Flaces. Inches. 



Alleghany Arsenal, Pennsylvania, 28.14 



I )earbonvillc Arsenal, Michigan,.-- 31.30 



Fort Brady, Michigan, - 31.89 



" Howard, Michigan, 38.83 



" Winnebago, Michigan, _ 31.88 



" Snelling, Minnesota, -. 30.32 



'* Crawford, Wisconsin, -- 29..54 



" Leavenworth, Missouri, --- 32.68 



St. Louis .\rsenal. Missouri, 24.12 



Fort Smith, Arkansas, -- 35,64 



Fort Gibson, Arkansas, 30.64 



F©rt Towson. Arkansas,-- -- 46.73 



New Orleans Barracks, Louisiana, 51.85 



FortWood. Louisiana, 47.90 



Key West, Florida, - 31.39 



Charleston, South Carolina, 33.89 



Fort Monroe, Virginia, 52.53 



Fort McHenry, Maryland, - . - 40.80 



Washington, D. C, 34.62 



Baltimore, Maryland, 39.90 



Boston, Massachusetts 39.23 



Hanover. New Hampshire, 38. 



State of New York, 36. 



State of Ohio, - 36. 



MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE IN 1849. 



Places. FalvretiheU. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts, 47 deg. 48 min. 



New Haven, Comiecticut, 49 ** 



Rochester, New York 46 " 68 " 



Penn Van. New York, 45 " 46 " 



Newark, New Jersey, — 50 " 89 " 



Delaware county. Pennsylvania,-- 52 ** 37 ^' 



Near Louisville, Kentucky, 53 " 8 " 



Columbia. South Carolina, 61 " 62 " 



Jackson, Mississippi,-- -- 65 " 64 " 



Fort Madison, Iowa, 49 " 62 " 



BEES -Wo. 2. 



Drone.?. — The object and uses for which drones were 

 created have been a mystery, to some e.xtent, through 

 all ages. The opinions of naturalists and apiarians 

 have ever clashed on this subject. Some have 

 thought that their duty was to incubate, or hatch the 

 eggs, by sitting over the cells, thereby generating 

 the necessary heat ; others, that their presence in 

 the hive, though not located to any specific duty, 

 was requisite to generate a proper degree of anima! 

 heat to develop the young brood ; others, that a sem- 

 inal aura e.xhaled by them, and attached to the eggs, 

 imparted the life principle. The visionary theories 

 and vagaries of the ignorant were, and are at the 

 present day, wild and extravagant — some ascribing 

 to them this duty, some that duty, and some no duty 

 at all, but simply considering them a disadvantage 

 to the welfare of the apiary, and the sooner got rid 

 of the better. 



Of late years more light has dawned on this sub- 

 ject, and it is now ])retty well settled that the use of 

 drones is solely to impregnate the queens. It has 

 ever been known that they were males ; but the fact 

 that 500 or 1000 of them e.xist in every hive, threw 

 another cloud of mystery over the matter, .since but 

 one female exists. Now, the solution of this ques- 

 tion is thus unfolded: — The impregnation of the 

 queen takes place on the wing. She never leaves 

 the hive after issuing with a swarm, but once, until 

 she again issues the next season with a swarm. 

 This solitary departure from the hive is always with- 

 in three days after the hiving, and generally the next 

 day, and only occurs with yovng queens : the old 

 ones being impregnated on their first issue, continue 

 operative for life. If any one will patiently watch a 

 hive in which a swarm is placed, with a young queen, 

 (all swarms after the first,) he may discover her 



issuing, first rising a fev feet and taking a short 

 circle, and then returning, as if to mark well her 

 tenement, lest she enter a wrong hive on her final 

 return, if there be others ; then suddenly re-issuing 

 and rising in horizontal elongated circles, until lost 

 to the sight. This departure takes place between 12 

 M. and 2 P. M., at the time when the drones issue 

 and also take an atrial flight. Hundreds of drones 

 are flitting to and fro at this period, high on the wing, 

 and the queen can not fail to come in contact with 

 .some of them, and thus effect the r-hject of her flight. 

 She is absent from the hive about an hour. That 

 coition takes place on the wing, is evident from the 

 well known fact that humble bees perform their 

 amours in this way, and most, if not all other winged 

 insects. The great apparently useless number of 

 males in this case is only in accordance with the 

 wisdom of Nature in providing enough to always 

 ensure the fertility of a queen, as the prosperity of 

 the colony depends upon her immediate fertility. 

 Much may be said in further illustration of this sub- 

 ject, but my limits here forbid it. T. B. Mi.ner, 



.Author of the -imerican Bee-Keeper's ManuaJ. 

 Clinton, Oneida Co., A*. Y., 1850. 



APPEARANCE OF THE CROPS. — GEOLOGY 



Messrs. Editors : — ;! am about to recommence farm- 

 ing after the sage advice of the quaint old Richard — 

 "either hold or drive ; " and that I may drive after 

 the most approved fashion, I must have your vahiable 

 paper. Please consider my a subscriber for the year. 



I have just made a trip across the State, from the 

 Pennsylvania line, and thinking a brief description 

 of the appearance of crops might be interesting to 

 your readers, I will briefly give it. In the southern 

 section the grass ap]iears very backv/ard, owing to 

 the late spring and long continuance of cold weather. 

 Within a few weeks there has been a rapid gain ; 

 still it is quite thin, and I judge there will be a short 

 crop of hay. Corn is coming in well. The late 

 warm weather is the true corn weather — thermom- 

 eter 84*^ in the shade. The early planted is not 

 doing as well as the late — say the last of May. I 

 planted the last day of May, taking the precaution 

 to soak my seed in a solution of saltpetre, and not a 

 hill failed — hardly a kernel. It is now farther ad- 

 vanced than that planted the tenth of the month, 

 while the ground was yet cold. A late fall and warm 

 summer will give a good yield of corn. .Mong the 

 Genesee flats — these miniature prairies — this crop 

 looks better than on the hills. Oats appear well, 

 and a good quantity sowed. Of wheat I saw but a 

 few fields until I reached Portage and Huine ; in 

 Canadea, a little. The weather of the spring has 

 been favorable to this cereal — it has kept back the 

 "fly," there not being sufficient warmth to hatch 

 the eggs until the stalk was so far advanced that it 

 could not be injured by the insect. I heard no com- 

 plaint from any farmer, or in any neighborhood, from 

 this cause. From Mount Morris north, the wheat 

 looks well, except where winter-killed. 



How beautifully, Messrs. Editors, is the theory 

 developed, that the limestone rock, especially the 

 Onondaga salt group, is the true source of the wheat 

 growing soil. By traveling from the south line of the 

 State to the north, while you are on the Chemung 

 group, tipped with the conglomerate at and near the 

 State line, you will hardly hear of a field of wheat in 

 a ride of many miles. As you draw near the Ham- 



