203 



NEW ENGLAND FARMLR. 



Mat 



and pulley have been omitted by the engraver, al- 

 though in his sketch made from the machine. 



Price complete for this macliine will be about 

 one hundred dollars, vrith the warranty. 



THE HIVE AND HONEY BEE. 



In advance of publicatiun, wo liave been permit- 

 ted to look at the slioets of a forthcoming work on 

 the above subject, by the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, 

 of Greenfield, Mass. We have read them with 

 pleasure, and lielieving in their statements, as we 

 do, from our own observation of the habits of the 

 bee, we may add, with gratification and delight. 

 The descriptions are clear and concise, and are 

 strengtiiened by quotations from the ablest writers 

 on t!ie subject. We give below a single extract 

 now, and shall refer to the subject again. 



Many persons have not the slightest idea that 

 every thing may be seen that takes place in a bee- 

 hive. But hives have for many years been in use, 

 containing only one large comb, enclosed on both 

 sides by glass. These hives are darkened by 

 shutters, and when opened, the queen is exposed 

 to observation as well as all the other bees. With- 

 in the last two years, I have discovered that with 

 proper precautions, colonies can be made to work 

 in obsei ving hives, without shutters, and exposed 

 continually to the fall light of day ; so that ob- 

 servations may be made at all times, Avithout in 

 the least interrupting the ordinary operations of 

 the bees. By the aid of such hives, some of the 

 most intelHgent citizens of Philadelphia have seen 

 in my Apiary, the queen bee depositing her eggs 

 in the ceils, and constantly surrounded by an af- 

 fectionate circle of her devoted children. They 

 have also witnessed, with astonishment and de- 

 light, all the steps in the mysterious process of 

 raising queens from eggs which with the ordinary 

 development, would have produced only the com- 

 mon bees. For more than three months, there 

 was not a day in which some of my colonies were 

 not engaged in making new queens to supply the 

 place of those taken from them, and I had the 

 pleasure of exhibiting all the facts to bee-keepers 

 who never before felt willing to credit them. As 

 all my hives are so made that each comb can be 

 taken out, and examined at pleasure, those who 

 use them, can obtain from them all the informa- 

 tion which they need, and, are no longer forced 

 to take any thing upon trust. 



For the rfew England Farmer. 

 POSTS AND STAKES. 



Mr. Editor: — I have been a constant reader of 

 the New England Fanner over one year, and do 

 not recollect of seeing anything in it about setting 

 posts and stakes in fence. I had heard it stated 

 that the top end of the stick should be stuck in the 

 ground. In 1838 I took a stick 14 feet long and 

 cut it in tiie middle, setting the butt of one up, 

 and the otlur down, 12 feet apart. In five years 

 the one witli the butt down rotted off, and the oth- 

 er stands sound yet. J. Davis. 



East Barnard, Vi. 



Remarks. — The above is a model communication, 

 Mr. Davis utters his facts without preface or cir- 



cumlocution. They are read in a moment, under- 

 stood as quickly, and are worth a "mint of money." 

 The evidence is strong enough to induce any man, 

 if he will but look at it, to set his posts and stakes 

 butt-end up. 



A person writing in the Hartford Times several 

 years since, said that in taking up a fence that had 

 been set fourteen years, he noticed that some of 

 the posts remained nearly sound, while others 

 were rotted off at the bottom. On looking for the 

 cause, he found that those posts that were set 

 limh fart down, or inverted from the way they 

 grew, were sound. Those that were set as they 

 grew, rotted off. 



"A Farmer" writing in the Germantoren Tele- 

 graph in 1849, says a gentleman in one of the New 

 England States set a series of white oak posts, and 

 for the purpose of testing the theory, set every 

 other one top part down. After eight years the 

 inverted posts were sound and good, while those 

 that had been set with the butts down were, in al- 

 most every instance, decayed. 



Another person in the same State set two chest- 

 nut posts for the purpose of lianging a gate. Af- 

 ter a lapse of eighteen years lie found the one butt 

 end down very rotten, while the other, set with 

 the top end in the soil, scarcely exhibited any ap- 

 pearance of rot. 



The reason probably is, that the sap vessels are 

 filled with sap, undergo a chemical change, and 

 induce internal decay, while the moisture from 

 the earth carries on the same operation on the ex- 

 ternal parts of the wood. Or, it may be, that the 

 tubes through which the sap ascends have valves 

 or separations, to prevent tlie weight of the sap 

 from falling back, and that if the posts are set as 

 they grew the moisture would rise as did the sap. 

 While if inverted, not only would the sap flow 

 down, leaving the post dry, but no moisture would 

 rise. 



But we are not certain about this. The sub- 

 ject is important, and worthy the attention of some 

 of our scientific correspondents. 



All persons making fence will do well to re- 

 member these facts. 



TuE Cold Grapery. — This is the title of a neat 

 little book giving directions how to raise grapes in 

 houses under glass and without artificial heat. It 

 is prepared by William Ciiorlton, Gardener to J. 

 C. Green, of Staten Island, N. Y. We have read 

 it with interest, and think it will prove very use- 

 ful to those attempting to cultivate the grape with- 

 out fire. Many persons would be glad to erect 

 the building and fit it up, if in this way they could 

 succeed in cultivating the grape without the con- 

 stant trouble and expense of erecting furnaces and 

 keeping up an artificial heat. We hope that by 

 the aid this book will afford, they will be able to 

 succeed. Published by J. 0. Riker, 12i3 Fulton 

 Street, N. Y. 



