1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
177 
set it at liberty from its combination with flint as an 
insoluble silicate of potassa.”* 
It is a mistake to suppose that quick-lime renders 
vegetable and animal remains soluble. These substan¬ 
ces are partially soluble as we have seen in the three 
alkalies; but the precipitate formed by the addition of 
lime is not soluble, or at any rate, it is so far fixed that 
it will remain long quiescent in the ground, from which 
it can only be taken up in very small quantities and by 
slow degrees, according to the capacity of the vegetable 
for such food.” 
The operation of lime was discussed at one of the 
weekly agricultural meetings at Boston, and the prin¬ 
cipal facts there brought out, agree with t.he theory of 
Mr. Towers. 
Mr. Earle, (editor of the Worcester Spy,) observed 
that he thought lime was frequently misapplied; it was 
sometimes mixed with stable manure. He had himself 
taken half a dozen loads of manure and mixed a cask 
of lime with it, and he thought he had never seen so 
little effect from any manure. He supposed the lime 
must have united with the base of the ammonia in the 
manure and liberated it; it was thus lost. He spoke 
of the effect of lime on animal matter. u Quick-lime 
absorbs gelatine, and is then insoluble. When he was a 
lad it was a common practice to apply quick-lime to 
heal a cut in the finger, or other parts. In such cases 
you may soak this coating in . water without effect; by 
Uniting with the animal matter the lime is insoluble.” 
Mr. Porter, of Danvers, remarked that he had 
mixed a number of casks of lime with peat muck, and at 
the same time had mixed the same value of ashes with 
another heap of the same size. The heap which contained 
the ashes began to heat soon, but the one with lime in 
it remained cold. [It is not stated whether the lime 
was put with the peat before it was slaked.] Both 
heaps were spread on a potato field, but the result was 
much in favor of the one which contained the ashes. 
How TO PREVENT THE BeE-MoTH OR MlLLER.- 
Thinking it may be beneficial to some of your readers 
who keep bees, I will briefly give you my mode of ma¬ 
naging bees for the five past years. 
I have the interior of my hives of a size sufficient to con¬ 
tain about one bushel, and largest at the bottom. When 
the bees begin to work and increase in the spring, so that 
they need more room, I raise up the hive about three- 
fourths of an inch, by putting under a block at each cor¬ 
ner of the hive, and then set a box on the back tight to 
the hive and bottom-board; also one on each side, with 
holes in the bottom edge of the boxes, to correspond 
with the holes under the hive, so that the bees can enter 
the boxes directly from the bottom board. In the 
course of two weeks I add two more on the top of 
the hive, making five boxes, which should contain at 
least as much as the interior of the hive, and exchange 
them as fast as they are filled. In this way the bees 
keep to work, so that there is none which lay on the out¬ 
side of the hive; and I find that in a good honey-making 
season, they will fill the five boxes about as soon as 
they will two on the top of the hive. In this way, I 
have a hive and boxes that contains two bushels or 
over, and I find that the colonies will increase enough 
to occupy a hive of this size as well as they will a one 
bushel hive, and when the bees begin to decrease in the 
latter part of the season, I begin to remove my boxes, 
and so continue to do until I take them all away, and 
let the hive doyn to the bottom board again. 
I never have known of a swarm of bees being de- 
* Dr. Dauben observes that 11 quick-lime, mixed with pounded 
granite, speedily liberates the contained alkali, and as manv of the 
clays and clay-stones, which compose the bulk of several 1 rock 
tormations in secondary and tertiary districts are derived from 
granitic rocks, wecannot doubt that the action of quick-lime upon 
jhe latter would be of analogous description.” 
stroyed by the bee-moth if the hive was kept full of bees, 
to guard the comb, and this cannot be done in any other 
way than by taking away the room and comb as the 
bees decrease, so that the bees will be numerous enough 
upon the comb to keep the moth out in the spring and 
fall If 1 want my bees to swarm, when they have 
increased enough to spare a swarm, and leave enough 
in the old hive to guard the comb and perform their la¬ 
bors, I remove all the boxes, and let the bees all into 
the centre of the hive, and I have never had them fail 
of swarming within two days after, if the weather was 
good. I then return what boxes tliey need, aixd so add 
the boxes as the bees increase. But it is rather incon¬ 
venient to manage them in this way, unless your hive is 
rightly calculated for it. A. Colton. Pittsfield, Vt ., 
April 6,1847. .. 
The Barberry Question. —We have received seve* 
ral communications in reference to the influence of the bar* 
berry in blighting grain. We wish to treat all our cor* 
respondents with perfect fairness, but we cannot think 
the interest of the public would be promoted hy a far¬ 
ther discussion of this subject in our columns, and we 
are therefore under the necessity of disposing of the 
articles on hand by the following summary: 
In our number for Deceniber last, we gave a commu¬ 
nication from Mr. J. G. Clarke, of Kingston, R. I., in 
which the theory set forth in reference to the supposed 
blight of a field of rye by the shrub—is “ that the bar¬ 
berry and the rye were in blossom at the same time, and 
the pollen of the barberry was blown by the wind on the 
open blossom of the fry©-, &hus causing blight.” 
Mr. Samuel Hayden, of Windsor. Ct., sends us 
a communication in which he says —“ My opinion is, 
and has been for years, that Mr. Clarke’s theory in 
regard to the blight taking place through the influ¬ 
ence of the pollen, when both [the grain and the bai*- 
berry,] are in blossom at once, is cori-ect, and that to 
produce the greatest amount of mischief the wind should 
be in the right direction at the proper time,” &.c. He 
then cites several cases which he thinks support this 
theory. But is it a settled point that the bai'berry and 
rye or wheat, do, ordinarily, come into bloom at the 
same time ? A correspondent , who is an excellent 
botanist and a close observer, wi'ites us— 
“ Now, the fact is, the barberry is out of flower seve¬ 
ral weeks before either rye or wheat comes into blos¬ 
som; and the pollen, thus clearly proving an alibi, is 
fairly entitled to an acquittal A 
From Mr. S. Baldwin, of New Haven, Ct., we have 
a very elaborate and well written article, which we 
should be pleased to give in detail, did not the rule 
which we have thought proper to adopt, oblige us to 
exclude it. In a very interesting manner, he gives the 
results of his observations for a period of more than 
seventy years. He refers to au article written by the 
late Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, written in 
answer to.some queries' which were pi'opounded in 1800, 
by the “ Connecticut Academy of Arts and Scienoes,” 
with-a view to procuring materials for a statistical his¬ 
tory of the state. Dr. D. states that in 1796, the town 
of New Haven appropriated $200 for the purpose of 
destroying barberry bushes within its limits, and that 
individuals are supposed to have expended as much 
more. This, it is stated, was done, because from ex¬ 
amination, the evidence that the bushes had an injuri¬ 
ous iufluence, was deemed conclusive. It was sup¬ 
posed by Dr. D., that the blight was occasioned by the 
wind carrying the “ effluvia” and the decayed blos¬ 
soms ” over the field; and he states that wherever they 
fell, the grain was blasted. 
As a further evidence that the idea of the deleterious 
influence of this shrub has long prevailed, Mr. Baldwin 
cites a statute of Connecticut, passed in May, 1826. by 
which provision was made for the eradication of bar 
