NOTES ON MR. NUTT'S WORK ON BEES. read the following account given by Mr. Nutt. In the year 1824, he had six straw hives, three of which he placed in proper winter quarters on the north side of his house; in November, one had 42 lb. of honey, another 37 lb., and the third 32 lb. On the 26th of March following, they were again weighed; and, as a matter of course, the result triumphantly confirms Mr. Nutt's hypothesis, for they had only consumed 5 lb. of honey each, being just 1 lb. per month, and all swarmed in the May following. Then followed an account of the three hives left in their summer situation. They were heavier in November than the three whose fate has been already noticed; one had 40 lb. of honey, another 38 lb., and the other 35 lb.: on the 26th of March following, these hives also underwent the ordeal of weighing; and although the others had consumed only 5 lb. each, these prodigals had wasted in riotous living, no less than 21 lb. each! or upwards of 5 lb. per month; one of them too never swarmed the next summer, and the two others not until July. By the account given, each of these hives had remaining on the 26th of March, more honey than such an authority as Mr. John Hunter says is amply sufficient to maintain a hive of bees the whole winter, and every keeper of bees will accede to his opinion. Something must have happened to these three hives which is not mentioned, or there must have been a great error in weighing them. Mr. Nutt very significantly observes, “I need scarcely relate, that the bees placed fronting the North were the first that swarmed." Certainly, it was unnecessary to relate this, for the result, however wonderful, could easily be anticipated. Having finished this remarkable chapter I go to the next, which is commenced by asserting, that the hives invented by Huber and Dunbar are failures. This assertion is positively untrue; they were both intended as experimental hives, and have both answered that purpose admirably. It is natural that Mr. Nutt should be anxious as a tradesman to recommend his own hive, but it creates astonishment that he should venture to make an assertion so contrary to the truth. He says that the piling of hive upon hive, or box upon box, called storyfying, has also failed. Now, whatever Mr. Nutt may 157 say respecting storyfying, or as he in de rision calls it, piling hive upon hive, it was thought differently of in the year 1675, when introduced by Mr. John Giddie, who had a patent for it, as the Royal Society of that time highly approved of it, and thought it worthy of their recom mendation. ("Philosophical Transac tions," No. 96.) I now propose making some remarks on the matchless hive, which the student of the Horncastle Grammar School designates his Terru Incognita. This appellation may suit learned lords, but when I was eight years of age, if I had called a deal-box a terra incognita in my master's hearing, a good cane would not have been many minutes' incognita to my back. I have read Mr. Nutt's description of the hive many times over, but confess its merits are still incognita to my understanding; I have carefully examined the three wood-cuts representing it, and cannot discern a door-way in either. Neither is there in the whole book the least mention made of one; such a thing is usual in straw hives. In p. 25, the author says, "the plates here presented to my readers, exhibit a set of my collateral bee-boxes open, and every compartment exposed to view, especially to the view and for the examination of experienced workmen ;" I defy, however, any workman, let him be ever so experienced, to make a hive to possess the merits Mr. Nutt states his to have, from this or any of the cuts or descriptions he has given. He says there has been some difference of opinion as to the most suitable dimensions for bee-boxes; "I approve and recommend," he adds, "those which are from eleven to twelve inches square inside, and nine inches deep." But he is particularly careful to avoid saying, I use boxes of those dimensions. He then very slightly mentions what is of great importance, the communication between the centre box and the two side ones, but leaves the nature of it to be gathered from the wood-cut, and entirely omits to mention how the tin dividers are inserted no mention is made of either the width or length of them, nor does he state whether they move in a groove. If the communication between the boxes is made in the way shown in the cut, numbers of bees must inevitably be destroyed, for every bee passing from one 158 NOTES ON MR. NUTT'S WORK ON BEES. box to the other at the time the dividers are In describing the framework for the tin ventilators, we are told it must be four inches square. But why should the aperture be so large, when the ventilator is only one inch in diameter? After all the fuss too about thermometers, there is no mention made in this chapter, nor in any part of the book, where they should be inserted into the hive; the " expe. rienced" workman is left to guess where and how. Although the light has been imparted to Mr. Nutt himself, he takes especial good care it shall not shine on others. In short, instead of giving a description of his hive which might be intelligible, he wastes all his time in describing three drawers placed underneath it, one for the purpose of feeding the bees, but what egregious folly to talk of feeding bees that collect 127 lb. of honey for their own support during one winter? The two other drawers are to let the bees out of the boxes intended to be taken, and the way for them to make their exit by is to be cut in a "semi-lunar" shape. The author omits, however, to say whether it is half the moon in her increase, or when at the full. Altogether, Mr. Nutt has contrived so to mystify the description of his hive, that no person in the world (excepting his noble friend, perhaps) can understand it. We come next to its uses and merits. Having been conversant with bees quadruple the time Mr. Nutt has, I must express my disbelief that he ever obtained in one year honey and wax weighing 296 lb., besides leaving 109 lb. of honey for the consumption of the bees in winter; in fact, no reflecting person can for a moment credit it. This quantity of honey will fill upwards of twenty-nine imperial gallons. Mr. Nutt says he has frequently taken a box weighing 60 lb., and in one instance, he asserts, he took a box with 65 lb. of honey. Now, if he use boxes of the dimensions he says he approves of and recommends, namely, twelve inches square and nine inches deep, I unhesitatingly assert that he never has done any such thing, for the. cubic contents of such a box will only, hold 63lb. 12 oz. of liquid honey; I have made no deduction for the space occupied by the ventilators and thermometers; but as bees have always a great space between every comb, and there are pas sages also in the combs, Mr. Nutt's box will not hold, I am perfectly convinced, more than 30 lb. of honey combs as the bees place them. My straw hives, which hold upwards of 500 cubic inches more than Mr. Nutt's boxes, have never yielded me more than 30 lb. of honey at one time; and the Rev. Mr. Clark, who says his hive was given him by Mr. Nutt, and which of course would be of the same size as those used by him, mentions, that a full box of his had only 35 lb. Here we approximate to the truth, and it ought to make Mr. Nutt blush. I am convinced Mr. Nutt's three boxes together will not hold any thing like 127 lb. of honey, which he asserts he left for their support during the winter; if they will hold half the quantity, it is as much as they possibly can. As far as I can understand, the bees, in winter, are confined to the centre box, and are not allowed to enter the side ones until summer, when they are di rected to be rubbed with honey. It appears rather curious to a person on whom the light has never shone, that, after all the eulogiums Mr. Nutt has passed on his side boxes, the bees will not go into them without a little coaxing. Mr. Nutt's beloved bees, as he calls them, seem to be not so grateful as they ought, for what he, rather irreverently says, the finger of Providence led him to supply them with, namely, fresh air; for they are actually so wicked as to stop up his ventilators with propolis. There is a circumstance which Mr. Nutt omits to mention (no doubt from forgetfulness), which is, that although a child of twelve years old can easily take a glass off the centre box of his hive, which is exactly the same thing as taking a box off a storied hive, he cannot himself, without great difficulty, take a box away from his own hive. The omission, however, is kindly made up by the Rev. Mr. Clark, his most improved apiarian pupil, who mentions that Mr. Nutt, in taking a box away from his hive, which was a present NOTES AND NOTICES. from Mr. Nutt, took the queen bee also, and in putting her back to the hive, Mr. Clark was stung. The rev. gentleman, who, Mr. Nutt says, bids fair to become an ornament to apiarian science, also mentions that his bees swarmed. Neither of these facts would probably have seen the light, had it not been for the communicative disposition of the rev. gentleman; and such a thing occurring in these matchless hives, is a positive proof that Mr. Nutt's theory of bees swarming from necessity, not choice, is erroneous. The author gives directions how to act when such an event occurs, a proof of its frequently happening. "Let the swarm," he says, "be put in one of my collateral boxes, making a door for the egress of the bees, and stop the communication between it and the centre box. When the bees have filled the box with combs, then stop up the door, and allow the communication between the two boxes, and the bees will unite and become one family." I deny that they will do any such thing without fighting; and the assertion should suffice to convince any person acquainted with bees, that Mr. Nutt knows but little of the subject on which he writes. It also appears that Mr. Nutt's favourite hive of bees swarmed; but that it was in consequence of his suffering them to do so. Does not this of necessity imply that they swarmed from choice? It was,” says Mr. Nutt," the finest swarm I ever beheld, and literally darkened the air in the front of my apiary." I have seen hundreds of swarms, but never such an one as darkened the air. "I immediately," he adds, "secured my grund prize. A swarm called a grand prize, and by one who contends that swarming is an evil! He did not, however, secure his grand prize by putting it into a hive, as I should have done, but only put a sheet before it. My bees, with such treatment, would have fled away, and not considered themselves secured. Mr. Nutt says that when the thermometer stands at 130 degrees in a hive, the bees are in their greatest prosperity. Huber, who is allowed some credit for being accurate, says, that when the thermometer is at 104 degrees, the heat is intolerable to the bees. My remarks having extended to a much greater length than I at first had an idea of, I must postpone what I have 159 to observe further on this remarkable Sir, your very obedient servant, A HINT FOR THE FURTHER PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC AGAINST CARELESS CAB AND HACKNEY COACH DRIVERS. Sir,-As I was passing, the other evening, along Kingsland-road, a cab drove furiously along, when one of the wheels came in contact with a poor old female who was crossing the road, and knocked her down. I immediately ran to pick her up; but instead of the rascal of a driver stopping to assist me, or to ascertain to what extent the unfortunate woman might be injured, he gave his horse an additional cut or two, and speedily drove out of sight. The evening was unluckily too dark to admit of my taking his number. It so happened that the old lady, though much shaken, was not seriously injured; but that does not lessen the intentional enormity of the fellow's conduct. Now. as these public desperadoes are compelled to have their numbers fixed in the centre of the back part of their vehicles, I think it would be a great improvement if these numbers were ordered to be painted on glass, and lighted up at night by a small lamp placed behind, so that in the event of a repetition of such behaviour as that I have described, persons might be enabled, even in the darkest night, to note down with ease the number of the delinquent. I am, &c. Marlboro'-terrace, Albany-road. NOTES AND NOTICES. ENORT. In the Philadelphia Museum there is an artificial magnet, consisting of fifteen bars, which weighs no less than 53 lbs., and required, on the first trial, 310 lbs. weight to overcome the attractive force. Its permanent force is 134 lbs., and it constantly supports a weight of 84 lbs. New Comet.-Professor Schumacher, Astronomer-royal of Denmark, announces, in his Astronomische Nachrichten, of the 7 h inst., the discovery of a new comet, on the 8th ult, by Professor Gambart, of the Marseilles Observatory. Although it disappeared on the 13th, and from the state of the weather, and the temporary imperfection of his micrometer, his observations were interrupted and imperfect, Professor Gambart assigns its place, on the 10th, at 16h. 32 m. 45 s. of sidereal time, to be 20 h. 9 m. 7 s. of right ascension, and 22 deg. 33 m. of south declination. When first seen it was near the horizon, having a nebulous appearance, and situated in the constellation Sagittarius, very near the nebulæ 2064 of Sir John Herschell. The comet was of a pale light colour, of a very round form, and of a diameter of about four or five minutes.-Athenæum. It appears from the American journals, in which a keen contest is carrying on respecting the ori ginality of Burden's twin steam-raft, that the celebrated Robert Fulton built for the United States Government a steam-frigate, called "Fulton the First," which was "split into equal parts longitudinally, from stem to stern, down through the keel, and the two halves placed at a distance from each other in parallel lines, and joined above water by timbers and decks in the most substantial manner;" and that, about the same time, a boat was built on a similar plan, called the "Happy Couple," but "that not answering the expectations of the projector, the Couple were cut asunder, the beams shortened, and the two halves fastened together by the keels, stems, &c., and thus made a single boat.' We must observe, however, that it is not so much the division of the boat or raft into two parts, which constitutes the novelty of Mr. Burden's invention (for there have been many boats on that plan besides those mentioned in the American journals), as the conical or barrel shape of the spindles, and their being made hollow. The only person who can fairly contest the originality of that feature of the invention, seems to be our own correspondent, Mr. Alfred Canning. The Influence of Steam.--The Carnarvon Herald states that the Welsh farmers have begun to send cattle to the Liverpool market, and that a sharp competition is likely to arise between them and the Irish graziers, for the honour and profit of feeding the people of Lancashire. The first cargo of Anglesea or Carnarvon fat cattle was sent by Sir R. B. W. Bulkeley, and several others have been since dispatched from the neighbourhood of the Menai Bridge. We are only surprised that Anglesea cattle have been so long in reaching Liverpool, considering that hundreds arrive every week from all parts of Ireland, together with sheep and pigs innumerable. The Scotch Highlanders have begun to send their live stock to Liverpool. A large flock of sheep arrived from Sutherlandshire the other day, and is probably by this time transferred into mutton. This is a new triumph of steam, to bring food for the people of Lancashire from so near the Ultima Thule; but all the coasts of the three kingdoms, and all those parts of the interior which are accessible by water, must in a few years become grazing farms for the manufacturing districts, to the great advantage both of producers and consumers.--Liverpool Chronicle. A correspondent of the Times, who sighs most plaintively for distinctions for men of sciencedistinctions other than their science procures for them, and such as they would share with the lowest creatures of the court-shows the low quality of the thing he desires, by the commonplace notice he so immoderately extols. We regret that so respectable and distinguished a man as Dr. Dalton should be made the subject of such flummery. During Dr. Dalton's visit to London, it was thought by his friends that it would be proper (if not inconsistent with his private feelings) that he should be presented to his Majesty; and in that case, that the robes to which his academic degree entitled him would be the fittest costume for him at the levee. The Lord Chancellor being made acquainted with these feelings, not only im mediately approved of them, but most kindly offered to present Dr. Dalton to the King. Dr. Dalton having been made acquainted with the usual forms, agreed to the propriety of the view taken by his friends, and attended the levee. The King received the philosopher very graciously, and very kindly relieved the little embarrassments of an unusual position, by addressing to him several questions respecting the interests of the town of Manchester. This condescending attention on the part of his Majesty will, no doubt, be equally gratifying to the learned body to which Dr. Dalton belongs to the intelligent society of which he is a member, and to the enlightened manufacturers of his native town."-Times, May 15.-All this is very kind and considerate on the part of the King, but it confers no distinction, as a hundred persons of ordinary or questionable pretensions have received as large a portion of the Royal notice. Is science exalted by this wonderment that the King can be courteous and kind to a man of science? Either science is degraded, or kings are satirised by the excessive importance thus attached to a little usual civility, which would not have called forth a remark if it had been shown to one a thousand degrees less worthy of it.-Examiner. Those who have travelled by the Paisley canal in the new gig-boats, must have observed the swell of water which always accompanies or precedes the vessel. Sometimes a curious scene occurs from this wave, overtaking some hapless wight standing on the bank, ignorant of his danger. The other day a commercial Irishman, who had collected from many an obscure corner a stock of old boots and shoes for exportation, was busy at the Blackhall bridge, washing off the dirt to make them more marketable. Being quite intent on the work of purification, he did not, till it was too late, observe the boat coming forward. His stock in trade was neatly arranged on the pathway, when the wave came up and swept the whole into the water. The poor fellow first rubbed his eyes, to make himself sure he was not asleep; and after gazing a little, and being persuaded it was a fact, he made up his mind to bear the loss calmly, and, with Paddy's characteristic recklessness and good humour, exclaimed, "Well, to be sure, I wanted to wash them clane, and troth they're washed clane off."-Greenock Advertiser. This is the canal where, according to Mr. Grahame, the candid partisan of canals in opposition to railways, the quick passage-boats never raise even "a ripple on the banks"! Colonel Macerone is again figuring away in the newspapers-performing every day some new miracle with his steam-carriage, but, as usual, ever and anon quarrelling with the gentlemen of the broad-sheet, for not puffing his performances sufficiently. He finds great fault with them for saying that in a late excursion he went at the rate of only eighteen miles an hour, and maintains that "it was undoubtedly at the pace of twenty five miles an hour." He is making, it is said, active preparations to put ten of his steamers on the Brighton road, which are to run at the rate of fourteen miles an hour, inclusive of all stoppages. This he guarantees; money is only wanting to prove him no boaster. We wonder he does not guarantee, into the bargain, that his ten fire-eaters shall run 17,000 miles without costing more than a shilling each for repairs. Surely the one pledge might be as easily redeemed as the other. Communications received from Mr. Inglis-Mr. Woodhouse-Mr. Weekes-T. W. The Supplement to Vol. XX., with a Portrait of William Symington, is now ready, price 6d. also Vol. XX., complete, in boards, price Ss. LONDON: Published by M. SALMON, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterborough Court, between 135 and 136, Fleet-street. Agent for the American Edition, Mr. O. RICH, 12, Red Lion square. Sold by G. G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, Saint Augustin, Paris. M, SALMOŇ, Printer, Fleet-street. |