AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AoaicDLTCBAi. Warehouse.) 



vol.. XVU.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 1838. 



CNO. 8. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



THE QUEEN BEE. 

 To the Editor of the New England Farmer. 



Having read some of the various tlieories on tlie 

 Honey Bee, and compared wliat I read with my 

 own observation on the bees themselves, I have 

 become satisfied, tliat notwitlistanding so much has 

 been written, very little is known of the govern- 

 ment, police, or interior arrangements of the in- 

 mates of a bee hive. 



Writers inform us that a " swarm of hees contains 

 One Qinien, Five Hundred drones and .ViJiefefji 

 Thousand Four Hundred and JVinety-nine neuters." 

 Who knows any thing about this .' Could we at 

 pleasure examine the inside of an inhabited hive 

 and closely watch tlie movements therein, we might 

 form some opinions as to this army of neuters mar- 

 shalled by a queen and drones, but human ingenuity 

 can devise no way in which this can be done with 

 any degree of exactness ; we can only look around 

 us and see how it is with other insects and animals 

 who can be examined with impunity. Where 

 tliroughout animated nature can we find a parallel ? 

 Does nature usually form neuters or are bees an 

 exception ? 



But neuters are not ray object in this communi- 

 cation. I am even so mucTi of an infidel as to 

 doubt tlie existence of a Queen Bee. My doubts 

 are caused in part by the following circumstances. 

 I have carefully examined several swarms of bees 

 after suffocating them with fire and brimstone, 

 ■without being able to find hir majesty of "about 

 eight lints and one half in length, her wings so short 

 as scarcely to reach past the third ri)ig and her color 

 a deep yellow. The present season one of my hives 

 swarmed and settled on the limb of a young apple 

 tree near the ground. In a few minutes after, 

 another hive swarmed and collected on the same 

 limb nearer its end, leaving a space of about two 

 inches between tlie swarms. The additional weight 

 of tlie last swarm brought the 1 aib so near tliat the 

 ■wind swung it against the ground so as to incom- 

 mode the last comers. They began to gather up 

 the limb nearer the first swarm and finally formed 

 one cluster of bees, which I put into a flour barrel. 

 They commenced working, and have now every ap- 

 pearance of prosperity. In this case where were 

 the two queens who "are infused with tlie most 

 deadly hatred and the most iiuatiable thirst for each 

 otli^r's life, ichich nothing hut actuid death ca7i ap- 

 pease f About sun set on tlie sixth of the present 

 month I accidentally noticed a great stir amongst 

 my bees, and on examination found a constant pas- 

 sing and repassing between an old hive and a late 

 swarm from the same old hive, standing some eight 

 or ten rods apart. The following morning at day- 

 light the same intercoure was continued. The 

 bees passed by thousands aad both hives appeared 

 alive with bees. Although very anxious to find 

 out what they were about, yet as there was every 

 appearance of perfect harmony in their proceed- 

 ings, be they what they might, I left, them to settle 



their own business in their own way, and on my re- 

 turn after an absence of two days found that tlie 

 old swarm had abandoned their hive to the bee 

 moth and gone to reside with their children, having 

 removed every particle of honey to their new habi- 

 tation, leaving comb, bee bread, and moths in the 

 old hive. Where were "tlie rival queens, who al- 

 ways lead the swarms, and cannot dwell in the 

 same hive.-"' 



In what ago of the world the discovery was made, 

 that a hive oi' bees contained but one female and 

 that one the ruler of the swarm, is unknown, proba- 

 bly when a great taste for the marvellous was in 

 fashion, and Huber and subsequent writers could 

 adopt a plausible theory with much greater safety 

 than to thrust their heads into a bee-hive and watch 

 the bees for some days. J. B. T. 



.iugust 18, 1838. 



NEW VARIETIES OF MULBERRY. 



Extract from a letter from Wm. Prince and Sons of 

 Flushing to C. S. Pool, Esij. relative to some new 

 varieties of the Mulberry, dated August 8, 1838. 

 Dear Sir — We now answer your queries rela- 

 tive to the new Hybrid varieties produced by an 

 intermixture of the Multicaulis and Dandolo Mul- 

 berries. The leaves of the Hybrid Multicaulis, of 

 which as we stated wo have several varieties, are 

 nearly as la,rge as those of the original Multicaulis 

 and some are quite so, and the worms feed on them 

 with equal partiality. They are perfectly smooth 

 and glossy and remarkably tender, being similar 'in 

 this respect to their Chinese parent, and they are 

 rather thicker and heavier. The joints are closer, 

 the trees are profusely clad witli foliage as that 

 species and many consider them more so, and our 

 opinion is that the weight of foliage is rather 

 greater. 



The silk is very beautiful and strong, assimila- 

 ting in this respect to that from the Multicaulis. 

 But the great advantage they possess is that of be- 

 ing far more hardy. We left above ten thousand 

 young trees entirely exposed the last winter in a 

 very bleak nortliern aspect, all of which were grown 

 from layers tlie last summer and on which all tlie 

 wood was formed after the 10th of June, which 

 rendered it much less mature than is usual, but the 

 result proved most propitious, as' not one of the trees 

 was injured. It may be also interesting to state that 

 these varieties, almost incredible as it may seem, 

 form roots from cuttings and layers with even great- 

 er rapidity than the Multicaulis itself. It will be 

 highly gratifying to us, to have you and all other 

 silkculturists call upon us and take a view of these 

 trees, as you will then perceive at a single glance 

 that their value is beyond all price, and that the 

 great desideratum of variety of the Mulberry with 

 an enormous burden of foliage, and possessing all 

 tlie most desirable requisites for the silk culture is 

 at length fully attained. Tlie whole number we 

 now have does not exceed 25 or 30,000 and there 

 are none others in the Union as we have not up to 

 the present period oflered any for sale. ' 



The Moras crpansa has very large leaves next 

 in size to tlie Multicaulis and its new seedling va- 

 rieties. The leaves are much thicker and seem 

 more succulent and nutritious than any other vari- 

 ety we have yet seen. They are perfectly smooth, 

 and remarkably glossy, and greatly beloved by the 

 worm. The silk is of superior strength and of the 

 choicest quality. There is no variety that produ- 

 ces a greater weight of foliage than this, unless it 

 be the new iyrbrid varieties of the Multicaulis, 

 which in connexion with this will be sure to com- 

 mand the precedence wherever cultivated. This 

 tree may be deemed the very hardiest of all the 

 superior varieties of the Jlulberry, — and in a nur- 

 sery of about 17,000 trees which we left standing 

 the last winter in an e.xtremely cold and bleak lo- 

 cation, not the smallest end of any shoot was in- 

 jured. 



LinncEan Garden and Nurseries, ) 

 Flushing, near New York. S 



Frora the Wainc Farmer. 



CURING GRAIN. 

 The following letter was handed us for publica- 

 tion, by Charles Vaughan, Esq. of this town. It 

 contains valuable information on the subject of 

 curing grain, which we would commend to the at- 

 tentive perusal of our readefs. 



•Voi-.A Dixmant, July 31, 1838. 



Charles Vaugha.n, Esq. — Dear Sir: Yours of 

 the 25th inst. I have duly received, and shall with 

 pleasure comply with your request, to give some 

 account of my method of curing wheat 



And first — I will state tliat I cut my wheat 

 when it is so green that the keniel can be easily 

 mashed with the fingers — for these reasons : The 

 grain can be bound and stooked much better, than 

 when the straw is dry, — the straw is worth twice 

 as much for fodder, — there is less waste in carting, 

 — the flour is whiter — and there is no diminution 

 of the crop, when managed in tlie following wav. 



Bind on the same day that you reap, as the straw 

 should not dry in the " gavel." Bind with single 

 bands, and those not full if the grain be tall. Bind 

 sheaves for the caps, as you proceed in binding, 

 out of the longest and straightest of the grain ; 

 bind them near the "butt," and very tight, — and if 

 they are considerably larger than the others they 

 will cover the stock better. 



Set four pairs of sheaves firmly on the ground, 



bottoms apart, tops together, and one at each end 



place your arms at one end of the row, extend the 

 arms to the otlier, and gently press the tops of the 

 whole towards the centre. Put on three caps — the 

 middle one first, — in putting on the outside caps, 



drop them as low as the band of the end sheaf 



then with a gentle pressure slide them up into their 

 place, and tie them together. By this means the 

 rain is covered deeper than by saddling them on 

 at once. 



The advantages of tliis mode of securing grain 

 will be seen at once. It admits a free circulation 

 of air among the sheaves. The caps are so near a 

 perpendicular direction, that the water easily runs 



