AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fmjuA ter imjroiie tlje farmer, tjje planter, aitfr 11je (Sartatl. 
AGRICULTURE IS TILE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AMD TnE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. — Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
VOL. XII.— NO. 2.] NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1854. [NEW SERIES.—NO. 28. 
m?' FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, %c., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
BEE-KEEPING-A REVIEW. 
The Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained ; 
being a complete analysis of the whole sub¬ 
ject, &c. By M. Quinby, Practical Bee¬ 
keeper. C. M. Saxton, New-York. 
Another —and that a well-executed volume 
of 37G pages, of Saxton’s standard editions of 
agricultural books—on bees! Nor is this vol¬ 
ume at all unwelcome, even in this book-pro¬ 
ducing age; for it is upon a subject of which, 
although much has been written, there is enough 
always left unwritten for an experienced and 
practical man to write more, if he does it know¬ 
ingly, that will benefit every bee-keeper who 
may make such writings his study. 
Mr. Quinby, is himself a bee-keeper, or apia¬ 
rian, resident in the valley of the Mohawk. He 
has given much time and attention to the care 
of his hives, and appears to have succeeded ad¬ 
mirably during an experience, as he says, of 
“more than twenty years.” He should, there¬ 
fore, be qualified to speak understandingly upon 
the subject; and from what we have read of his 
book, we think he has well accomplished his 
object. 
There is no description of the “live stock” of 
the farm, or garden — for people who have noth¬ 
ing of territory beyond a door-yard and garden 
may keep bees—so little understood in its na¬ 
ture and habits, and regarding which so much 
error exists, and so much nonsense is believed, 
as the honey bee. This probably arises from 
the wild, untameable nature of the insect—the 
only thing hitherto brought under the dominion 
of man, which retains its wild and savage na¬ 
ture, without the slightest recognition of human 
authority, and can, at its own choice, flee from 
his protection with entire safety to its own ex¬ 
istence and future welfare. Six thousand years 
under the protection of man, and its own wild 
will alike surrounded by the luxuriance of cul¬ 
tivation, or amid the solitudes of the wilderness, 
has the bee flourished, without a single devia¬ 
tion from its original habits or economy of life; 
and whether the swarm be newly captured in 
the forest and brought to the farm-house, or 
fled of its own choice from the farm-house to 
the forest, they are alike in every thing apper¬ 
taining to what concerns their own “ lives, for¬ 
tunes, and pursuits of happiness,” ready, at 
will, to remain in their newly acquired homes, 
or exchange them, as before, without detriment 
to their welfare. It is from a want of this essen¬ 
tial knowledge of the nature and habits of the 
bee, that success in its keeping is so uncertain. 
Apiarians, or those who aspire to become so, 
build costly bee-houses, buy expensive patent 
hives, and prepare its accommodations with 
much pains; and after having every thing, as 
they suppose, to content and make the bee 
happy in its new situation, are astonished to 
find their young swarms emerging from the pa¬ 
rent hive, and heedless of all persuasion, after 
the most approved modes, to remain, rush off 
at once to the wildest woods, and seek a habita¬ 
tion in some dilapitated tree which will afford 
them refuge, spurning thus the benefits of pro¬ 
tection, and the luxuries of cultivated fields 
redolent of the choicest honey harvests, to the 
gratification of its own wild and capricious na¬ 
ture. Such is the honey bee, and such the dis¬ 
appointments of many of those who strive to 
keep it under subjection. 
To become a successful apiarian, it is neces¬ 
sary to be not only a close observer of the 
habits of the bee, but to study books which are 
considered good authority on the subject; and 
then, with great care, one may become a “lucky” 
bee-keeper. 
It is true, instances have occurred, and they 
may be familiar to most of our readers, of very 
stupid or very thoughtless people — people never 
having read a book in their lives—who have 
been successful apiarians. But for a time, only. 
The moment any thing like adversity occurs — 
that an enemy interferes with the ordinary la¬ 
bors of the apiary, or by untoward natural 
events, the usual economy of the bees is inter¬ 
rupted—they are brought to a dead stand, and 
“luck,” that controlling deity of the ignorant 
and superstitious, is at once denounced as the 
author of all the evil, which, with the intelli¬ 
gent man, would either have been averted, or 
immediately remedied, through the knowledge 
he had acquired from obversation and study 
combined. So, let every one who wishes to 
keep bees and succeed with them, provide him¬ 
self with a well-digested authority on their 
management, and make it his study. 
The various subjects of remark in his book 
have been well and methodically arranged by 
our author, from the birth of the bee, onward 
through its growth, swarming, hiving, and set¬ 
tlement, to the gathering of its harvests, and 
the ultimate appropriation of its sweets to the 
use of the apiarian. Much sound observation 
is recorded, together with a close knowledge of 
what appertains to the successful management 
of the bee, the best size and shape of hive, its 
locality and position, either within or outside 
the bee-house,—in short, whatever is demanded 
of information to propagate, care for, and aid 
the bee to the most successful result in all its 
labors, is written in plain, perspicuous language, 
which only to read it, is to understand. 
Like a sensible man, Mr. Quinby thinks of 
“patent” bee-hives just as we do, bating the 
egotism of the remark. Of some twenty pat¬ 
terns, and upwards, sundry of which we have 
tried, only one or two are worth the cost of 
the nails and board to make them; and in then- 
use, we have seen enough to know that the bee 
itself has a great deal more gumption on the 
subject of its own wants and accommodations, 
than the man who pretends to teach it, and 
gives it for a habitation any thing more compli¬ 
cated than a plain, open mouthed, tight box to 
live, breed, and work in. 
Weeks, of Vermont, many years ago, and 
Minor, of this State, of later date, both wrote— 
the one a small book of four pages, the other a 
volume nearly the size of this under notice—on 
the subject of bees, and both books were valua¬ 
ble. But the first was chiefly to explain and 
set forth the merits of his patent hive, which, 
by the way, we acknowledge to be one of the 
best we ever saw, of a compound, kind ; while 
the other had a very good hive, also a patent, 
as a sort of addenda to his book Mr. Quinby 
repudiates all the patents ; tells us how to make 
a square box, or something very near like it, 
and how to fit other' boxes, of either glass or 
wood, upon it, to take the surplus honey. 
-« © •- 
LETTERS FROM PROF. HASH.-No. 5. 
irrigation. 
Snow has often been called the poor man’s 
manure; and probably every farmer has no¬ 
ticed that where snow accumulates in winter 
and lies till late in spring, there the ground ap¬ 
pears in better condition and produces improved 
crops. This may be supposed to arise in part 
from the protection afforded by the snow-drift; 
the dry, chill winds of spring are kept from the 
surface; the soil is kept moist; and excessive 
evaporation is prevented. There is, however, 
another cause ;—snow has been proved to con¬ 
tain ammonia; it also contains minute portions 
of organic matter; the ammonia and organic 
substances pass with the water of melting snow 
into the soil; they there act as manure on the 
roots of grass, which gives it an early and vigo¬ 
rous start. This leads me to inquire, whether 
it might not, in some cases, be worth while to 
retain the water of melting snow on snow-lands ? 
perhaps to flood a piece of mowing with the 
water of some spring torrent from neighboring 
hills ? Of course it should be confined to such 
pieces of land, as from their peculiar situation 
admit of being thus irrigated, or flooded for a 
short time, without great expense; and it should 
be confined to soils not very tenacious, and hav¬ 
ing a porous sub-soil, so that the water could 
pass freely off, as by lying dormant on the sur- 
