1853, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



27 



in the treatment of these dumb creatures, for they 

 are often beaten when doing their best, or from 

 not understanding what their masters want them 

 to do. 



The man who is driving a cart will often stop on 



not collect pollen. It goes in search of pollen 

 specially, and also for nectar. When the pollen 

 of the flower is ripe, and fit for the use of the bee, 

 there is no nectar ; when there is nectar, there is 

 no pollen fit for its use in the flower. It is gener- 



a cold winter's morning, arid fancying a glass of ally supposed, also, that the bee collects the wax 



ale will warm his inside, leave his horses standing 

 in the cold till their logs are stiff ; then he comes 

 out halt" intoxicated, feeling he has lost time, and 

 that Ids horses must make up for it. So before 

 they perceive him, for he has covei'ed their eyes 

 with hiindei-s, he gives them a great lash, and the 

 poor beasts start, and finding their legs stifi" with 

 cold, do not at first go as quick as he wishes. 

 And then he gets angry and curses the poor beasts, 

 And lashes them about the head and on the most 

 "tender parts, endangering their eyes — which are 

 very prominent — with the end of the lash. The 

 drink and the using this bad langmige, make him 

 get in a passion — for making use of angry woi-ds 

 gives rise to bad feelings — and all have an uncom- 

 iortable journey. His horses, whether his own 

 property, or entrusted to him by his master, are 

 the worse for the treatment, and the man becomes 

 brutal and hardened. 



from which it constructs its comb from some veg- 

 etable substance. This is also an error. The wax 

 is a secretion from its body, as the honey is ; and 

 it makes its appearance in small scales or flakes, or 

 under the rings of the belly, and is taken thence 

 by other bees, rendered plastic by mixture with 

 the saliva of the boos' mouths, and laid on the 

 walls of the cell with the tongue, very much in 

 the way a plasterer uses a trowel." 



For ths Neio England Farmer. 



HAlSiHG AND SELLING MILK. 



Mr. Editor : — I notice an article in your pa- 

 per of the 9th inst.; containing some very perti- 

 nent inquiries and just reflections upon the sub- 

 ect of " Raising and Selling Milk." I am but a 

 novice in the j?raUical business of farming, but 

 believing in the doctrine of '■^progression," I am 



Now a merciful man is kind to his beast, and ajan£ious°to learn whatever may truly advance the 



really good driver knows that creatures that are 

 kindly and steadily treated do better and go more 

 willingly. I rode outside the Free Trader one 

 morning. It had three fine horses harnessed to 

 it. Tiio driver mounted his box, and put his long 

 whip into a hole in the box, buttoned his coat, and 

 called (chick, tckich. Away the horses set off and 

 went willingly and briskly, till he saw a passenger 

 waiting to get into the coach, "Wo — wo!" he 

 cried out. Immediately they stopped and the man 

 ^ot in. "Right!" The docile creatures pricked 

 up their ears and off they set again. The same 

 thing was repeated many times, and the horses 

 always obeyed directly. The man looked proud 

 of the fine obedient creatures in such good train- 

 ing, and the whip had an idle life of it, for they 

 went far more willingly without it. 



HONEY BEES. 



The ^Ibany Cultivator has an interesting article 

 ■Qn honey bees, from the pen of a distinguished pro- 

 fessor, from which we quote the following para- 

 grapii : "Many — nearly everybody — suppose that 

 the bee eulls honey from the nectar of the flowers, 

 and simply carries it to its cell in the hive. This 

 is not correct. The nectar it ccdleets from the 

 flower is a portion of its food or drink ; the honey 

 it deposits in its cell is a secretion from its mellific 

 or honey-secreting glands, (analogus to the milk- 

 secreting gland of the cow and other animals.) If 

 they were the mere collectors and transporters of 

 honey from the flowei's to the honey-comb, then 

 we would have the comb frequently filled with 

 molasses, and w!\enever the bees have fed at the 

 molasses hogshead. The honey bag in the bee per- 

 lorms the same functions as the covv''8 bag or ud- 

 der, merely receiving the honey from the secreting 

 glands, and retaining it until a proper opportuni- 

 ty presents for its being deposited in its appropri- 

 ate storehouse, the honey-comb. Another eiTor 

 is, that tlie bee collects pollen from the flowers 

 accidentally, wliile it is in search of honey. Quite 

 the contrary is the fact. The bee, while in search 

 .of «ectar,or honey, as it is improperly called, does 



interest and happiness of the farmer. Experience 

 is said to be a dear school, and therefore he is 

 wisest who learns from the experience of others. 

 But it often appears to me that farmers, above all 

 other men, pay most largely for their schooling, 

 while many are but little disposed to profit from 

 the one source or the other. 



I live in a town which is said by some to 

 produce more milk for Boston market than any 

 other town in the State. Be that as it may, most 

 of the farmers here raise milk to sell. When I 

 commenced farming I determined to know for my- 

 self the relative advantage of selling milk and 

 making butter. Having made a sufficient number 

 of experiments under varying circumstances, I 

 found the mean quantity of milk required for a 

 pound of butter to be nine quarts. This quan- 

 tity, at the price paid here in summer, would 

 amount to eighteen cents. I determined to make 

 butter rather than sell my milk. The inquiry 

 made by your correspondent is, Does it pay to 

 raise milk to sell at 2 or 2 1-8 cents per quart ? 

 From what little experience I have had, I should 

 answer an emphatic no ! And I will give a rea- 

 son or two for the " faith that is in me." 



First of all, keeping a stock of cows and selling 

 their milk, carries a large amount of yearly pro- 

 duct clearly from the farm, without any return in 

 fertilizing compensation to the land, unless pur- 

 chased with the proceeds of the milk from foreign 

 sources. This no man would think of doing who 

 raises milk to sell at 2 or 2 1-8 cents per quart. 

 The result therefore of selling milk from a farm 

 at such prices, is the impoverishment of the farm 

 as surely as would be the selling of the greater 

 portion of its yearly product of hay. Another 

 fact in connexion with the selling of milk from a 

 farm, which largely contributes to this impoverish- 

 ing result, is, that farmers who sell their milk 

 raise little, if any pork, and are therefore deprived 

 of the valuable labor of swine in the manufacture 

 of manure. 



If a farmer cannot afford to purchase manure 

 whereby to compensate his land for the product of 

 milk taken from it, then it is clearly a losing busi- 



