AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
09 
chested ewe ; a heavy-wooledbuck to alight- 
wooled ewe ; and so on as jndgment dictates, 
endeavoring to obtain from the male what is 
wanting in the female. 
In breeding what are termed “half breeds” 
or “ grades,” great care should be taken to 
obtain bucks from good flocks, or the end 
will be defeated. The very best bucks should 
be used, possessing every good qualification 
of wool, mutton, and symmetry. It is quite 
a mistake, to suppose that any bucks will do 
for half breeds. No such thing. If half- 
bred sheep are to retain favor with the gra¬ 
zier, they must be bred with every care and 
attention to the many qualifications. Many 
breeders use buck lambs for this purpose; 
this is wrong; no breeder can tell what a lamb 
is to make in his future life. 
In all cases use the best buck, or the best 
kind of a buck you can obtain, and be not too 
nice about the price. I have known many 
flocks to make from seventy-five cents to a 
dollar and a half per head more than others 
of the like size, solely from better and more 
correct breeding; and the difference is far 
greater as they grow up and are fattened. 
[London Farmer’s Magazine. 
Fine Wooled Sheep in South Carolina. 
—The Charleston Mercury says the experi¬ 
ment of rearing fine breeds of sheep for wool, 
in the upper part of South Carolina, promises 
to be completely successful. 
Potatoes and Apples. —Potatoes are very 
abundant in our market at the present time. 
The wholesale prices for the former at 
Quincy Market are, for peach blow and 
whites, 60 to 70 cents a bushel; forChenan- 
goes, $1 10 to $1 20 a bushel; for white 
blue-noses, $2 50 to $3 a barrel. Good eat¬ 
ing apples are not so plenty as they were 
some days since. They are sold from $1 75 
to $2 a barrel. Winter apples, especially 
Baldwins, are abundant at 61 50 a barrel. 
Squashes (marrow) are plenty at $1 50 to 
$1 75 per hundred pounds, according to quali¬ 
ty.— Boston Traveller. 
“THE LITTLE BUSY BEE.” 
Husk Beds. —No one who has not tried 
them, knows the value of husk beds. Straw 
and mattresses would be entirely done away 
with, if husk beds were once tried. They 
are not only more pliable than mattresses, 
but more durable. The first cost is trifling 
to have husks nice and clean; they may be 
split after the manner of splitting straw for 
braiding. The finer they are split the softer 
will be the bed, although they are not likely 
to last as long as when they are put in whole. 
Three barrels full, well stowed in, will fill a 
good sized tick, that is after they have been 
split. The bed will always be light, the 
husks do not become matted down like feath¬ 
ers, and they are certainly more healthy to 
sleep on. 
Feather beds ought to be done away with, 
especially in warm weather. For spring 
summer, and fall, husk beds ought to be “all 
the go,” and such undoubtedly will be the 
case, when they are brought into use. There 
is no better time to procure husks than when 
the corn is harvested, and the husks will be 
much nicer and cleaner when the corn is 
cut up at the bottom and put in stacks. They 
do not become so dry and weather-beaten. 
It is calculated that a good husk bed will 
last from twenty-five to thirty years. Every 
farmer’s daughter can supply herself with 
beds (against the time of need) at a trifling 
expense, which is quite an inducement, now- 
a-days. 
Profits of Shade Trees. —Let a farmer 
plant out by the road side 100 trees, at a cost 
of $50, (and this is a liberal estimate,) in ten 
years’ time that farm will sell for $500 more 
than it would without them ; and I venture 
the assertion, the owner would not have 
them removed for that sum. 
Whatever adds to the value of real estate, 
and has an increasing value, must be profita¬ 
ble, It cannot be otherwise. Now, if shade 
trees do this, the question is settled. Will 
any sane man contend that the shade trees 
in Cleveland, Rochester and New-Haven, or 
any other city where numerously planted 
have not done much to add to the value of 
real estate in those places 1 What is true of 
the city would be equally true of the coun 
try. 
The honey-bee belongs to the class of in¬ 
sects which live in a perfect community— 
indeed, bees can flourish only when associa¬ 
ted in large numbers as a colony. In a soli¬ 
tary state, a single bee would be almost as 
helpless as a new-born child, and would be 
unable to endure even the ordinary chill of 
an autumnal night. 
If a family of bees is examined before it 
sends off a new colony in the spring, three 
different kinds of bees will be found in the 
hive. 1. One bee of peculiar shape, com¬ 
monly called the queen bee. 2. A number of 
large bees, called drones. 3. Many thou 
sands of a smaller kind, called workers, and 
similar to those which are seen on the blos¬ 
soms. A large number of the cells will be 
found filled with honey and bee bread, while 
vast numbers contain eggs and immature 
young, a few cells of unusual size and shape 
being devoted to the rearing of young 
queens. 
The queen bee is the only perfect female 
in the hive, and all the eggs are laid by her. 
The drones are the males; and the workers 
are females, so imperfectly developed that 
they are incapable of laying eggs, and retain 
the instincts of females only so far as to give 
the most devoted attention to feeding and 
rearing the young. The queen bee, or, as 
she ought more properly to be called, the 
mother bee, is the common mother of the 
whole colony. She reigns, therefore, most 
unquestionably, by a divine right, as every 
good mother is, or at least ought to be, a 
queen in the bosom of her own family. 
The fertility of the queen bee is very great. 
She will often lay as many as three thousand 
eggs in a single day. 
As the common bees never attain the age 
of a single year, a constant succession of 
young bees must be added to the hive ; and, 
therefore, no colony can long exist without 
the presence of this important insect. She 
is as absolutely necessary to its welfare as 
the soul is to the body. The queen bee is 
treated by the bees as every mother ought 
to be by her children, with the most unbound¬ 
ed respect and affection. A circle of her lov¬ 
ing offspring constantly surrounds her, tes¬ 
tifying in various ways their dutiful regard, 
offering her honey from time to time, most 
affectionately embracing her with their an¬ 
tennae, and carefully smoothing her beautiful 
plumage. If she wishes to travel over the 
combs, they not only make way for her, but. 
most politely back out of her presence, and 
ever seem intent on doing all that they can 
to promote her comfort and happiness. How 
ought such a beautiful example to put to the 
blush those undutiful children who treat their 
mothers with irreverence or neglect, and 
who, instead of striving with loving zeal to 
lighten their labors and save their steps, 
treat them more as though t hey were servants 
hired only to wait upon every whim and to 
humor every caprice ! 
If the queen is taken from the bees, as 
soon as they ascertain their loss, the whole 
colony is thrown into a state of the most in¬ 
tense agitation; all the labors of the hive are 
at once abandoned ; the bees run over the 
combs in wild despair ; and often the whole 
of them rush forth from the hive, in anxious 
search for their beloved mother. When they 
return to their now desolate home, by 
their mournful tones they manifest the deep¬ 
est sense of their deplorable calamity. Their 
note at such times is of a peculiarly sorrow¬ 
ful character, sounding something like a 
succession of wailings on the minor key, 
and can no more be mistaken by the experi¬ 
enced apiarian, or bee-manager, for their or¬ 
dinary happy hum, than the piteous moanings 
of a sick child can be confounded by an anx¬ 
ious mother with its joyous crowings, when 
overflowing with health and happiness. 
Even after the bees have recovered from 
their first distraction of grief, they plainly 
manifest that some overwhelming calamity 
has befallen them. Often those that have 
visited the fields, instead of entering the hive 
with that dispatchful haste so characteristic 
of a bee returning to a happy home, linger 
about the entrance with a dissatisfied look. 
Their home, like that of a man who is cursed 
rather than blessed in his domestic relations, 
is such a melancholy place that they enter 
it only with reluctant and slow-moving steps. 
The defense of the colony against its nu¬ 
merous enemies, the construction of the 
combs, the providing of stares, the rearing 
of the young, and, in short, the whole work 
of the hive, the laying of eggs excepted, is 
carriedon by the industrious workers. There 
may be gentlemen of leisure in the common¬ 
wealth of bees, but, most assuredly, there are 
no such ladies, either of high or low degree. 
The queen herself has her full share of duties; 
for it must be admitted that the royal office 
is no sinecure, when the mother who fills it 
must superintend daily the proper disposition 
of some two or three thousand eggs. It is 
very true that the drones 
“ On others’ toils in pampered leisure thrive, 
The lazy fathers of the industrious hive.’’ 
But then, as a penalty for this exemption 
from labor, at the close of the summer they 
are all ignominiously put to death. 
Langstroth. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
THE TA FEU. 
The mention of this sent me the other day 
to my books, for something relating to Chi¬ 
nese farming. The result of my researches 
proves that they know the value of manure, 
azd how many inches there are in an acre. 
Perhaps you may think them of sufficient 
interest to circulate with your own valu¬ 
able observations. That relating to the 
planting of grain may excite the experimen¬ 
tal genius of some go-ahead farmer, and 
thus benefit thy brethren of the Plow : 
The Chinese permit no part of their lands 
to be applied to the purposes of pasture; 
every field sustains a perpetual succession 
of crops. This makes cattle scarce, and oc¬ 
casions a scantiness of animal manure. The 
Chinese, however, are convinced of the great 
utility of manure in cultivation. The col¬ 
lection of manure, says Staunton, is an ob¬ 
ject of so much attention with them, that a 
large number of old men and women, as well 
as children, incapable of much other labor, 
are constantly employed about the streets, 
public roads, banks of canals and rivers, with 
baskets tied before them and holding in their 
hands small wooden rakes to pick up the 
dung of animals, and offal of any kind that 
may answer the purpose of manure; but 
above all others, except the dung of fowls, 
they prefer, like the Romans, (according to 
the testimony of Columella,) night soil. 
This manure is mixed sparingly with a por¬ 
tion of stiff loamy earth, and made into cakes 
