FARMERS' REGISTER— MANAGEMENT OF BEES IN CASHMERE. 677 



raised by this plan in the summer lime is almost 

 incredible, and manure of the vertj best quality. 

 For the first two or three years a farmer may com- 

 plain of the want of straw for this purpose ; it he 

 has not i^'ot it, let him l)uy it from titiie lakers, (as 

 lono; as the system lasts,) or wherever he can meet 

 with it; no money that he spends will pay him 

 better in the end ; after the first two or three years, 

 he will have no occasion to buy straw; for his own 

 land, by gradual improvement, will yield a suffi- 

 cient quantity for all his purposes. It is a most 

 profitable work to carry fern from the mountains; 

 I should strongly recommend every farmer who 

 has it in his power to do so; nothing will pay him 

 better for his labor; by these means, and an ex- 

 tensive growth of succulent ibod, he will raise 

 large heaps of manure, the grand basis of the sub- 

 ject under consideration. 



" Another great advantage of vetches still de- 

 Serving notice, is the vast benefit derived from 

 them in a dry summer. When the little food that 

 the pastures supply, has been either eaten up or 

 scorched by the intense heat of tlie sun, what an 

 advantage at such a time as this, must it be to a 

 farmer, to have a reserve field of most nutritious 

 and luxuriant food, from which to suj)ply the wants 

 of his stock of all kinds. He may either feed 

 them within doors with the vetches, or spread 

 them in small heaps in the burnt up-field ; in either 

 way, all sorts of cattle will eat them greedily and 

 thrive well upon them. I have tried both ways, 

 and each answered, l)ut the former is the prefera- 

 ble plan (for every animal, excepting milch cows) 

 on account of the manure raised by it. It may be 

 observed that they are excellent things for causing 

 the secretion of milk ; and for store pigs and 

 breeding sows, I must once more impress upon 

 my readers, that nothing can excel them. The 

 last observation to be made upon this most valua- 

 ble of all crops is, that farmers should not confine 

 it to a paltry quarter or half acre of land, but in- 

 troduce it upon an extensive scale ; to every forty 

 acres he holds, let him grow five of vetches, say 

 two of spring and three of winter vetches, and if 

 he finds tliat there is likely to be more than he can 

 consume, (which ought not to be the case,) he 

 may allow the surplus to ripen its seed.'"' 



MANAGEMENT OF BEES IN CASHMERE. 



From the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 



Every farmer in Cashmere has several bee- 

 hives in his house, and in some houses I have 

 counted as many as ten. A provision is made for 

 these in building the house, by leaving appropri- 

 ate cavities in the wall,and which somewhat differ 

 in size, but agree in their general form, each be- 

 ing cylindrical, and extending cjuite through the 

 wall. The tube thus formed is lined by a plaster- 

 ing of clay mortar, about an inch in tliickness, and 

 the mortar is worked up with the chaff or husk of 

 rice, or the down of thistles, which latter is em- 

 ployed for clay mortar in general, being the first 

 application of^ this substance to the use of man 

 which I have j^et witnessed. The dimensions of 

 a hive are, on an average, about fourteen inches 

 in diameter, and when closed at both ends, about 

 twenty or twenty-two inches in length. The end 

 of the cylinder nearest the apartment is closed by 

 a round plaster of red pottery ware, a little con- 

 vex in the middle, but with the edges made flush 

 with the wall by a luting of clay mortar, and the 



other extremity is shut by a similar disk, having 

 a circular hole about a third of an inch in diameter 

 in the centre. — It doe.s not appear that there is any 

 jnirticular rule for the height of these hives from 

 the ground, as they are sometimes contmed to the 

 walls of tlie lower basement story, generally ap- 

 propriated to cattle in the fiirm-houscs of Cash- 

 mere ; others are inserted into those of the first 

 floor, and are frequently in both situations in the 

 same house, as well as the walls of its outbuildings. 

 So great difference exists betwixt the practice or- 

 dinarily pursued in Cashmere and in Euroj)e, in 

 respect to hiving new swarms when the honey is 

 taken, that it deserves imitation. Although the 

 season (or taking the honey had passed when I 

 visited Cashmere, in the beginning of November, 

 the cottagers indulged my wish of seeing the pro- 

 cess by which this was efTected, but with little in- 

 jury to the bees, and with perfect safety to the in- 

 dividuals concerned in its management, and which 

 was as follows : — Having in readiness a wisp of 

 dry straw, and a small quantity of burning char- 

 coal in an earthern dish, the master of the house, 

 with a few strokes of the point of the sickle, dis- 

 engaged the inner plaster of the hive, bringing 

 into view the combs suspended from the roof of 

 tlie hive, and almost wholly covered with bees, 

 none of which, however, offered to resent the ag- 

 gression, or to enter the room. Having placed 

 the straw upon the charcoal, and*liolding the dish 

 close to the mouth of the hive, he blew the smoke 

 strongly against the combs, but removed the dish 

 the instant the straw took fire, to prevent it burn- 

 ing the bees, and quenched the flame before he 

 employed it again. Almost stifled by the smoke, 

 the bees hurried out of the outer door with such 

 rapidity, that the hive was cleared of its inhabi- 

 tants within a few minutes, Avhen the farmer, in- 

 troducing the sickle, cut down the combs nearest 

 to him, which were secured into a dish previously 

 sliddeii underneath them, and left undisturbed 

 about one-third of the combs, which were almost 

 close to the outer door. He then replaced the in- 

 ner plaster, and brushing off hastily a few bees 

 that clung to the combs, though apparently in a 

 state of stupefaction, threw them out of the house. 

 Observing many other bees lying motionless on 

 the floor of the hive, I inquired whether they 

 were dead or only stupified, and was answered 

 that tlicy would recover; preparations for contin- 

 uing my journey at a very early hour on the fol- 

 lowing morning, having unluckily prevented my 

 examining the spot where they had been thrown 

 out, until poultry had for some time been feeding 

 near it. — The expelled bees i-eturned as soon as 

 the cavity was freed from smoke, without stinging 

 a single individual, and the whole business was 

 completed in less than ten minutes, without, as 

 was asserted, any }>erceptible loss. The honey was 

 light colored, and of a taste as pure and sweet as 

 that of Narboime. It possessed less of the cloying 

 quality generally attending this substance, than 

 any other I recollect to have met with ; nor could 

 I learn that the farmer had any suspicion of its 

 ever being intoxicating or poisonous, as in the 

 case occasionally with that made by the Bhoura 

 (y/yjfs iritabilis), or large wild bee in the northern 

 mountains of Gurwhal, from feeding, as it is re- 

 ported, on the flower of the monkhoocl. I Avas di- 

 rected more particularly to inquire upon this sub- 

 ject, by having observed this plant in flower in 



