OLD PEAR TREES IN BOSTON.-MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEES.- NO. 16, ETC. 
61 
A calf may readily be taught to suck its food, 
simply by pressing its head into a pan, or pail of 
loblolly, with one hand, and inserting the fore fin¬ 
ger of the other into its mouth. By this means, it 
will instinctively suck up its beverage. When 
calves are about six weeks old, you may turn them 
out into a field of grass ; and if you, wish to force 
their growth, continue to give them loblolly twice a 
day. By so doing, you may increase their size 
fully one third. In summer, about mowing time, 
it is well to give them some cut grass. In winter, 
the best thing to feed them on is pumpkins, tur¬ 
nips, and potatoes, cut into fine pieces, with small 
“ nubbins” of Indian corn, and a little salt or fresh 
hay. 
Some persons, in summer, turn their calves into 
the road to pasture, while others drive them to the 
mountains, and back again in the fall. In whiter, 
they feed them on salt hay • but T do not like the 
plan of letting them run at large. It stunts their 
growth, and makes them poor and lean. If you 
want a good fat calf, you must constantly keep him 
under your care and feed him well, which you will 
find far preferable to any other way. W. G. B. 
Newark , N. /., Dec. 20th, 1847. 
PRESERVING EGGS AND FRUITS—EGG 
NOG, &c. 
Inclosed I send $2 for three years’ subscription 
of the Agriculturist, which I regard as one of the 
best papers in the United States. Although I am 
a manufacturer, I cannot do without it. My wife 
.says it is worth $20 to her for culinary matters. 
Last May, I put up, according to the directions in 
your published receipt, a large jar of eggs, at four 
cents per dozen : and this morning, I took them out 
to make egg nog for the ladies (Lord bless them : 
for thejr must all have egg nog on Christmas, in 
Kentucky), when I found them as fresh as the day 
when they were put up. My currants, gooseber¬ 
ries, and cherries, also preserved after your receipts, 
ate all as fresh as a new-blown rose. 
My neighbors wish to know where I get eggs at 
four cents per dozen , while they are paying this 
morning forty cents a dozen—or no egg nog. I 
tell them they do not subscribe for the Agricultur¬ 
ist, a great paper published in New York, which if 
any man dare not take, he is certainly blind to his 
own interest. C. I. 
Louisville , Ky. ; Dec. 25th , 1847. 
OLD PEAR TREES IN BOSTON. 
From the authority of the late Samuel G. Per¬ 
kins, in the Horticulturist, we make the fol¬ 
lowing extract, which shows the fallacy of the 
popular notion that fruits “ run out,” in conse¬ 
quence of the death of the parent tree :— 
The French Huguenots, who settled in and about 
Boston, in the early part of the last century, were 
many of them men of wealth, for that period, and 
they purchased house lots of considerable extent in 
the town of Boston, and in the towns in its neigh¬ 
borhood, which they stocked with the best fruits of 
their native land. This fact is not only a matter of 
history, but within my day; for I can look back 
and recollect distinctly the many gardens that were 
furnished with the largest trees of the finest fruits, 
that were common throughout the town even as late 
as the year 1810, or even 1815, after which the in¬ 
creased population covered the gardens, and most of 
the trees, with their luxuriant fruits, soon disap¬ 
peared. There are a few solitary trees of the old 
fruits, of a hundred years standing and more, left in, 
yards, which continue to produce the finest St. 
Michaels, Saint Germains, Brown Beurres, Ver- 
gouleuse, Winter Colmars, Winter Good Christians, 
Easter Bergamots, Mesire Jeans, etc., as fine as they 
did fifty or sixty years ago; but of those, only one 
old fruit garden is left, that I recollect, and that is 
the one belonging to the late S. P. Gardner, Esq., 
in Summer street. Here these fine fruits are all 
raised in perfection, on trees probably more than a 
century old, under their proper and appropriate 
names. 
MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEES—No. 16. 
Reason and Instinct of Bees. —Perhaps there is 
no insect that manifests so great a degree of know¬ 
ledge and art in its domestic economy, as the honey 
bee. The beautiful architecture displayed in their 
never-varied hexagonal cells, their perseverance 
and industry in laying up stores for winter use, the 
astonishing expedients made use of in repairing ac 
cidental damages to their internal household ar¬ 
rangements, together with the perfect harmony 
exhibited in their civil relations, put to shame the 
vaunted science of man, and his boasted ability for 
self government. Many acts of the honey bee seem 
to be an inherent knowledge, while others appear to 
be the promptings of acquired reason, and it is a 
question whether every act is not the effect of in¬ 
stinctive knowledge, implanted from birth. It must 
suffice my present object, to give a few instances of 
reason and judgment, manifested by bees, under my 
own notice, and to make a few remarks upon their 
general habits and customs. 
When the young brood is fully matured, or a 
sufficient number thereof, to form a swarm of say, 
ten thousand bees, a queen is ready to sally forth 
with them. Instinct has taught them to provide a 
sovereign, and teaches them that they must 
depart. In this departure, they manifest a know¬ 
ledge equal to that of human beings. They never 
venture out when there are the least symptoms of 
unfair weather. High winds also prevent their 
egress; but when everything is propitious, they 
rush to the outlets, on a signal being given, headed, 
or followed by their queen. Now mark the slow 
and beautiful girations of the dark mass as they 
hover gently around the hive, to give all that is ne¬ 
cessary a chance to join the emigrant family. But 
why alight on yonder slender bough I It is to 
be assured of the presence and safety of their 
queen. Now they are fully clustered, let us ap¬ 
proach the pendulous mass. Hark ! Do you hear 
the buzz that resounds among them—do you see 
how the masses move in eager and disturbed com¬ 
motion I Their queen is left behind , or has been 
unable to gain the cluster —now they leave by hun¬ 
dreds, and return to the hive ! On the morrow 
they will again come forth, and after clustering and 
being assured of the presence of the queen, unless 
a hive is tendered them, they will take a sudden 
and rapid flight to the forest. It is seldom that the 
queen remains behind, but in such a case, the bees 
show the most intense anxiety andj distraction. A 
