144 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ September, 18?0. 



same room sulphur once in two weeks till the last is 

 off. Tour honey should be assorted, as piled, into 

 about three grades — first, second and third quality. 

 Put nothing but No. 1 in the first, the colored combs 

 and the mixed in the second, and the buckwheat in 

 the third. By this way you will be saved trouble 

 when you come to crate for market. In short, have 

 an eye to business, as this month is the harvest time 

 for beekeepers in most localities, and leave no stoue 

 unturned that will eive you a pound more honey. — 

 G, M. Doolittle in American Bee Journal. 



Why Bees Work in the Dark. 

 Every one knows what fresh honey is like — a clear 

 yellow syrup, without any trace of solid sugar in it. 

 After straining, it gradually assumes a crystal ap- 

 pearance — It candies, as the saying is, and ultimately 

 becomes a solid mass of sugar. It has been sus- 

 pected that this change is due to photographic action 

 — the same agent which alters the molecular ar- 

 rangement of the iodine of silver on the excited col- 

 lodion plate and determines the formation of Cam- 

 phor and iodine crystals in a bottle, causes honey to 

 assume a crystalline form. M. Scheiber inclosed 

 honey in well corked flasks, some of which he kept 

 in perfect darkness, while the others were exposed 

 to the light. The result has been that that portion 

 exposed to the light soon crystallizes, while that 

 kept in the dark remains unchanged. Hence we see 

 why the bees are so careful to work in the dark, 

 and why they are so careful to obscure the glass 

 windows which are sometimes placed in their hives. 

 The existence of the young depends on the liquidity 

 of the saccharine food presented to them, and if light 

 were allowed access to this, in all probability it 

 would prove fatal to the inmates of the hive.— West- 

 ern Farm Journal. 



Fertile Workers. 



At the Western Illinois Convention, Mr. Argo said: 

 Fertile workers used to be my masters, but now I 

 am their master. About mid-day take out two or 

 three middle frames from the hive, with a fertile 

 worker ; go about ten yards from the hive and shake 

 off every bee in a pile, then take the frames to a 

 strong stand and exchange for frames full of brood, 

 with the young bees just emerging. Brush back the 

 bees and jjive the frames to the fertile worker-stand 

 and close urp. Then you can give them a queen in 

 the cage or cell to rear one by night, as by that time 

 there will be young bees enough out to accept and pro- 

 tect either. Besides, if the fertile workers ever found 

 there way back to the hive, they will kill them when 

 they have a queen or a cell. I never failed in this 

 method. 



Poultry. 



Save the Choice Fowls. 



It is too commonly the practice among our fan- 

 ciers who are so fortunate, year after year, as to be 

 able to produce finer specimens of fowls — of one 

 kind or another — to dispose of their better kinds to 

 the first comer who will pay the fancy price demand- 

 ed for these best examples. 



The temptation of twenty, thirty or fifty dollars 

 for a choice pair, or often for a single specimen that 

 is A 1 in a quality, is very great, it must be admitted. 

 But it is rarely that such successful raiser of these 

 beautiful fowls reflects upon the importance of re- 

 taining in his own possession these extra cocks and 

 hens — with which he may be able to produce, in a 

 little while, dozens or scores of their like — should he 

 kdep and breed them himself. 



We suggest the propriety and advantage to the 

 original breeder of such exceptional fowls of saving 

 these choice samples for himself in many cases. No 

 one can breed these birds so well as he can. No pur- 

 chaser can take such extra fine fowls away and breed 

 from them so successfully as can the man who knows 

 how they are produced and what they should be 

 mated with, to yield the average future good results. 



At the least, we conceive it most advisable to re- 

 tain some of our choicest breeders for use in suc- 

 cession. We went into the yards of an Asiatic 

 fancier recently, who has bred some rare birds in the 

 past three years, and were astonished when we asked 

 to see the splendid fowls we knew had taken so many 

 prizes latterly, to be informed that he had " sold 

 them all — at very good figures, too!" 



He relies apon his young stock, now coming up, 

 for future operations. But we could not avoid the 

 impression that he had made a mistake in thus clean- 

 ing out his pens of the fine old birds. 



Save some of the best ones annually. Tou may 

 make a few dollars by your sales, but your patrons 

 are the men who make the test of this bargain with 

 you in the end. — Poultry World. 



Poultry Notes. 

 Take care of the young chicks; protect them well 

 at night from rats, cats, and "varmints," keep their 

 coops out in a clean grass plot, and keep the hen- 

 house well cleaned and whitewashed. Don't pen up 

 chickens, if you wish them to be healthy; let them 

 run and catch the insects. 



The value of milk as a drink for chicks, or as a 

 fluid, when scalded, with wliich corn meal and bran 

 may be mixed for their early diet, can scarcely be 

 overestimated. 



Feed often. All the younglings can eat up clean 

 at a time should only he furnished. Pouring into 

 the coop a mass of meal-posh, uncooked and watery 

 — to " save time " — is not feeding chickens well. If 

 hungry, they will devour a portion of this mess, but 

 it does them little good comparatively. The balance 

 sours, thej peck it for lack of something better, and 

 shortly we find them scouring, getting ill, weaken- 

 ing in the legs, and dying off by degrees. Good, 

 sweet, sound food is indispensable. 



Some farmers make it a practice to keep their 

 poultry in their orchards from early spring until cold 

 weather sets in, and they find that it pays. A picket 

 fence should be built around the orchard, high 

 enough to prevent their flying over, with suitable 

 buildings in one corner of the yard to shelter them 

 at night. Thus situated the poultry will thrive and 

 prosper, keeping themselves in good condition, and 

 the increase of eggs will be greatly augmented and 

 their usefulness enhanced to their owners at least, 

 on account of the myriads of insects and worms 

 they destroy, and which will more than repay the 

 cost and labor of building the fence. By keeping 

 them inclosed in this manner, a large number of 

 ibwls may be retained in the orchard, and the con- 

 tinual scratching which is done by them will prove 

 advantageous both to the soil and trees themselves. 

 — Western Agriculturist. 



Vegetable Food. 



Any of the roots — as potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, 

 carrots, etc., when boiled and mixed with corn and 

 rye-meal — make an excellent and economical daily 

 food for poultry. In this form fowls are fond of the 

 diet, and it works very kindly with them. 



Most inexperienced breeders think it necessary to 

 dole out dry grain only to their chickens — generally 

 whole corn — from year's end to year's end. And 

 where large numbers of fowls are kept it is often 

 considered too troublesome to supply cooked vege- 

 tables for the fowl stock, the dry-feed system being 

 the handiest, of course. 



But there is nothing that Is so great a help to the 

 poulterer, first and last, either in the cost or 

 through the benefits to be derived to the stock, as a 

 regular feed every day of cooked vegetables. We 

 have tried this particularly for years, and we have 

 found it highly advantageous, as compared with 

 any other method of feeding. 



There are other kinds of vegetables also which 

 are quite as valuable as are the roots mentioned, for 

 use among poultry, in their season. The leaves of 

 turnips or carrots, raw cabbages at any time of the 

 year, green corn in the ear, etc., may be given to 

 poultry freely, and these will all be relished. But 

 if at least one-half of all the food given them be of 

 some sort of vegetable and green, fowls will con- 

 stantly be found in better thrift and in finer con- 

 dition than when fed in any other way. — Poultry 

 World. ' 



Poultry. 



Poultry needs far more care during damp, rainy, or 

 wet weather than durmg the dry, warm weather or 

 the clear cold of winter, for dampness engenders 

 numerous disorders, many of which are difficult to 

 cure, therefore it is always better to apply the pre- 

 ventive than to administer the supposed cure. 



Literary and Personal. 



Circular letter of Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture, relative to the manufacture of maize and 

 sorghum sugars, 'l\ pp. octavo, Washington, D. C. 

 W. G. LeDuc, Com. 



Quarterly Report, of the Kansas State Board 

 of Agriculture, for the quarter ending, June ."0, 1879. 

 Also containing statistics relative to industries, popu- 

 lation, &c., &c., by counties. Alfred Gray, Secretary, 

 Topeka, Kansas, with table of contents, 66 pp. 8 vo. 



Report of Condition of Crops to Aug. 1st, 1.S79. 

 25 pp. octavo, including Table of Statistics, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



The foregoing documents are all interesting and 

 useful to the farmer and the farm, and may be ob- 

 tained by sending a postal card to the respective 

 addresses. 



Wholesale Price List, of the Bloomington Nur- 

 sery. Principal office % mile N. E. of Court House, 

 and one mile south of Normal School : three blocks 

 south-cast of Normal Passenger Station, Blooming- 

 ton, McLean Co., 111. For the fall of 1879. Baird 

 & Tuttle, agents. For J. S. Tuttle and A. Follet, 

 Proprietors, 20 pp. octavo. 



A General Index of the Agricultural Reports of 

 the Patent Office for twenty-five years, from 1837 to 

 1861, and of the Department of Agriculture, for fif- 

 teen years, from 1862 to 1876. By the commissioners 

 of agriculture. This is an octavo of 225 pages, and 

 will be exceedingly convenient to those who wish to 

 consult those reports, and especially to those who 

 possess them ; and will add materially to their value. 



Not a subject that has been treated in those reports 

 during the last forty years, but what may be found, 

 under" its proper letter, in this index, and the Gov 

 ernment has been very considerate in publishing it. 



We are indebted to Cyrus T. Fox, Esq., Secretary, 

 for a complimentary copy of the Premiums, Rules 

 and Regulations of the Berks County Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society, at their twenty-fifth an- 

 nual Exhibition; to be held at Reading, Pa., on 

 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Sep- 

 tember 30th and October 1st, 2d and 3d, 1879. 

 Berks county is famous for its agricultural shows, 

 and to judge from the enterprise manifested in this 

 premium list, the one this year is going to be a 

 success, for it is exceedingly liberal, and looks more 

 like business than any we have seen the present 

 season. 



Afield and Afloat. A demi-folio of 12 four 

 column pages; devoted to such subjects as may be le, 

 gitimutely included in its title, namely sporting intelli- 

 gence in general, and the manipulations of the Rod 

 and Gun, and military matters, in particular. Pub- 

 lished by the "Afield and Afloat" Company, at 607 

 Sansom street, Philadelphia, every Saturday, at 

 $2.00 per annum. W. C. Ha.-ris, managing Editor. 

 This is a remarkably well gotten up journal, with 

 faultless typography and a fine quality of paper; and 

 on the whole, its literary composition is of a superior 

 order in the sphere of its operation. To those who 

 lean towards the pleasures of the rod and gun, it is 

 of inestimable value. 



Carpentry and Building, a 9 by 13 quarto of 

 28 three column pages, devoted exclusively, in its 

 advertising and literary departments, to the inter ests 

 of theoretical and practical building ; finely em bel- 

 lished with appropriate illustrations, printed on 

 fine white calendered paper, and in clear type. The 

 August number before us has seventy-two illustra- 

 tive figures, explanatory of elementary and practical 

 building, exclusive of those which exemplify the 

 advertisements, and 60 separate articles on various 

 collateral subjects. One dollar a year, monthly, 83 

 Read street. New York; 220 South Front street, 

 Philadelphia; 77 Fourth street, Pittsburg; Merchants' 

 Exchange, Cincinnati; Eighth and M arket streets, 

 Chattanooga ; a single number, 10 cents. 



Annual Report upon Explorations and Surveys 

 in the Department of the .Missouri, by E.H. Ruffner, 

 let Lieutenant of Engineers U. S. A. Being Ap- 

 pendix S. S. to the general work. Through the 

 kindness of Prof. Herman Strecker, of Reading, Pa., 

 we have received a copy of this work, in octavo, and 

 about 200 pages. In addition to other matters it 

 contains reports from Prof. Asa Gray, Prof. T. S. 

 Brandegee, Prof. Cyrus Thomas, and Prof. Herman 

 Strecker, on the Botany and Entomology of the 

 survey. 



Prof. Strecker's paper is illustrated with beautiful- 

 ly colored figures, making two full page plates, 

 among which are eight new species of Lepidoptera. 

 Our thanks are due for this act of kind considera- 



"Thb South" — A journal of Southern and 

 Southwestern progress — Ably inculcates the doctrine 

 that "wealth is a natural element to be utilized by 

 labor. The highest human condition is possible 

 where climate, soil and minerals exist in the greatest 

 perfection." Office No. 9 Spruce street, Printing- 

 House Square, New York; August, 1879. $1.50 a 

 year in advance. This may be called a monthly 

 demi-fblio of 20 pages, and four columns to the page; 

 and as it is solid and mainly in small type,it contains 

 a more than ordinary amount of well written and 

 well selected reading matter on subjects relating to 

 its specialties, as set forth in its enunciation of prin- 

 ciples — prmeiples that underlie our whole social sys- 

 tem, however the rigidly righteous may affect to 

 despise them; for wealth is the great lever of pro- 

 greesB, and when we regard it as a "natural ele- 

 ment," and subordinate it to the rational and the 

 spiritual, it may become the medium of human re- 

 generation. 



Kussel on Scientific Horseshoeing, for the 

 different diseases of the foot. An octavo of 142 

 pages, with a full page portrait of the author, and 

 fifty excellently executed wood-cut illustrations, 

 distributed throughout the work ; together with 

 fac similes of the International diploma of 1876, and 

 of Centennial and Cincinnati Industrial medals ; in 

 eight chapters and an appendix. This is a remarka- 

 bly well gotten up work, printed with clear type, and 

 on fine tinted calendered paper. These chapters 

 treat respectively on anatomy, the practice of shoe- 

 ing, shoeing of different kinds of horses, diseases of 

 the foot, forging, speedy cutting, &c., gaiting and 

 balancing the action of horses, the mule, and shoes 

 us^d for specific purposes, with observations on the 

 training and responsibilities of farriers, &c. If 

 horses are to be shod (and we think to be used in 

 cities with paved streets, and over hard macadamized 

 roads, they ought to be, notwithstanding the modern 

 theory to the contrary,) then they ought to be scien- 

 tifically, artistically and practically shod ; and relia- 

 ble information on those very subjects is what this 

 work professes to furnish. Substantially bound in 

 cloth, and published by Robert Clark, & Co., Cio- 

 cinuati, Ohio. 



