affix the before-mentioned board. A door should then be made in a side of the frame sufficiently large to admit a deep plate, or small dish, to contain the food. By the use of this machine the bees are fed quietly, and protected from the cold weather and the intrusion of other bees. It is scarcely necessary to observe further, that the door of the machine should face such part of the bee-house as best suits convenience. The dish of food to be placed under should be covered with a piece of thick paper the size of the plate or dish, pierced in holes through which the bees will feed; and a quantity of short pieces of straw also put into the dish will prevent the bees from daubing themselves. They should be fed at night, and the dish only taken away early on the following morning, to do this the face and hands should be covered. The autumn and early part of the spring are times proper to examine if any hives require feeding; but always commence before the stock is in absolute want of food, otherwise the bees will be so poor and weak as to be unable to come down.

To manage Honey.

To judge of the best honey, it should be of a bright pale color, thick, and a little aromatic. To obtain it from the combs in its pure state, it must be left to run from them without pressing. The color shows whether it is fine or inferior. If wanted to press some in the comb, choose the fairest and such as have not been broken; wrap each comb in white paper, such as lines the blue cover of loaf sugar. Set it edgeways as it stood in the hive, and it may be preserved many months. The combs meant to be drained, must be cut in slices. Lay them on a hair search, supported by a rack over the jar, in which the honey is to remain; for the less it is stirred after draining the better it keeps. Fill the jar to the brim, as a little scum must be taken off when it has settled. A bladder, well washed in lukewarm water, ought to be laid over the double fold of white paper with which it is covered.

soon vegetate; and blooming, in the course of three years, overpay his labor by providing the bees with pasture on soil otherwise barren, and the margin of the brook would gradually rise to restrain its encroachment on fertile lands. Suppose a white clover field to the south of the hills, and south from the field a large garden, where hardy winter greens have been allowed to flower as early food for the bees. White mustard should also be sown very early in patches near the hive; but not nearer than one yard. A few dwarf flowers may come within two feet, but tall grown ones would assist insects to get up. To the west it would be desirable to have a shrubbery, a wood, a broom common, or heather moor.

The stations for the hives must be six yards asunder, and never nearer than three yards. The board on which they are placed ought to be of one piece; or, if joined, the under side of the joining should be lined with a thinner board fixed closely with wooden pins. The edges of this rounded standard should project four inches all round from the hive. Place it on three wooden pillars sixteen inches long, ten inches above the ground; but six inches of its length should be firmly thrust into the earth; in all, its length to be sixteen inches. The pillar in front should be an inch shorter than the other two, and the three pillars should be within twelve or fourteen inches of the outer edge of the board to, exclude rats and mice. For the same reason no tall-growing plant, no wall, nor any means for ascent should be within three or four feet of the hive. In fine weather the entrance to the hive must be four inches long and an inch and a half in depth.

Fowls do not eat bees, but are useful to them by destroying worms. Ducks sometimes eat them and are killed thereby.

In the beginning of the fine season, when the bees an get food, or have stores remaining, the bee-master has nothing to do but to keep the ground about the hives clear from weeds and from whatever might enable vermin to climb there. Yet as a thriving stock inclines very soon To take the Honey without destroying the Bees. to swarm, the hives must be frequently looked The following easy method of taking the honey after, from eight in the morning till five in the without destroying the bees, is generally practised afternoon. The symptoms are generally thus:in France. In the dusk of the evening, when the The little city seems crowded with inhabitants; bees are quietly lodged, approach the hive, and they are continually in motion during the day; turn it gently over. Having steadily placed it in and after working-time they make loud noises. a small pit, previously dug to receive it, with its The drones may be seen flying about in the heat bottom upwards, cover it with a clean new hive, of the day, and the working bees go with a reelwhich has been properly prepared, with a few ing motion and busy hum. When the bees come sticks across the inside of it, and rubbed with aro-regularly out of the hives let no noise, no intermatic herbs. Having carefully adjusted the mouth of each hive to the other, so that no aperture remains between them, take a small stick and beat gently round the sides of the lower hive for about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, in which time the bees will leave their cells in the lower hive, ascend, and adhere to the upper one. Then gently lift the new hive, with all its little tenants, and place it on the stand from which the other hive was taken. This should be done some time in the week preceding midsummer day, that the bees may have time, before the summer flowers are faded, to lay in a new stock of honey, which they will not fail to do for their subsistence through winter.

To manage Bees generally.

The best situation for bees is to the north, with a range of hills wooded on the summit, and toward the base, enriched with heather, skirted to the east with a stream from the rocks. To confine this rivulet, the bee-master should sow the sandy beech with the seed of furze, and cover it with a light surface of earth. The furze would

ruption incommode them; but if they fly long, as if they were unsettled, some tinkling noise or the loud report of a gun will make the fugitives repair to the nearest lodgings. If there is an empty hive with combs and some honey in it they will readily go there. If a new hive is used, remember to smooth it well within and singe off loose straws. Perpendicular sticks should never be employed. Four cross sticks at equal distances will support the combs. Old hives do very well for late swarms that are not to be preserved through the winter; but box hives are best for them, as the bees work fastest there. They are not, however, fit for being kept through the cold seasons.

The first spontaneous swarming is only to be anticipated by finding the royal cells sealed up.

It is to be observed that great haste in forcing a swarm into the hive may disperse them. Give them time to settle undisturbed, though keep a steady eye on their motions; but whenever they gather into a cluster lose no time in placing the hive over them. If the swarm rest on anything that can be brought to the ground, spread a clean

tion.

linen cloth; lay two sticks on it, two feet asunder; | will direct when it is safe to go out. It is absolay the body on which the swarm have fixed gen-lutely necessary for their health to have leave for tly on the sticks, covering it with the hive by a going in and out in tolerably mild weather. motion the least perceptible, and taking care that To manage Bee-Hives of Mr. Thorley's Construo the edges of the hive rest upon the sticks. Cover hive and all with a cloth, for the sun might allure the bees to rise again. When they have gone into the hive, cover it with its own board and carry it cautiously to its station. Bees are apt to leave their hive even after they begin to work, so they must be watched till evening and throughout the ensuing day. Whenever they are sure to remain, fix the hive to its board with a little lime round the edges, and crown it with green sods to keep out too great heat or rain.

The bottom part is an octangular bee-box, made of deal boards about an inch in thickness, the cover of which is externally seventeen inches in diameter but internally only fifteen inches, and its height ten. In the middle of the cover of this octangular box is a hole, which may be opened or shut at pleasure by means of a slider. In one of the panels is a pane of glass, covered with a wooden door. The entrance at the bottom of the If a hive divides into two swarms it is a sign box is about three and a half inches broad and that each swarm has a queen. Put each into old half an inch high. Two slips of deal, about half hives or boxes; but they must be kept separate. an inch square, cross each other in the centre of If a cluster of bees about the size of a small plum the box, and are fastened to the panel by means is seen together, the queen will generally be of small screws: to these slips the bees fasten found there. Separate them, and with a drinking their combs. In this octangular box the bees are glass turned down you may seize the queen. Put hived after swarming in the usual manner, and her and a score or two of her subjects into a box then suffered to continue till they have built their full of holes, large enough to admit air, and yet combs and filled them with honey, which may be not to allow the bees to escape. Feed her with known by opening the door and viewing their honey combs, and keep her in reserve in case of works through the glass pane, or by the weight the death of a queen in one of the hives. When of the hive. When the bee-master finds his laa hive ceases to work it is a sure sign the queen borious insects have filled their habitation, he is is no more. Then the bee-master may wait an to place a common bee-hive of straw, made either hour and not see a loaded bee enter the habitation. flat on the top or in the common form, on the But if the spare queen be taken late in the even-octangular box, and drawing out the slider a coming, wetting her wings to prevent her escape, and introduce her to the desponding society, they will receive her gladly and begin to work.

If the bees of a hive fight among themselves, be assured there are two queens: and they will destroy each other if one is not taken away to keep. When bees are to swarm a second or more times, they do not come out in clusters, but they make sound called bellings, which may be heard, ceasing for a little, and renewed again and again.

If there are different tones it is certain there are

several young queens in the hive. It is only by putting the ear close to it that the sound can be heard distinctly.

To keep large Hives for Winter. They must not be more than three years old and well stocked with bees. A hive for preserving should weigh from thirty to forty pounds. Place them in October where they are to remain, observing the usual precautions against vermin or winds, and giving them if possible a distance of six or eight yards asunder, that they may not rob each other. Set the hive after sunset. Plaster the edge firmly round with plaster lime, all except the entrance. Fit a piece of hard wood to the aperture, cut two holes a quarter of an inch square, and fix the board as a door with plaster lime. Cover the hive with drawn straw tied together at the top, and fix it with straw ropes around. Cut the straw a quarter of an inch below the board, for a few lengths may conduct vermin into the torpid community. Once in four or five weeks raise the hive from the board after sunset. Scrape the board clean and brush away dead bees. Observe when turning them up if they move their wings; if not, bring them into a warmer situation, free from noise, and the light excluded. Keep them there till the extreme rigor of the season is past, and then return them to their old situation

after sunset.

Sunshine in snow is destructive to bees if they get out. Put a planting of twigs across the holes to give air and yet confine the inmates. Never confine them more than eight or ten days, and except in snow in the sunshine, their own sagacity

munication will be opened between the box and the straw hive; in consequence of which the bees will fill this hive also with the product of their labors.

When the straw-hive is well filled the slider may be pushed in, and the hive taken away and another placed in its room, with the slider drawn This new hive will also be filled in the same

out.

manner.

he had taken three successive hives filled with Mr. Thorley assured the Society of Arts that honey and wax from a single hive during the same summer, and that the food still remaining in the octangular box was sufficient for the support of the bees during the winter. He says that if this method were pursued in every part of the kingdom, instead of the cruel method of destroying these useful insects, he is persuaded, from long experience, that wax would be collected in such plenty that candles made with it might be sold as cheap as those of tallow are sold at present.

Mr. Thorley has also added another part to his bee-hive, consisting of a glass reservoir eighteen inches high, eight inches in diameter at the bottom and in the greatest part thirteen; this receiver has a hole at the top about one inch in diameter, through which a square piece of deal is extended nearly to the bottom of the vessel, having two cross bars, to which the bees fasten their combs. Into the other end of this square piece is screwed a piece of brass, which serves as a handle to the receiver or glass hive. When the bees have filled their straw hive, which must have a hole in the centre, covered with a piece of tin, Mr. Thorley places the glass receiver upon the top of the straw hive and draws out the piece of tin. The bees, now finding their habitation enlarged, pursue their labors with such alacrity that they fill their glass hives likewise with their stores, the whole progress of their works. It will, however, be necessary to cover the glass with an empty hive of straw, or at least with a cloth, lest too much light prevent their working. In this way Mr. Thorley in a good season has had a glass hive filled in thirty days, containing thirty-eight pounds of fine

honey. When the glass is completely filled slide a tin plate between the hive or box, so as to cover the passage, and in half an hour the glass may be taken away with safety. The few bees that remain will readily go to their companions.

Mr. Thorley has added a glass window to his straw hives, in order to observe the progress of the bees, and this contrivance is useful, especially if one hive is to be removed whilst the season continues favorable for their collecting of honey, for when the combs are filled with honey the cells are scaled up, and the bees forsake them, and reside mostly in the hives in which their works are chiefly carried on. Observing also that the bees were apt to extend their combs through the passage or communication into the upper hive, which rendered it necessary to divide the comb when the upper hive was taken away, he puts in the passage a wire screen or netting, the meshes of which are large enough for a loaded bee to pass easily through them, and thus be prevents the junction of the combs from one box to the other, and consequently obviates the necessity of cutting them and of spilling some honey, which, running down among a crowd of bees, incommoded them much.

Langstroth's patent hive is now much recommended. In it each comb has a separate frame. You can cut out the queen cells in the spring and thus prevent swarming. A hive ought not to be used for more than eight years. But the bees need not be destroyed; you may drive them from one hive to another by rapping on the occupied

one.

To manage Bees on Mr. Cobbett's plan. The best hives are those made of clean, unblighted rye-straw. A swarm should always be put into a new hive, and the sticks should be new that are put into the hive for the bees to work on, for if the hive be old it is not so wholesome, and a thousand to one but it contains the embryos of moths and other insects injurious to bees. Over the hive itself there should be a cap of thatch, made also of clean rye-straw, and it should not only be new when first put on the hive, but a new one should be made to supply the place of the former one every three or four months, for when the straw begins to get rotten, as it soon does, insects breed in it, its smell is bad, and its effect on the bees is dangerous.

keep them away if they infest the hive, take a green stick and twist it round the leg of the bench, and at a few inches from it, and cover this stick with tar. This will keep away the ants.

Besides the hive and its cap there should be a sort of shed, with top, back and ends, to give additional protection in winter, though in summer hives may be kept too hot, and in that case the bees become sickly and the produce light. The situation of the hive is to face the southeast, or at any rate to be sheltered from the north and the west. From the north always, and from the west in winter. If it be a very dry season in summer it contributes greatly to the success of the bees to place clear water near their home in a thing that they can conveniently drink out of, for if they have to go a great way for drink they have not much time for work.

It is supposed that bees live only a year; at any rate it is best never to keep the same stall or family over two years, except it be wanted to increase the number of hives. The swarm of this summer should be always taken in the autumn of the next year. If you save the bees when the honey is taken, they must be fed, and if saved they will die of old age before the next fall, and though young ones will supply the place of the dead, this is nothing like a good swarm put up during the summer.

A good stall of bees, that is to say the produce of one, is always worth about two bushels of good wheat. The cost is nothing to the laborer. He must be a stupid countryman, indeed, who cannot make a bee hive, and a lazy one, indeed, if he will not if he can. In short, there is nothing but care demanded, and there are very few situations in the country where a laboring man may not have half a dozen stalls of bees to take every year. The main things are to keep away insects, nice and birds, and especially a little bird called the bee-bird, and to keep all clean and fresh as to the hives and coverings. Never put a swarm into an old hive. If wasps or hornets annoy you, watch them home in the day time, and in the night kill them by fire or by boiling water.

The new Italian bee is more industrious than the common bee. It has, too, a larger proboscis, and can suck the red clover. It is more docile than the common bee. A new queen can be best introduced into a hive in a small cage of wire Tingauze, with about a hundred bees of her own kind, or else she may be put in while unhatched in the To royal cell.

The hives should be placed on a bench, the legs of which mice and rats cannot creep up. round the legs is best. But even this will not keep down ants, which are mortal enemies to bees.

FARRIERY.

[Attention is called to valuable articles upon RINDERPEST and TRICHINE, on pages 467, 468, 469, which could not be finished in time to insert here, owing to delay in receiving the latest European information (May 15, 1866).]

The Teeth of a Horse.

At five years of age the horse has forty teethtwenty-four molar or jaw teeth, twelve incisor or front teeth and four tusks or canine teeth between the molars and incisors, but usually wanting in the mare.

At birth only the two nippers or middle incisors appear.

At one year old the incisors are all visible of the first or milk set.

Before three years the permanent nippers have come through.

At four years old the permanent dividers next to the nippers are out.

At five the mouth is perfect, the second set of teeth having been completed.

At six the hollow under the nippers, called the mark, has disappeared from the nippers, and diminished in the dividers.

At seven the mark has disappeared from the dividers, and the next teeth, or corners, are level, though showing the mark.

At eight the mark has gone from the corners, and the horse is said to be aged. After this time, indeed good authorities say after five years, the age of a horse can only be conjectured. But the teeth gradually change their form, the incisors becoming round, oval, and then triangular. Dealers

sometimes bishop the teeth of old horses; that is, scoop them out, to imitate the mark; but this can be known by the absence of the white edge of enamel which always surrounds the real mark, by the shape of the teeth, and other marks of age about the animal.

When a Horse is Unsound.

Any of the following defects constitute unsoundness in a horse:

Lameness, of all kinds and degrees. Diseases of any of the internal organs. Cough of all kinds, as long as it exists. Colds or catarrhs, while they last. Roaring; broken wind; thick wind; grease; mange; farcy and glanders; megrims or staggers; founder; convex feet; contracted feet; spavins and ringbones; enlargements of the sinews or ligaments; cataracts and other defects of the eyes, impairing sight.

The following may or may not occasion unBoundness, according to the state or degree in which they exist: Corns, splints, thrushes, bogspavins, throughpins, wind-galls, crib-biting. Curbs are unsoundness unless the horse has worked with them for some months without in

convenience.

Cutting, particularly speedy cutting, constitutes unsoundness when it cannot be remedied by care and skill. Quidding, when a confirmed habit, injures the soundness of a horse.

lips of the wound, especially if it be a clean cut, may be closed by one or more stitches, with a moderately coarse needle and thread, which in each stitch may be tied, and the ends left of a proper length, so that they can be afterwards removed, when the parts adhere. It is advised to tie the threads, because sometimes the wounded part swells so much that it is difficult to get them cut and drawn out, without giving pain and doing some mischief.

Bandages.

If the part will allow a roller or bandage to be used, to keep the lips of it together, this may likewise be employed; for, by supporting the sides of the wound, it would lessen any pain which the

stitches occasion. With this treatment the wound

heals often in a short time, or in a few days, rarely exceeding five or six, and sooner in the young and healthy than in the old and relaxed, and sooner in the quiet and motionless than in the restless and active.

Should the wound be large and inflammation, with the discharge of matter, likely to take place, it may still be proper, by gentle means, to bring the divided parts near to each other, and to retain them in their natural situation by means of a bandage. This should not be made too tight, but merely to support the part. In this way, and by avoiding stimulant applications, the wound will Defects, called blemishes, are: Sears, from bro-heal more readily than otherwise, and the chance ken knees; capped hocks, splints, bog-spavins, and throughpins; loss of hair, from blisters or scars; enlargements from blows or cutting; specks or streaks on the corner of the eye.

of any blemishes following will be diminished. Washes of spirits, brandy, and the like, Friar's balsam, spirit of wine and camphor, turpentine, or any other such irritating applications, are run-highly improper, and sometimes makes a fresh, clean wound (that would readily heal almost of itself) inflame and perhaps mortify, or become a

Vices are: Restiveness, shying, bolting, ning away, kicking, rearing, weaving or moving the head from side to side, stringhalt, quidding, slipping the halter.

Wounds in Horses or Cattle. When horses, cattle, or any of our domestic animals are wounded, the treatment may be very simple, and much the same as in the human race. It is extremely improper to follow a practice that is common in many parts of the country among farriers, cow-doctors, and even shepherds-that of applying to the wound, or putting into the sore part, common salt, powder of blue vitriol, or tar, or cloths dipped in spirits, as brandy, rum, etc., or turpentine, or any other stimulant articles; for all such very much increase the pain, and, by irritating the sore, may increase the inflammation, even to the length of inducing mortification. Though the treatment may be varied according to circumstances, yet, in most cases, it may be sufficient to take notice of the following particulars: It will be proper to wash away any foulness or dirt about the part, and to examine particularly its condition.

To stop the Bleeding.

Should any large blood vessel be cut, and discharging copiously, it will be right to stop it, by some lint or sponge, with moderate compression or bandaging, at the same time, and not taking it off for two or three days. Should the pressure fail of effect, caustic applications, such as the lunar caustic, or even the actual cautery, the point of a thick wire, sufficiently heated, may be tried; or, if a surgeon be at hand, the vessel may be taken up by the crooked needle, with waxed thread, and

then tied.

Adhesive Plaster and Sewing. Where there is no danger of excessive bleeding, and a mere division of the parts, or a deep gash or cut, it will be right to adjust the parts, and keep them together by a strip of any common adhesive praster; or, when this will not do by itself, the

bad sore.

Sores and Bruises.

Over the whole sore, or where the part is bruised or where there is a tendency to suppuration,, & poultice should be applied and kept on by suitable bandages. The poultice may be made of any kind of meal, fine bran, bruised linseed, or of mashed turnips, carrots, etc. The following has been found useful as a common poultice: "Fine bran, 1 quart; pour on a sufficient quantity of boiling water to make a thin paste; to this add of linseed powder enough to give it a proper consistence." The poultice may be kept on for a week or ten days, or even longer, if necessary, changing it once or twice a day, and cleaning the wound, when the poultice is removed, by washing it by means of a soft rag or linen cloth, with water not more than blood warm (some sponges are too rough for this purpose); or, where the wound is deep, the water may be injected into it by a syringe, in

order to clean it from the bottom.

Ointment.

In the course of a few days, when the wound, by care and proper management with the poultices, begins to put on a healthy appearance, and seems to be clean and of a reddish color, not black or bloody, then there may be applied an ointment made of tallow, linseed oil, beeswax, and hogs' lard, in such proportions as to make it of a consistence somewhat firmer than butter. The ointment should be spread on some soft clean tow, and when applied to the sore it ought never to be tied hard upon it (which is done too frequently and very improperly), but only fixed by a bandage of a proper length and breadth (for a mere cord is often improper), so close and securely as to keep it from slipping off. This appli cation may be changed once a day, or, when nearly well and discharging but little, once in two days.