262 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



I 



an enlarged edition was published in 1847. In this 

 country tliis work has passed through more than 

 twenty editions, and it has also been republished on 

 the continent of Europe, in French and German, and 

 has secured the confidence of the farmers of this 

 country more than any work published, so far as I 

 am informed. He has published ' Contributions to 

 Scientific Agriculture,' being a summary account of 

 the proceedings and operations of the Agricultural 

 Chemistry Association of Scotland, during his con- 

 nection with it. This is a very valuable work, and 

 deserving of extensive circulation in this country. 



" Professor Johnston prepared, for schools, a Cat- 

 echism on Chemistry and Geology, which has been 

 very extensively introduced into the primary schools 

 in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and has passed 

 through twenty-two editions there. It has been re- 

 published in France, and, it is believed, in several 

 other countries of Europe. An edition has been pub- 

 lished in this country, with an introduction by Prof. 

 John P. Norton, of Yale College, who pursued his 

 studies a portion of his time with Prof. Johnston, 

 while engaged in the Agricultural Chemical Associ- 

 ation of Scotland. This is a work of great merit, 

 and has been productive of the most favorable results 

 wherever introduced. 



" Professor Johnston was invited by the New 

 York State AgricuU-.-.-ai Society, in 1848, to visit 

 this country, and deliver a course of lectures before 

 the Society, and such other associations as he might 

 be enabled to address. His connection with the 

 Chemical Association not being concluded, the invi- 

 tation was then declined. In 1849 the invitation was 

 renewed, and he appeared before an American audi- 

 ence, for the first time, at the Annual Fair of the 

 Society, at Syracuse, in September. His address 

 upon that occasion was upon the agriculture of 

 Europe, and was listened to with great interest by 

 an immense auditory. In January, 1850, he deliv- 

 ered the course of lectures which are now presented, 

 in separate form, before the Society and members of 

 the Legislature. He subsequently delivered a course 

 of lectures before the Lowell Institute, Boston ; also 

 before the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, and 

 two lectures before the American Institute of New 

 York. He made an agricultural examination and 

 survey of the Province of New Brunswick, which 

 has been published by the Provincial Legislature, 

 and which is very highly commended by gentlemen 

 of that province. 



" Professor Johnston is in the meridian of life and 

 of usefulness ; and, should his life be spared, as we 

 trust it may be for years, from his acknowledged 

 industry, his habits of thorough investigation, his 

 ardent desire to contribute to the advancement of 

 science, his labors will yet, we doubt not, result in 

 great good to the cause to which he devotes the en- 

 tire energies of hia vigorous intellect. 



" The agriculturists of America are under great 

 obligations to him for the course of lectures which 

 are about to be presented to them, and we feel as- 

 sured that they will prove of unspeakable advantage 

 to the entire agricultural interest of our country. 



" Professor Johnston is a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society of Enghnd, Honorary Member of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, Honorary Member 

 of the New York State Agricultural Society, and of 

 several of the European scientific agricultural asso- 

 ciations." 



BEES.— No. 5. 



The various styles of hives being too numerous for 

 an extended notice on each, I will merely say, that 

 all hives not conforming in size to sucli as I have 

 previously stated to be of the proper dimensions, 

 (containing about 1800 cubic inches in the clear,) 

 are unsuited for the most successful bee-culture ; 

 and any shape, except such as are as much or more 

 in breadth as in depth, are not susceptible of produ- 

 cing the greatest quantity of surplus, or box honey. 

 No man can ever, in my opinion, invent or construct 

 a hive in which bees will store up more honey than 

 in ordinary hives, only so far as he approximates to 

 the true natural size of the hive, and its proper shape^ 

 whereby the bees labor to the best advantage. Hives 

 can be simplified, and new and important modes of 

 ventilation adapted, rendering them highly valuable 

 over common boxes : and this is all that I claim to 

 have done in that of my own construction. 



There is, however, one pretended discovery in the 

 management of bees, that I can not sufTer to pass 

 without a notice. I refer to Gilinorc's plan of placing 

 the whole apiary into one domicil in common ; then 

 feeding them on some compound that only costs, as 

 he says, about three cents per pound ; from which 

 the bees rapidly make the most pure honey, even to 

 the extent of " 1200 pounds of box honey by only six 

 original stocks" I I consider this the ne plus ultra of 

 humbugs, and it deserves an extended notice for the 

 public good, and in my next I will try and do it justice. 



In answer to " J. D. C," who asks how my the- 

 ory of the queen's taking ferial flights for the purpose 

 of coition with the drones, can be reconciled with his 

 statements, I would observe, that I think he can not 

 bs positive, at this late day, whether the queen re- 

 ferred to as being found on the ground, was with a 

 first or a second swarm. He says, " it being a second 

 swarm ;" but how is it possible that he can now 

 recollect a circumstance of so trivial and unimportant 

 (at that time) a matter? It was, he says, •' iome 

 few years ago," and my theory appears to be entirely 

 new to him now. The (|uery is, how does he hap- 

 pen to recollect that it was a second swarm ? What 

 cause would he have for noticing whether it was a 

 first or a second swarm, even at the time it happened ? 

 I do not wish to discredit his statements : but it is 

 really very singular that he should know that it was 

 a second swarm at the present time. It is no easy 

 thing to be positive in such things, even at the time 

 of swarming. IIow many swarms issue and return 

 to the parent stock, unknown to the apiarian. 



He says further : " When my bees show signs of 

 disquiet on hiving them, 1 catch the queen, (or queens, 

 if more than one,) and cut one wing, and then return 

 it to its swarm." He does not say whether his "dis- 

 quiet" bees were first or after swarms, which is im- 

 portant in this case. My experience in bee-culture 

 has always shown that it is the quiet swarms that 

 need attention, as there is always danger where the 

 bees refuse to labor, and where they remain inactive ; 

 but never from an active swarm. If " J. D. C." will 

 cut the wing of a yovns^, virf^in queen, and find the 

 result ho speaks of, then I will admit that my theory 

 (not mine alone,) is unsound. Let us have a fair 

 trial next season, friend " J. D. C," and please be 

 very particular that you do not operate on old queens 

 instead of young ones. T. B. Miner, 



Author of the American Bee-Koepcr'B Manual. 



Clinton, Oneida Co., JV. Y., 1850. 



