Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-06-08
AGRICULTURAL.
FARH, GARDEs AND HOUSEHOLD.
A chapter ON Bees.

| From the New York Gazette)
Hark the bee winds her small but sullen horn,
BIithe TO salute the sunny smile of morn;
O'er tbymy downs she bends Der busy course,
And many \ stIeam aliures her to its source.
Pleasures of Memory
No pleasures can be so pure-none
more worthy the capacities of the hui
man mind, than those derived from the
study of Nature; and what more noble
employment than to truce TO the bean.
ties and wonders of the material uni
verse those evidences of wisdom, pow
er, and goodness, which lead to the
acknowledgement and alteration of the
Supreme Maker of ali things {?
SpriSg, transcendent In being and
beauty, once more visits us. There Is
music mid the groves, flowers over
the fields, and the hum of bees heard
from our gardens. What a wonderful
insect There are many passages III
the Scriptures abiding to it. The sons
ot Jacob are described as taking to
their brother Joseph little balm and
little honey for a present. In the
Talmud, Jewish book which contains
the traditions, doctrines, and ceremO-
MES of the Jews, there Is a curious ac-
count of trial of wisdom between
Solomon and he Queen of Sheba, which
was decided by swarm of bees.
Some writer's have COMPOUNDED mama
with dew, but the former was round
substance falling upon the dew, as
small as hOar frost. When the sun
waxed hot it melted; it resent led cori-
ander seed, tasted like fresh oil, but
kept till the next day, when it became
spoiled and unfit for use. Grinding it
the Israelites made cakes of the sub
stance and baked them; for forty years
they lived almost entirely upon this
food. David calls it CANCELS food, F"
st. Paul spiritual meat" and Nehe-
miah and st. John "bread from heav-
en-"
The culture of bees was greatly pur-
sned in Attica, and fresh honey from
the hive is to this day In demand at
Athens. DIR. Newman and lady, highly
esteemed friends, presented me with IA
small jar of this rare deiicacy after their
recent trip abroad. It's fine quality
from Mount Hymettas is derived from
two species of sarODy. The peasants
carry their bees in cane baskets up the
hill in summer and back to the villages
in winter AS early as Soion's day he
enacted law that every mans stock
should be kept at a distance of not less
than three hundred feet from his neigh
boris. In anci ut times the husband
men frequently transported their bees
from field TO field, especially during
autum. The Greeks moved their hives
every year from Achara to Attica. -
Floating aviaries of a hundred hives
once existed upon the Nile, and similar
insect republics have been continued in
some parts of France and Piedmont.
The best honey in Pereia is collected
from the orange groves, and white kind
is regularly sent to COnstantiuople for
the use of the Grand Seignor and the
ladies of his seraglio. Its flavor depends
more ON the kind of flowers Oh which
the bees feed than the insects them
selves. The uses of honey are various
and important. 1t was never offered
upon God 5 affairs by the Jews, but the
leasts OF it were commanded, for the
use and support OF the priests. Milk,
cream and honey were the children's
food among the Hebrews, aud the lat
ter was esteemed the greatest dclicacy
But with the Greeks aud Romans, and
the heathens generally, it was used in
their sacrifices, and constituted an i'm
pOrtant offering to the dead. Sugar
was unknown 30 the ancients, aud hence
we can imagine the extensive use of
honey. The Spartans and Assyrians
employed honey for preserving their
dead !; and the body OF Alexander the
Great was embalmed IN this liquid,
cophagus.
Tho hOwer-drawn nectar OF the mountain
was considered gan emblem of death,
still it became Greatly esteemed for
food Horace, the weli-knoWn Latin
poet, mixed 1t with his wine, declaring
that OF all medicines this was the best
Many OF the deeIples OF Pythagoras,
the Philosopher, lived almost entirely
upon it; so do the modern Tartars. =
Augustus, the Roman emperor, en-
quired of an old man how he had
reached a hundred years with a body
and mind SO sound and vigorous. The
veteran replied, ''By oil without and
honey within" Some have been so
superstitious as to allow a certain race
to bees, and monaTchs have respected
| them. Thus Oharlemagne had bees
wrought In his coronation robes, and
one OF the Popes, Urban VIII, chose
three of them for his armorial bearings
The astronomers have imagined bees
shape in the heavens, and hence il
| foyms one of the Southern cOnstella.
tons; aud the poets ever have awaited
themselves OF this insect republic to
embeilish their verses. Milton and
others have extracted pOetical honey
| from this sOurce-one of his favOritf
amnsements, before he met tbs great
calamity OF blindness, he marked
Chow Nature paints her eolors, how the be,
Sits on the bloom extracting liquids sweet. >
Shakespeare, who left no secrets of ma
ture nnexplored, compares them, like
Virgil, to "a free and well-regulated gov
eminent. Well did the ancients fable
that bees encompassed lie cradles Of
Homer, Plato, Merander, letc., and suel
Was the sweetness of Spohocles dictiou
that the Athenians perpetuated it by
erecting q marble beehive over Ia:
lgrave.
The prophet Isaiah (vii. II, 15) de
scribes ia prophet language that honey
shall be the food for the ''Son'' To bt
born of the Virgin" His name shal
be- Emmanuel" Butter and houey
shall he eat, that he may know to refuse
the evil and choose the good.
Mr.. Glove, $. T., April, 1867.
| q. +. ID.
MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF PUMPKINS
At "a recent discussion in tue NeA
York Farmers Club, correspondent
writes of the virtues of the pumpkin.