Fuhliaked by John B. IIussell, at .\f). 5Si JVurlli jMarkei Strtti,,(uuer the Jigiicultural fVweliiouse).—'£ixOM \s G. PESSEUfHEN, Editor. 



VOL. \I. 



BOSrON, FRIDAY, DKCEMBEIl 7, 1827. 



No. 20. 



AGKICULTURK. . 



rOK THE KKW KNCLAND FARBUCR. 



FARMfNG. 



JcHx jVNiiRKw, Esq. of Salom, Iir.s this yar 

 raised one Immlred and sixty-six bushels of Inriiai 

 corn, nn o:ie acre and a lialf of land, at his fani 

 in Dnnvers, which is more than orre hundred arj 

 ten bushols per acre. 



A Turnip raised on the same farm, weighd 

 without tlie tops, eight and one half pounds. 



To g\\c some idea of the extent of asrricultuvfl 

 operations in England, and the amount of cnpitii 

 employed, Kir Joh.n Sinclair, in Ijis Improve 

 Husbandry of Scotland, states, thut one individua 

 in Norfolk, who occupies a light land farm o 

 1500 acres, had at one time a compost heap for 

 turnips, that cost him £900 sterlinp-, equal t 

 4000 dollars. That exertion, howeve!-, he contin 

 lies, is surpassed by Wr WAi.KEB,of Mellendean i 

 lloxburgh.sliire. who in one year limed 304J Eng- 

 lish acres, at no less an expense than £9,552 lOis 

 sterling, equal to $:n,344.44. 



more liable to be assaulted by on- 

 own sprfies or"other insects. — 



BEES. i 



Mr FEssENPEi- — From its high character \vq 

 are accuetomsd to resort to tiie New EnglaEd 

 Farmer, as a vehicle roidete with knowledge per- 

 taining- to systematic agricullure, horticulture,anJ 

 to rural and domestic economy. Among' the nu- 

 merous and importiUit improvements in thc-- 

 branches, very Ijltle has been promulgated res 1 

 pectiuif the culture of bees. Some simple, prac 

 tical lessens dciived from e.xperience, on tlio man- 

 agement of an apiary would be deemed by a cer- 

 tain class of your readers, botli interesting and 

 profitable. These little industrious insects fur- 

 nish a luxury for the table, a valuable material for 

 the artist and manufi.xturer, and at the same time 

 personal gratification and amusement to the pos- 

 sessor, peculiar to themselves. The little " busy 

 bee" is of more frxtensive utility than the Cociii- 

 iieal or Canth^ lis, or, indeed, all other of the in- 

 sect tribe which have been described by natural- 

 ists. An apiary, therefore, is a very desirable ap- 

 pendage to every rural establishment, often yield- 

 ing u greater net profit than most other articles 

 of slock which the husbandman considers wortliy 

 of hi.s attention. 



Although fi.ir ajcs the bee h;is been the subject 

 of coiisideralicn and wonder in all countries, its 

 i'eal character, its capabilities and republican 

 economy aie but imperfectly understood. The 

 most advantageo s method of manaijcment is a 

 dssidcraluiu with cuUivntois of these useful in- 

 sects. It is reasonable to suppose that the ino,-;t 

 eligible mode would consist in consulting their 

 own instinctive naluial co' rse and habit', permit- 

 ting them to enjoy their own rights and liberties 

 with as little infringement as may consist with the 

 interest and views of the cultivator. It is knoun 

 that when m an undomesticated state it is in their 

 character to congregate in the cavities of large 

 trees, and when these are sufficiently capacious, 

 they multiply, and increase in numbers and in 

 stock of honey in a surprising manner, for many 



years, wifnout sending out a swarm. Instani;es 

 have also occurred of their possessing themselves 

 of somi? .npMtment in dwelling houses, where their 

 collect!^ of honey and wax has been immensely 

 large A Triend has recently informed the writer, 

 that his garret is nov^' occupied by a large family 

 of these "industrious insects, who have for two 

 summers stored the effects of their labor in combs 

 suspendetTfrom the walls, and they have manifest- 

 ed no, signs of swarming. These facts would 

 seew to' snuggest the expediency of employing for 

 our domestic bees, hives of large capacity, and on 

 some •occasions it might bo best to unite two or 

 more swarms ii;te one hive as recommended by 

 some*i!Ile writers, who assert that small swarms 

 are less'cTjtive and industrious than those that are 

 largei'', and are m 

 emies of their ovyn sp 

 " Thb'- larger the number of TiocsriHis said, in a 

 hive, thfe, greater will be their industry and suc- 

 cess. It a'ppears that they are discouraged by the 

 smallness of their own ncmbers, their instinct is 

 affected, they labor with less nctivit/, they cease 

 to keep guard at the entrance of their hives, and 

 testify more indifTerenee for their own fate and 

 that of their young." 



The evil practice of destroying the bee? in au- 

 tumn to secure the stock of honey which they have 

 collected ought to be abandoned. The method of 

 taking the honey by means of boxes placed in the 

 upper p;:rt of the hive is unquestionably to be pre- 

 ferred, as the boxes may be taken when full of 

 pure virgin honey and replaced with empty ones, 

 at any time in the summer. 



Whether it is to be considered advisable to era- 

 p.oy tiives larger than those in common use, that 

 they may swarm but seldom, and what is tlio most 

 eligible method of guarding against the attack-of 

 the Bee-moth, (sphinx atropos,) are questions 

 which the writer and many of your readers would 

 be gratified to have solved, as no preventive of 

 the destructive effects of the bee-moth hitherto 

 proposed appears to be effectual. As the Agri- 

 cultural Society by their Committee, have award- 

 ed to Mr E. VV^thington of Dorchester, a premium 

 for his sample of honey and his mode of managing 

 bees, it is desirable that this comnuiniLation should 

 be made public ihrojgh the medium of the New- 

 England Farmer. Yours trulv, 



WEDICUS. 



Old Colony, November -^7, 1827. 



EY THE EDITOR. 



Mankind in general do not appear to be fulh 

 aware of the irnportance of the Bee. Indee.l t! o 

 ox and the sheep are scarcely more servit«able to 

 man than this little insect. In medicine and in 

 the arts, hi.ney and xvax are of '^irime and almost 

 indispensable utility ; and for nipny culinary pur 

 poses it would not be easy to fin ! an adequate 

 substitute for these substances. We should be 

 happy to receive further communications from 

 " Medicus," and hope to devote a lar(;er portion 

 of our paper than we have hitherto done to these 

 industrious and wonder working members of com- 

 munities, whose police is so admirable, industry so 

 exemplary, and products so valuable. 



I TARRING TREES IN AUTUMN. 



I Mr Pesse.nde.n — In the New England Faricor 

 of the WSd ult. is an interesting cominunicution Om 

 the subject of the Canker Worm. Tlie writer as 

 signs, no doubt, one of the true causes why the 

 hopes ol tiie I'lrmer have so often buen bladtod, af- 

 ter having wilh assi'Miiiy tarred liis trees in the 

 spring of the year. He has seen all his exertions 

 I baffled, and his ;Vuit uesirojtll-by this- destructive 

 insect. I would beg- ' l«fcve''lo"sirggest another 

 cause of failure in destroyiii^-^iie insect by spring 

 tarring, and that is. the eficKny lias got the starr 

 of him, from liaving a ce:\ded the tret in the preced- 

 ing fall, deposited his eggs, &c. -By turning to 

 Dr Thacher's Orcharui3t,^page !^5, [a:> excellent 

 work that ought to b'j in (Jte-'li^nds of every farji- 

 er,] the following oaservaitiJna wTiich-are worthy 

 of the must extensive circdlatioh, will be found. — 

 "He has ascertained [Professor Peck, of Cim- 

 bridge,] that a part o, the Canker Moths, rise in 

 the autumn and deposit their eggs. They ar - 

 such as were an incu or two below the surface,: 

 those that lie deeper are not affected by the tran - 

 sient changes of tue atmosphere in November, and 

 do not ririe till spri^g. Tliose which rise in No- 

 vember are not very numerous, compared with 

 those which rise in the spring, but being very pro- 

 lific, are exceedingly injurious, if no means arc 

 taken to prevent their asceuding the trees, us the 

 winter's frosts do not kill the eggs." 



Now, sir, this is not an idle chimera ; it is a fact, 

 not so generally knoAn as it ought to be, that a 

 pari ci' ;l'd canker worms, often enough to destroj- 

 the hopes of the i'armer, ascend in the fall of the 

 year. The number of those that make good their 

 lodgment on the trees, no doubt depends on the 

 weather. If it be iBoderato and winter be tardy ia 

 its approach, the greater will be the numbers that 

 ascend. The autumn of IPJG leiiig very moderate, 

 immense numbers of the canker v;orm, in this 

 town and on the island of I'hode Island, ascended 

 and thus blighted the ho; fs of the farmer, not- 

 withstanding they faithfuliy tarred their trees in 

 the spring of i8"27. A few who tarred both in the 

 fall and spring succeeded in destroying the enemy. 

 One farmer who had neglected to tar in the fall, 

 having the past spring found that the insect had 

 got the St rt of hirn,coiumenced shaking his trees» 

 limb by limb, a number of days in succession, and 

 as they spun down, with a circular motion of a 

 liglit pole or ■■-\vitch knockud them to the ground, 

 at the same time turring his trees, thus prevented 

 their reascent. He was ;;inply rewarded for his 

 trouble, in having a plentiful crop of apples, while 

 his neighbors m ho practised sprii g and neglected 

 fall tarring, ha ing not mide use of this expedient, 

 had their orchards eaten up. 



This autumn, cold weather has approached us 

 with hasty strides, yet not so a.s to prevent the as- 

 i-ent of the can!:er worm, which commenced about 

 the 90th Oi-toh;3r, as ascertained by many of cur 

 active fanners, who were on the alert with their 

 tar kettle, ready to meet the enemy. After teu 

 days' severe cold weather, on the 38th it having 

 moderated, the surface of the ground around the 

 trees being warmed by the genial rays of tlio sun, 

 the worms were busy in their movements upwards. 

 In short, it seems necessary to commence tarring 



