406 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



■would know for coilain, and thus contented, 

 I never made an examination until witliin a 

 short time and this is what I found to be the 

 case : 



If you watch bees on red clover, you will flud 

 their actions entirely dilferent from what they 

 are on tlie white, lor they will Ijury nearly half 

 the body in the head of clover: they certainly 

 do not try to get at the nectar by probing the 

 calyx, for the corolla and tlie calyx are united, 

 and the uectar is in the lower part of the tube 

 of the corolla. After a few days I found that 

 wherever a bee alighted on red clover, the 

 tulje of the corolla was pierced right above the 

 calyx, and from this point the nuich coveted 

 nectar could easily bo readied, and, in fact, on 

 sucking at such lubes no sweet taste could be 

 discerned, while it \ras very apparent in those 

 not so pierced. 



Another thing I observed in connection with 

 tlie aliove, and that is, that black bees will go 

 at red clover, but the majority of them I 

 found to be the yellow Italian. 



The piercing of flowers* I found to be the 

 case a few years ago on a honeysuckle, and I 

 think I read an account of it in a paper of last 

 summer. ., ' ■ ' 



I believe that bees sometimes will not gather 

 polleu when it can be oljtained in large quan- 

 tities. I have found this sprint;, tliat wherever 

 th(?Te"was a poison ivy {Rhus ToxicochmlroH 

 or radicans) of rather large size, a loud hum- 

 ming at the time of the flowers opening, but 

 the noise is chiefly made by bumble bees, wood 

 bees, &c., and have found in my observation, 

 only one bee (an Italian) that gathered the 

 pollen, which is of a deeji reddish orange (an- 

 natto) color and produced very aliundantly. It 

 maybe that the bees consider the white clover 

 honey -harvest of more importance because the 

 two come into bloom at the same time, and as 

 polleu can be gathered nearly any time during 

 warm weather, they leave the gathering of 

 pollen for more important affairs. 



I have been told by some persons, and I 

 think I have seen it in print, that when bees 

 commence on a certain kind of flower they 

 gather from that kind only until they are 

 loaded. That this is not tlie case I know to 

 be true, for this sjiring I have seen bees pass 

 from flowers of false tlax {Crurelinu sativa) to 

 those of turnip (Brassica rapa). In clover I 

 have usually found the bees to remain on the 

 red when they conmienced on that, and if on 

 white they would stay on the white and never 

 pass on to the red, though they would go from 

 the white to the alsike. From this I take it 

 that some bees do not know anything about 

 the irianner of getting honey fr(mi red clover 

 and for this reason only do tliey not pass from 

 one to the other. I think, too, that if certain 

 flowers are very abundant, that the bees may 

 keep to that particular kind, though there 

 may be three or four dilferent kinds as plenty 

 as the one on which it haiipens to alight at 

 first. Tills may have originated the delusion 

 that the bee will only gather from one kind of 

 flower, Init I am certain that in a time of 

 scarcity they take them as they come. — A B. 



For The Lancaster Fa km ek 

 HINTS FOR NEW BEGINNERS IN 

 RURAL LIFE. 

 The cropping in the kitchen garden may 

 now take place, if required. Sow seeds of 

 white-tlcshed turiiii>s (the red top is still the 

 best). iSow fall radishes and spinach for fall 

 us(^ Transplant broccoli, endive, celery, and 

 late cabbages of all sorts, peppers, &c. Phuit 

 seeds of cucumbers and liusli beans for late 

 fall use and for pickling. Drills should be 

 made for all transplanted plants as deep as 

 are made tVir bush beans. The weather in 

 August is generally hot and dry ; transplanted 

 ])lants require waterings frequently until they 

 make new fibres to sustain themselves, and 

 if set in shallow drills, the waterings are more 

 expeditiously applied, and tlie waters lodge 

 more about the roots and benelit them more. 

 Flat lands bordering upon the sea coa.st 

 and large rivers and lakes, will naturally be 

 more moist than high inlands, and the atmos- 



phere will also be moist, so that the 'night 

 dews will benefit tlie plants ; therefore less 

 artificial waterings are needed ; and most of 

 the crops may be transplanted upon the flat 

 surface ; so the practice in one location W(.)uld 

 fail in another. [It takes two years to grow 

 full onions at Pliiladelphia and southward, 

 whereas at New Yoik and northward very 

 huge onions are produced from seeds in seven 

 mouths ; so much for difference of atmos- 

 phere, soil and climate. '-I 



Insects and weeds will be plenty this month, 

 so a peipetual war must be kejit up to ex- 

 terminale them. Where there is not time to 

 hoe weeds up, cut them down with a scythe 

 or grass hook, to prevent them from bearing 

 seeds, and destroy insects' nests to prevent 

 propagation. 



In the pleasure grounds the lawn grass 

 should not lie often mowed in hot, dry 

 weather. All erect-growing flowers show to 

 better advantage when tied up to neat sticks. 

 Climbers should be trained to trellises. Let 

 creeping plants spread over the surface ; uip 

 otf their outer ends, and they will branch and 

 bloom more freely. C'oleus and silver-lefived 

 plants and Alternanthera should be cropped 

 in, occasionally, by cutting ofl' the points of 

 the shoots, to make them grow more massy, 

 and thereby prevent them from making flower- 

 stalks, as their foliagd is their beauty. Fading 

 bhioms upon all kinds of plants shoidd be cut. 

 otf, as the plants ^vill thus the better enlarge 

 their growths and bloom more profusely in 

 their usual seasons. Gladiolus, lily, tigridiaand 

 other roots grow larger if the fading blooms 

 are cut off, to prevent them from bearing 

 seeds, and many of the fibrous-rooted flowers 

 may be made to bloom nearly the whole grow- 

 ing season if jirevented from bearing seeds. 

 Most of the ever-blooming roses will be kejit 

 in perpetual bloom by cutting oft' the fading 

 flowers. Artificial waterings are necessaiy 

 in hot, dry weather, and more especially lately 

 transplated trees, shrubs, etc., if a large cask 

 is half sunk in the ground and filled with 

 water, and a few pounds of guano put into it 

 and well stirred, the water will be fertilizing 

 as well as refreshing. — W. E. 



ARTIFICIAL TOBACCO. 



The Hriniiijk Ainerican has the following 

 statements which are illustrative of the pro- 

 gress of invention in imitating the products 

 of nature. If we are to eat oleomargarine 

 butter, we do not know why we should not be 

 satisfied with paper cigars: 



Tobacco leaves for the manufacture of 

 Havana cigars are now being produced in 

 New York, thanks to the industr}' of some of 

 our citizen.s, aided by the progress of chemical 

 science. The material used is a kind of brown 

 wrapping paper, made of straw especially for 

 this purjiose. The jiaper, after coming from 

 the mill, is saturated with the juice pressed 

 from the tobacco stems and other offal ; then 

 the sheets are rolled through a machine, 

 which gives them the perfect appearance of 

 the tobacco leaf, anil the peculiar spots are 

 printed on them as on calico. The paper 

 thus priijiared is especially adapted for wrap- 

 pers around the cigars, and is such an inqn'ove- 

 ment on the natural tobacco leaf (being much 

 stronger, more economical, and easier of man- 

 ipulation) that the Havana eigariuakers desire 

 no other wrapping for cigare, and import it 

 largely from New York ; and no Havana 

 steamer leaves here at present without taking 

 out quantities of it. These figure up, accord- 

 ing to some authorities, to 5,0()0 reams in one 

 cargo, and occasionally as much as 30,0()() 

 reams of this artificial tobacco leaf has been 

 exported. 



It is stated that this tobacco flavored straw- 

 paper makes also a filling sujierior to the genu- 

 ine leaf ; and it is impossible to detect the 

 delicate film of i)ai>er interlapped with some 

 broken leaves of real tobacco in the finished 

 cigar, which the iiaper so very neatly holds in 

 form. JJesides this, the paper leaves no resi- 

 duum other than a pure light gray or nearly 

 white ash, just like that of the best quality of 

 tobacco. 



APPLES. 



There is scarcely an article of vegetable food 

 more widely useful and more universally liked 

 than the ajiple. Why every farmer has not 

 ail a]>ple orchard where the trees will grow at 

 all is one of the mysteries. Let every family, 

 in autumn, lay in from two to ten, or more, 

 barrels, and it will be to them the most eco- 

 nomical investment in the whole range of culi- 

 naries. A raw, rnellmo ajqde is digested in an 

 hotirand a half, whilst boiled cabbage requires 

 five lioiu-s. The most healthful desert which 

 can be placed on the table is a baled apple. If 

 taken freely at breakfast, with coarse bread 

 and butter, without meat or flesh of any kind, 

 it has an admirable eft'ect on the general sys- 

 tem, often removing constipation, correcting 

 acidities, and cooling ofl: febrile conditions 

 more effectually than the most apjjroved medi- 

 cines. If families could be induced to substi- 

 tute the apple — sound, ripe and luscious — for 

 the pies, cakes, candies and other sweetmeats 

 with which their children are too often indis- 

 creetly stuffed, there w6illd be a diminution of 

 doctor's bills, sufllcient in a single year, to lay 

 in a stock of this delicious fruit for a whole 

 season's use. . :i ... 



This was the opinion of Prof. Farraday as 

 to t)he use of this fine fruit ; and from a poet 

 scribbler of his era, we produce a portfolio 

 sentiment, which we designate "A Frag- 

 ment," on the love-memorial tree which pro- 

 duces them : 



THE OLD APPLE TREE. 



A FRAGMENT. 



Yes! it was very beautiful, even in the brick- 

 red city; for the swallows had come back again, 

 and the air was filled with the song of birds 

 and with the laughter of children, and with 

 the many hmisehold noises that came through 

 the once-raore-opened windows ; for it was the 

 Soring time, and lovely thoughts and fancies 

 tliat had lain, like the flower roots, buried 

 under the frost and sno\v, sprang up, all blos- 

 soming in people's hearts, and looked out lov- 

 ingly from their eyes. 



And there w"as a great old apple tree that 

 stood in a little yard, stretching out its long 

 arm into the street, so loaded with rose-white 

 blossoms that one could scarcely see the deli- 

 cate green leaves that were unfolding them- 

 selves in the seeming moonlight of the bloom- 

 ing boughs. Old men looked up as they passed 

 under it, and smiled, with an unconscious 

 blessing, for it recalled their far-off boyhood ; 

 and little children danced around it, and 

 elapiied their hands in glee ; and when the sun 

 shone each little flower-leaf was like a crystal 

 mirror, to throw its warm beams down ujion 

 the green bud that lay almost hidden in the 

 bottom of its tremulous cup ; and the l>irds 

 came there and built their nests, and the filmy 

 spider-webs in the early morning were all 

 braided with jiearls and diamonds, so that 

 with the bloom, and the fragrance, and the 

 melody, there was nothing more lovely in the 

 whole city. But the little green bud grew 

 large]- and larger, until at last the flower-cup 

 could no longer hide it. And then the rose- 

 white leaves fell off, and the wind carried 

 them away on its soft wings, until the air 

 was so filled with them that the children 

 shouted out, "the snow ! the snow !" Then, 

 as the summer came on, the sun looked, day 

 after day, with a more lieaming eye upon the 

 old tree in its beautiful adorning of green, un-- 

 til the young apjiles blushed, for they were no 

 longer liidden by the bridal veils of the white 

 flower leaves. 



Yet it was still very beautiful ; for the light 

 and shade came there lo play a hide-and-seek, 

 and the winds chased each other over and 

 around, and through the emerald-leaved 

 l)raiich(>s that swayed here and there, weaving 

 flickering and fantastic shadows on the grass 

 beneath ; and myriad insects, all glcainiug 

 with crimson and gold, soared above it in the 

 bright sunliglit, and ever and anon some bird, 

 from within his green-roofed home, jioured out 

 his soul in such gushing melody, that those 

 who heard were carried afar among the purple 



