No. 10. 



Root Culture. — Bees. — Solution of Copperas. 



321 



with the hand hoe, thinning them from 10 to 

 12 inches distance, and hoeing over the strip 

 networked by the harrow; keep the culti- 

 vator frequently at work and give them a 

 second hand hoeing, so as not to allow a weed 

 to start, and if the season is not very unfa- 

 vourable, I will almost be willing to guaran- 

 tee you at least 600 bushels per acre. Post- 

 pone gathermg them as long as the season 

 will permit, the early frost does not injure 

 them. My plan has been for eacii man to 

 pull two rows at a time, cutting oft" the small- 

 er roots and top, and two of them throwing 

 the roots together, in the intermediate fur- 

 row, making four rows together, which al- 

 lows room for a cart to pass between in gath- 

 ering them ; they may either be kept in a 

 cellar or buried in the field, as is often done 

 with the potatoes — do not keep too warm, 

 nor on the contrary, allow them to be frozen, 

 and they will be firm and good until May. 



In feeding, I cut them with a knife made 

 by two blades crossing each other at right 

 angles, fixed on a long handle, which makes 

 very expeditious work, and is superior to any 

 of the many machines I have ever seen in- 

 vented for that purpose. Many object to 

 feeding them to milch cows on account of 

 imparting to the butter an unpleasant taste ; 

 if given to them but once a day there is no 

 danger of that being the case, at least I have 

 never found it so. 



Beside the saving to your corn crib you 

 will also find your stock looking much better 

 from the use of them, as it keeps them in a 

 much more healthy state than when confined 

 the whole winter on dry food, they also eat 

 their hay a nd other provender much better 

 from hav:iig a change. 



The Sugar Beet, Mangel Wurtzel, Car- 

 rot, Potatoe and many others of this valua- 

 ble family, all have their advocates and all 

 are excellent, only be sure to raise some of 

 them, which ever you prefer. I have given 

 my experience with my favorite, and shall 

 be gratified if I can induce some who have 

 never yet done it, to give them a trial. 



If you do not wish to go to the expense of 

 a drill, you can put them in very expeditious- 

 ly, by levelling the ridge with a rake, mak- 

 ing a small furrow with a stick, and sprink- 

 ling the seed in it from a bottle, having a 

 quill through the cork, which can be regu- 

 lated by the finger being kept on it, and then 

 covered with the back of the rake. — Dela- 

 ware Journal. 



The Editor has found in his own practice, that a 

 very simple and convenient article where a drill is not 

 used, may be obtained at a tin shop for two or three 

 shillihiis. A tin cylinder, say an inch in diameter, four 

 feet Ions and flaring, that is, funnel shaped, at the top, 

 may be drawn along the furrow by the lefl hand, with 



tlie funnel end resting against the brcasi of the opera- 

 tor. The seed may thus be put in the tube with all 

 necessary regularity — with great ea?e, and without 

 the fatigue of stooping.— Ed. 



Bees. 



Bee hives frequently become foul, from 

 dead bees and the perspiration trom the 

 bees, which affects the health of the whole 

 swarm, and makes them dull and sluggish. 

 In the spring the bottom board should be 

 tl oioughly cleaned and whitewashed, and 

 the lower edges of the hive should be 

 whitewashed, and the inside of the hive up 

 to the comb, and the same operation on 

 the outside of the hive will be useful in pro- 

 moting the health of bees, protecting the 

 hive against the rain and hot sun, and in 

 filling up all cracks, and depriving the 

 moths of any good place for laying their 

 eggs. 



VVe have practised mixing fine salt with 

 whitewash, plentifully, even more than will 

 dissolve, and both the lime and salt appear 

 to be grateful to the bees, which oflen eat it 

 freely. With this course some sluggish 

 swarms will immediately become active. 

 In whitewashing our hives several times in 

 a year, using salt freely, we have never 

 been troubled with the bee-moth, though 

 mostly keeping bees, and a part of the time 

 in sections of the country where the moth 

 has generally been very destructive. 



We cannot say postively that lime and 

 salt will prevent the operations of moths, 

 but if properly attended to, and every crack 

 and crevice about the hive, the lower edge, 

 inside, and bottom board be well covered 

 with whitewash, we have no doubt that it 

 will greatly impede, if not wholly prevent 

 the destructive effects of moths. — Boston 

 Cultivator. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Solution of Copperas, to save Seed. 



Mr. Editor, — As there is a general com- 

 plaint of the injury done by the myriads of 

 insects which infest our gardens and orch- 

 ards, it becomes the duty of every person 

 who has tried to reduce the number, or pre- 

 vent the ravages of these pests, to give the 

 result of his experiments to the agricaltiiral 

 public: and as 1 am desirous of contributing 

 my mite to the stock of information, in which 

 all, who cultivate the soil are interested, I 

 take leave to state what I have tried with 

 success. In ihe spring of last year I plant- 

 ed about two hundered hills with pumpkin, 

 squash, melon and cucumber seed, very few 

 of which came up, the rest were destroyed 



