174 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
while the simple tales, and the witch and ghost stories so 
common among negroes, excite the young imagination 
and enlist the feelings. If in this association the child 
becomes familiar with indelicate, vulgar, and lascivious 
manners and conversation, an impression is made upon 
the mind and heart, which lasts for years — perhaps for life. 
Could we, in all cases, trace effects to their real causes, I 
doubt not but many young men and women of respect- 
able parentage and bright prospects who have made ship- 
wreck of all their earthly hopes, have been led to the fatal 
step by the seeds of corruption, *which, in the days of 
childhood and youth, were sown in their hearts by the in- 
delicate and lascivious manners and conversation of their 
father’s negroes. If this opinion be correct, an effort to 
cherish and cultivate the feelings and habits of delicacy 
and morality among our negroes is forcibly urged upon 
«s by a regard for the respectability of our children, to 
say nothing of the prospects of both child and servant in 
another world, and of our own responsibility when the 
great Master shall require an account of our stewardship. 
I have given you, Messrs. Editors, an outline of my own 
management. If any of your correspondents will point 
out a more excellent way, he will benefit your readers, and 
much oblige your friend, Agricola. 
QUEEN BEE. WORKING BEE. 
BSE KEEPING. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — If I have shown any 
enthusiasm on the subject of bee keeping, it was because 
I felt I was engaged in a good cause, actuated by the same 
impulses that thrill the bosom of a patriot when he mounts 
the stump for his country’s good ; with this difference, 
however, that I have gone a little further, desiring thatthe 
people should have all that he contends for, with the ad- 
dition of plenty of honey to boot. It has been a matter of 
wonder with me, how farmers, otherwise wide awake to 
their own interests, should be so blinded as to be without 
this useful insect; for in whatever light you may consider 
it, as a healthful article of domestic economy, honey has 
not its superior ; nor will it be necessary to allude to any 
of the many uses to which it may be applied by the frugal 
house wife ; but as an article of commerce, I would refer 
to it, and ask, why are we indebted to distant countries tor 
a thing that we can so successfully make at home '? The 
answer is to be found in the unwise determination of the 
most of those w-ho keep bees in adhering to old customs. 
Some of these contend that the only good management is 
to set the gum in some out-of-the-way place, if under the 
shade of a peach tree, all the better — others must place 
their hives on the ground, and as much exposed to the 
rays of the burning sun as possible — then there are those 
who cannot be prevailed on to have a hive less than two 
feet deep, and these must be placed in some obscure fence 
corner, propped with a fence rail or two to guard against 
blowing over — then again we have those who reject all 
protection to the hive, believing with Dr. Eddy that an ex- 
posure to all sorts of weather prevents an attack from the 
bee moth. Thus, Messrs. Editors, from the beating of 
tin pans in swarming season, to the lighting of rags and 
torches preparatory to robbing the hive, every operation 
is directed with such carelessness that a total loss is the 
consequence, and then you hear tne comoion cry, ‘4 can’t 
keep bees, the moth destroys them.” These gentlemen 
will allow me to say that the injuries their hives sustain 
from the bee moth, could be, in a great measure, prevent- 
ed, if they would adopt a better system of management. 
I once knew a man w'ho had very peculiar views about 
the application of manures ; he would haul out a large 
number of loads which he would distribute all over his 
fields in little heaps, giving them pretty much such an ap- 
pearance as you might expect to see were they suffering 
under a violent attack of small pox ; and after these had 
remained sufficiently long to lose every valuable property, 
he would apply it to his crops, and in the end complain 
that the manure v.'as good for nothing — I saw another put 
out a row of trees, but which really looked more like a 
mimic telegraph line than anything else I can think of, 
(for they were nothing more than a row of poles) and this 
same man complained that one- half of his trees died. 
Now, had both of these men done their work properly, 
there would have been no failure. So in the management 
of bees, if you think all you have to do is to hive them, 
and afterwards let them take care of themselves, you will 
find that you have made a miscalculation. Your hive, as 
I have before said, must be of a proper size, viz: twelve 
inches in the clear — it must be made of good lumber, and 
well painted, and when you put in your bees let them be 
good swarms, these you will place under a shelter, and 
you will have made a good commencement. 
As to the style of hive to be used, that is altogether a 
matter of taste. Miner’s cross-bar is certainly the best; 
after that, the chamber and common box- hive, will answer 
very well. (See Miner’s Manual for a description of the 
different hives.) After the bee keeper has made a good 
commencement, let him pay every attention to the wants 
of his bees, by often going to them, to " brush away the 
cobwebs that sometimes annoy them,” and remove all 
dead bees, bits of wax, &c., as may collect about the 
hive; in a word, let every thing in the Apiary be kept 
clean, and you will be pleased to see how successful you 
will be. If, at the distance of some thirty or forty yards 
from your bee-house, you hear a sound not unlike that of 
a train afar off, you may be sure your bees are doing 
well; or, if while walking in your garden, the sound of 
their wings over your head, as they pass to and from 
their hives, brings to your imagination the poetical idea 
connected with the “music of the spheres,” it may be taken 
as evidence that your Apiary is in a prosperous condi- 
tion. 
It is in the commencement of bee keeping that you 
have to exercise a great deal of caution. If possible 
procure none but well filled hives, and these you must be 
careful to place at some distance from where your Apiary 
is to stand. After they have swarmed, and your bees 
housed in yonr new hives, drive the bees from the old 
into good hives, and burn the old. The operation of driv- 
ing is quite simple. Turn the old hive upside down, 
place the new one on top, wind a piece of cloth around 
to stop the joint, and then rap the bottom hive pretty 
soundly for some ten or fifteen minutes, which will cause 
the bees to ascend in the new hive. If they show any 
unwillingness to go up, blow in a little tobacco smoke 
below them, and you will have no further trouble. 
As regards the shelter for your hives, that, again, is a 
matter of taste. I use, and would always recommend, a 
house, which need not be more than five or six feet in 
width, and as long as you may require, but let it be well 
shingled. Under this, place your hives at some two feet 
apart, and if you can have a separate stand lor each hive 
it will be all the better, as the bees will lose much time 
with visiting and idle gossip, when the hives stand too 
close together. 
Now, a word or two on that most interesting of all sea- 
