246 
AFRICAN MAIZE. 
fair rates, and have frequent inquiries for others. 
Let breeders recollect that real improvements 
never go back. Our agriculture is rapidly advan¬ 
cing ; and although we have no landed aristocracy 
to keep up artificial prices, the private interest of 
the farmer will soon learn him his true policy in 
this particular. In a letter from a gentlemen re¬ 
siding in the Miami valley of Ohio, received a few 
days since, he remarks: “ Short Horns are getting 
scarce, and are fast rising in value.” The British 
markets are now open to American beef—and at 
fair prices too; prices which will pay the Ameri¬ 
can farmer for producing it. But if we expect 
that John Bull is going to leave off the juicy and 
luscious flesh of his own noble bullocks, to batten 
on the miserable stuff that is usually slaughtered 
for packing beef in our own markets, we shall be 
most wofully mistaken. We need not expect to 
produce good beef without good cattle—cattle 
that are properly constituted anatomically—well 
developed in frame, muscle, limb, and kindliness 
to feed, which a vast proportion of our common 
native cattle are not. But all this we can acquire 
if we choose. We have the stock at hand to do 
it with; and when done, we can compete with 
English farmers in their own markets, and suc¬ 
cessfully too. But the discussion of this subject 
requires a well-considered essay, rather than a 
running sketch. 
Devons. — A word or two about Devons. I 
now have about a dozen, young and old. The 
cows are certainly good milkers. None feed more 
kindly, possess more beautiful forms, or show a 
deeper, richer color; and for agility, they are un¬ 
surpassed. What beautiful oxen they make ! so 
easily matched—so active and kind in the yoke; 
and when well grown and fatted, how they tell in 
the butcher’s hands 1 Those I had from Mr. Pat¬ 
terson’s herd last spring are beautiful. I have a 
six-months calf that I will show against the world 
—of Devons, I mean. Another year I hope to 
have some young Devons to spare. My little herd 
is finely crossed, being made up of the best late 
importations, on the Coke Devons of 1817, kept in 
all their purity. For hilly countries no cattle are 
superior; and they maintain at this time their su¬ 
periority over all the middle horns of England, 
while their forms and milking qualities have been 
brought, by improved breeding, near to perfection. 
Bees. —The honey bees this year have done ad¬ 
mirably. Last year, owing to the cool and wet 
weather, was the poorest bee season I ever knew. 
Some of my neighbors, who had many swarms, 
did not increase their stock at all; and many of 
the old hives did not secure honey enough to keep 
them from starvation through the winter, and died. 
A year ago last spring, I had three swarms. One 
of them threw off a feeble colony, which I hived. 
They were busy all summer, but did not make 
honey enough to keep them through the winter, 
and although placed in a warm, dark cellar, died. 
During the winter one of the old swarms died also, 
leaving some 30 pounds of honey in the hive, so 
that I had but two in the spring. From these I 
now have eight, in all ten, and in flourishing 
condition too. The white clover has been un¬ 
usually luxuriant this summer—the flowers abun-1 
dant, and full of farina and pollen, and the bees 
have had a fine time of it. Never was heavier, 
sweeter honey than this year. Some of the young 
swarms have made 30 pounds in boxes, besides 
filling their hives with a full winter store. 
I like Mr. Weeks’ plan of hive as well as any. 
It has two apartments; a large one below for 
the bees to live in, and the one above for the in¬ 
sertion of boxes or drawers communicating with 
the main hive, to be filled with the surplus honey. 
Of the process of filling, hiving, swarming, &c., 
&c., there is a long story, which all who want to 
know about must go to the books or some expe¬ 
rienced apiarian to learn. But I can tell the pub¬ 
lic that there is a world of humbug about these 
same bees. They are simply creatures of in¬ 
stinct, and have little intelligence or ingenuity; 
and everything appertaining to them must be very 
simple, or it only confuses and destroys them. 
There are too many patent hives; and very few 
of them worth much. In looking over a report of 
the patent office at Washington for 1842,1 see 
that no less than 13 bee-hives are registered ! I 
pay for no patents, nor use any; and I doubt 
whether a single new idea has been got out about 
bees that was not known to the Egyptians 4,000 
years ago. To be sure there is a good deal said 
in the books about them, and well said too, which 
is very useful to the young or inexperienced apia¬ 
rian ; but I can learn more about bees in one long 
winter evening’s talk by a good fire, with my friend 
Lathorp Cooke of Lewiston, who never wrote a 
bee-book, or with my neighbor Charley Hoag, the 
fisherman, who are both great and successful bee- 
masters, than from all the books I ever read; and 
I have read them pretty much all, from old Father 
Virgil, down to the last patent-right handbill. 
The greatest obstacle to keeping bees is the 
moth. That in fact is the only bane to their ex¬ 
istence. These may be kept away by having per¬ 
fectly tight hives, and by continual watchfulness , 
and in no other way whatever. All the “ patent 
hives,” “ worm extractors,” and “ moth repellers,” 
are not worth a groat. I visit my hives every day, 
look them over carefully, and every time I see a 
miller, or worm, I kill it. In this way, and by 
using none but perfectly tight hives, with joints as 
close as cabinet-work, and sheltered under a good, 
roomy, and airy house, I keep my bees healthy and 
free from moths; and I can do it in no other way, 
nor did I ever know any one that did, although 
they talk about it. Bevan has written a sensible 
book about bees and their management—so has 
Weeks. But Weeks is a man of “ patents.” He 
has several of his own invention, and changes his 
mind too much for a steady guide. 
L. F. A. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
AFRICAN MAIZE. 
New York, October 6th, 1843. 
“ Lieutenant Maxwell Woodhull, a meritorious 
young officer of the navy, when on the coast of 
Africa about four years ago, purchased a small 
quantity of African maize. The American Insti- 
I tute, to whom he presented it, caused it to be 
