I SS3.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



115 



iMioks tc school in are made of the various 

 (Olds or twines so popuhvr. A very inexpen- 

 sive one is made of seine twine, or of ear|iet 

 \v:irp. Any open-work stitch will answer. To 

 nive Hrnmess to the top and make it keep its 

 .>^hape sew in two whalebones ; crochet ii stout 

 handle. On tlie front side put two ribbon 

 bows, one at the top and one at the bottom. 



Faumkrs who propose to improve their 

 fields by increasing the depth of the plowing, 

 should, says the FuTincr^s Home Journal, do 

 so gradually, year by year, If the subsoil is to 

 be brought to the top. Tlie depth may be 

 increased an inch a year without detriment. 

 If the subsoiler is to be run in the bottom of 

 the furrow without throwing out its cut the 

 greatest depth may be given at once. 



Hunting Pudding : Two pounds of suet 

 chopped very tine, three-fourths of a pound of 

 flour, one pound of stoned raisins, two pounds 

 of currants, half a pound of sugar, six eggs, 

 six spootifuls of rich cream, a winegiassful of 

 brandy, four glasfulls of white wine, a good 

 teaspoouful each of cloves, nutmeg and cinna- 

 mon ; mix over night and boil six hours. 

 When turned out of tlie bag sift white sugar 

 over it. Use rich sauce. — Boston Transcript. 



The canker-worms have plainly been left 

 to work their own sweet will in many places, 

 and whole orchards look as if the trees were 

 dead, in some localities. We note now and 

 then a place where the dark ring of dry tar or 

 printer's ink shows that in some time past an 

 effort was made to oppose their ravages, but 

 tlie good work was not persisted in. A large 

 orchard on the Colt place on Wetliersfleld 

 avenue is a conspicuous instance of it. Now 

 and then too, we see where thorough work 

 has been done, and trees stand fully decked 

 in their robe of green beside others which 

 look almost as if a fire had passed over them. 

 As we have said it takes time and trouble and 

 persistence to successfully fight the canker- 

 worm, but it can be done, and looking upon 

 the blighted orchards where they have been 

 at work and are likely to work again next 

 year, we are sure it pays. But it does not 

 , pay to put one's hand to the plow and look 

 back. — Hartford, Conncctiatt, Farmer. 



Contributions. 



BENEFITS AND EXPENSES OF PUBLIC 

 ROADS. 



Having in my former article, pulilished in 

 the July number of the F.\rmer, adverted to 

 the great disadvantage the public suffer from 

 the selfish imprudence of those through whose 

 lands these roads are located, and many of 

 which the viewers were compelled to run 

 zigzag or crooked, over hills and dales, merely 

 to gratify a few indiscreet old fogies wlio own 

 adjoining properties, I offer the following re- 

 marks on the same subject. As I said before, 

 many roads require four horses to pull a two- 

 horse load, which in itself involves thousands 

 of dollars of expense, at the present rates of 

 horse-flesh, which is not only high in price but 

 is also becoming scarce. 



The injudicious location of these roads up 

 and down steep hills, consequently causes 

 them to become " washy," and constantly in 

 need of repair. Instead of supervisors grad- 

 ing and macadamizing, and making the roads 



high in tlie middle, with culberts at tlie base 

 of hills and drains at the sides, they are mere- 

 ly dumped together haphazard, without re- 

 gard to comfort, convenience or durability. 

 They are afraid ot the frowns of the awful 

 taxpayer,, iiud run over the ground as cheaply 

 as they can, to keep down the taxes, subject- 

 ing the roads to washes at every heavy rain, 

 leaving Ihciii rough and full of loose stones — 

 so much so indeed as to make it almost im- 

 possible to travel over them. Most that su- 

 pervisors do is to throw up a few breaks 

 across the road where they think tliey may be 

 needed, aud these so high as almost to impede 

 driving over them with only an ordinarily 

 heavy load, and al.so in light vehicles, endan- 

 gering springs and other gear. I may safely 

 say that 1 never saw our township roads in a 

 worse condition than they are at the present 

 time. Thi.s does not speak well, nor look 

 well, for the rich and thrifty county of Lan- 

 caster. Many of our townslii]) roads, like the 

 South Carolina .s(piattcrs cabin, are only made 

 for dry weather. Like anything else, or 

 everything else, that is intended for the pub- 

 lic good, public roads especially, should be 

 constructed with regard to those contingencies 

 that are liable at any time to occur ; and this, 

 in the end, will prove to be the truest 

 economy. 



Of course we have had recent very heavy 

 rains, but that will not excuse the supervisors 

 from all criticism. True, some things cannot 

 be foreseen, but it certainly is not complimen- 

 tary to the judgment of a supervisor to be 

 compelled to remake a road after every heavy 

 rain, nor is it economical housekeeping. 



We are paying from a half to one per cent, 

 road *;ax, on our entire possessions, and where 

 is the value we receive therefor V One may 

 say, we have roads. So we have, but not 

 many good ones, nor yet lawful ones. We 

 have roads washed out in the middle ; the 

 water running over them for miles and no 

 outlet ; also full of loose stones, big and little- 

 stones that are notoiily "lying around loose,'" 

 but which are an absolute annoyance and a 

 danger to wagons and carriages. Many of 

 these stones are permited to remain in this 

 condition so long, and are knocked about so 

 much by coming in contact with the wheels of 

 vehicle's, that they have become almost round, 

 like cobble-stones and pebbles. Now, this 

 should not be in a progressive county like 

 Lancaster is supposed to be ; but more here- 

 after.— P. S. R., Lititz, Aw/iist. iss;5. 



Selections. 



BEES. 



In order to get a succession of superior cells 

 from my best colonies, it is necessary to keep 

 them swarming as often as possible. To ac- 

 complish this I would adopt this plan: As 

 soon as they have become established in 

 their new home, say in two days after the 

 swarm has been hived, I insert 2 frames of 

 hatching brood in their hive, and in .3 days 

 more I give them 2 or 3 frames more, which 

 soon makes their hive more populous than 

 was their old home from which they issued. 

 This causes them to swarm again in from 12 

 to If^ days from the time of hiving, which 

 gives me another lot of splendid cells. Thus 

 i keep my best colonies producing cells of the 



highest type iiH long as the honey Bca.son liists. 

 Tlius I .have given you my plan of getting 

 queens that are acknowledged by all to be as 

 good .as anj', and believed to be superior by 

 some. 



Having procured our queen cells, the next 

 things ill order are nuclei. There are many 

 ways of making a nucleus, and the plan I sec 

 most recommended is to go to any hive popu- 

 lous in tees, and take from it a frame of 

 brood and one of honey, witli all the adhering 

 bees (being careful not to get the old (pieen), 

 and place them in an cmjity iiive, adjusting 

 the division board to suit the nucleus. 

 In 24 to 4H hours after they will have 

 become aware that they are queen- 

 less, when a (pieeii cell should be 

 given them. Now, although a nucleus can be 

 formed in this way that may work in warm 

 weather, still in cool weather it would be a 

 failure, and, according to my opinion, is not a 

 good iilaii at any .season of the year, on account 

 of the number of bees which will return to the 

 hive from whence they were taken, thereby 

 depopulating it to such an extent that the 

 brood will mostly be chilled in cool weather, 

 and seriously weaken it even in warm 

 weather. Bees that have been used to a lay- 

 ing ciueen do not kindly take to a brood for a 

 mother ; hence all go home that are capable 

 of getting home. But should you happen to 

 get the queen on these two frames, you would 

 see that the bees would feel at home, and all 

 but the old field-workers would stay where 

 the queen was. 



From this fact, that bees will stay with 

 their queen, I arrived at tlie following : In- 

 asmuch as a queenless colony, with scaled 

 cells, depend on those cells for a mother, If a 

 frame of brood containing a sealed (jueen cell, 

 with all the bees adhering to it, are put in a 

 new hive, the bees will stay there the same as 

 they would in the case of a laying queen, as 

 given above. After thoroughly tiding this 

 lilaii, I have found it to work to perfection ; 

 and by making the nucleus hive perfectly 

 tiglit, and shutting the bees in for 24 hours, 

 opening it about dark, scarce one of the old 

 field-workers will go back to their former 

 home. 



Now for ray plan of making nuclei ! When 

 all the queen cells are sealed in my queen- 

 rearing hive, I get as many frames of hatch- 

 ing brood from difTereut hives, in the yard, a« 

 there are cells in the hive, lacking the number 

 of frames of brood the hive already conlaiDS. 

 Brush all the bees off these frames of brood, 

 and let them run back into their old hive, in- 

 serting frames full of comb or foundation in 

 place of them. Now carefully fit one of the 

 queen cells into each of these frames, and set 

 all in the colony which produced the cells, 

 and close the hive,till 24 hours before the first 

 of the cells should batch. By this time enough 

 young bees will have batched to thickly cover 

 all the combs, with scores till hatching e\evy 

 hour. Now get your nucleus hives all ready 

 by making all as warm as possible, and hav- 

 ing a nice fitting division board In each one, 

 when you will go to your other hives and get 

 a frame of honey, brushing all bees off of it, 

 tor each nucleus. Next take a frame from 

 your queen-rearing hive— bees, queen cell and 

 all— and place it with your frame of honey in 

 your nucleus hive, and adjust your division 



