VOL. XVII. NO. 4a. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



333 



irst, except the haying:. I" winter I hire none, 

 ind Iiave but little to do to tend my stock. 



27. I have five hundred apple trees, and most 

 )f them are grafted. 



28. I have forty pear trees, thirtyfive peach 

 jees, twenty bearing English cherry trees, three 

 )lack mulberry trees, three plum trees, five quince 

 :rees, and twu Siberians. 



20. Borers have not troubled us much : cank- 

 r worms are not plenty this year. To kill them, 

 dig about the trees, or plough, or turn in hogs 

 late in the fall and sou- corn about the roots. 



30. We use no ardent spirits. Cider and 

 water sweetened with molasses, is our strongest 

 drink. 



Principal amount of produce this year: 

 Hay for sale, 25 tons 

 Have sold 10 beef cattle for 

 Have still to turn Ihis fall, 8 more, valued at 



$340 ; but I deduct therefrom the original 



cost of the cattle, $116; this leaves to be 



added 



And I keep the stock good in number. 

 Sixty bushels corn .*G0; 200 do. rye $250, 

 Three acres buckwheat, 43 bushels, at $1 

 1000 bushels rutabaga for stock, not counted 

 •30 bushels wheat at lOs. 6d. 

 70 bushels potatoes 

 Sold liogs and pigs to the amount of $81 1-2 



Two on hand to keep stock good. 

 145 bbls. good merchantable apples at 7s. 

 30 bbls. cider at 7s. 6d. 

 Cash for cattle taken in to pasture 

 ; Produce of 4 cows at $35 each 

 For trees sold from the nursery 



-MuLTii'LTiNG Swarms of Bei:s. — All who iiave ; ing of bees, nor to their health and lives, as natural 



read the Georgics of Virgil, will recollect the story 



$400 



3o; 



$1,835 

 14 



Deduct half value of potatoes that 

 given to stock or hogs 



$1,821 

 This is as accurate a statement as I can make. 

 I cannot say it is perfect, — it is nearly so. 



WM. BUCKMINSTER. 



[For the N. E. Farmer.] 



RED OAK SHIiNGLES. 

 Mr Editor — I think it a duty of every one to 

 make known to the public, all experiments that are^ 

 I likely to be useful to the community. 



In 1830, I built me a house, and covered one 

 [ roof with shingles made of what wo call red oak. 

 i The shingles I split and shaved myself: they are 

 quite as easily made of oak as chesnut ; they split 

 more freely and shave as easily. The shingles 

 have been on the roof nine years, and from present 

 appearance, they will last longer than a coat of the 

 best of pine shingles. They are as free from warp- 

 ing and twisting as pine ; the wood is much harder 

 and does not wear so fast. Good pine shingle tim- 

 ber is scarce in this part of the country, and there 

 is in many places, large quantities of oak ; there- 

 fore, from nine years experience, I think I can safe- 

 ly recommend it to the public. 



Any person having a desire to see the proof of 

 the experiment, will please call at my house and 

 ' examine for themselves, in the north east part of 

 Sturbridge. 



GARDINER WATKINS. 



which the old poet relates, of manufacturing swarms 

 of bees by beating a heifer to death, and leaving 

 her carcase to breed bees. This mode will do 

 much better in poetic theory than in sober practice. 

 By studying nature, and following or applying the 

 laws which are unfolded to us by careful research, 

 many things can be accomplished which were be- 

 fore considered among the impossibilities. This is 

 proved by the researches of Mr Weeks, of Salisbury, 

 Vermont, into the natural history of bees. He has 

 become so familiar with their manners and customs, 

 that he thinks nothing of taking a few spare ones 

 from any hive, shutting them up by themselves, and 

 after compelling them to raise to themselves a 

 queen, sets them to raising up a swarm of their own. 

 At first we were a little inclined to doubt this ; but 

 after reading his treatise, which is full of practical 

 instruction in the business, and having some cor- 

 respondence with him, we have come to the conclu- 

 sion that it must be so. 



The following extract from a letter received 

 from him, dated iMarch 25th, will be interesting to 

 our readers. " I am indebted to a gentleman who 

 had travelled in Italy, for my first thoughts of com- 

 pelling bees to make queens. I devised means in- 

 stantly to try the experiment, and succeeded. I 

 tried again and again, and in various ways and un- 

 der various circumstances, and never failed in a 

 single instance. 



I have had them robbed, but never until after 

 the young queen had made her escape from the 

 cell where she was raised. That the birth of the 

 queen is hastened so that she hatches several days 

 sooner than her sisters, (Larvae) there can be no 

 doubt. The fact is obvious to every close observ- 

 er. Now whether it is the difference in food, or 

 change of position, from a horizontal to a perpen- 

 dicular one, which changes her nature to a queen, 

 is more than I can tell. But one thing is certain: 

 their nature must be changed, if changed at all, 

 before they have obtained their entire growth, for 

 all chrysales, with which I have any knowledge, 

 become perfect — entire — before they reach this 

 period of their existence. If I am not mistaken, 

 all naturalists agree to the following fact, which is 



heat. I have set them to breeding in January, but 

 I found that the heat produced by the fire, though 

 moderate, in the course of two weeks caused death 

 n many of the old bees, and a chill destroyed the 

 arvsE, and I was compelled to relinquish the win- 

 ter enterprise, as unprofitable business. I am in- 

 clined to think that a room may be so constructed 

 and so warmed by heated air, that swarms may be 

 forwarded in the sprino- to great advantage." 



We trust that Mr\Vfeeks will pardon the liberty 

 we have taken, in publishing so much of a private 

 letter; but the information is so novel and interest- 

 ing, that we deemed it a duty to lay it before our 

 readers. — Maine Farmer. 



Agricultural Statistics. — The following stat- 

 istics of the county of Susquehannah, are from an 

 official report made to the Legislature of Pennsyl- 

 vania, for 1838: 



No. of farms 

 Acres of wheat 



" Rye 



" Corn 



" Oats 



" IMeadow 



" Potatoes 



2768 

 5439 

 1624 

 3330 

 8404 

 34792 

 2367 



Acres of turnips 

 " Buckwheat 

 " Flax 

 " Rutabaga 

 « Peas 

 " Beans 



73 



3346 



195 



32 

 230 



83 



No of maple trees tapped 97,961 



Whole No. of horses 3,998 



Oaea 2,919 



Cows 8,187 



Sheep 51,600 



Swine 9,033 



Aggregate val. 

 $23,502 64 

 195,025 00 



99,425 00 

 164,305 00 



84,101 00 



12,800 00 

 454,920 00 



14,519 00 

 3,659 94 



Neat cattle of all ages 22,746 

 Lbs. of butter sold 257,325 



" cheese sold 58,.559 



The average size of farms, 105 acres. Of bar- 

 ley 176 acres were raised in the county. Corn 

 averaged 33 bushels per acre. Potatoes 170 bush- 

 els per acre. The county has a surplus of oats, 

 corn and potatoes. 193,783 lbs. of maple sugar 

 were made, averaging 3 lbs. to a tree. The best 

 crop of rutabaga on record in the United States, 

 was raised in Chocronut township, averaging on 3 

 acres more than 1200 bushels per acre. 342 tons 



this: 'The peculiar jog which constitutes a male i of pla^ter were sown. Dr. Rose, of Silver Lake 

 or female in the insect^ribe, is produced while in has a large number of merino sheep, and sold 

 the larviB state ; ' not by design, however, in many, | 18,000 lbs. of woul, at 44 cenU per pound, 

 as in the honey bee tribe." * * * » *\ 



In regard to the multiplication of swarms, he Embalming — A fluid has been discovered, in 

 observes: "That bees may be increased to any London, says the Nantucket Inquirer, whereby the 

 extent without swarming, there is not a doubt, bodies of dead animals may be preserved for a 

 Compelling the bees to make extra queens, is the ! great length of time, in all the perfection of which 

 foundation°of the whole business. And this may ' nature, deprived of vitality, is susceptible. Several 

 be done in any country favorable to the raising of! specimens of large birds, preserved by this process, 

 ljggg_ ' were recently exhibited before a medical society in 



The most northern latitudes are not as favorable , London, which excited great admiration. The 

 to increase colonies of bees without swarming, as | body of a man was also submitted to inspection sev- 

 in a more mild climate, and where the seasons are i eral months after death— the flesh of which retain- 

 longer. I have tried this experiment several times, ed its natural softness and elasticity, and exhaled 



A new sloop of war called the Decatur, of 16 

 guns, was launched at Brooklyn, N. Y., last week. 



and have not yet failed. I have divided them, and 

 received a swarm from one of the divisions the 

 same season. I have transferred and divided in 

 the same season witli perfect success, and thus far 

 I have not failed in a single trial, when the experi- 

 ment was made in accordance with the rules set 

 forth in my manual. Bees may be increased to 

 any extent without swarming, where the seasons 

 are favorable to that object. In this latitude the 

 seasons are too short to make very rapid advances. 

 Artificial heat is not as favorable to the breed- 



no disagreeable effluvia. The discovery is thought 

 to promise much advantage to the cause of anato- 

 mical science. 



More gold mines. — A rich mine of ore has 

 been discovered at Lcmmen's mine, fifteen miles 

 from Charlotte, N. C. .It is computed that a bush- 

 el of the best ore is worth five thousand dollars, 

 and the poorest one hundred dollars. Several new 

 mines have been opened in that region with great 

 prospects of success. 



