1883.] QUESTION BOX. 245 



is not the least question that a clover crop, or any other 

 crop grown on the soil, plowed into that soil, returns to 

 the soil all that the crop contains. Yet is it economy 

 to do so, with the clover crop, one of our best forage 

 crops, and with the fact that our agriculture is based on 

 animal or stock husbandry, in its various branches, and 

 that we are able, through stock husbandry, to feed out this 

 product at a profit, furnishing to the feeder, through the 

 economy of the animal to which it is fed, the market value of 

 the product ? Then, considering that in the voidings of that 

 stock you have returned to the soil a large percentage of the 

 fertilizing material wliich existed in it, you have certainly the 

 matter of economy introduced. If the clover crop, rich in 

 nitrogen, rich in fertilizing material, one of the most valu- 

 able elements we have to deal with, is fed to your animals, 

 from 80 to 85 per cent, of the fertilizing material contained 

 in it is thrown off in tl-^e waste of the animal, and through 

 proper economy on the farm that can be nearly all returned 

 to the land. Thus you have the profits of feeding, and you 

 have from 80 to 85 per cent, of the fertilizing material left 

 upon the farm. As a matter of economy, shall you return 

 the entire crop, or will you feed it, and return the resulting 

 manures ? I think the latter course commends itself to the 

 good judgment of every individual. 



Question. I had but one hive of bees in the cellar the first 

 of September, and took them out the first of the following 

 April. They lost in weight while in the cellar ten pounds ; 

 also lost fifteen pounds in weight while out of the cellar, May 

 first. Did I remove them too soon, or not ? Which is best, 

 to bury the bees in the winter or keep them in a cellar ? 



Mr. Jeffrey. There are three or four questions combined 

 in one. He asks, first, whether he took them out too early, 

 because the consumption of honey, or apparent consumption of 

 honey, by weight, between the first of April and the first of May, 

 was greater by five pounds than from the first of December to 

 the first of April. While in the cellar, from the first of December 



