1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



129 



young brood, as this work will be delayed if the 

 place is cold. The building should not be connect- 

 ed with any other building, or fence, to avoid the 

 spiders as much as possible, which devour a great 

 many bees in the course of the season. The house 

 should stand so the sun can shine upon the hives 

 from early morn till evening shade; the back as 

 well as the front being left open, so that the bees 

 will have the same chance to pass in and out both 

 back and front. This gives a draft of fiTsh air and 

 tends to keep them dry and healthy. This plan is 

 practiced out "West. I also noticed that they raised 

 the hive trom the bottom board from one-half to 

 one-third of an ineh, by a small piece of wood at 

 each corner. Tliis, however, is not done till the 

 white clover heads out, which is considered the 

 best part of the honey season, when it is found 

 that ordinary entrances are not sufficient for the 

 industrious m;i.liitud'-s. At this time there is no 

 danger of swf rrns robbing or l)eing robbed, but the 

 hives should 1)e let down as soon as the clover sea- 

 son is over. 



The hive, if made of boards, should be from one 

 and a quarter to one and a third of an inch thick. 

 If inch boards are used, the inside should l>c lined 

 with stuff one-fourth or one-third of an inch thick, 

 with a space between of one-eighth of an inch. 

 Then let them be well painted, and oftencr than 

 you paint your dwelling-house. A hive of this de- 

 scription, with a decent swarm and plenty of honey, 

 will hardly freeze anywhere. But notwithstanding 

 all this, I recommend friend Wild's plan of pack- 

 ing round the straw. If you have a small swarm, 

 give them a little extra care l)y puting over them a 

 few old blankets, or something of the kind. 



Putting bees in cellars I think is bad policy. The 

 bees get damp, and the comb comes out black in 

 the spring. The bees that make out to live come 

 out generally feeljle, so fiir as my experience goes. 

 The whole secret, then, of wintering bees and h.av- 

 ing them come out strong in the spring, is a warm 

 place, a warm hive, plenty of honey, and plenty of 

 pure air. J. C. Hill. 



East Saugtcs, Mass., Jan. 7, 1867. 



THINK, TALK, PUBLISH. 



I often think that the editor of the FARMEKmust 

 be a patient man to answer so deliberately, fully 

 and respectfully all the minute, — not to say simple 

 — Inquiries that are asked. I3ut, after all, I am 

 not sure you are not doing that which the world 

 stands the most in need of. The whole creation is 

 made up of particles so minute, that we are told 

 the most powerful microscope fails to present to 

 the eye the form of the minutest atom. The world 

 of thought, who shall limit it ? And if we think, 

 why not talk ? If talk, why not write ? But if 

 eveiy one is to write out his own thoughts and 

 keep them to himself, he might as well not write at 

 all. But we are not going to stop there — tliinlc and 

 talk wc will. Yes, Ijut how are we going to reach 

 the ears of those who are hundreds of miles away 

 from us, when our own voices, at the loudest, can- 

 not reach lieyond our own neighljorhood ? We are 

 going to use the printer; yes, that's it ; he will do 

 the job; he will give our thoughts to the winds, 

 whi^h like the seed in its downy balloon, shall be 

 floated to a genial soil, where it shall take root and 

 reproduce its kind. C. Steadns. 



Ashhurnham, Mass., Jan. 5, 1867. 



FEEDING BEES. 



In reply to "P. E. S." in Farmer of Jan. 12, 1 

 would say, I know of no way to feed bees if ke])t 

 in a place as cold as an ordinary bee house. If 

 they need feeding before it is wann enough to fiy, 

 they will need it very often, every day or two. 

 They will require about as much care as a pig. 



The place must be warm enough for them to leave 

 the cluster and go to the feed without becoming 

 chilled. Feeding so ofreu and keeping them so 

 warm will keep them constantly excited, nuu'Ii to 

 tlic«ir in jui-y. If it is wami enough where the t)ees 

 are kept for them to go into the chamber of the 

 hive, they can be fed there more conveniently than 

 in any other part of the hive. Candy has been 

 recommended as winter feed for bees. "l have tried 

 it with unsatisfactory success. Feeding bees in 

 season, say in July, August or September, will pay ; 

 if neglected then, a swarm destitute of honey "in 

 the winter is of doubtful value. Refined sugar 

 made into a syrup as thick as it can be kept in that 

 condition is as good feed as can ho desired for 

 bees. It must be put into something pi'ovided with 

 a floor to protect the bees from being wet with it. 

 The floor may be perforated so as to allow the bees 

 to reach the feed. A wooden feeder in winter is 

 better than a metallic one, because it is not so cold. 

 They will require food not only for themselves but 

 for the the brood, which, in early spring, will be 

 considerable. A weak swarm fed liberally in early 

 ■will repay it with interest before the season spring 

 is through. F. F. Fiske. 



Mast Yard, N. H., 1867. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SPECIAL MANURES. 



I wish to say a few words in relation to my ex- 

 perience in using flour of bone. When new articles 

 are offered for sale, even though highly extolled, I 

 am generally very cautious in beginning with them, 

 first testing them before using them much. The 

 editor of the Farmer, endorsee! the flour of bone — 

 said it was a valuable fertilizer, adapted to all soils. 

 I bought two barrels at a cost of over $22. I 

 plowed a piece of lightish, sandy land in my pas- 

 ture, and put on a light dressing of manure from 

 the barn-yard, and turned it under, doing by the 

 whole field as much alike as possible. I bought 

 fish guano, composted with muck, and spread on 

 and haiTowed in, at the rate of between 400 and 500 

 pounds to the acre. About an acre I reserved and 

 sowed on the flour of bone and harrowed it in, I 

 think about 200 pounds to the acre. The coiti all 

 came up well. June was a cold month. It did not 

 push ahead. Where the fish was the corn was 

 thrifty, kept a good color, and yielded a better crop 

 than I expected. Where the bone was used, the 

 corn looked feeble, sickly, and yellow, and pro 

 duced, by the acre, rather more than half as much 

 as the other, more than one-third of which was un- 

 ripe. I had another piece of an acre and a half 

 which I manured much better and sowed on flour 

 of Ijone to give the corn a start, but with no better 

 result than the other. I sowed a strip of grass 

 land with it, in two fields, but never discerned a 

 particle of ditfei-ence where it was applied. I hope 

 the readers of the Farmer will be benefited l)y the 

 experience of f;xrmers using it, in different locali- 

 ties and in diflferent States. Elijah Gunn. 



Montague, Mass., Dec. .31, 1866. 



Remarks. — ^We are obliged to our coiTcspondent 

 for communicating his experiments. They show 

 the importance of testing all new things in a small 

 way. That his experiments with the bone were un- 

 satisfactory, is not strange. It could hardly be ex- 

 pected that 200 pounds of bone to the acre, in an 

 unfermented condition, would make much change 

 on "lightish, sandy land," with only a "light dress- 

 ing of manure." If all the manure had been put 

 upon half aw acre, and the bone flour had been fer- 

 mented with muck, and applied to the liill, we have 

 no doubt but a paying crop Avould have been the 

 result. Bone acts very slowly. Even if reduced 



