50 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



A BALANCE GATE. 

 A RKOKNT tourist alludes to a gate of which he 

 saw numerous examples in Flanders. It is shown 

 in tiie accompanying figure. We have seen gates 

 made on this principle in this country, a h are 

 the side-t)osts ; the top of the post h is made of a 

 email tree generally, with forked ends as at c, to 

 serve as a catch for the end of top-rail d d. With 

 this top-rail the framing of the gate is connected, 



A BAI.ANCB GATE. 



and the whole is swung open or shut by the top- 

 rail d d turning on the post i as a center— a wooden 

 pin, which passes through the rail d d, and enters 

 the Mpper end of the post a for a short distance, 

 serving as the point of revolution. The gate is 

 balanced by the counterweight e; this is gene- 

 rally the heavy root of the tree of which the top- 

 rail dd\s part of the stem. 



ILLINOIS -ITS PRODUCTS. &C. 



Wk extract the following eloquent passages from 

 a Thanksgiving article written for the Illinoian by 

 B. F. Taylor: 



"Battle year though it is, yet 1862 has not been 

 without its results in the fields of agriculture as 

 well as in the field of arms. Illinois corn, wheat 

 and beet; each in turn, have astonished and chal- 

 lenged the world. The standing' armtes of its 

 EffVPtian fields, the tasseled regiments in green^ 

 have poured their yellow treasures into the lap cxf 

 all the East Its wheat has been molded into 

 loaves to feed the hungry in the Old World its 

 beef has won name and fame even in the land ot 

 'English rounds,' and its pork is known every- 

 where out of Jewry. 



" Too tardy experiment has shown that a little 

 labor an.l a lit tie skill will dot it with orchards and 

 sprinkle it with vinevards. No fairer apples ripen 

 in tlie valleys of New England ; no sunmer-sided 

 peaches redden in 'the Jerseys;' no heavier, richer 

 clusters weigh down the vines of Missouri, than 

 those which Illinois can produce. 



"The unshorn pastures of the Rtat« were years 

 in persuading men that they were made for the 

 shepherd and his flocks; and nowhere on the con- 

 tinent if we exc.pt the plains of Texa.s, would 

 sheei.'thnve better or with less expense than here 

 And iner. at last, are heL-iunin^ to believe it, ami 

 sheep )ii'« flocking many a nol.le prairie. 



•> \nd iien came the waving fields of sugarcane, 

 cn-owintr '.roader year by yvar, and sweetening at 

 juce the farmer's -pudding and the farmer 8 pros- 



pect. It bids fair to be more than a mere home- 

 grown luxury : to be nothing less than a rich and 

 increasing .«ource of wealth and revenue. 



" Quickened by the necessities of the war, the 

 farmers, in April and May last, asked the prairiei 

 unoilier question — answered, indeed, long ago, but 

 unheeded and forgotten — and have just received 

 its answer in two thousand bales of 'upland' cot- 

 ton, tlie gitt of last summer, and another year will 

 see wliole horizons filled with the cotton plant, 

 and will entitle even us to talk of the snows of the 

 cotton fields of Illinois. What new source of 

 wealth bursts into view with the bursting bolls! 



"And the planters of that Indian weed — it was 

 the you-know-who ' that sowed the seed' — have 

 been busy, and the rank growth of 'fine cut' and 

 •coarse cut' has covered many a broad acre of 

 Illinois. Southern Illinois will send nearly as much 

 of the leaf to market as the whole State of Ken- 

 tucky. 



"And so has Illinois been disclosing its resources, 

 one after another, and showing its people what 

 mines of wealth lieunwrought upon the surface at 

 their feet. Mines? Incalculably richer and better 

 are its prairies than the pulseless veins of gold and 

 paralysis that quicken life into a scramble and a 

 tever, and chill it at last into torpor." 



WINTERING BEES. 



We have received an interesting article on this 

 subject from Mr. K. P. Kidder, of Burlington, Vt., 

 a well known bee man, whom our readers may 

 have seen at the dilferent Fairs exhibiting his won- 

 derful powers in the management of bees. 



The time to put bees into winter quarters he 

 says, depends on the severity of the weather. 

 Bees suffer more in the latter part than in the 

 beginning of winter. If the weather should now 

 set in very cold, it is not yet too late to put the 

 hives in the cellar. 



If straw or the old-fashioned board hive, they 

 should be turned bottom-side up with the bottom- 

 boards removed. Their animal heat will then 

 drive all the dampness and mould out of the hive. 

 If movable-comb hives are used, tlie cap, boxes, 

 &c., should be removed and the hive allowed to 

 remain right side up, with the entrance closed. 



The time to remove bees from the cellar depends 

 in a great measure upon the forwardness of the 

 spring, and care should be taken tiiat the weather 

 is warm enough that the bees can safely fly from 

 the hive and return again, always observing to 

 never set but a part of the hives out the same day, 

 and always ]>lace them as near as practicable on 

 the .same stand that tliey occupied the year previ- 

 ous to avoid confusion and robbery. 



After the bees have all made their excursion as 

 they always will do on the first day, and dis- 

 charge themselves, thousands of bees might then 

 be saved by setting them back into the cellar again 

 for tliiee or four weeks, and at the same time sup- 

 ply each hive with substitute for bee bread which 

 is rye meal, or common flour will answer. 



