566 



:SEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



Without this additional assistance, our ex- 

 perience is that the half-blood cotswold lamb 

 suckling- a merino mother, is not worth' at 

 weaning time as much for either mutton or 

 wool as a full-blood merino lamb that has had 

 the same amount of food and attention. In 

 view of this fact, we cannot recommend the 

 cross, and would only justify it when the ob- 

 ject is to get the entire flock into market in the 

 soonest possible time, without reg^^rd to the 

 expense of feeding. 



WHY DON'T BEES SWARM? 

 There are many causes for bees not swarm- 

 ing, but the two following are the most com- 

 mon. When circumstances are favorable, and 

 there are many bees in the hive, and yet they 

 do not swarm, it is usually some fault of the 

 cjueen. The stocks of some queens seem more 

 instinctively endowed with the swarming pro- 

 pensity than others ; some seem almost wholly 

 destitute of it, while others will hurry off 

 before they have numbers sufficient to warrant 

 such a move. It is quite common for a stock 

 to utterly refuse to cast a swarm for three or 

 four years in succession, or during the life of 

 a queen, but when she dies of old age, and a 

 young one takes her place, they almost always 

 become suddenly prosperous and equal to any. 

 If in movable comb-hives, destroy the old 

 queen early in June, and either give them a 

 new one or allow them to rear one for them- 

 selves, and you will not generally have cause 

 to complain of them after. The Creator has 

 given bees the swarming propensity as a means 

 of continuing their species, and when all goes 

 well with them there is but little fear but what 

 they will swarm enough. 



The weather, too, has much to do with the 

 issue of first swarms, and a sudden change 

 may prevent them swarming for a whole season. 

 First swarms never issue unless flowers are 

 producing honey abundantly, and the weather 

 has everything to do with this. A partial 

 failure of honey frecjuently frightens bees 

 so much as to cause them to destroy all 

 preparations for swarming, and abandon the 

 idea entirely, when perhaj)s the next day may 

 be favorable, and they will begin again. It 

 takes about eight days for them to get the old- 

 est queen cells capped over from the time the 

 eggs are laid in it, so their arrangements are 

 complete again in about eight days. July 2d 

 I had about a dozen stocks with more or less 

 preparation for swarming. The morning of 

 that day opened well, and several swarms that 

 were ready to issue commenced to fill their 

 cases with honey preparatoiy to their depar- 

 ture (for they always carry provisions with 

 them), but at about ten o'clock there came up 

 a smart east wind, and in less than half an 

 hour the ])ees stopped work entirely ; none 

 swarmed that day, and at night when I opened 

 the hives to ascertain the cause, I found that 

 three out of the lot had destroyed their queen 



cells and given up the idea, while dthers were 

 waiting for better times. The next day was 

 favorable, and those that were ready swarmed, 

 while those that destroyed the cells commenced 

 attain and swarmed on the 10th. — G. W. P. 

 Gerald, in Maine Farmer. 



From the Prairie Farmer. 

 IN MY GARDEN. 



BY MRS. H E. O. AREY. 



In my garden— in my garden, with the lilies of Japan, 

 With the waxeu-lipped tuberoses from the plains ot 



Hindostan, 

 Shadowed by their princely beauty, but to me more 



sweet than these, 

 Bloom the tender-eyed blue violets, and the wood 



anemones, 

 That I fondled in my childhood, undfirneath the forest 



tress. 



And the passers lounging idly down the borders, fail 



to see, 

 'Mid the toss of gorgeous flower-sprays, that whick so 



delighteth me. 

 But sometimes a dreamer cometb, sauntering down the 



sweet defile, 

 Heeding scarce my pinks and roses; but I see him 



pause and smile 

 Where the pale-faced blossoms wave their censers by 



the garden aisle. 



And I know his ear has caught the story that they tell 



to nie, 

 And his spirit bows enraptured at a shrine no eye 



can see, 

 There are visions trooping round him, of some long 



forgotten hour ; 

 There the past's dead marbles quicken into life with 



magic power, 

 For Olilivion's cells are opened by the fragrance of a 



flower. 



RAISING SEEDS. 



From a description of the seed-raising farm 

 of Edwin S. Hayward of Brighton, N. Y., 

 near Rochester, written by the editor of the 

 American Rural Home, we condense the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Beets for Seed. 



Of these he has twenty acres, and we never 

 saw a crop look finer. The varieties are long 

 blood, blood turnip, Bassano and long red 

 mangel wurtzel. He has grown for many 

 years, and to the entire satisfaction of pur- 

 chasers, but not to his own, from common 

 stock, but last year he threw it up entirely, 

 and substituted French stock all through, at a 

 cost of over $1000. It takes two years to 

 raise a crop of seed. The first year the roots 

 are grown. For this purpose the seed is sown 

 with a drill about the 15th of Juno, on ridges 

 two feet apart. They are sown thus late, and 

 rather thick, as the object is to get small, 

 healthy roots rather than large ones. Small 

 beets are just as good to raise seeds from, and 

 the storage and handling costs much less. In 

 the fall they are pulled and topped, care being 

 taken not to cut so close as to injure the 

 crown. They are then carted and pitted in 

 the field, where they are to be set in the spring. 



