148 Transactions of the American Institute. 



cloth, and fill the space with coarse salt, put in the head, then fill 

 "with strong brine, previously made of coarse salt, and stop it up. 

 Butter packed in this way and kept in a cool place, will be as sweet 

 in one year as when fii-st made. I never knew it to fail. 



DO KINGBIRDS EAT BEES? 



Mr. Nathan Moseley, Good Ground, Sufiblk county, N. Y. — I 

 wish to exonerate the kingbirds from the chai'ge of eating honey 

 bees. Last summer I set a hive within twelve feet of my house, 

 with a detei-mination to watch the kingbirds. Three pair of them 

 built their nests within fifteen rods of the hive. I perceived no 

 sign of the birds eating bees until the middle of June; then my 

 suspicions became very strong that they were eating bees. Accord- 

 ingly, one afternoon about five o'clock, when the kingbirds are 

 most busy in capturing food, I shot three of them and cut them 

 open, and found nothing to correspond with a honey bee. The 

 insects they had fed on last were not more than half the size 

 of a bee. Judging from the size of their heads and legs, I gave 

 up my ill opinion of the kingbirds, until the month of September, 

 when a kingbird took up his feeding ground within three yards of 

 a rugged swarm. I watched him occasionally for three dajs, and 

 became very much of the opinion that he fed on the bees, so I put 

 him to the test of an examination; but before doing so I saw him 

 capture what I thought was three honey bees; on cutting him open 

 I found nothing that would compare perfectly with a honey bee; 

 the insect the bird fed on was of a lighter color than a bee, which 

 I think was ants of a flying species. All the food I found in this 

 bird's maw would not make the bulk of a honey bee. After the 

 examination, I said to my wife I would not shoot any more king- 

 birds for their being accused of eating bees. 



OSAGE OR^VNGE HEDGE. 



Mr. John F. Zerby, Concord, HI., sends the Club the following 

 method for making an osage orange hedge fence that will turn any 

 kind of stock: Prepare the ground in the fall, if possible, by 

 plowing at least ten inches deep; or if dcla3''ed till spring, subsoil 

 as deep as possible; then run a furrow eight inches deep, and set 

 the plants four inches apart; cover all but two buds, being careful 

 always to cover all the yellow part or root; then cultivate as corn 

 until the third spring, and then plash by cutting the plants half 

 ofi" as close to the ground as possible, and laying the bush back 

 exactly ©n the row, which will make a fence that will turn any 



