VOIv. XV, NO. 43. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



sometimes entirely open, and frequently, through 

 neglect are left so through the winter; and such 

 hives always winter well, bcciiuse tiie opening ad- 

 mits a free circnlation of air, which dries the hces. 

 More thap nine-tenths of all the losses of bees in 

 this country, in winter and spring, are occasioned 

 in this way, and yet the generality of people ap- 

 pear nearly ignorant of the fact. Swarms that do 

 winter over most commonly sustain great losses in 

 this way. And this is nottlie worst : Bees that are 

 wintered over without any care in this miserable 

 way, are very short lived. The moisture and wet 

 in tho combsoon causes it to mould, and in moul- 

 dy comb young bees will die before coming to 

 maturity. Whenever th 3 comb in a hive becomes 

 mouldy throughout, the swarm is ruined and will 

 soon die ; this generally takes place at the age of 

 three or four years at most. I know there are 

 some exce])tions, but this is a geneial rule. 



When the weather becomes warm in the S])ring, 

 and the bees can get their living, they should be 

 turned up and examihed, and all the mouldy comb 

 taken out, be the same more or less, and tho hive 

 thoroughly cleaned from all filth, by scraping the 

 inside with a case-knife, or something of t!ie like, 

 and a clean board put under them. 



Bees throughout the season should be looked 

 to every few days, and the worms destroyed, which 

 can be done in the morning without disturbing the 

 bees ; the worms will be found almost invariably 

 under the edge of the liive, unless they have been 

 neglected too long. 



One of the greatest difficulties that I ever en- 

 countered in raising bees was to prevent robbery. 

 I have tried almost every thing, and the best way 

 that I have discovered or know of, is to let the 

 bees have no ti:ore room than is absolutely nec- 

 essary to pass out and in, especially in the spring 

 and fall, and have them all pass out and in at the 

 front side of the hiv?, and all the other places 

 stopped up, if there be any ; then, when they com- 

 mence to rob, which will commonly be a weak 

 swarm, remove it, and in its place set the strong- 

 est swarm you liave — then place the robbed swarm 

 where tlie strong swarm was. Some of the strong- 

 est swarm will go back and join the weak swarm, 

 and thus two objects «re gained. Breaking the 

 comb of robbers will stop them, but we cannot 



341 



L ' i.f 



subject is the disposition to treat small things with 

 contemptuous indiflTerence ; forgetting that great 

 things are but an aggregate of small ones, and 

 that discoveries an<l events of the greatest impor- 

 tance to the world, cm be traced to things most 

 insignificant in themselves. Nothing more truly 

 marks an original mind, and stamps its possessor 

 as a truly great man, than the seizure of circum- 

 stances which would pass unnoticed by the great 

 multitude, and by sidyecting them to the power- 

 ful analysis of his reaspning powers, deducing in- 

 ferences of the greatest practical results. 



The power of the loadstone to tittract iron, has 

 been known from time immemorial ; accident dis- 

 covered the fact that a magnetized needle would 

 indicate the north ; but for a long time this truth 

 was productive of no results. In the hands of 

 Flavia Gioja of Amalfi, it produced the mariner's 

 compass, an instrument which has changed the 

 whole course of commerce, and opened America 

 and .Australia to the rest of the world. To men- 

 tion only one of the things that the use of the 

 compass in maritime discovery had led to — it 

 has given the potato to Europe, and thus trebled 

 the means of subsistence as well as doubled the 

 population. 



We owe the Galvanic or Voltaic battery, one 

 of the most powerful instruments in advancing 

 science the world has yet seen, to Madame Gal- 

 vani's noticing the contraction of the nmsclesof a 

 skimied fiog accidentally touched by a person on 

 wliom her husband was at the moment making 

 some experiments in electiicity. The experiments 

 of Galvani and Volta were followed up by Davy, 

 Hare and Silliman, and effects which have aston- 

 ished and instructed the world, have been the re- 

 sult. The dry galvanic pile in the hands of the 

 discoverer, De Luc, was nothing more than a 

 scientific plaything. Singer of London, a me- 

 chanic of genius, saw the pile, and applied the 

 power thus generated to move the machinery of 

 a watch ; hud one constincted by him has now 

 run more than 16 years without winding or loss 

 of motion. 



A chemist was at work in his laboratory pre- 

 paring a powder for a certain purpose. A spark 

 fell into this composition and it exploded; and 

 from that day gun[)owder was discovered. Some 



have access to our neighbor's bees at all times, to may question the utility of this di,scovery, but we 



stop them from robbing ours. 



I am tryir.g a hive somewhat similar to Par- 

 ish's, but I have serious doubts, after all that has 

 l)een written, whether there is any better hive 

 than the old (iishioned. The miller will enter any 

 hive 'where the bees can go, whether it be high or 

 low, in the house-top or in the tree-toj!. I have 

 freiiuently found them in swarms in tall trees. — 

 They enter ujine in the house-top .as often as they 

 do in the garden. Z. C. 



. West Groton, Tompkins Co. Feb. 20, 1837. 



"NOTHIJ.G IS BEXEATH THE ATTENTION OP 

 A GREAT MAN." 



This short sentence is inscribed over the door 

 of the small building in Holland, which was once 

 the workshop of Peter the Great ; and furnishes 

 more than volumes of common descrijjtion and 

 history could do, an insight into the character of 

 the man who raised the Muscovites from the deep- 

 est barbarism to the rank of civiliza.ion, and laid 

 the foundation of an empire, the extent of which 

 the world seems as yet little able to comprehend. 



One of the most fatal errors to which men are 



do not. Gunpowder has materially aided the mi- 

 ner, the founder and the chemist ; but more than 

 all, it has given internal order and tranquility to 

 the kingdouis of Europe, by knocking down these 

 strong holds of feudal barbarism and cruelty, the 

 castlesof a liaughty and domineering nobility, and 

 placing the weak, so far as regards protection by 

 law, and security to person and property, on a 

 level with the highest. 



A German peasant carved letterson the back 

 of the beech tree, and with them stamped char- 

 acters on paper for the amusement of his chil- 

 dren. Nothing more was thought of them ; hut 

 from them Faust conceived and executed movea- 

 ble type ; and printing, an art that peiliaps has 

 exercised a greater influence on the destiny of 

 mankind than any other, thus had a begmning. 



Galileo WiiS in a church at Florence, where a 

 drowsy Dominican was holding forth on the mer- 

 its of the Viigin, and the miiacles of the Holy 

 Church ; things about which the philosopher 

 cared very little. The principal lamp of the church 

 had been left suspended in such a manner that it 

 swung to and fro in the slightest breath and caught 



the eye of the philosopher. The regularity cf its 

 oscillations struck him, and the idea of employing 

 such vibrations to measure time occured. Gali- 

 leo left the church ami returned to his study, and 

 in a short time the lirst pendulum ever made was 

 swinging. 



Some children playing with glasses of a Dutch 

 spectacle maker, accidentally placed two so that 

 the ste(q)lc of n church ajipearerl much nearer and 

 turned bottom upwards. From this small begin- 

 ning was ])roduced the telescope ; an instrument 

 which more tl an any other, has enlarged the 

 boundaries of the imiverse, and given to mau more 

 exalted ideas of that Being who spake all these 

 worlds into existence. 



About one hundred and fifty years ago, an old 

 man might have been seen in his study, apparent- 

 ly amusing himself by witnessing the escape of 

 steam from an old wine bottle, and then checking 

 it by instantaneously plunging it into the cold wa- 

 ter. There are multitudes who would sneer at 

 an observer of nature who could stoop tn notice 

 such a trifle ; yet this expansion and condensation 

 of steam in the wine bottle, and the train of thoughts 

 which it suggested, in the hands of the iMarquis 

 of Worcester, gave birth to the steam engine, the 

 most valuable present science has ^ver made to 

 the arts. These very men who are now filled 

 with delight and astonishment when they behold 

 the beautiful steamboat majestically ploughing the 

 waves, or the steam car whirJing its train of car- 

 riages over the railroad with almost the rapidity 

 of thought, would be the first to louk and speak 

 with contempt on the train of small causes that 

 led to such import.'int results. 



But perhaps the example of Newton, more than 

 any other, conclusively proves that there is in the 

 whole circle of nature, nothing trifling to a truly 

 great mind. Thousands had seen apples fall from 

 the trees to the earth ; yet no one had ever 

 asked the question whether the cause that caused 

 the apple to fall to the earth extended to the 

 moon.' — yet this question and its solution was the 

 key that has unlocked the mechanism of the uni- 

 verse, and given to man powers and ideas, which 

 could otherwise never have existed. 



The great truth these examples inculcate is 

 this — that there is nothingtrifling in nature, noth- 

 ing that is not worthy of attention and reflection, 

 nothing that does not form part of the gi-eat chain 

 of cause and eft'ect, and consequently capable of 

 leading to the most valuable and interesting events. 

 There is a feeling abroad, that it forms no jiart of 

 the business of the tiller of the soil to think. This 

 is not true, and the position shoidd be exploded 

 at once. It is scarcely possible for a man to be 

 more favorably situated for an observation of nature 

 than the farmer. His business is with the soil he 

 treads upon, with its various constituents and their 

 ever varying proportions — with the green earth 

 and its covering of grapes and plants, its flowers, 

 while over the head is stretched the broad o'er- 

 arching sky, inviting him to useful reflection, and 

 urging him to "look through nature up to nature's 

 God." — Genesee Far. 



It is said that the oil of lavender is an excellent 

 exterminator of moths. If a single drop is put 

 into a box with a living insect, the latter almost 

 immediately dies. 



Cattle at this season of the year should be kept 

 from grass lands, particularly side hills and wet 

 portions. 



