LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.-NO. 4, ETG. 
95 
inuch honey when it can be had from no other tree, 
or from any flower of the field. Then follows the 
peach blossom; next the cherry: then the apple 
and p? ar blossoms ; all affording a large supply of 
excellent honey ; and if you have raspberries in 
your garden, you may expect to see the bees upon 
every flower ; but your peonies, roses, and all your 
much-admired flowers, with very few exceptions, 
the bees will never condescend to visit. 
Red clover, which covers the fields so luxuri¬ 
antly, and which would appear to be a fine crop for 
affording honey, is as useless to honey bees, as so 
many thistle heads ; for the reason that the probos¬ 
cis of this insect, is too short to admit of extracting 
the honey from its blossoms. 
There are many trees in the forest, or in the 
grove, that afford honey, either from flowers or from 
the substance termed “ honey dew,” that exudes 
from the leaves. I was once passing through a 
natural grove of trees, near my residence, in the 
month of August, and I heard a noise like the faint 
notes of distant music, and looking up, I saw bees 
in endless numbers, among the branches of a tall 
tree (of what species I do not now recollect), and 
their merry “ Te Deum” gave conclusive evidence 
of the presence of honey in abundance. 
As a fall supply, when the season has been un¬ 
favorable for gathering honey, there is nothing that 
can compare with buckwheat, and this crop should 
be sown near every apiary, for the two-fold crop of 
grain and honey. 
I simply give the principal sources of the bee, 
for its supply of honey. There are many other 
things of value to them, too tedious to mention. 
As a source for gathering farina , the sunflower 
is highly important. Farina is as requisite to the 
young brood as honey, and this must be stored up 
in advance, and a row of sunflowers, along side of 
your field, or garden fence, would be worth, to the 
bees, ten times the trouble of planting. Try it, and 
see for yourselves, how the bees will roll up the 
yellow dust from the golden heads, and stick it 
upon their thighs, and carry it to their hives. 
T. B. Miner. 
Ravenswood, L. I. ) 
February , 1st , 1848. ) 
POLE PRUNING SHEARS. 
Fig. 23. 
This implement is attached to a pole, and oper¬ 
ates by means of a lever moved by a cord and pul¬ 
ley. Its use is to enable a person, standing on the 
ground, to prune trees, some of the branches of 
which may not, perhaps, be so well trimmed by any 
other implement. Branches of one inch and a half 
in diameter may be easily cut off with this instru¬ 
ment. Shears of this kind, of small size, are also 
very useful in cutting off from shade and fruit trees, 
small branches to which insects have attached them¬ 
selves. Prices, $3 to $4.50. 
Lopping or Branch Shears. —These shears 
Fig. 24. 
are very strongly made, with long wooden handles, 
and are used for cutting thick branches from trees, 
shrubbery, hedges, &c. Prices, $2.25 to $5. 
LETTERS FROM VlRGINIA.—No. 4. 
Since writing to you last, I have penetrated as 
far south as Richmond, and am more and more im¬ 
pressed with the advantages which are here pre¬ 
sented, not only to the agriculturist, but to the manu¬ 
facturer and the trader. The natural resources of 
this fine country are absolutely inexhaustible. Her 
mines of coal, iron, copper, and even of gold and 
silver, afford the strongest inducements to the enter¬ 
prising artisan. And the vast amount of unappro¬ 
priated water power, which is everywhere to be 
found, is amply sufficient to set in motion machinery 
adequate to the supply of a continent. There are 
hundreds of thousands "of acres of valuable land 
constantly in market and procurable for the merest 
trifle, for no other reason than that its owners nei¬ 
ther have nor can procure the requisite amount of 
force to put it under cultivation. Every acre of 
this land, if it were subdivided into farms of fifty 
to a hundred acres, and subjected, for a single 
season to a scientific and judicious process of 
agriculture, might not only be quadrupled in its 
nominal value, but rendered equally productive 
with the richest soils of New England or New 
York. This may be thought the language of 
exaggeration ; but I am abundantly supported 
in the conclusions I have drawn, by the most 
experienced and competent judges; and by facts 
which speak for themselves. There are nu¬ 
merous farms in the poorest sections of the state, 
where the land has been purchased at from $3 to 
$5 per acre, upon which, in less than two years, 
crops of wheat averaging from 12 to 14 bushels per 
acre and of corn averaging from 40 to 50 bushels, 
and other crops in proportion have been secured. 
Too much stress it seems to me, cannot be laid 
upon the advantages of the climate in reference to 
the breeding and rearing of stock. It is now the first 
of February, and cattle have not been confined to the 
barn yard a single week. Nor have they consumed 
half a ton of hay each. In the severest seasons, 
two months, from the middle of January to the mid¬ 
dle of March, is all the “ soiling” they need; and 
during a very large portion even of this time, they 
get good picking in the pastures for several hours 
of each day. 
