The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-03-04
The Farmer and His Rees.
BY WILLARD BERRY, BUCK GREEK

farmers keep bees and so many
hundreds of us do notp In nv
opinion if any niati in the world
should keep bees, every farmer
should. It occurs to me that we
should almost as soon think of
keeping no hens to lay eggs and no
cows to furnish milk and butter as
TO keep no bees to gather the beau
titul, delicious and healthful nectar
which nature distills all around us
every year. The apiary is really as
much a part of the farm as is either
the orchard, the garden or the poul
try yard. AS to the actual per cent.
OF profit to be derived from each
one after satisfying home necessi-
ties the apiary stands ahead of either
of the other three in most of the
Southern States at this time, and
has done so for some years wherever
bees were at all understood.
Honey being simply product of
the vegetable kingdom its yield de-
ponds much on the character of the
seasons as the balance of our crops
do, with this exception: but one
particular kind of plant will furnish
us the white fleecy like cotton or
the large golden ears of corn, while
the flow of honey is confined to no
particular plant or season. One
season the large yield will be fur
nished by one plant, and the next
season by some other; while occa-
sionally they all lend helping
hand during almost the entire sea
son. The great secret of honey
getting lies i'll being ready for the
expected flow; and the farmer who
is always ready very seldom fails to
get paid for his trouble and ex-
pense. This being ready consists
mainly in always having hives we'll
filled with bees and stores. and the
surplus receptacles all prepared be-
forehand, ready to be placed on the
live as soon as needed.
The farmer raises crop of beans,
or field of buckwheat, or eats out
a young orchard which he tenderly
cultivates and prunes for the sake
of the fruit it will bear, seldom
thinking that the beautiful blossoms
which so hickly cover his trees and
plants are yielding a crop of Ma
ture's sweets which it is well worth
his time and trouble to save. Not
only would the product of honey
alone pay him, but the greater GER
tainty of having the fruit and other
blossoms effectually fertilized is an
other small item not unworthy of
some consideration. Without the
agency of bees or some other insect
the pollens must either fall, or be
carried by the winds, from the
stamens to the pistils; but when the
bee goes slipping among the great
of blossoms the little bris
ties with which her body is covered
collects and carries the formulating
dusts from flower to flower, and
from the bloom of one tree to the
bloom of another. Thus the impor
tant item of proper fertilization is
insured, and if no fruit is grown
else must be wrong
While on this particular branch OF
the subject, the following fact
which LEARN from an English jour
nal may be of interest to many
readers, viz: that before the intro
duction of the honey bee into New
Zealand they had to send over to
England every year for the white
clover seed as it did not seed freely
there; but by the agency of the
bees they are now able to export it.
ALWAYS REMEMBER
that you are keeping bees for profit
as an auxiliary to your farming
operations and not merely for fun.
With that idea clearly in mind you
will hardly commit the error of in
dulging in extra fine and expensive
hives and fixings when you can find
something cheaper to answer the
same purpose At the same time
do not GO to the opposite extreme
and expect your bees to do big
things without having small Por-
ton of the proceeds of their labor
iudiciously expended for their wei
fare and comfort, though the per
cent. of those proceeds required tor
this purpose after the first outlay
for hives is very small.
PATENT HIVES.
And here word of warning to
some of my farmer bee keeping
friends. Whatever you do avoid
patent beehive vendors regardless
of names or pretensions. From
them you seldom get good prac-
tical hive, for such a hive in my
Judgment contains no patented or
patentable device whatever, and
they charge you from two to five
times as much as a good hive is
worth. Their object generally is
to sell a single hive as model or a
trial hive, along with a farm right
to use it, for from S. to as much
more as they can get.
THE BEST HIVE
for general use is the ''Langstroth; :
or modification thereof, SO named
r..a., ;+s inventor the Rev. l.. l..