Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 7iJ5 



produced equally well. Onions, sweet and common potatoes have 

 produced 200 to 300 bushels to the acre, according to manuring. 

 My first acre seeded to grass and oats eight years ago with sixteen 

 loads of stable manure, produced seven successive years an 

 average of two tons of hay per year, but now needs top dressing or 

 plowing. I could give encouraging and paying results of grain 

 crops or the rapid growth of trees in the nursery to which my 

 attention has been chiefly turned, but lest you should be wearied 

 with statistics or reports from a stranger, of lands in which you may 

 be little interested, I M'ill only add that I am strong in faith that if 

 the depth and quality of the soil on Long Island plains could be 

 known and understood, the value and cost of its products and other 

 advantages be compared with those of other places, these extensive 

 tracts of wild land M'ould not long be known as such, except in the 

 history of the past. I believe there are thousands of acres within 

 two hours ride of New York city which may and ought at once to 

 be turned to agricultural account. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — If that business of raising upland cranberries 

 can be continued, it is a fact worth knowing. 



Keport on^ Richakdson's Bee Cottage. 



The undersigned, to whom was referred the Improved Bee Cot-. 

 tage, by L. L. Richardson, Webster City, Hamilton county, Iowa, 

 respectfully reports : 



That he has examined the Improved Bee Cottage and has heard 

 tlie explanations of the inventor. The hive is of very simple con- 

 struction ; all of its parts being square, it is easily made by any one 

 familiar with tools. 



These hives have movable comb sections which make them conve- 

 nient to examine the combs at an}' time. They also have a movable 

 roof, which not only protects the hives from severe storms, but shel- 

 ters them from the extreme heat of summer. I consider it a very 

 simple and cheap hive. 



Mr. Richardson does not allow his bees to swarm, but removes part 

 of the comb sections into a new hive M'hich he sets in the place where 

 the other stood, and supplies it with a new queen of which he keeps 

 a supply on hand. He also recommends giving bees protection dur- 

 ing the winter. 



JOHN W. CHAMBERS, 



Secr'etary. 



