art of bee culture within the past few years has removed a great many of the obstacles that have prevented farmers from engaging in this branch of industry. Langstroth's invention of the movable frame hive has completely revolutionized the whole system of bee-keeping; and to-day we do not think of looking for profit in any of the old-fashioned hives. Indeed, I should consider the adoption of the frame hive the first and most important step in the improvement of the art. It enables us to assume perfect control over the increase of colonies, by artificial swarming, and to see their condition at any time. We can also use to better advantage all of the good pieces of brood comb; and this, we shall see, is a very important matter, when we know that it is estimated from very accurate experiments that twenty pounds of honey are consumed by the bees in the building of one pound of comb. (This comb is made from wax, which is a glandular secretion deposited between the scales on the abdomen.) The movable frame hive gives us greater returns of box honey than the box hive by establishing more intimate connection between the hive and box. Great difficulty has been found in inducing the bees to work in boxes on the old kind of hives, for two reasons: First, the communication between them is so small (generally one or two auger holes), and the boxes are so far from the center of the hive, that the bees cannot generate enough animal heat to build comb. Second, the ventilation is insufficient. Bees consume the oxygen of the air and exhale carbonic acid in respiration, the same as we do, and they cannot live in the poisonous gas any better than we, so we must give them a good supply of pure, warm air, or they will not stay in the boxes. Again, the frame hive admits of the use of the honey extractor. Although I have had no experience with this machine, I am satisfied from observations and the testimony of others that it is a very valuable addition to the apiary. Mrs. Tupper of the National Bee Journal, and one of our most successful bee-keepers, says that it is more profitable to sell extracted honey at ten cents per pound than comb honey at twenty. It is generally admitted that more than twice as much extracted honey may be obtained from a colony as of comb honey.

When consumers generally learn the difference between the miserable strained honey so common in our market and the pure honey extracted with this machine, we may look for an increase in the price of extracted honey, as the supply increases.

In selecting a desirable hive from the numerous improved hives now before the public, the most important requisites are cheapness and simplicity. The hives now in general use are of a capacity of from 2,000 to 4,000 cubic inches, although some make them four feet long, with a capacity of 8,000 cubic inches; but whatever style of hive we choose, we should not change, as it is a great inconvenience to have several sizes in the apiary. Having chosen a good hive, the next thing is to get the right kind of inhabitants to people it. Italian bees. are universally admitted to be better than the common black bees for various reasons. They are somewhat larger than the black bees, are more active in their habits, and of a more docile disposition. The proboscis or bill for extracting honey from the flowers is found by actual measurement to be longer than that of the black bees, thus enabling them to work on some flowers that the latter cannot reach, as the red clover. They make vigilant policemen, instantly arresting and punishing with death all robbers and intruders into their little kingdom. The Italians increase in numbers very fast in the spring, and usually swarm considerably earlier than the black bees. Some object to them for the reason that they swarm so often it is hard to keep them in sufficiently

strong colonies to work in boxes; but I think this difficulty may be obviated. by using the honey extractor freely, and by increasing the size of the hives. If we keep them in strong colonies we need have no fear of the ravages of the bee moth that destroys so many of our black bees. And, in fact, if we cannot keep them populous, we would better not keep them at all, for it is always to our most populous colonies that we look for the greatest profit.

If a colony is few in numbers, the bees must nearly all stay at home to guard their property, and maintain a sufficient degree of animal heat to rear their brood, and they will gather no more honey than they consume; but if we increase that colony one-third in numbers, these additional bees may be employed in gathering surplus honey.

In wintering bees the mode of management by which we can keep them the most quiet is the best. To secure this partially dormant state, they should have good honey, and be kept in a dark place, at a temperature from 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

A good root cellar under a barn, or a common house cellar is a good place. The amount of ventilation required depends upon the size of the swarms and the temperature at which they are kept. The object of much ventilation is more to regulate the inside temperature of the hive than to supply it with air, for bees when quiet consume very little air, and enough would pass through a hole one-fourth of an inch in diameter to supply a large swarm. This has been proved by experiment. I have kept bees buried in snow for a long time, with no air except what passed through the snow, and they wintered well.

A gentleman of my acquaintance tried the following experiment: Late in the fall, on a very cold day, he placed a hive on a board resting on the ground, and turned water over it, allowing it to freeze, and making it the nucleus of a solid bank of ice; this remained all winter, and in the spring the bees came out in fine condition. The ice kept the inside of the hive at the right temperature.

Much has been said against keeping large apiaries through fear of overstocking the country, but it seems to me that there is little danger of that, in a country of such luxuriant vegetation as the United States, and where such a great variety of crops is cultivated. Let us see what is done in other countries in bee-keeping. According to statistics, Bohemia contained in 1853, 160,000 colonies, and it was estimated that the country could readily support four times that number.

The kingdom contained 20,200 square miles. In Attica, a province of Greece, containing forty-five square miles and 20,000 inhabitants, 20,000 hives are kept, each yielding, on an average, thirty pounds of honey and two pounds of wax. Henbel, in the Bienenzeitung of 1854, says that East Friesland, a province of Holland containing 1,200 square miles, maintains an average of 2,000 colonies per square mile.

Bee-keeping has been styled "the poetry of rural industry." Now, although I do not like Longfellow's slur on the farming fraternity where he says:

"Men have no faith in fine-spun sentiment,

Who place their trust in bullocks and in beeves,"

I am forced to admit that we do relish the poetry a little better when it is just prosy enough to show us some profit.

Then let us look for a moment at the profits of apiculture. Last year, Prof. A. J. Cook of the Michigan Agricultural College realized over $33 per colony from bees, besides Italianizing his whole apiary. He kept them covered with

a deep bank of snow during the previous winter. Mr. White bought, last spring, one swarm of Italian bees, increasing them during the summer to three swarms, and sold over $40 worth of honey. Mr. S. Porter of West Ogden, Mich., commenced last spring with thirteen swarms, increased them to twentysix swarms, and sold from them over 1,200 lbs. of box honey. Mr. A. S. Root of Medina, O., says he obtained last year, from fifty-six colonies of Italian bees, one ton of extracted honey, which he sold at 17 cents per pound, making $340. It is true these figures are small, but we must take into consideration the fact that the number of men and the amount of capital engaged in this business in the United States is very small; and in this branch of industry, no more than in any other, can we disregard the great law that governs every honorable occupation, that for every dollar we make, we must render an equivalent either in manual or in brain labor. Men who have devoted their energies and a reasonable amount of capital to kee-keeping, as Mr. Adam Grimm of Wisconsin, and others, have received a large annual income. Brother farmers, nature has spread out in woods and fields a bountiful harvest of honey; let us help the bees to gather it in.

INJURIOUS INSECTS.

AN ESSAY READ BY W. A. ROWE, BEFORE THE MASON FARMERS' CLUB, APRIL 4TH, 1874.

In this farmer's life of ours we have many things to contend against. Among the worst of our enemies are insects,-those little insignificant bugs and worms as they are often called. In truth they are small, but their work is great. A microscopic in sect on the root may destroy a whole grape vine, while borers of scarcely an inch in length destroy our apple, pear, and even our gigantic oak trees, and in Africa a fly no larger than our common housefly kills the ox and other large animals.

Horace Greeley estimated than in the United States the total annual loss from the depredations of insects was one hundred millions of dollars. Think of it; one hundred millions of dollars yearly! Yet when we look about us and see our fruit trees destroyed by borers, bark lice, and tent caterpillars, and the fruit ruined by the codling moth, curculio, and apple maggot; when we see our grain crops ruined by the cut-worm, grasshopper, and Hessian fly; when our eyes fall upon the stubs of potato vines, the work of the potato bug; when we look about us and see all this, everyone must be convinced that the estimate is none too great. And yet, with these figures staring them in the face, not half of our farmers pay any attention whatever to these little things.

Why is this? I know of no reason why it should be so, unless people look upon the study of entomology as a hard, dry, unprofitable study, and withal a thing that is entirely beyond their reach. For everyone to become a thorough entomologist, that is, acquainted with the million or more of known insects, is of course impossible; but to become thoroughly acquainted with those insects which we have practically to deal with, is possible for all; and most persons would find it an interesting and very profitable study.

The term insect will need no definition. Suffice it to say, that bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, millers, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, bugs, crickets, May-flies, and even lice, are insects. All of them, when arrived at maturity, have six feet. During its life, as most of you know, the insect

UNDERGOES GREAT CHANGES.

When first hatched from the egg they have a worm-like appearance, and are frequently, though erroneously, called worms. Their true name at this period of life is larvæ. After living, eating, and growing for some time as a larva, the insect either buries itself in the earth or spins a cocoon in the air, where it remains quiet for a time. In this quiescent state it is called a pupa. While in this pupa or quiet state of existence the insect undergoes many changes in form and appearance, and finally comes out as a perfect insect or imago.

Thus we look on our tomato vines and find a large green or brown worm, or rather larva, gnawing away ravenously at them; a little later, should we dig in the mellow earth beneath the vines, we should find a brownish, worm-like body, with a handle something like a jug handle at one end. This is this same tomato worm in the pupa state. The next June, if we should visit our flower beds about dusk, we should see what would at first be taken for a humming bird, but which, upon being caught, would prove to be only a very large and stoutly built moth, which is the parent of our tomato or potato worms. It is in the larva or worm-like stage of existence that most of our insects are so very injurious, though some, as the potato beetle, are also injurious when in the perfect state.

Gentlemen, you requested me to write about injurious insects; but as time will not permit me to touch upon all of them, I will in this essay only speak of a few of those insects which injure our apples. The first of these which I shall notice are

THE BORERS.

Of these there are two species, the striped or common, and the large flatheaded borer.

THE STRIPED BORER,

when in the perfect state, is a cylindrical brown beetle, having a broad white stripe running lengthwise along each wing. It is white underneath, and flies during the night, or on dark, cloudy days. It ordinarily remains secreted during the day-time. In this part of our State their eggs are deposited about the first of June. They are placed under the rough scales of bark, and usually near the ground. The long, whitish larva soon hatches, and immediately commences its work of destruction. It eats through the bark, and then remains there eating the bark and soft sap-wood for nearly a year, until its jaws get toughened and hard, then it eats inward and upward until it gets far into the heart-wood of the tree, then turning, it comes out again three or four inches above where it started. It lives in the tree nearly three years. Three or four of them will cut a tree almost entirely off. Where two or three of them work on a tree it looks as though a charge of shot had been sent into it. The bark will be black, or nearly so, around where they have worked.

PREVENTIVE.

A very sure preventive is to wash the trees with strong soap suds, or to

put a piece of soap in the crotch of the tree, where the rain will wash it down on the trunk. This will prevent the beetles from laying their eggs. The soap should be applied about the last of May, or just before the beetles commence depositing eggs.

REMEDY.

If a tree is badly infested, "cut it down and cast it into the fire;" otherwise kill the borers by punching them with a sharp wire.

The flat-headed borer is the larva of a greenish black beetle, which we may find crawling about on our apple trees in early June. It is at this time that they deposit their eggs. The beetles are a little over half an inch long.

The larva has a very large and flat head, and tapers gradually to the tail. It is about an inch long when fully grown. This borer usually works only in the bark and soft sap-wood. It remains in the tree but one season.

Strong soap suds on the tree will also keep these beetles from depositing eggs.

The trees should be washed about the first of June.

BARK LICE.

The oval scales of these insects are so common on our trees that I need not stop to describe them. Underneath each scale we find from twenty to a hundred small white eggs. These eggs hatch in the latter part of May and early part of June. At this time the insect, though very small, may be seen crawling about on the tree. In about a week they fix their beak in the bark of the tree, and commence to suck the sap, thus drinking the very life blood of the tree, and leaving it weak and unthrifty. Soon after the bark louse commences to suck the sap a scale forms over it and it never moves again. In the autumn it dies and leaves a lot of eggs under its scale.

These bark lice are very injurious to apple trees. A few years ago they entirely destroyed many orchards along the shore of Lake Michigan. Happily for us, a small parasite is now destroying large numbers of their eggs, so that they are rapidly decreasing in numbers.

REMEDY.

The only remedy that we can use is strong soap suds, which will kill the young when they first hatch out, before they acquire scales.

Strong soap suds applied the last of May or first of June is good to kill the bark lice, and also to keep away the borers. The rough outer bark is also rubbed off by the washing, thus leaving no hiding places for numerous other of our apple enemies.

THE TENT CATERPILLAR

is the larva of a reddish-brown moth. On the front wings of the moth are two oblique whitish lines. In early fall the moth lays from three to five hundred eggs in a cluster on the twigs of our apple or cherry trees. These eggs are covered with a gluey or gummy substance, so that they will glisten, and may easily be seen on a clear, sunshiny day, when the leaves have fallen. They hatch in the spring soon after the buds begin to unfold, and the larvæ spin a tent and commence their work of defoliation. They stay in this tent nights, and go out to feed on the leaves in the day-time. The larva is yellow, with a broad, black stripe along each side and a white stripe on the back. There is also a row of bluish dots along each side. The larva is very small when it first hatches out, not more than a tenth of an inch long, but when fully grown it