1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



113 



Stone Wall. 



In the 9th number of the 7th volume of the 

 Farmer, is an article on " Stone Walls," from 

 the pen of Mr. E. Dickinson. Mr. D.'s plan 

 may, in some particulars, be better than mine ; 

 but in my opinion, some of his objections to mine 

 are only imaginary, while his is not wholly free 

 from objectious. He objects to my plan beqause, 

 if the ditch be filled with small stones, the earth 

 will, in time, fill up the crevices, when the frost 

 will heave the whole mass, as if there were no 

 ditch under the wall. (I do not give his language, 

 but his meaning.) Now this will depend upon 

 circumstances. In a moist soil, subject to wash- 

 ing, such may, to some extent, be the fact. In 

 a more compact soil, especially when out of the 

 reach of running water, there will be little dan- 

 ger from this cause. 



My objections to his plan are, 1st. If the large 

 stones are put into the ditch, the small ones can 

 hardly be used for building the wall. Hence, 

 unless the supply of materials be abundant, what 

 will be needed for the wall will be buried in the 

 earth. 2d. If the bottom be so very broad, (to 

 say nothing of such a width of land being taken 

 for a fence,) and the wall be drawn in so fast at 

 the sides, it will incline, especially on soft allu- 

 vial soils, to spread at the bottom and sink in the 

 middle, and in a few years will present the ap- 

 pearance of a lengthened stone-heao. 3d. A wall 

 cannot be built in the shape of his drawing so as 

 to be permanent, unless built single, and of long, 

 flat, or square stones ; such as are not found on 

 every farm. Much, therefore, must depend on 

 the nature of the soil, and the kind and quality of 

 the materials to be manufactuied into a wall. — 

 Let these be given, and I would attempt to solve 

 the problem. 



In regard to the width of the ditch, it may be 

 several inches (G, or more,) wider, on each side, 

 than the wall. This I consider a matter of less 

 consequence, provided it be so wide that the wall 

 shall rest wholly on the ditch. But in a country 

 in which fencing materials, both wood and stone, 

 are not very abundant, (and such I believe to be 

 the case with many farms in Western New York,) 

 I would rather build my fence anew as often as 

 once in 15 or 20 years, if necessary, (and if it 

 be well built at first, it will seldom require re- 

 building sooner,) than cut myself short of mate- 

 rials by burying the best, and thus be under the 

 necessity of procuring others from abroad, to be 

 renewed, if of wood, as often, at least, as my 

 wall would require re-building. This is my rea- 

 son for putting the small stones into the ditch. — 

 If materials are abundant, 1 would do otherwise. 



There is now standing on my brother's farm 

 in Montgomery county, a wall that I assisted in 

 building twenty-three years ago. It was built 

 in a low, wet, alluvial soil, over a ditch not more 

 than two and a half feet wide, filled compactly. 



(as every ditch filled with small stones should be,) 

 with small stones, and made about five feet high, 

 of boulders, or common field-stones, double about 

 half its height with occasional binders, and fin- 

 ished single. When last I saw it, (about three 

 years since,) it was in good condition, having 

 needed very little repairing, and will doubtless 

 stand yet many years. 



Mr. D.'s plan for a low wall is good. 



Fairport, March 12, 1846. H. 



Park's Niagara Patent Reversed Bee-HiTe. 



The writer has been in tlie business of bee-keeping for 

 many years, and h-^.s taken many bees from the forest, and 

 like many others has suTered much loss by using hives upon 

 the customary but erroneous principle of having the bees 

 enter at the bottom of the hive ; and has, at times, almost 

 abandoned the idea of sui mounting the many difficulties in 

 bee-keeping. But by taking honey from trees in the forest, 

 and finding the bees in almost every situation, the writer 

 has discovered one important and never failing principle, 

 which overcomes the many evils in bee keeping. This is, 

 in part, to reverse tlie old practice of the bees entering the 

 bottom, and let them enter at the extreme top of the hive, 

 and no other ])lace. The bee-hunter may discover, by close 

 observation, that the greatest quantity and best honey, and 

 the bees in the best condition, is in every case found upon 

 this principle. It is evident tliat the body of bees will al- 

 ways live in their dry or brood combs, near the place of 

 entrance- and if this be at the bottom, as in all other hives, 

 the breath of the bees will be continually arising and con- 

 gealing among their combs, and cannot be carried off by 

 ventilating with wire gauze or by any other means as long 

 as the bees live below their honey, and frequently de- 

 stroys whole colonies and gives the honey a loathsome 

 taste — and soon moulds their combs so as to leave some part 

 of it unoccupied by the bees, until the moth has full pos- 

 session — and diminishes the size of the bees more than 

 brooding in old and sound combs. 



The writer has invented and patented a hive upon a dif- 

 ferent principle from any other now in public use. The 

 hive is built of boards, with a tight, square bottom, and 

 slanting roof. The bees enter at the top ; the passage i? 

 _well secured from the weather, robbing bees, «S:c., by a slide 

 and blinds. The hive is divided into two apartments, by 

 placing the honey boxes near the center, leaving a passage 

 in front from upper to lower apartments of 2 by 12 inches. 

 Tlie bees enter the boxes from this passage ; a door is hung 

 n the rear that opens to the boxse, and to the two apart- 

 ments. The body of the bees in this hive is always found 

 above the honey; their inleads through their combs will all 

 be directed to the place of entrance, and the hive complete- 

 ly freed from the damps that arise from tlie bees. The rob 

 bing bees, the bee moth, or any other destroying insect, 

 can never pass the bees to injure the contents of the hive. 

 Their brood combs are never filled with honey as long as 

 they have room for dcposite below. Their brood is never 

 destroyed in May, or in the f;\mine that comes annually 

 between the blossoms of the forest and that of the fields. 

 It is believed by some that the moth is never found in trees 

 of the forest ; the fact is they are found in the highest trese. 



Tonawnnda, N. Y., 1817. EiiAS Parks. 



Destroying Sorrel. — W. L, V. D., of Lo- 

 rain county, Ohio, (writing in answer to the in- 

 quiries of A. Reynolds, in our April number,) 

 says : " A few years ago I had a piece of land 

 on the river bottom, (so called here,) of a dark 

 sandy loam, so completely overrun with sorrel as 

 to entirely choke out a crop of spring wheat. I 

 plowed the land up as soon as [ saw, the wheat 

 was destroyed, and sowed it to buckwheat, which 

 completely destroyed the sorrel. There was no 

 more seen for quite a number of years. Hence 

 I believe the above to be an effectual remedy." 



