AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
385 
w.iter. By jumping on the marsh above, they 
become alarmed, and rush for the water, where 
they are speedily bagged. To trap them, stop 
up the ditch where they pass, except a narrow 
passage of six inches in width. Put a flat stone 
about two inches beneath the surface of the water, 
and upon this set a common steel trap. They are 
sure to be caught in passing. There are no diffi¬ 
culties in reclaiming these marshes but may be 
easily surmounted, and when the work is done 
we are certain that every one will be highly grat¬ 
ified with the results. As these marshes now 
lie, they are hardly worth twenty dollars an acre. 
When once swarded with herds-grass they are 
worth a hundred or more. We think ours will 
pay the interest on three hundred dollars an acre. 
On the ten acres where two years ago scarce two 
tons of poor salt hay were cut, this year ten tons 
were gathered of excellent quality. Judging 
from the present appearance of the sod, the quan¬ 
tity will be doubled next year. 
AN EXAMPLE OE UN1)EE- 
DEA1NING. 
It is frequently said, and oftener felt than said, 
by those farmers who have never tried under¬ 
draining, that our articles are too theoretical and 
the benefits of the operation are greatly over esti¬ 
mated. We can not blame any one for entertain¬ 
ing this opinion until he sees for himself an ex¬ 
ample of its advantages. We have recently vis¬ 
ited the farm of Stephen Hoyt & Sons, of New- 
Canaan, Ct., where our views of draining are 
amply illustrated. 
They carry on the nurserry business in connec¬ 
tion with farming, and were first led into under¬ 
draining by the loss of a large number of trees by 
Winter killing. They rightly attributed this loss 
to a heavy wet soil, and determined to remedy it. 
They put down underdrains, three or four feet 
deep, at distances of about forty feet, filling the 
bottom with cobble stone in the style of fig. 15, 
page 222 of our October issue. In a single field 
they have put down over a mile of this kind of 
drain. They are very careful in packing the sur¬ 
face of the cobbles with very small stones, and 
covering with straw and sods so as to prevent the 
sifting of dirt down among the stones. The char¬ 
acter of this field has been entirely changed, so 
that no crop is Winter killed. 
They are so well pleased with this kind of un¬ 
derdraining, that they are extending their drains 
over the whole farm as rapidly as they can. The 
soil is tenacious, not of the first quality, and much 
of the sub-soil is full of cobbles, which makes the 
digging of drains very expensive. But they find 
it pays an interest of twelve per cent for all the 
capital they invest in this operation. It costs not 
far from fifty dollars an acre to clear of the rocks 
and to drain the wet places. When a field is thus 
cleared and drained, the value is advanced from 
forty dollars to two hundred dollars an acre, and 
it pays the interest on that sum much better than 
it did on the first cost, without the improvement. 
We found here all the advantages we have ever 
claimed for underdraining fully realized. We saw 
extensive fields of corn, carrots, turnips, parsnips, 
onions and beets, upon this underdrained land. 
They find no difficulty in getting good turnips upon 
these fields, and when this want in American 
husbandry is supplied, we have little doubt, that 
our turnip crop will approximate to the place it 
holds in English husbandry. The finest orchards 
are upon this drained soil, and trees eight years 
old are now as large as many that we have seen 
n orchards planted twenty years ago. We are 
persuaded, that if any of our sceptical friends will 
visit this farm, or any other where thorough drain¬ 
ing has been tried, their unbelief will give place 
to a faith that will work. 
WONDEES OE THE BEE-HIVE. 
Number VI. 
[We have in course of preparation several large, beau¬ 
tiful and instructive engravings for these Chapters, which 
we reserve to the next number in order to have them all 
in the same Volume.] 
One of the curious sights in a hive is the cluster 
which the bees make. Their nature is such that 
they need a high degree of animal heat. A single 
bee would soon perish from cold, but when thou¬ 
sands cluster together, they can endure the sever¬ 
ity of our hardest Winters. But in forming the 
cluster, they do not lie down close together like a 
litter of pigs, nor stand side by side like a flock of 
sheep. Their mode is to hang themselves from 
the ceiling or roof of the hive, or from the branch 
of a tree. Some hundreds of them take hold of 
the underside of the roof with their fore-feet 
which terminate in sharp claws, and stretch 
themselves out at full length. Their hind legs 
hang down so that another set of bees can grasp 
them-with their forefeet, and others still hang to 
them. But these chains get linked together, each 
bee perhaps hanging from two, and thus festoons 
are formed, and the shape of the whole mass is 
that of a sugar loaf with the small end down. 
We had occasion once to turn upside down a box 
containing several hundred bees, and as they 
gradually accommodated themselves to their new 
position, we found at the bottom of the chain a 
bee, which, while clinging to those above him with 
its fore-feet, held in its hind feet a shingle nail that 
happened to be loose in the box ; and from the 
nail still another bee hung. The latter dropped 
off pretty soon, but the first held on to the nail for 
half an hour before letting it fall. The number of 
bees in such a cluster is sometimes very large, and 
the weight is proportionally great, so that the 
strength of those tiny hooks with which the feet 
end off, is more than we should suppose. 
Number of Bees in a Swarm. 
The number of bees in an ordinary swarm, may 
be estimated by the actual weight. It has been 
found by experiment that a pound of bees con¬ 
tains about five thousand ; and if one knows the 
weight of the hive in which he has put a new 
swarm, he can easily calculate the number of 
bees. It is desirable that a swarm should have 
at least 20,000 bees ; sometimes there are three 
times as many. It is to be noticed, however, that 
a new swarm on going from the old hive, is heavi¬ 
ly loaded with honey, and if no allowance were 
made for this, the estimate of numbers would be 
too large. 
The observing hive allows us to watch each 
bee as it returns from its flight in search of food. 
Those that come with a load of pollen on their 
thighs, first attract our attention. This pollen is 
the food of the immature bees, and is kept stored 
away in readiness for consumption when needed. 
The supply is procured months before it is used. 
And it is essential to the well-being of a stock, 
though it is bitter to our taste, and makes the 
honey with which it is found unfit for market or 
for the table. We see'a bee coming in, with its 
well balanced load sticking out on either side like 
panniers from a donkey. It marches along over 
the familiar road from the entrance to the comb, 
and instead of going up to the spare honey boxes, 
where the choicest stores are kept, it makes its 
way to the neighborhood of the breeding cells, and 
looks for an unoccupied spot. Passing by those 
that contain honey or brood, it selects a proper 
place, and thrusting its hind legs into the cell, it 
rubs them one against the other until the entire 
load is brushed off; and then leaving it to others 
to pack down the bee-bread, it starts off to make 
arrangements for delivering its cargo of honey. 
The honey is brought to the hive in the abdomen, 
and is usually collected at the same time with the 
pollen. The bee brushes up the juice of the flow¬ 
ers with its five tongued proboscis, and swallows 
it. If when gorged with food, it were cut in two, 
the honey might be found in the sack of the abdo¬ 
men. Or if the bee were sufferers to light on a 
window, in a strong light, the semi-tiau o>arency 
of that part of its body would show that u was 
loaded with honey. A bee desiring to be relieved 
of its load, gives an invitation to the company to 
help themselves. This is done in a peculiar man¬ 
ner, if we have not misinterpreted their antics. 
Holding on to the comb with its forefeet, it shakes 
itself violently, and repeatedly, crowding away 
those that hinder its movements, As one comes 
to accept the offer, the two join their probosces, 
and the honey passes from one to the other. In 
the same way also they feed the mother-bee ; but 
if the honey be not wanted for immediate use, it 
is poured into the cells provided for it. 
Thus all the honey which we find in the hive is 
brought in, a few drops at a time, in the stomach, 
or more properly in the honey-bag of the bee; but 
“ Many a little makes a mickle,” 
and we surely ought not to despise the results. It 
is not likely that any change is effected in the 
honey after it is collected from the flower, except 
that it becomes thicker by evaporation. Buck¬ 
wheat honey is one thing in flavor, color and 
smell, and white clover honey is quite another 
thing. And as for the feeding mixtures which 
some people administer to their bees, we will only 
say they get no better than they give. If they 
give molasses they get molasses in the comb ; and 
if they give West India honey, they will not get 
the apple blossom honey in return. 
During the days when the honey harvest is 
abundant, the hives increase rapidly in weight, 
and sometimes all the profit of the entire year is 
made in the course of two or three weeks. In¬ 
deed the work accomplished in a few favorable 
days is almost incredible. 
HOW MUCH HONEY DOES A SWARM MARK. 
We have before us in the Bienen Zeitung, for 
1856, an accurate and extended statement of daily 
observations made in Germany three years ago. 
A man took the trouble to weigh one of his hives 
twice a day, before the bees left it in the morning 
and after their return at night, and thus he de¬ 
termined the daily increase of weight, and the loss 
at night by consumption and evaporation. The 
observations were continued from the 5th of May 
to the 2nd of August, a period of 91 days. Some 
general idea of the whole may be formed from the 
following items which will repay the reader. 
The hive, bees, comb, honey, brood, &c., weigh¬ 
ed on the 5th of May 64 pounds ; and after loosing 
two swarms, of seven and five pounds respectively ( 
its weight on the 2nd of August was 120| pounds. 
This does not show all that the bees accomplished 
for the gathering of honey ceased almost entirely 
on the 27th of June, (five days before the depart¬ 
ure of the second swarm,) at which time the en- 
