504 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Nov. 



has been public property, and free for all to use 

 in any kind of hive. 



Prior to the time of writing this article, Sept. 

 2d, 1858, but one patent has been issued to Geo. 

 H. Clarke, dated Jan. 8th, 1856, and that the pub- 

 lic may be correctly informed of the extent of 

 his rights, I will quote his disclaimer and claim. 

 "Disclaiming the other devices, described indi- 

 vidually or combined, what I claim is, the con- 

 struction and arrangement of the hollow bars, D, 

 in the manner and for the purpose set forth." 



The bars, D, are hollow wooden cylinders, with 

 an opening or slit for the entrance of the bees 

 from beneath to within the bar, which extends 

 the whole length of the bar ; besides serving for 

 passages for the bees from one comb to another, 

 they also serve the usual purpose of cross sticks 

 in boxhives, viz., the support of the combs. There 

 is nothing else patented about Clarke's hive. 

 Take out the hollow slotted bars, D, and substi- 

 tute solid Avooden cylinders, or even hollow cylin- 

 ders, if you please, provided they have no apper- 

 tures in them by means of which the bees can pass 

 from comb to comb through or inside of the bar, 

 and the patented matter departs from Clarke's 

 hive. 



Should Mr. Clarke or his agents be rash 

 enough to leave out from the Union hives the 

 hollow bars, which support the comb and afford 

 a passage to the bees, and should then mark and 

 sell them as patented, even though the triangular 

 comb guides and all other parts were left^ws^ as 

 before, they would be liable under the oth Sect, 

 of the act of Oct. 29th, 1842. 



It is not my purpose in this article to analyze 

 the Union hive, or to exhibit wherein it is infe- 

 rior to the Langstroth hive, or to point out its 

 remarkably close resemblance to Mr. Quinby's 

 hive, and wherein it is inferior to that. The 

 Union hive has received the encomiums of "Nor- 

 folk," and he onglit to be qualified to express 

 an opinion on hives who without any hesitancy 

 states, that "the only good thing" about the 

 Langstroth hive is borrowed from Clarke's Union 

 hive. Comment on such a statement will be 

 surperfluous to those who are familiar with the 

 Langstroth system, and to those who are not, I 

 would say that there is a rich treat and a fund of 

 information in store for them, and to be had 

 from the perusal of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth's 

 Treatise on the Hive and the Honey-Bee. 



Pteally, that veteran bee-keeper, Mr. M. Quin- 

 by, who has used and tested the Langstroth hive 

 for three seasons, and who now has about two 

 hundred of them in use, and the host of bee- 

 keepers of lesser magnitude, who use and more 

 than approve the same hive and system of bee- 

 culture, must use the Union hive if they would 

 keep with "Norfolk's" movement, but whether 

 that is an advance or retrograde movement I leave 

 them to pronounce. j. b. C. 



Wyoming, Mass. 



Value of Clover Hay. — H. Capron, Illinois, 

 who has been largely concerned in the dairy busi- 

 ness, (having sold six thousand dollars v/orth of 

 milk in a single year,) inform the Country Gen- 

 tleman that he made accurate experiments to test 

 the comparative value of timothy and clover hay. 

 These exiieriments, extondin'.r thrciph a pcri'-d 



of two years, were accompanied with an accurate 

 weighing and measuring, and the food was 

 changed, timothy to clover, and vice versa, once 

 a month, and the results were that the clover hay 

 yielded ten per cent, more than the timothy. It 

 will be observed that this was not a single expei'- 

 iment, but a series of experiments extending for 

 a long period. It is proper to state that the 

 clover was well cui-ed. 



AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS. 



The autumnal "Musters" of the Farmer began 

 in the early part of September, and have been 

 holden in one place or another neai'ly every work- 

 ing day in the week since ; they will not be con- 

 cluded until late into October. The interest in 

 them does not in the least flag among the farmers 

 themselves, while the institution is gradually 

 drawing around it men of all the professions and 

 avocations among our people, and if it is not al- 

 ready established in our customs as firmly as 

 "Thanksgiving Day" itself, will soon become so, 

 if no baleful influences are suffered to tarnish the 

 good reputation which it has certainly gained. 



Those who have attended these autumnal 

 gatherings for a series of years, and who have 

 been careful observers of them, must have no- 

 ticed in the communities where they prevail, and 

 among the people who sustain them, a marked 

 degree of improvement in the practices of hus- 

 bandry ; and they are improvements which are 

 substantial, pervading all parts of the farm, and 

 especially the homestead and its immediate sur- 

 roundings. All over New England, the buildings, 

 as a general thing, and the door-yards, present a 

 very different aspect from their appearance thirty 

 years ago. The houses more recently erected 

 are of less pretension, covering less ground, but 

 constructed with more conveniences and in an 

 altogether better architectural taste, so that many 

 comforts are obtained, while greater economy 

 may also be secured. While the houses are 

 generally smaller, the barns and granaries have 

 increased to double their former size, and are 

 better filled now than they were at the period to 

 which we have referred. That sure criterion of 

 farming, tlie number of cattle kept, or the quantity 

 of manure used, is also another indication of sub- 

 stantial progress ; so in the number of acres of 

 tillage land, there being much less in quantity, 

 while the quality of that improved yields a larger 

 product than the whole did, leaving a large 

 breadth to go first to pasture and then to re-sup- 

 ply the fuel and timber that had become exhaust- 

 ed. So in the kinds of products harvested, es- 

 pecially in the substitution of rich and nutritious 

 grasses and succulent roots for winter fodder, 

 instead of the coarse and innutritious meadow 

 grasses which were once relied upon as an im- 

 Tiortart poilt of the hn-"- crop. So in rpoln.iniing, 



