rice 

 growers of South Carolina and Georgia make a 

 composition, which they lay on their floors upon 

 which they thresh their rice, and which renders 

 them hard and consistent. I should be glad to be 

 informed, through the Register, what are its com- 

 ponent parts. I have, for some years past, used 

 Booth's machine for threshing my wheat: it is a 

 good macine, when in good order, but very liable 

 to accidents. I saw a machine yesterday, in ope- 

 ration, made by Cooley in Philadelphia, which, I 

 think, must be superior to all others. It has great 

 strength and simplicity, and is portable without 

 damage. Being used in the open air, a great desi- 

 deratum is to give hardness and consistence to the 

 floor, to prevent the adhesion of dirt to the wheat. 

 * * * Our lands on Wye River were 

 originally of the best quality, (not alluvion,) but 

 have been exhausted by tobacco, which has been 

 relinquished for some years past. By the applica- 

 tion of marsh mud, I have increased my crops of 

 corn and wheat fifty per cent, the first cultivation, 

 but a few crops will exhaust it.* I had used marl 

 with great effect, but was not acquainted with itsi 



durable advantages till I read your book. Last 

 winter I discovered in my low grounds some earth, 

 which, by the test you give of drying it and drop- 

 ping it into a glass of water, proved to be what is 

 esteemed marl in England. I carried out a few 

 loads this spring, and should it prove valuable, I 

 will make a communication of the result to the 

 Register, as I doubt not it is to be found all through 

 our country, and I should think also in Virginia. 



BEES. 



From Goodsell's Genesee Farmer. 



If you should consider the following plain com- 

 munication of facts worthy a place in your pa- 

 per, you are at liberiy to insert it, hoping that it 

 may prompt some other person to convert a useless 

 garret into a source of amusement and profit. 



Much has iieen written of late respecting bees. 

 Two years since I learned that bees might be kept 

 to advantage in a garret. At that time I was build- 

 ing a stone house two stories high, and directed 

 the mason to leave a whole in the end eight inches 

 wide and one and a half high, the bottom level with 

 the garret floor, having determined to give this 

 method a fair trial. I delayed putting in the bees 

 until I had a swarm last year. The swarm was 

 first put into a hive twenty inches deep and ten in 

 diameter. I placed this hive on the floor six inches 

 from the wall, and about the same distance from the 

 chimney, opposite the hole left in the wall. They 

 nearly filled the hive last year, and this season they 

 have not only completed the filling of the hive, but 

 have filled the space between the hive and the wall, 

 and also between the chimney and hive, and are 

 now building on the outside of the hive opposite the 

 chimney, and have raised the comb several inches 

 above the hive. Although the bees have increased 

 in numbers to that extent that they cover the wall 

 for two feet above the hive, yet they continue to 

 work well, and there is no appearance of their be- 

 ing disposed to swarm. I have one inconvenience 

 with them : if a door or window is open at the end 

 of the house, they sometimes enter by mistake, 

 where they often remain, as Ulmus says, " bunting 

 their heads against the windows," until they fall 

 down and die, if they are not turned out of doors, 

 I have given the bees the whole of the garret, which 

 is twenty-two by thirty-six feet : no light is admit- 

 ted, except by the hole where they enter, which 

 hole, I fear, may prove too small for them hereaf- 

 ter, shoidd they continue to increase, as it now ap- 

 pears to be filled with bees passing in and out, but 

 none are seen lying about the outlet, as is the case 

 when the common hive is used. 



LAWSON HARMON, JR. 



Wheatland, July 29th, 1833. 



STREW SALT OVER YOUR ASPARAGUS BEDS, 



The Asparagus is a native of the shores of the 

 ocean, and will bear so much salt without being 

 injured, that most of the weeds that infest the beds 

 may be destroyed in this manner. But the appli- 

 cation has other advantages ; salt is a valuable ma^ 

 nure ; and it also repels insects by its pungency ; 

 for, though we know of none that feeds on the As- 

 paragus, there are many that would otherwise j)oacA 

 and lessen the fertility of the soil. 



IMaine Farmer. 



