1868. 



NEW ENGLAOT) FARMER. 



341 



can be secured for the time being. When 

 they are out, sufficient store and brood comb 

 for the coldny may be cut from the old hive 

 and fastened in the new one in such a manner 

 as to keep it in place till the bees can have time 

 to attach it permanently to the movable frames. 

 This done, the new hive is placed 'in the posi- 

 tion on the stand occupied by the old one, 

 and the bees in the box turned down in front 

 of it to seek their new home. This they will 

 generally do without much remonstrance, and 

 the work of accumulation and propagation will 

 go on as though the processes had suffered, no 

 interruption by the transference from one dom- 

 icil to another. — Rural New Yorker. 



EXTRA.CTS AISTD KEJPLIES. 



ASHES, SOOT, AND SALT FOR STOCK. 



I have often thought I would give you a line of 

 my experience with farm stock, — working horses 

 in particular. My first care is to feed my horses 

 as regularly as possible, and then have them 

 worked with moderation. Twice or three times a 

 week? I give them salt; nearly always using a 

 small portion of ashes, soot or lime with the salt. 

 While I have done this I have no recollection of 

 ever being .troubled with bots or other sickness 

 among my horses. But in other years, when this 

 was neglected, from absence or otherwise, I have 

 been troubled with sick horses, and have had some 

 die. Once or twice a month I give a similar mix- 

 ture to my cows and oxen. 



When warm weather commences in the spring, I 

 mix a teaspoon ful or more of sulphur, and the 

 same of saltpetre with the salt for each of my 

 young cattle, and they generally shed their old 

 coats, start their new ones and begin to tatten 

 earlier than my neighbors' stock not so treated. 

 Ashes or soot with salt I also think is good for 

 sheep and hogs. 



As far as my observation has extended, the man 

 that is careful of his stock, or in his farming, or 

 in any other avocation, is almost certain to succeed, 

 while the careless fail. 



I have always thought that a good agricultural 

 paper was one of the best helps to the farmer. A 

 single idea found there is often of more value to 

 Lim than the price of the paper a whole year. 



West Virginia, Jwie, 1868. j. h, r. 



Remarks. — The above hints were written by a 

 gentleman who was born and has always lived 

 south of Mason and Dixon's line. We solicit a 

 continuation of our correspondent's practical sug- 

 gestions. 



SALTING cows. 

 In the Monthly Farmer for October last, page 

 46o, in a discussion on the subject of the dairy at 

 a convention in Elgin, lU., Mr. J. M. Treadwell is re- 

 ported to have said that he "salts cows every five 

 days in summer ; after salting, the milk increases 

 from two to five gallons; cows will not eat salt 

 much oftener than once in four days." One may 

 perform a particular act daily, eemi-weekly or 

 weekly with some degree of regularity; but to 

 fihavc one's face, wind up the clock, salt the cows, 

 or anything the "like o' that," once in five days, 

 with any degree of regularity would require, I 

 should think, an extraordinary memory. So far 

 as my observation extends, cows will almost 

 always eat a little salt every day, if they can get it. 

 Civilized men eat salt, in some ^shape, at almost 



every meal. It is said that prisoners deprived of 

 salt cannot remain healthy. Is it not better, then, 

 to offer cows salt every day, or, what is perhaps 

 still better, give them access to it whenever they 

 choose, and let them follow their own instincts ? 

 It is said that some who sell milk mix salt with 

 the food which they give their cows, in larger 

 quantities than they would natnrally eat, for the 

 sake of increasing the quantity of milk. This I re- 

 gard as an immorality, being a violation of law, 

 both natural and moral. The milk must be of a 

 poorer quality, and the cows less healthy. What 

 Mr. Treadwell means by saying that "after salting, 

 the milk increases from two to five gallons, I do 

 not know. That he should get five gallons instead 

 of two seems incredible. Substituting per cent, for 

 gallons, the meaning would seem less extravagant. 

 In either case, if salting once in five days would 

 produce any increase of milk, I think that salting 

 every day would produce a still greater increase. 

 Den-y, N. E., Mag, 1868. e. b. 



Remarks. — Mr. Treadwell was speaking of the 

 management of his whole herd, and of his manner 

 of treating the milk from all his cows, and we un- 

 derstood the gain of two to five gallons was on the 

 whole daily produce. The number of cows kept 

 by him was not stated, but from the fact that he 

 had been in the business of sending milk to Chica- 

 go for ten years, and from our knowledge of the 

 grand scale on which Western farmers conduct op- 

 erations, we presume that his number of cows was 

 pretty large. 



WINDMILLS FOR PUMPING WATER. 



Can you, Mr. Editor, or some of your correspon- 

 dents give us a plan for pumping water for a stock 

 of cattle, and for the use of the family in the house, 

 by the aid of a cheap windmill. Many wells might 

 perhaps be exhausted, as the wind blows a great 

 share of the time enough to turn a small windmill, 

 but why not have a pipe to return the surplus 

 water to the well. It appears to me that if some- 

 thing of the kind could be got up at small expense 

 it would save a great deal of labor. 



Would it do to build a cistern under ground in 

 land that is elevated above the buildings, and con- 

 vey it in pipes to the house and barn ? 



Northboro', Mass., Feb. 3, 1868. C. Eames. 



TO save labor IN HOEING POTATOES. 



Last year I planted two acres of potatoes, the • 

 hills three feet apart each way, the rows at right 

 angles so I could run the cultivator two ways. I 

 used a shovel plough which hilled them up just 

 right, and in one day went over the piece both 

 ways ; then after a few days went through in one 

 direction only. That was all the labor I expended 

 upon them between planting and digging. The 

 lesult was a crop of 300 bushels. This year I 

 have planted the same ground in the same way, 

 and do not intend to hoe them, and expect a bet- 

 ter crop, as I put on plaster last year and manure 

 this. I also kept a cosset sheep in my potato field, 

 and I believe it is true that sheep will not eat 

 growing potatoes. I shall keep two or three sheep 

 among them this year to crop any weeds that grow. 



KEEPING DIFFERENT BREEDS OF SHEEP TO- 

 GETHER. 



An item has gone the round that English sheep 

 would not thrive when kept among Spanish Meri- 

 noes. I have kept full blood Cotswold, South 

 Down and Spanish Merino lambs together all. 

 winter, and they have all done well. They ate 

 grain out of the same dish, and drank together 

 without the least apparent reluctance. The Cots- 



