82 



NEW ENGLAND FAilMER. 



Oct. G, 1893. 



with the more moist and less fermentiible dung ofi 

 the cattle. lie will thus improve the quality of 

 both. At large r.tables, where horses only are 

 kept, the dung should be often removed, or the 

 heaps enclosed in a yard for swine. The hog-sl;/e 

 with a yard, is a prolific source of manure. It is 

 tlie observing and industrious farmCT's manure fac- 

 tory in which, his busy labourers will earn their 

 bread if supplied with the raw malerinls. In esti- 

 mating his profits from the swine, he will add to 

 their amount of pork the labour they perform in 

 fui-nishing manure for the farm. Much that is put 

 into the yard, will require more moisture than tA 

 natural soil, in some situations, will afl^ord. Tfie 

 sink by proper ducts, when situations permit, 

 would supply the requisite quantity of water, and 

 niuch richness to the manure. If the sink water 

 is not wanted, or cannot be used for this purpose, 

 it should be conveyed to the kitchen garden. It 

 would sufficiently enrich ground enough, to pro- 

 duce the garden vegetables for the family. When 

 the subsoil of the hog yard is not linrd clay or 

 gravel, some provident farmers lay a flooring of 

 timber or stone. Into this yard he wilf first haul 

 a quantity of loam, sods, &c. After these, straw, 

 cobs, brakes, briers, garden weeds, Canada this- 

 tles, and field vines, particularly those of the po 

 lato, will be thrown in, at their proper season. — 

 The potato vines should be thrown into heaps, 

 when they are pulled, to be carted to the manure 

 yard, when they arc prepared for them. Thistles 

 and other weeds should be gathered before they 

 become seeded, as their seeds are not destroyed 

 by slight fermentation. As green succulent seeds 

 readily ferment, occasioual additions of absorbing 

 materials should be added to retain their volatile 

 and soluble parts. 



These may in part be furnished from scrapings 

 around the house and yards, of dirt, old shoes, 

 " hair, rags, and feathers." Thus two objects will 

 be gained, cleanliness and substantial profit. It is 

 an almost universal practice uitli our farmers, to 

 cart their pomace tp some spot by the side of the 

 road, tfiere to remain for years where its supposed 

 deleterious qualities may do no harm to the soil. 

 The pomace contains a considerable quantity of 

 ■saccharine matter, nolwithstanding the operations 

 of the mill on it. This is a rich food of plants, and 

 a constituent of most vegetables. By fermenta- 

 tion, it produces acetous acid ; so do other veire- 

 table substances in greater or less proportion. 



The straw necessarily mixed with it increases 

 its value. It is said as an evidence against its use, 

 that it destroys vegetation where it lies. So do 

 less quantities of ashes, dung, urine, &c. But the 

 apple seeds germinate on the heap, and would 

 grow thrifty if earthy matter were mi.xed with the 

 pomace. It might be made into valuable manure 

 by incorporating it with compost materials, or, 

 which perhaps would be better, it might be thrown 

 into the hog-yard. As putrefactive fermentation 

 takes place slowly in pomace, lime or ashes should 

 always be added to it, when put into a compost 

 heap. 



The dung of fowls is a rich manure. For its 

 fermentable qualities, it is used by tanners in the 

 preporjtion of hides in the process of tanning. It 

 is therrtforo a valuable addition to coarse and un- 

 fernientable munuro. While the farmer pays 

 proper regard to cie.^nliness in his barns, he should 

 not bp. un.T!in<lful of economy. 



This jrinciplc wo ;ld apply to tlie necessary. — 

 J^ight-soit, both foi convenience and preparation 



for manure, siiould be mixed with other substan- 

 ces. The^Chinese, whose economy is said to e.\- 

 tend to the saving of the liair shorn from the head, 

 and ihe paring oftlieir nails, mix marl with it, and 

 when properly dried, it is a merchantable article 

 with them. Frequent applications of a small quan- 

 tity of lime, will prevent the unpleasant efiluvia. 



It should be carried out at least in the spring 

 and fall, and mixed with other manure, or earth. 

 [To be. concluded next loceA:.] 



BURYING BEES IN WINTER. 



Mr Fessenden — For the information of a cor- 

 respondent, I sent you an account of an experiment 

 made by a Mr An.ms of this town, (see New Eng- 

 land Farmer, vol. iv. page 33t») and also stated I 

 had understood a Capt. Ticknor of Plainfield, N. 

 H. liad practised that method with success for sev- 

 eral years. 



A few weeks since I wrote to Capt. Ticknor 

 for information upon the subject. His answer I 

 forward you for publication. 



Yours respectfully, L. BARTLETT. 



Mr B\rtlett — In answer to your request for 

 information on keeping light swarms of Bees thro' 

 the winter by burying tliem in the ground ; the 

 fact is, I have wintered light swarms of Bees for 

 a number of years by burying them in the gro\ind. 

 The method I have taken is to pick out a spot of 

 dry ground where there will be no probability of 

 water's coming to it ; dig the hole considerably 

 larger than the hive, and about 18 inches deeper 

 than the height of your hive. Put a board under 

 the bottom of the hive, caulk all the holes up tight, 

 fill the vacancy round the hive with straw, cover it 

 over so deep that no frost may reach it. 



As to the exact time to bury them, I have none ; 

 but some time in November, before the ground 

 freezes up. The time for taking them out would 

 be the fore part of April, perhaps sooner, — some- 

 wliat as the season may be. Some care should be 

 taken, if the weather should be bad after they are 

 taken out, to sec if they liave honey ; if not, feed 

 them. The last winter I buried two swarms, but 

 lost one of them. One of my neighbours buried 

 three, and they all lived. 



Your oh't serv't, 



JOHN TICKNOR. 



Plainfield. f.V. H.) Sept. 2.'3, 1890. 



COUNT KUMFORD. 



Mr Fessenden — Permit me, through your pa- 

 per, (which is friendly to all useful improvements) 

 to state that the late Gen. E. H. Derby, of Lon- 

 donderry, was, I believe, the first person who in- 

 troduced Count Rumford's roasters, and other ap- 

 paratus for cooking, into the United States. The 

 writer of this has witnessed at Gen. Derby's ho;ise 

 near Salem, the most extensive range that has 

 ever been set in this country. 



Since the introiluction of this apparatus, there 

 liave been made, I understand, at the manufactory 

 of the late Joseph Howe, and since his death by 

 his son, upwards of five hundred roasters or ovens. 

 Two of a large size are in use constantly at the 

 Institution at Andover — and at the Exchange Cof- 

 fee House and other large establishments in thi.< 

 city. And it is very seldom that a liouse is non 

 built without some part of the Count's plan for 

 cooking or washing boini.' attached. 



My object in sending you the above is, that the 

 ere lit of introducing the work may be p-iven to 

 Gen. Derby. RUMFORD. 



From the Brallleborough Messenger. 





APPLES FOOD FOR FARM STOCK 



Our fathers, in the first settlement of this cot 

 try, were careful to provide for themselves extc 

 sive orchards ; and a good supply of their favi 

 ite beverage, cider : so t!iat now, in fruitful yea* 

 we have a superabundance of fruit, and cider "ru '" j 

 dov/n our streets like a river." For some year^ , , „ 

 has been sold, in most of our towns, for fifty cei 

 per barrel, which is barely sufBcicntto pay for 

 labour of making. Apples in the orchard, 

 worth about as much, as wood in the forest ■ 

 fifty years ago, when a man would thank you 

 carrying it off, or burning it up. 



Apples have been so e.xclusively devoted to mi 

 ing cider, that many believe thorn to be good 

 iiotliing else, and look upon it as kind of sacrile 

 to appropriate them to any other use. Some gc 

 old women predicted, that the curse of God woi 

 follow me, because I let my hogs run in t!ie 

 chard and eat my apples. Instead of making mi 

 out of my apples, they would have me conv 

 them into cider, and my cider into that m 

 wholesome and cheering of all drinks cider-bram 

 Many ."i-uppose, that as a food for animals, they a 

 useless and worse than useless. Their cattle hii 

 at times broken into their orcliards, and tiiey ha 

 always founil, that their cows have been dried 



and their cattle otherwise injured. But won 



not tiicir cattle have been as much injured, 

 breaking into their corn fields ; and will th( 

 thence conclude that corn is a hurtful food ? T 

 very fact that cattle are hurt by tliem, when eat 

 to excess, proves them to be a wliolesome and D 

 tricious food ; for I believe cattle will eat nothii 

 to excess (when not driven to it by excessive hu 

 ger) except what is healtliful and nourishing. 



Tiiat apples are nutritive is evident from tl 

 fact, tiiat when eaten freely, they abate the a 

 petite for other food ; and persons have, in mai 

 instances, been known to live wholly upon theifl | 



for a length of time. Mr D ,ofW. in a 



of mental derangement, would eat no food but a] 

 pies for fear of being poisoned , and he lived np{ 

 them forty days without injury to his health 

 flesh. The spirit, which the juice of apples yieldSj 

 is another proof of their nutritive qualities. Most 

 animals are very fond of them. When apples and 

 potatoes are thrown together to hogs, the apples 

 will all be eaten first. 



I have tested, by ten years experience, the valuQ 

 of apples, as a food for animals. I keep five oif 

 six hogs in my orchard, upon nothing but appleg 

 and a little swill; and have uniformly found them 

 to grow and gain flesh faster than hogs fed uporf 

 any thing else except grain. On the first of No»' 

 vember they are very decent pork ; atler wliich ft 

 feed them about six weeks on grain before I kilf 

 them ; and I believe I have as fat hogs, and as 

 good pork, as my neighbors, who give to their 

 hogs double the quantity of grain tliat I do to mine. 



Having proved by experiment tiie utility of ap- 

 ples as food for liogs, I next turned my horse into 

 a small orchard, which would yield abont as many 

 as he would cat. A neighbor of mine, a very ju- 

 dicious farmer, seeing my horse in my apples, iii- 

 lormed me, that I shoidd spoil my horse — that he 

 would get poor, and that I could imt fat liim in 

 the whole winter. Though somewhat alarmed 

 by this information, I determined to persist in the 

 r/xperiment I had begun, and I found the result ex- 

 actly the reverse of the prediction. My horse 



