290 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JtJNH 



bees may be confined to a small amount of room 

 during the fore part of the season, and thereby in- 

 duced to swarm early, after which more room may 

 be given them, so as to prevent their clustering on 

 the outside of the hive, and a much larger amount 

 of honey obtained than in any other hive. 



6. It affords the bees better protection against 

 the ravages of the moth and miller, and the apia- 

 rian better and more effectual means to destroy 

 them after they have entered the hive, than any 

 other. 



7. Each section is well ventilated, and the bot- 

 tom, when closed, is proof against the miller, but 

 being attached by butts, may be let down and 

 cleaned at pleasure. 



8. The bees are better protected against the at- 

 tacks of both robber-bees and millets in this hive 

 than in any other. 



_ 9. It affords better accommodations for feeding 

 either late swarms, or for obtaining honey, as the 

 arrangement is such that for robbers to gain access 

 to the feeding apparatus, they must enter a small 

 passage at the spout, and pass directly through 

 the main body of the hive. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE MONTHLY FAHMBR FOR MAY, 



With its forty-eight double-columned pages, 

 filled with Roine seventy-five articles, on nerhnns 

 twice as many subjects, and with "pictures to 

 match," is rather a lusty subject for review, to 

 one who has nut yet finished his planting, and 

 who has lost his "literary hours,'.' by having the 

 evenings cut off from the night and tacked on to 

 the skirts of the day. Yet as I do not like to give 

 up the privilege of a little chat with the readers 

 and writers of the Farmer, I will begin with, 



THE FIRST TEN PAGES. 



Editorial hints on Grafting, Soiling, Corn, and 

 Asparagus, everybody has read ; but some of us 

 have put off the suggestions till next year. The 

 next article is a nut for the man to crack who 

 knows all about plowing, — how and when. Pass- 

 ing articles on Millet, cultivation, yield, &c.; Spring; 

 Bone Wens ; Special Manures, with table of re- 

 sults, &c., we come to an article on Agricultural 

 Chemistry that is well calculated for^a sort of 

 "third man" between the combatants on this sub- 

 ject. No matter whether you laughed or scowled, 

 read it again. The writer puts spice in his things. 

 Then comes a recommendation of white birch and 

 white pine for hedges to turn cattle. How would 

 currant bushes answer? A description, with cuts, 

 of Emery's Reaping and Mowing Machine ; Honey 

 Bees ; Posts, best little end down ; account, with 

 engravings, of Guenon's mode of selecting cows by 

 their "curls ;" and More about Plowing, and our 

 first decade is completed. 



THE SECOND TEN PAGES, 



Like the first, begin with editorial hints, in which 

 the first principle of "Rawstone's Lancashire Farm- 

 ing" is, to drain off all superfluous water. I wish 

 some "Thorough-draining" man would visit my 

 place nest August and point out a few specimens 

 of this "superfluous water." Suggestions in Com- 

 posting, not from England, nor from books, but 

 from practice on a flirin in V-ermont; Choked Cat- 

 tle, remedy and prevention; Cost of different kinds 

 of Fences ; Agircultural Papers ; against Hilling 



ICorn, &c.; and cautions against buying foul seed, 

 I bring us to a New Brunswicker, who complains 

 that the name of his place is never seen in the 

 Farmer. Mr. Taylor has given the right direction 

 to his indignation. One-half of the world don't 

 know how the other half lives ; but such articles 

 give us some clue to this knowledge. Cultivation 

 of Fruit, recommended, but nothing said about 

 bugs and worms. I am afraid the curculio will yet 

 claim as great a share of our apples' as it does of 

 our plums. My apples for a year or two have been 

 badly stung. Now comes another legislative dis- 

 cussion, on the division and fencing of farms, in 

 the course of which objections are made to hedges. 

 Guano, Wire Fences, &c. Another plan for Ag- 

 ricultural Education, and some observations on 

 climate in other parts of the world, bring us to 



THE THIRD TEN PAGES. 



And here we have Birds of New England; a 

 valuable article, the most pleasing sentence of 

 which, however, is one near the bottom, in these 

 words, "to be continued." Passing Remarks on 

 Budding and Graftigg, we have Manures Again, — 

 a discussion of the question whether the nutri- 

 ment which vegetables derive from the soil, may 

 not, nearly all, be returned to the soil in the ma- 

 nure produced by feeding animals upon the vege- 

 tables. This is an important question. I am in- 

 clined to the opinion, that the cultivation of the- 

 earth gradually impoverishes the soil. Grafting 

 on the Thorn, by a new correspondent, but an old 

 orchardist, who has the independence to acknowl- 

 edge a failure, and to publish it as a caution. In 

 connection with the experience of Mr. Burt, (p. 

 204) I think Mr. Goodrich's article conclusive on 

 the subject ; certainly it is with me, for I happen 

 to know that extra pains were taken with some of 

 his thorn stalks. We will now jump over Live 

 Fences; thank "R. B. H." for his account of Ma- 

 I'yland Farming ; just say that a "practitioner of 

 medicine" recommends Sulphate of Zinc for one 

 of the dairyman's aflflictions, sore teats, and for 

 other complaints; admire Farm Accounts, by which 

 seventy-nine barrels of apples were picked, market- 

 ed, and the "lot" taken care of for $7,50, and 

 will call the valuable Analyses of Clam and Oyster 

 Shells, by the State Geologist of New York, the 

 last article in this division. 



THE FOURTH TEN PAGES. 



A discussion by our law-making farmers, on 

 Farm Buildings. Then an Artisan tells us how a 

 wooden house may be plastered and made to look 

 like granite. Of all architectural absurdities, this 

 plastering and streaking wooden houses in imita- 

 tion of stone is the most ridiculous. Observations 

 on spring work, by F. Holbrook, whose articles 

 are rather to be done about than talked about. — 

 In an article on "Shade Trees," the editor directs 

 to "set in disorder, not in linear order." Are you 

 sure of this being "good taste," Mr. Editor? I 

 know Downing says so ; but does tliat settle the 

 question? "Follow nature." Ah ! do not the ho- 

 ney bee and geometric spider follow nature? Does 

 not the rainbow as it arches the heavens, or the 

 thunderbolt as it angles across the dark cloud, fol- 

 low nature ? Would either of these become an ob- 

 ject of greater admiration were it to abandon its 

 geometric instinct, for the most commendable "dis- 

 order?" While a cow or a sheep juight plant an 

 orchard or a grove in utter confusion, may there 



