NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



195 



BEE-IIIVES 



The bee hive is an important article. Much de- 

 pends on its construction. Among the many hun- 

 dreds that have been invented, and some hundreds 

 that have been patented, only a few are worthy of 

 attention. Several kinds are too expensive, and 

 others are too complicated, and of difficult manage- 

 ment. Economj' is necessary in the management of 

 bees, else the profit will be small, or there may be 

 loss instead of profit. If hives are complicated, they 

 require more care than they will receive : hence the 

 importance of having those that are simple and easily 

 managed. 



As most early swarms of bees produce more honey 

 than is necessary to support them through the win- 

 ter, they will have a surplus ; and there is a great 

 advantage in having this in neat drawers or boxes, 

 free from bee-bread or brood comb, and where it 

 may be taken awaj' at any time ; therefore the newly 

 constructed hives, that afford this convenience, are 

 preferable to the old fashioned hives, which require 

 the destruction of the bees to obtain the honey ; and 

 then the honcj' is worth far less than that in boxes 

 or drawers. 



Many hives can spare fifteen or twenty pounds of 

 honey in a season, all of the finest qualitj', under 

 good management. One bee-keeper took from eight 

 hives, last season, over twenty pounds of honey each, 

 and left enough for the bees. Hives of various con- 

 structions, on the new and improved systems, may 

 be had at the agricultural warehouses ; or the farmer 

 may construct them to suit his own taste. 



Bee-keeping, a\ ith good management, is one of the 

 most profitable branches of rural industry. Every 

 other domestic animal, in this section of the country, 

 must be fed from the labor of man. The horse, the 

 cow, the sheep, the hog, the dog, and cat, all must 

 have the provident aid of man, to lay in a supply of 

 food for winter, else they perish. Not so with the 

 industrious bees. They procure not only sufficient 

 food in summer to support them through the winter, 

 but a surplus, as a liberal reward to the owner. 



And this food, which the bee provides, is stored 

 away in such a manner that he can help himself, and 

 not, like other animals, require man to deal it out 



constantly, and carefully guard it from waste. Thus 

 we see that the bee belongs to a high order of ani- 

 mals. In the construction of his comb, he is a perfect 

 mathematician ; and in providing for future wants, 

 he shows all the foresight of the most provident of 

 the human race, and he uses his food with all the 

 care of a rigid economist. 



We have a story of a bishop, who, on visiting the 

 priests of his diocese, found many complaining of 

 hard times and low salaries : at length he was sur- 

 prised in finding one who had a very low salary, and 

 yet was in the enjoyment of comfort and plenty. The 

 bishop inquired the cause of his prosperity, and he 

 was shown to the apiary, where numerous hives of 

 bees were busy in the service of the priest. After 

 that, when a priest complained to the bishop that 

 his salary was low, he advised him to keep bees. 

 And to thousands in our country might this judicious 

 advice be given with great propriety — Keep bees. 



GETTING MORE PRACTICAL. 



We are hajipy to find that there is an opinion 

 prevailing more or less throughout the community, 

 that it is time the course of education in our semina- 

 ries should have a more practical tendency. Yale 

 College and Cambridge have now their professors of 

 agTiculture. What would have been thought, forty 

 or fifty years ago, of a professor of agriculture in one 

 of those stately old colleges, where the sight of a 

 farmer would have been considered as much out of 

 place as a pig in a pulpit ! We see it noticed in the 

 journals of the day, that the trustees of Union Col- 

 lege contemplate such an extension of the existing 

 course of studies as to include the more useful appli- 

 cation of science to the arts, such as civil and me- 

 chanical engineering, agriculture and agricultural 

 and mechanical chemistry, &c., &c. We hope that 

 the colleges throughout the Union will change their 

 course of studies in such a way as to embrace a 

 practical course of the above-named studies. — Maine 

 Farmer. 



Swarms of locusts, or grasshoppers, have appeared 

 in Texas, literally covering the ground in some 

 places, and devouring the wheat and corn. In other 

 parts of the state, the corn and cotton have been 

 injured by the cut-worm. 



