EW EJ^CJJLAMB FAMMEK 



AND GARDENER' S JOURNAL 



f 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 WORTH MARKE-TstrT^ /a .., ^^^^^^^^ 



' " "'^^"^'^^ °"^^^^> (Agricultoral Warehouse.) — T. G. FESSF.NDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 6, 1835. 



NO 43, 



(For the New England Farmer.] 



htfl-uence: op thk mooiv on timber, &c. 



T. G. Fessenden, Esq. — Sir: — The inflii 



ence of the moon, is a very iini)opiilar subject to 

 treat upon with some people ; but that it is a ne- 

 cessary and valuable planet in our system, is made 

 certain to me in various ways ; one i§ when I 

 have been travelling over a bad road in the night, 

 the light of the moon has been very beneficial 

 and I think that it could not be called folly in me' 

 to make use of the light which it afforded, to di- 

 rect mo with safety over dangerous places ; and 

 that its influences can be observed with but little 

 Itnore trouble, in other respects, such as felling 

 itimber for durability, and some kinds of vccta" 

 ition, than in the above case of travelliufr. Now 

 if the gentleman, nnder bints to farmers" in a late 

 number of your very useful journal, will take the 

 trouble to cut two white pine poles to put on his 

 fence, one a few days after the moon has changed, 

 the other in the last quarter, if he docs not let the 

 moon know of his cutting them, she will let iiim 

 know which part of his conduct is most approva- 

 ple : the former will be all eaten with worms, while 

 he latter will be sound and good, and last 'longer 

 hsn three of the other. 



I will now state some facts that have fallen 

 jnder my particular notice within the la=t ..'.a 

 ears. In March last, six years ago, I was called 

 ) make a cider press for a man about eight miles 

 ■oni home. When I arrived at his house, I was 

 liown a stick of rock maple timber to set the 

 :rews in. The tree was twenty inches in diam- 

 :er; in working it I found it in a green state, bark 

 id wood. It looked as if it had been fallen but 

 few months; but in conversation with liim 

 3out the timber, he informed me that the tree 

 as cut down in the last quarter of the moon in 

 ugnst, eighteen months before ; it bad lain in 

 e woods where it was felled. I was surprised 

 the appearance of the timber, knowing the 

 igar maple to be of that species of wood that 

 ill perish as soon as any wood that I know of, 

 t down at certain times in the year or the moon! 

 y employer also showed me a white maple lo-' 

 lied for fire wood ; it was felled on the last quar! 

 : of the.moou, in January, fifteen months be. 

 re, that was in a perfectly green state, all but 

 e or two feet of each end, which were dead 

 t perfectly sound. Eleven years before. Dr. 

 Griswold of Fryeburg, applied to me to repair 

 top press for him, and I went. He had pro- 

 red a red or intervale maple stick for a heam 

 :ently felled, much the same ns a white maple. 

 I was not at home ; I began to work upon it! 

 soon as he came home, I told him 1 could do 

 ter for him than to put in a new beam. He 

 •eed with me ; I left working it and repaired his 

 press. It was hewed and the holes were beat- 

 through for the screws. He said he could sell 

 nd meet with no loss, the timber was in as good 

 lation as it could be, being hewed and kept 

 ler his wood-shed to season for one year. The 

 ;t year he sold it, and I was applied to, to set 



the screws in it. I went to work upon it, which 

 was struck entirely through with the white rot. I 

 told my employer I thought it worth le.«s ; I set 

 the screws, and it has answered, being kept dry 

 under cover. By looking over a file of old alma- 

 nacs, I find that the latter stick was cut on the 

 first quarter of the moon, in September about the 

 same time in the year, and both lying in' the 

 shade. 



The influence of the moon to some of us 

 " down east," is in other respects very evident ; in 

 our sugar making business ; in the month of June 

 and July, on the first quarter of the moon we peel 

 birch bark to make little tubs of, to catch the sap 

 from the sugar trees, which comes oft" with much 

 greater facility at that time of the moon than any 

 other. For the last six years I have been making 

 very particular observations on cutting timber for 

 durability. Any sort of timber cut on tlie last 

 quarter of the moon, or within the last ten days 

 of her age, will endure the changes of weather as 

 long again, and many sorts three or four times as 

 long, as when cut on the first seven days. Our 

 stave makers know, that timber cut on the first 

 seven days of the moon's age, the sap part will 

 powder post, and be worthless. 



The gentleman ship owner who complained of 

 the white rot in ship-timber, I will venture to say 

 would not be troubled with it, if his timber were 

 felled on the last ten days of the moon's age, and 

 at a proper season of the year. Some respect 

 ought to be paid to the season of the year ; I 

 strongly suspect that trees felled when the leaves 

 are growing would he much more liable to the 

 white rot, than when they are not growing or off" 

 the trees. It has been made certain that there is 

 very little alkali in ashes made from wood felled 

 from the middle pf May to the month of August. 

 Potash can be made by making use of double the 

 quantity of ashes. Common soft soap cannot be 

 made unless by the use of quick lime, and then 

 not certain. 



Inferences. — If wood would live so much 

 longer felled on the last quarter of the moon, I 

 thought it would be a good time to take up young 

 trees for transplanting, which I have done with 

 much greater success than I ever had done before. 

 I have cut scions and set them with like success. 

 The above items have fallen under my particular 

 notice, since I made the man's cider press, and 

 although simple as, the above facts seem, I place 

 implicit confidence in them, generally, and if I 

 can add but the small sum of two mites to the 

 Agricultural Treasury, I shall think myself well 

 paid. The above is presented from a very hum- 

 ble source, and if you think it worth an insertion 

 it is atj-our service. Yours very respectfully. 



James Walker^ 

 Fryeburg, Me., JlpAl, 16, 1835. 



[For the New England Farmer. 

 BEE HOtrSES. 



T. G. Fesse.nde.v, Esq.— Sir,_A gentleman 

 from Thomaston, asks for information respecting 



a bee-house. I was in hopes that some one more 

 experienced than myself would have given the 

 desired information ; but seeing none I will freely 

 give the information I am i)Osscssed of. I think 

 there is no occasion for the expense of putting up 

 a building for that particular use. He may make 

 a closet in his barn, or any of his out-houses or 

 in his garret ; it must be made tight, that the 

 bees cannot get out into the building ; if they 

 should, they can be stopped in by a little lime 

 mortar or some other substitute. I will descrih,; 

 one which my son made in our barn. Wo built 

 a new burn, high posted, the floor way goes in at 

 the west, and over the floor is a chamber to re- 

 ceive the grain as it comes from the field and far 

 threshing it out. The barn .'Stands on descending 

 grouni, and we have a cellar under the whole 

 of it. 



In the chamber we made the bee closet m 

 the east end, which is about 26 feet from the 

 ground ; the size is 4 feet by 6 long, and it is 

 large enough ; we put into it t^vo swarms about 

 one year ago, one in each, and the door to go into 

 it out of the chamber in the middle. We raised 

 it two feet from the floor of the chamber ; we 

 bored holes with an half inch auger, sufiicien't for 

 them to go in or out at; there must be room below 

 thelov.-rl.plf for the hive. The shelves were 

 made of strips of board, two inches wide an<l 

 placed nearly the same distance apart ; the bees 

 worked separately and very busily all summer ; 

 when it came cold weather my younger sons said' 

 the bees had left one of the hives. I went to ex- 

 amine and found not a live bee or a dead one in 

 or about one hive ; I took a bushel basket full of 

 comb and some few pounds of honey ; there was 

 a great deal of what is called bees' bread in it, with 

 the cells uncovered. I concluded that when they 

 congregated together they carried all tlie honey 

 into the other hive that they could. They 

 have wintered the best I think I ever had any ; 

 there are no dead bees under the hive where they' 

 are ; we have taken away the other hive and there 

 is considerable honey in it. There was no trouble 

 about their swarming last season ; they are very 

 lively now and appear to be doing well. I should 

 advise to set the hive two inches from the floor 

 that if there should be dead bees they miu-ht be 

 swept out ; there appears to be as much comb on 

 the outside of the hive remaining, as there was 

 outside of the one we took away. The cost of 

 the above was a mere trifle, and within the com- 

 pass of every farmer. They have been there but 

 one year ; how they will prosiier, time must only 

 bring forth. 



As to the distance between the shelves 12 

 or 15 inches will be sufficient. Their uniting 

 together, leads me to conclude if there had been 

 more separate swarms they would have all united 

 when the weather became too cold for them 

 to work. 



I submit the above with much respect. 



James Walker. 

 Fryeburg, Me., April 15, 1835. 



