1853. 



NEW ENGLAND J<ARMER. 



431 



MORNING. 



BY H. D. WHITE. 



The morn awakes! Fresh from its sleep, 



Earth hails the fount of light, 

 And (lirough the lone ravines retire 



The sombre shades of night. 

 The flowers refreshed salute the day 

 With dewy lips and blushes g;iy, 

 While choral round'lays from the grove 

 Announce the reign of light and love. 



Above the lake the giant pines 



Stand like a phalanx grim, 

 Arranged around their bannered shrines 



In mystic worship, dim. 

 The wave's low voice — the streainlet's chime, 

 Soft murm'ring o'er departing time, 

 In measure mystic, like the hymn 

 Breathed by adoring seraphine. 



Sweet, holy scenes! Can human hearts 



Behidd thy glories and be sad. 

 When night, like gloomy doubt, departs. 



And earth in Aidenn robes is clad; 

 When from great nature's breast there flows 



Sweet inspiration for the wise. 

 And naught save beauty, joy and love, 



Salute the gaze of mortal eyesf 



Kastern Journal. 



PRAOTIOAL BEE KEEPING. 



We give below another extract from Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's work on Bees : 



The pres'^nt condition of practical bee-keeping 

 in this country, is known to be deplorably low. — 

 From the great mass of agriculturists, and others 

 favorably situated for obtaining honey, it receives 

 not the slightest attention. Notwithstanding the 

 large number of patent hives which have been in 

 troduced, the ravages of the bee-moth have in 

 creased, and success is becoming more and more 

 precarious. Multitudes have abandoned the pur 

 suit in disgust, while many of the most experienced, 

 are fast settling down into the conviction that all 

 the so-called "Improved Hives" are delusions, and 

 that they must return to the simple box or hollow 

 log, and "take up" their bees with sulphur, in 

 the old-fashioned way. 



In the present state of public opinion, it requires 

 no little courage to venture upon the introduction 

 of a new hive and system of management ; but I 

 feel confident that a new era in bee-keeping has 

 arrived, and invite the attention of all interested 

 to the reasons for this belief. A perusal of this 

 Manual, will, I trust, convince them that there 

 is a better way than any with which they have 

 yet been acquainted. They will here find many 

 hitherto mysterious points in the physiology of the 

 honey-bee, clearly explained, and much valuable 

 information never before communicated to the pub 

 lie. 



It is now nearly fifteen years since I first turned 

 my attention to the cultivation of bees. The 

 state of my liealth having compelled me to live 

 more and more in the open air, I have devoted a 

 large portion of my time, of late years, to a care 

 ful investigation of their habits, and to a series of 

 minute and thorough experiments in the construe 

 tion of hives, and the best method of managing 

 them, so as to secure the largest practical results. 



Very early in my Apiarian studies, I procured 

 an imported copy of the work of the celebrated 

 Huber, and constructed a hive on his plan, which 

 furnished me with favorable opportunities of veri- 



fying some of his most valuable discoveries ; and 

 I soon found that the prejudices existing against 

 him, were entirely unfounded. Believing that his 

 discoveries laid the foundation for a more extend- 

 ed and profitable system of bee-keeping, I began 

 to experiment with hives of various construction. 



The result of all these investigaticms fell far 

 short of my expectations. I became, however, 

 most throughly convinced that no hives were fit to 

 be used, unless they furnished uncommon "protec- 

 tion against extremes of heat and more especially 

 of COLD. I accordingly discarded all thin hives 

 made of inch stufi", and constructed my hives of 

 doubled materials, enclosing a "dead air" space 

 all around. 



These hives, although more expensive in the first 

 cost, proved to be much cheaper in the end, than 

 those I had previously used. The bees wintered 

 remarkably well in them, and swarmed early and 

 with unusual regularity. My next step in ad- 

 vance, was, while I secured my surplus honey in 

 the most convenient, beautiful and saleable forms, 

 so to facilitate the entrance of the bees into the 

 honey receptacles, as to secure the largest fruits 

 from their labors. 



Although I felt confident that my hive possessed 

 some valuable peculiarities, I still found myself 

 unable to remedy many of the casualties to which 

 bee-keeping is liable. I now perceived that no 

 hive could be made to answer my expectations un- 

 less it gave me the complete control of the combs, 

 so that I might remove any, or all of them at plea- 

 sure. The use of the Huber hive had convinced 

 me that with proper precautions, the combs 

 might be removed without enraging the bees, and 

 that these insects were capable of being domesti- 

 cated or tamed, to a most surprising degree. A 

 knowledge of these facts was absolutely necessa- 

 ry to the further progress of my invention, for 

 withoufit, I should have regarded a hive designed 

 to allow of the removal of the combs, as too dan- 

 gerous in use, to be of any practical value. At 

 first, I used movable slats or bars placed on rab- 

 bets in the front and back of the hive. The bees 

 were induced to build their combs upon these bars, 

 and in carrying them down, to fasten them to the 

 sides of the hive. By severing the attachments to 

 the sides, I was able, at any time, to remove the 

 combs suspended from the bars. There was no- 

 thing new in the use of movable bars ; the inven- 

 tion being probably, at least, a hundred years old ; 

 and I had myself used such hives on Bevan's plan, 

 very early in the commencement of my experi- 

 ments. The chief pecuharity in my hives, as 

 now constructed, was the fiicility with which 

 these bars could be removed without enraging the 

 bees, and their combination with my new mode 

 of obtaining the surplus honey. 



With hives of this construction, I commenced 

 experimenting on a larger scale than ever, and 

 soon arrived at results which proved to be of the 

 very first importance. I found myself able, if I 

 wished it, to dispense entirely with natural swarm- 

 ng, and yet to multiply colonies with much 

 greater rapidity and certainty than by the com- 

 mon methods. I could, in a short time, strength- 

 en my feeble colonies, and furnish those which had 

 lost their queen with the means of obtaining an- 

 other. If I suspected that anything was the mat- 

 ter with a hive, I could ascertain its true condition, 

 by making a thorough examination of every part, 



