PISCATAQUIS CENTRAL SOCIETY. 331 



and now at the end of the sixth season, are as tight and perfect as 

 at first. The large timbers in the cart body are of cedar. All the 

 joints in the cart Avere painted when put together, and the cart has 

 had no repair. The proportion is that approved of by best English 

 farmers — height of Avheel four and a half feet, length of body inside, 

 five feet eight inches. 



Tlie hand cultivator, or wheel hoe, is one of a set, working dif- 

 ferent widths, such as I made two years since for root cultivation in 

 small lots where a horse could not be worked. This implement, as 

 we have seen it at the stores, is a rude aifair, working on a wooden 

 axle, and has but little service in it. Mine, though made with iron 

 axle, are cheap enough, costing inside of two dollars — much easier 

 worked and far tnore durable. The cutter is made by a common 

 blacksmith working under my direction — cut out of an old circular 

 saw, and is hard as steel can well be made. I find these tools a 

 great help in destroying weeds where the land is well cleared of 

 stones ; one man doing as much as eight or ten with hand hoes." 



C. Chamberlain. 

 Foxcroft. October, 1857. 



Of Davis' platform bee hive, the Committee on Honey speak as 

 follows : 



"The advantages of this arrangement over ordinary hives are 

 quite numerous. The bee hives are placed, as many as are desired, 

 upon a platform covered with wire cloth, (fine mesh,) so that the air 

 passes freely through the hives up into the honey boxes, and out at 

 the back side. In the winter the honey boxes are taken off and the 

 air chamber kept on, by which all the damp air passes oif, so that 

 it does not congeal and make frost or ice over in cold weather, or 

 among the bees; and, during soft weather (that often follows in 

 winter) melts and runs down and destroys them, as is the case fre- 

 quently with the common hive. Another advantage in this arrange- 

 ment is, that the bees can pass from their own hive into the adjoining 

 empty one, and thus prevent coining out to swarm. It is also con- 

 structed so as to prevent the different swarms from robbing each 

 other. Your Committee, notwithstanding many, so called, improve- 

 ments of late have been introduced in the form of bee hives, are of 

 opinion this surpasses all former inventions of the kind." 



