1853, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



405 



THE HIVE AND HONEY BEE. 



This is the title of a new work on the Hive and 

 Honey Bee, or a Manual for Bee keepers, by Rev. 

 L. L. Langstroth, of Greenfield, Mass. 



"We have not only read the book, bat conversed 

 with the Author, with interest and delight. Hu- 

 ber, and several other writers on bees, were some- 

 what familiar to us, and we bad mingled consider- 

 ble practice witR our reading and observation, 

 and our conviction is, that the writer of this work 

 understands the habits and wants of the Bee 



This week we give an extract, and take the 

 statement of what may be done by the use of this 

 hive. 



L. L. Langstroth's Movable Comb Hive. 



Patented, Oct. 5th, 1852. 

 Each comb in this hive is attached to a separ- 

 ate, movable frame, and in less than five minutes 

 they may all be taken out, without cutting or in- 

 juring them, or at all enraging the bees. "Weak 

 stocks may be quickly strengthened by helping 

 them to honey and maturing brood from stronger 



better than any other person who has writen up- ones ; queenless colonies may be rescued from cer 



on the subject. Huber devoted eight years to a 

 study of them : our author has given a large por- 

 tion of his time to this study for sixteen years, and 

 during a considerable portion of the lime has been 



tain ruin by supplying them with the means of 

 obtaining another queen ; and the ravages of the 

 moth effectually prevented, as at any time the hive 

 may be readily examined and all the worms, &c., 



a bee master, having a personal care of numerous removed from the combs. New colonies may be 



swarms. 



We can use no language more pleasant and ap- 

 propriate than that used below by the Christian 

 Register, in noticing this interesting book. It 

 says : — "This treatise is written by one who evi- 

 dently delights in his theme, whose failing health 

 has compelled him to leave the field of theology 

 for one of Natural History, but who finds there 

 not less incitements to the highest sentiments. 

 Every line has traces of being written con amore, 

 (for the love of it.) The book will be interesting 

 and valuable to two classes of readers, 

 who delight in studies of natural history 



formed in less time than is usually required to hive 

 a natural swarm ; or the hive may be used as a 

 non-swarmer, or managed on the common swarm- 

 ing plan. The surplus honey may be taken from 

 the interior of the hive on the frames or in up- 

 per boxes or glasses, in the most convenient, beau- 

 tiful and saleable forms. Colonies may be safely 

 transferred from any other hive to this, at any 

 season of the year from April to October, as the 

 brood, combs, honey and all the contents of the 

 hive are transferred with them, and securely fas- 

 To those tened in the frames. That the combs can always 

 and who be removed from this hive in ease and safety, and 



sbould not? this work, and especially the first six 

 chapters, which treat of the "manners and cus- 

 toms" and wonderful instincts of these little peo- 

 ple, will be of special value. It details some facts 

 which would be incredible did they not seem veri- 

 fied by careful experiment. It seems that if you 

 adopt the same rule in treating with bees that 

 Shakespeare recommended in treating with irascible 

 and crusty people in general, you will never get 

 stung — that is, always approach them after din- 

 ner. Bees on a full stomach are as harmless as 

 so many flies, unless you insult them . The author 

 says too — and he is borne out fully not only by 

 his own observation but by good authority — that 

 the queen bee and the worker, so vastly different 

 in all their instincts and habits and their form and 

 organization, are yet produced from the same kind 

 of egg, all the difference being produced by the 

 difference in the food given to the larvfe — a fact 

 worth something in showing what circumstances 

 can do in producing diversity of races. 



"Another class of readers will value this book for 

 its practical lessons in the management of bees. 

 The author is the inventor of a new hive, which 

 he thinks of very great value. The book is very 

 full on the treatment, feeding and management of 

 bees, and though we cannot judge of this portion 

 from any experience we have had, we can yet say 

 that the author writes like one who thoroughly 

 understands his subject." 



that the new system, by giving perfect control 

 over all the combs, effects a complete revolution in 

 practical bee-keeping, the subscriber prefers to 

 prove rather than assert. 



Those who have any considerable number of 

 bees, will find it to their interests to have at least 

 one movable comb hive in their Apiary, from 

 which they may, in a few minutes, supply any 

 colony which has lost its queen, with the means 

 of rearing another. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE CANKER WORM. 



Mr. Editor : — In the last Farmer their is a de- 

 scription of the "Palmer worm," by Dr. Harris. 

 According to his description of the insect they are 

 the same worm which has committed such rava- 

 ges in this section, and all through this region of 

 country. They are known here by the name of 

 "canker worm," and as near as our memory ex- 

 tends they are the same worm which made such 

 destruction here in 1836. We have seen these 

 worms in small numbers, several times since that 

 period, but not to do any particular damage to 

 trees. In the eastern part of this State, near the 

 sea-shore, they have made their appearance sever- 

 al times in the last ten or twelve years. Being in 

 the northern part of this State last week, (Win- 

 chester and Norfolk,) we found that there the 

 worms had not troubled them at all. This goes to 

 prove our previous convictions that this worm does 

 most of its work near the sea-shore, extending 

 some forty or fifty miles inland. From all accounts 



