52 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
HOT HOUSE. 
Air—Admit each day ifthe weather will permit. 
Bulbs—Keep up a succession in flower by bringing in 
from the Green house. Water freely and if in glasses, 
change often. 
Cactuses—Bring in from dry shelves, giving airy situa¬ 
tions and plenty of water. 
Cinerarias—Turn often to preserve the upright form of 
the flower stalk. 
Cleanse plants, as directed last month. 
Fuchsias, Pelargoniums, &c.—Shift or repot as they 
advance in growth. 
Heat—Less care will be requisite as the season ad¬ 
vances. The temperature should be maintained as even 
as possible ranging from 55° to 65° and in no case exceed¬ 
ing 85° with sun heat. 
Insects—Follow the directions given under this head in 
February. 
Roses in bloom—Water freely and watch the approach 
of insects. 
THE APIARY. 
Mr. M. Quinby, (The Author of “ Mysteries of Bee- 
Keeping Explained,”) sends us the following directions 
for the season: 
Bees that have been housed, can be put cut the first 
warm days that occur in this month. Snow on the ground 
is no objection ; if it is only hard, it is just as good as 
bare ground. All that have been out through the winter 
should now be looked to, as well as those that have not 
oeen properly managed in the house. All dust and dead 
bees on the bottom board should be swept out. Ascertain 
the actual condition of every stock , whether weak or strong. 
Turn the hive over to admit the light among the combs— 
search for and remove all that are moldy—see if there are 
any little clusters of dead bees among them, if so, remove 
them at once, before they become putrid, together with 
all the combs in immediate contact, which are quite sure 
to be moldy and unfit for use. 
All weak colonies are liable to be plundered by the 
strong ones, and they should be expressly guarded by 
closing the entrance, allowing only one bee to pass at 
once—it will do much to prevent a commencement of 
robbing—when that habit is once established, it is not 
easily cured. Robbers generally commence depredations 
the first really warm days. 
It is unnecessary to admit as much air to any stock 
now, as was needed through the coldest weather. It is 
now important to bring forward the brood as fast as possi¬ 
ble-heat is required, and this can be maintained with 
closed doors better than if all arc open—the doors to be 
regulated by the number of workmen to be accommo¬ 
dated. The weather should also be observed ; strong 
stocks need more air in warm days than in a chilly storm— 
alittle daily attention to regulate the passage will be fully 
remunerated. 
If any need feeding, it should be done by putting honey 
on the top of the hive ; open the holes and set over a box 
to prevent the bees from other stocks getting it, and if pos¬ 
sible even scenting it. 
DISH OF EARLY ASPARAGUS* 
Is very desirable after the Winter’s fast. 
This may be easily had with a little trouble 
and expense. For the last three years we 
tried the following method, and found it to 
work well. We have a box made of com¬ 
mon pine boards, twelve feet in length and 
six in breadth. The back board is about 18 
inches wide, and the front about six. We 
place the box upon any part of the aspar¬ 
agus bed convenient, about the first of 
March, and cover with five sashes made 
to fit nicely into the frame. This gives a 
surface of seventy-two feet under glass. 
We surround the box with a little embank¬ 
ment of horse manure. Between the rows 
of asparagus we put in a few seeds of rad¬ 
ishes, and lettuce, which soon appear above 
ground and grow finely. The heads of as¬ 
paragus begin to show themselves in about 
three weeks, and by the first week ii* April 
we have shoots long enough for cutting. 
They come forward more rapidly as the sea¬ 
son advances, and we are enabled to have 
this delicious vegetable by this method, 
*We have two articles on asparagus from correspon¬ 
dents which are laid over for want of room.—E d. 
about a month earlier than the open bed. 
The advantages of this treatment are, that 
it saves the transplanting of roots, and the 
expense and trouble of a regular hot bed. 
The radishes and lettuce cost only the trou¬ 
pe of pulling. 
MANURES—CHAPTER III, 
In the first chapter, reasons were given for 
doubting the necessity of specific mineral 
manures as food for plants. In the second 
chapter it was shown, that the air furnishes 
the principal materials that enter into the 
growth or composition of all plants, and 
that it is out of the question to attempt to 
increase their growth by adding to the at¬ 
mospheric food. The closing proposition 
was, that the art of cultivation consists, 
mainly, in preparing the soil by mechanical 
means, and then supplying the roots of 
plants with small quantities of manures, to 
feed or stimulate them. 
What are these manures ? 
The chemical theorists say : apply to the 
roots such mineral elements or salts—pot¬ 
ash, lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid, &c.— 
as are found in the ashes of the plant. We 
have already shown that this is as yet only 
theory, unsupported by facts. That potash, 
lime and plaster, which are purely mineral, 
do hasten the growth and developement of 
plants, is true, but we think their efficiency 
is not due so much to their serving as direct 
food, as to the fact that they assist in de¬ 
composing, prep iring, or retaining other ma¬ 
terials, which do act as direct food or stim¬ 
ulants. But of this hereafter. 
All past experience and observation show 
that the roots of all plants are benefited by 
having around them organic materials in a 
state of decay. By organic materials, we 
mean those substances which have consti¬ 
tuted some previous plant or animal, having 
an organic structure. 
Chemical analysis shows that the great 
bulk of all plants, as well as of animal sub¬ 
stances, are made up of only four different 
elementary substances, and that these ele¬ 
ments are the same in all. To illustrate : 
we may have five hundred or a thousand 
buildings, all different in structure, form, 
color, &c., and yet all these are composed 
essentially of wood, stone, brick, mortar, 
nails, and two or three elementary paints 
differently mixed or compounded. Any one 
of these buildings maybe decomposed Corn 
in pieces,) and furnish the elements—the 
wood, stone, brick, mortar, nails, &c.— 
for erecting a very different structure. A 
church may furnish, at least a part of all 
the materials required for a new dwelling 
very unlike the church in appearance. The 
same kinds of materials are found in each, 
though in different relative proportions, and 
put together in a different order. 
Now the same thing may be said of all 
plants. Four elements, (called oxygen, 
hgdrogen, carbon and nitrogen,) when ar¬ 
ranged together in a particular manner, and 
in certain proportions, make up the bulk of 
a corn-stalk. Precisely these same ele¬ 
ments, when differently arranged together 
with a slight difference in the proportion of 
each, constitute a wheat-stalk. A third com¬ 
bination, of the same substances, produces 
a clover-stalk. A fourth combination, pro¬ 
duces the flesh of an animal. We could go 
on and state what has been actually demon¬ 
strated a thousand times, that all organic 
substances, (whether animal or vegetable,) 
are chiefly made up of these four elements, 
the difference in form, structure and sensi¬ 
ble properties, being due, in part to the 
manner of arranging the materials together, 
and in part to the respective quantities of 
each of the four elements that enter into 
the composition of the several plants. A 
single illustration will show that the flesh of 
the ox, for example, is made of the same 
materials as the corn-stalk or grass-stalk, 
viz: If you feed an ox only upon hay, or 
only upon corn-stalks, his body will increase 
in size and weight; in other words, his flesh 
is made out of the materials in the corn¬ 
stalk or grass-stalk. So our own bodies are 
made of the elements that form the vege¬ 
table or animal food we eat. 
These statements have a direct bearing 
upon the subject of manures. We are aim¬ 
ing to show, that from a similarity in com¬ 
position, any one plant or organic substance 
may be used as food or manure for any or 
all of the various other plants. A mass of 
corn-stalks, when decaying, furnishes the 
elements needed by a growing wheat-stalk. 
So, also, a decaying piece of flesh will yield 
its own elements to assist the growth of new 
stalks of corn, grass or wheat. But for the 
old plant to give up its elements to the new, 
it is necessary that the old one should de¬ 
cay, that is, that its elements, its minute par¬ 
ticles, should separate from each other, 
into so finely a divided stale that they can 
be separately taken in by the leaves or roots 
of the new plant. 
Animal substances furnish food more 
readily than vegetables, because the former 
decay more quickly, and sooner yield their 
elements. 
In a former chapter we stated, that most 
animals and vegetables, when decaying, go 
off into the air in a state of minute division, 
and that only a small portion is found in any 
given bulk of air. But the intelligent culti¬ 
vator will not let any of these decaying ma¬ 
terials steal away from his grasp, to be lost 
in the great general storehouse, when they 
may be appropriated in the field of his 
neighbor or that of a stranger, or perchance, 
by forests or wild plants. The most success¬ 
ful cultivator is he who husbands all the de¬ 
caying plants and animals within his reach, 
and stores them away in the soil, directly 
at the roots of his growing crops, where 
they are, of necessity, absorbed by the as¬ 
cending sap and appropriated by the plant- 
stalks or grains, or by the roots themselves. 
Here, in general terms, is the whole theory 
of manuring, viz : in taxing all useless or 
previously used organic materials, whether 
vegetable or animal, for elements out of 
wiiich to increase the bulk of new forming 
crops. To return to the illustration drawn 
from the materials of dwellings ; suppose 
a master-builder should undertake to erect a 
new building upon the site of an old one 
