1S82,] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



159 



more annual iirolit tlian beef pioiluction; and every 

 breed that maintains a permanent roollinlil in the 

 United States must meiit tbis lest or etnnnd aside. 

 Happily, the Short-born with its mas;nilieent beef 

 form, can also point promily to its aebievemcnts 

 in the dairy. Its temi«irary ecli|isp in this line, 

 throuL'h some of its noblest slraines has resulted 

 from the fault of the breeder, and not from the ea- 

 p;icity of the breed. Hut the little Jersey is bavluir 

 ber boom upon her honest merit in produein:;- very 

 large yields of ijolden-colored and nutty-llavored 

 butter. I'erhaps her admirers are soniewbat extrav- 

 agant in their valuation of these reeords. They may 

 not always sean them as closely as they should. As 

 these extreme priees must be based u|)OU a confi- 

 dence in the truth of these reeords, the reeords 

 themselves should be well attested. Tests for a year 

 must also be a safer reliance tlian for a shorter time. 

 The tests of milk and b\itter yield for a few days 

 are open to so many errors, that they cannot form a 

 basis for ealeulatii'i;; tlie annual yield. The varia- 

 bility in the yield of some cows in dillerenl parts of 

 the season of lactation is very great, while other 

 cows are very uniform through three-fourths of the 

 season, only' decreasing gradually during the last 

 two or three months. The cireumstanees, then— all 

 being favorable— may produce a very large yield lor 

 a lew days, when the annual yield would be oidy re- 

 spectable. If the short test is given, several im 

 portant points should also be given to assist in form- 

 ing a correct estimate— such as the length of time 

 from calving, the season of the year, tlie food be- 

 fore and at the time of trial — all these are necessary 

 elements for determinating the value of a test. 



consequently tliat loss has been endured on account 

 of it. Bnt when such a course of feeding has ex- 

 isted, and a change is to be made to a betterone, loss 

 from over-eatinir may be prevented by adniitlins; the 

 herd gradually to the new fceil ami supplyintr them 

 with all the salt and water they desire. The in- 

 crease in the new ration should never be so great as 

 to change the flavor of the milU. 



Facts About Horses. 



The horse's stomacli has a capacityof only sixteen 

 quarts, while that of an ox has 2.50. In the intes- 

 tines this proportion is reversed, the horse having a 

 ciHJacity of WO quarts auainst 100 of the ox. The 

 ox and most other animals have a gall bladder for 

 the retention of a part of the bile secreted during 

 digestion. The horse has none, and the bile flows 

 directly into the intestines as fast as secreted. This 

 construction of the digestive apparatus indicates 

 that the horse was formed to eat slowly and digest 

 continually bulky and innutritions food. When fed 

 on hay it passes rapidly through the stomach into 

 the intestine. The horse can eat but five pounds of 

 bay in an hour, which is charged during nuistica- 

 tion with four times its weight of saliva. Now the 

 stomach, to digest it well, will contain but aliout ten 

 quarts, and when the animal eats one-third of bis 

 daily ration, or seven pounds, in one and one half 

 hours, he has swallowed at least two stoniaebfuls of 

 liay and saliva, one of these having passed to the 

 intestines. Observation has shown that the food is 

 passed to the intestine by the stomach in the order 

 in which it is received. If we feed a horse with six 

 quarts of oats it will just fill his stomach ; and, if as 

 soon as he finishes this, we feed him with the above 

 ration of seven pounds of hay, be will eat sufficient 

 in three quarters of an hour to have forced the oats 

 entirely out of his stomach into the intestine. As it 

 is the office of the stomacli to digest the nitrogeueous 

 parts of the feed, and as a stomachful of oats con- 

 tains four or five times as mucli of these as the 

 same amount of hay, it is certain that either the 

 stomach must secrete the gastric juice five limes as 

 fast, which is hardly possible, or it must retain this 

 food five times as long. By feeding with the oats 

 first, it can only be retained long enough for the 

 proper digestion of hay ; conseciuently, it seems 

 logical, when feeding, a concentrated food like oats 

 with a bulky one like hay, to feed the latter first, 

 giving the grain the whole time between the repasts 

 to be digested. The digestion of a liorse is governed 

 by the same laws as that of a man ; and as we know 

 that it is not best for a man to go at hard work the 

 moment a hearty meal is eaten, so we should re- 

 member that a horse ought to have a rest after his 

 meal, while the stomach is inost active in the pro- 

 cesses of digestion. — Anicriaiii C'uUivator. 



Overloading Cows* Stomschs. 

 When cows are changed from scanty to flush feed 

 it often happens that the beuetit of the more liberal 

 supply is neutralized for some time by allowing them 

 to gorge themselves to the extent of ^mcomfortable 

 fullness. An excessive distension of the stomach 

 produces inflammatory action and impedes digestion, 

 and tends to diminish the flow of milk and to impair 

 its quality. Overloading a cow's stomach invariably 

 gives a strong and disagreeable (Xlor to her milk that 

 injures it for'butter or for cheese-niiiking, and also 

 its hcalthfuluess for food. Such an overluading is 

 always indicative of a double loss— a loss from fail- 

 ing to utilize as fully as might the flush feed, and a 

 previous loss from a supply of food insufficient to 

 enable the cows to give as much milk as they are 

 capable of giving. When cows arc fed with a liber- 

 ality that develops a full flow of milk, they will not 

 overload with a food so little concentrated as green 

 grass. The fact that they do overload is an evidence 

 that their preyious food was too scanty for profit,and 



Quarantined Cattte. 



The Governor of Illinois Issued a proclamation 

 prohibiting the importation of cattle into the State 

 from Philadelphia and adjacent localities, unless the 

 shipment is accompanied by a eertilicate of health 

 signed tiy a duly-autborizeil veterinary inspector. 

 The proclamation' states that Iberc is good reason to 

 believe that the pleuro |ineuinonia exists as an iqii- 

 demic among the cattle in the eastern part of this 

 State, as well as in Maryland, Delaware, New York 

 and Connecticut, rcnderinL' such action necessary. 

 This action on the part of the State of Illinois docs 

 not cause alarm to the Philadelphia beef-cattle deal- 

 ers, tiut is considered a wise measure. 



City Treasurer Marttn, who is President of the 

 Philadelphia Stoc"k Yanl Comjiany, says tbis estab- 

 lishment of a cattle i|narantino by the State of Illi- 

 nois cannot all'ect the regular trade. He says that 

 the disease is caused l)y the importation of fancy 

 stock from England, atid is, in bis opinion, confined 

 to dairy cows exclusively. Mr. Martin also stated 

 that the inspection of cattle in tbis vicinity is very 

 rigid. Dr.. I. W. Gadsden, United States Cattle In- 

 spector for Pennsylvania, cotisiders that tliis measure 

 on the part of Illinois is one that should have been 

 taken long ago. He says, however, that in his opin 

 ion the proclamation is too sweeping. The Doctm- 

 thinks that tbis proclamation will have tbe.efl'ect of 

 causing the passage of a bill to eradicate pleuro- 

 pneumonia in this country. The disease has been 

 stamped out in Englatid and in Massachusetts, and 

 it -an be done everywhere. Several other physicians, 

 whose opinion of the proclamation was asked, con- 

 curred m the judgment of Dr. Gadsden, that it is a 

 wise measure and that it will have a beneficial eflfect. 



APIARY. 



^>. That you ought never to cut moldy combs out 

 of the hives, for the reason that you should never 

 allow it to become moldy. 



0. That you ought never to double swarms or 

 stocks of bees in the fall, tjecausc you ought to at- 

 tend lo that and make them strong during the sum- 

 mer by takini; the brood from the strong stocks and 

 giving it to the weaker. 



7. That a drone laying queen should he taken 

 away and one |>rfiducing workers be put in her place, 

 else the colony will soon come to naught. 



8. That as a rule, as soon as an Italian queen 

 shows signs of old age or feebleness, the bees them- 

 selves will supersede her. 



9 That all coloines should be kept strong in order 

 to be sticcessful. 



10. That every hive should contain about two 

 thousand cubic inches In the breeding department. 



11. The beginners in liee keeping shoulil be very 

 cautious about increasinir tlu" number of their swarms 

 or slock rapidly until they thotoughly understand 

 the business. 



12. That the hive Itself, if well constructed, is all 

 the bee house you need. — Bee-Keeperg' Jievicw. 



Some Information about the Queen Bee. 



There is an impression prevailing among the un 

 initiated that the queen of a hive leads otf the 

 swarm, but this is by no means the case with first 

 issues, for, as a rule, the queen does not come forth 

 from the hive until the greater part of the bees arc 

 on the wing. Another erroneous idea in existence 

 is that the queen bee is the first to alight upon a 

 branch or a bush, and that the bees congregate 

 about her, but the reverse of tbis is the fact. When 

 a swarm begins to issue, if the bee-keeper will place 

 himself on the shady side of the hive and watch the 

 stream of bees which pour forth like an army 

 through a gateway, he Tnay see the queen come out, 

 and, if inclined to prove our assertions, he may cap- 

 ture and cage her, and put ber in his pocket while 

 he watches the proceedings of the bees. When the 

 throng is circling in the air he may imagine that the 

 bees are searching for her, and will perhaps con 

 elude that, as they cannot find her, they will return 

 at once to the hive ; but no, they will first congre- 

 gate near a convenient tree or bush, and make a 

 great noise sufficient to attract the attention of her 

 majesty, if she were abroad, and then they will 

 alight and form a cluster, and wait for some minutes 

 to give her an opportunity of joining them. If now she 

 be taken to them, she will join the mass and all will 

 he well ; if not, the bees after a short lime will dis- 

 perse and return to the hive. Now tbis kind of ex- 

 periment has been so often proved that it may be 

 taken for granted when a swarm of bees lias alighted, 

 and afterwards returned to the hive, that the queen 

 was not able to join them, or she would assuredly 

 have done so. — British Bee Journal. 



Twelve Facts for Beginners. 



Mk. Editor: I will offer for publication a few 

 facts which every beekeeper ought to know : 



1 That the life of a worker bee, during the work- 

 ing seasim, is only from six to eight weeks' duratien, 

 and ihat a lar^e piajority of them never live to see 

 seven weeks. 



2. That a worker is from five to six days old be 

 fore it conies out of the hive for the first lime totake 

 an airing, and that it is from fourteen to sixteen 

 days old^^before it begins to gather either pollen or 

 honey. 



3. That all swarms engaged in building comb, 

 when they have not a fertile queen, build only drone 

 comb, and that all the comb in the lower or breeding 

 apartment should be worker or brood comb, except 

 a very small quantity of drone comb, four inches 

 square being amply sufficient. 



4. That the more prolific the queen is the more 

 young bees you have, and the more surplus honey will 

 be gathered, other things being equal. 



A System for Wintering. 



We have long thought that there is as much need 

 of a system for the management of bees as there is 

 for a system of penrnansliip, and it is quite likely 

 that wiiboul the principles and forms in writing lo 

 day, there would lie confusion in peninauslilp equal 

 to the confusion which exists among bee-keepers. 

 Our operations and extensive experiments give us 

 the impression that a system of wintering on sum- 

 mer stands might be based on the following direc- 

 tions which involve principles : 



1st. It must be determined by weighing that each 

 hive contains twenty pounds or more of honey, 

 November Ist. 



2d. The hive must be perfectly tight, Bo that, If 

 inverted and filled with water, there will be no 

 leakage. 



.3d. The bottom-board on which the hive is placed 

 must have an opening through it of filly square 

 inches, covered with wire cloth, and elevated from 

 the ground about six inches. 



4tb. The hive must be protected on all sides with 

 dry saw dust or clover-cbaflT, six inches thick. When 

 double-walled hives are used four inches of packing 

 will do. 



5th. When the thermometer indicates zero or below, 

 bank the hires with snow. If there is no snow, use 

 straw. When the thermometer indicates 30° above 

 zero, and there are prospects of a thaw, remove the 

 snow or straw from around the hives, and allow the 

 sun lo shine under the bottom board, if possible. 



fith. Colonies arranged along the south side of a 

 tight-board fence, running east and west, are more 

 secure than if set in an open yard. 



7th. Examine all stocks on the first warm day in 

 April, and, if any arc wanting in stores, feed enough 

 at once to suffice until fruit blossoms appear. Ke- 

 movc winter protection the first ilay of .May. 



Preparing for Winter. 



When the month of October has arrived in this 

 latitude the fall honey yield ceases, and during the 

 month all the brood hatches and the queen lays but 

 sparingly. This is the desirable condition for the 

 hive to be in when weighing and feeding is done. 

 That winter preparations should not be delayed after 

 the first of November, we have had strong Intlma 

 tions from the weather of previous seasons. Colo- 

 nies could not be fed to any advantage after the last 

 day of November, ISSO, to pass through the coming 

 severe winter. Kor the first six years no colony in 

 our apiary has consumed over twenty pounds of 

 stores from November 1st to April Ist, and we are 

 satisfied that this amount makes all colonies safe. A 

 hive with its combs aud bees weighs about 

 twenty pounds, so that forty pounds is the standard 

 weight of a colony with plenty of stores to winter 

 on, and it is our practice to make every colony reach 

 this weight. We make up all the deficiencies by feed- 

 ing extracted honey, and when the supply is ex- 

 hausted standard A. sugar is used. The feeding 

 should be done as rapidly as possible. There is no 

 gain in weight if only a pound or two is fed each day, 

 but if ten pounds be fed to one stock in a day there 

 will be a gain in weight of eight or nine pounds. 

 Now is the time for all Northern apiarists to make 

 their reports, which should include every stock in 

 their apiaries. We are confident that a lack of sys- 

 tem results in many disasters. We would be glad to 

 publish a large number of these reports. Last fall 

 wc hail a larger amount of work on hand than usual, 

 and help was scarce. Had it not been for our habit 

 of making a report each year on a certain day, and 

 our extra etfort just at that time to keep the report 

 unbroken, we vyould have lost heavily. 



A badly worn or broken down farm Implement of 

 any kind is a bad investment. The loss of time from 

 stoppage when work should be hurried is usually 

 more expensive than the money cost of repairs. 



