84 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WINTEKING BEES. 



Messrs. Editors : — Having made some obser- 

 vations on the habits of bees, and tried various 

 hives, experiments, &c., I propose to give some 

 of my experience. I notice that after a steady, 

 extreme cold winter, people complain tliat their 

 "bees froze to death, had honey enough, don't 

 understand it." I wish to draw attention to the 

 cause. I wish those who have bees out doors to 

 examine the hives where they are not well venti- 

 lated at, or near the top, and see if there is not 

 vapor in them ; if there is glass, you will detect 

 it on that. Long, continued cold, congeals this 

 vapor, first on the walls of the hive, next on the 

 outside comb, gradually working towards the bees, 

 as the cold continues, till the bees are surrounded 

 with ice, so that their honey is inaccessible, and 

 the bees starve, unless a thaw relieves them ; and 

 then a sudden freeze is still more disastrous, the 

 bees being wet from the water running down on 

 them, and are frozen together in masses. 



The picture I have drawn only occurs after 

 long continued cold spoils, which occur some- 

 times in three, five or eight years. The remedy 

 I have found for this, is, sufficient upward venti- 

 lation, to let off" the vapor, but close the bottom 

 so as not to have a strong current of cold air 

 through the hive. This is laid down by Mr. 

 Quinby, in his "Mysteries of Bee Keeping," and 

 also by L. L. Langstroth on the "Honey Bee," 

 works to which I am much indebted, and proba- 

 bly the two best works in the country on bees. 



Bees have usually been wintered out doors with 

 little or no protection, but Quinby and Langs- 

 troth both think they can be wintered on much 

 less honey, kept in a dark, dry place, a little be- 

 low the freezing point. They state that they 

 have wintered swarms on four, five and six pounds 

 of honey. From my experience, I am satisfied it 

 can as well bo done as to have them eat from 20 

 to 30 pounds. Quinby winters in a house built 

 for the purpose, the studding, floor, joists and raf- 

 ters being boarded on both sides, and filled with 

 tan bark, charcoal dust, or sawdust, and the hives 

 turned bottom-up, with the bottom board raised 

 up, or removed, to give ample ventilation. Lang- 

 stroth has tried covering with earth on top of the 

 ground with success. I have succeeded well by 

 placing the hives in a dark, dry cellar, bottom 

 up, board off. The bees did not endure the cold 

 after being put out in the spring, as well, I 

 thought, as those that had stood out. There is 

 but little danger of smothering, when there is 

 good upward ventilation ; but look well to those 

 that have not, and see that they do not get stopped 

 at the entrance by lice, or dead bees. I found a 

 valuable swurm of an acquaintance nearly gone, 

 from the bees falling against the entrance inside, 

 so as to stop it entirely. Save your bees from 

 "snow blind" on pleasant days, by spreading saw 

 dust, hay, chaff or something, about on the snow 

 where they fly. Where top boxes are used, take 

 them off to keep from mould. C. 



New Britaiii, Ct., 18G0. 



Red Hot Guns. — There is no doubt whatever 

 that cast iron long submerged in the sea, will on 

 being exposed to atmospheric air, become hot even 



unto redness, and sometimes fall to pieces. Such 

 was the case with some iron guns which formed 

 part of the armament of one of the vessels of the 

 Armada, sunk off the Island of Mull, and the cast 

 iron balls M'ith which some of the guns of the 

 "Mary Rose," sunk off Spithead temp. Henry 

 VIH., were loaded. Mr. Wilkinson, in his "En- 

 gines of War," remarks, page 242 : "It is also an 

 extremely curious fact, that the cast iron gratings 

 which have l)een long immersed in the porter 

 backs or vats of large London breweries, possess 

 the same property of becoming hot on exposure 

 to the atmosphere when the porter is drawn off for 

 the purpose of cleaning them." — Scientific Amer- 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DEPINITION OP TVOBDS AND TEKMS. 



Mr. Editor : — It seems to me that half of our 

 controversies would be ended, and much misun- 

 derstanding be prevented, if we should firr,t clear- 

 ly define the words and technical terms v.-hich we 

 use in our papers and periodicals. Half of the 

 prejudice against book-farming, as it is called, is 

 owing to the fact, that the common class of far- 

 mers do not fully understand what they read, and 

 have no patience to look out the meaning of the 

 words in a dictionary. 



It should be borne in mind, that the great ma- 

 jority of farmers have enjoyed but slender means 

 of education, and some have had little, or none at 

 all, except what they have picked up for them- 

 selves, "here a little and there a little." When, 

 therefore, in reading an article on the different 

 kinds of soil, written perhaps by one of our best 

 writers, they happen to meet with such words as 

 arcjillaceous, calcareous, silicious, &c., without 

 one word of explanation, they are puzzled, embar- 

 rassed and vexed. So, too, in reading a descrip- 

 tion of the different kinds of plants, when they 

 meet with an article unnecessarily encumbered 

 with botanical terms and foreign idioms ; or, in 

 reading an article on any other subject, abound- 

 ing in words and phrases derived from other lan- 

 guages, they are greatly offended and disgusted. 



The object of agricultural books and papers is, 

 in a plain way, and in the simplest language pos- 

 sible, to lay before practical farmers practical re- 

 sults, to inform them of what has been done by 

 others. It is to describe the methods of cultiva- 

 tion which have been successfully practiced by 

 others, and to encourage improvements in all. 

 It is to make all farmers understand their busi- 

 ness thoroughly, and to lead them to cultivate 

 the earth more successfully and profitably. 



But when books and periodicals, intended to 

 convey instruction to the common class of read- 

 ers, abound in obscure words, technical terms and 

 foreign idioms, they not only defeat the object 

 for which they were written, but they create a 

 strong and inveterate prejudice against all book 

 knowledge. "Why," say they, "does not a man 

 write, as he talks, in plain common sense lan- 

 guage, so that we can understand his meaning, 

 and not make such a fool of himself? If he has 

 any thing to say, why does he not say it, and have 

 done with it, and not attempt to show off his learn- 

 ing with such a rigmarole of words ? If he knows 

 more than we do, or if he thinks he does ; if he 

 has had better advantages and more experience 



