1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



255 



can know just when his bees require food and 

 can feed them, without at all disturbing them, and 

 have the pleasure of seeing the little industrious 

 creatures load themselves with food a^d convey it 

 to their cells ; it is also so arranged that the 

 moths cannot trouble the hive, and the combs can 

 be removed singly if desired. In fact, it is just 

 such a hive as has long been needed. 



I write this for the good of my brother farmers, 

 not having any pecuniary interest in the hive. 



There are one or two other subjects which I 

 may drop you a line upon at some future time, if 

 your columns are not too full. Your journal is 

 doing us good. We are living upon old worn- 

 out farms, and it is only by reading agricultural 

 works and periodicals, thinking for ourselves and 

 using the new labor-saving machines, that we can, 

 at the end of the year, make "both ends meet." 



Cumberland County, Me. B. 



Remarks. — We have great confidence in Tor- 

 rey's Hive. During the past winter we have had 

 several swarms, in different hives, all standing 

 upon the same shelf, every one of which excepting 

 Torrey's has suffered more or less from want of 

 proper ventilation, and in two instances all the 

 bees were dead. 



For the New England Fartnet . 



ONE "WAY TO PRESERVE MEAT IN" 

 ■WARM WEATHER. 



Messrs. Editors : — What is a greater luxury 

 to an old-fashioned business man, occasionally, 

 than a platter of well prepared bacon and eggs ? 

 In the premises, I wouid state, that meat smoked 

 in cold weather, is better than in warm, and that 

 different persons have different ways of pickling 

 and preparing their meat for the smoke-house. 

 When the pickling is accomplished upon any 

 plan, the next thing wanted, is a suitable smoke- 

 house adapted to the quantity of meat to be 

 smoked. As my operations have been upon a 

 small scale, seldom amounting to the curing of 

 the legs and shoulders of more than two hogs, I 

 have used a hogshead of a large size, with one 

 head taken out, then an auger hole bored nigh 

 the crossing of the removed head through the 

 staves in the centre, to admit a stick large enough 

 to sustain the meat which is fastened to the stick 

 with strings, then the removed head returned to 

 its place, for a cover to keep the smoke in ; then 

 an iron pan with smoking corn cobs is inserted 

 through a hole previously made at the lower end 

 of the cask for a door ; the pan is to rest on the 

 unremoved head covered with sand to prevent its 

 burning, then a tight door fitted to the opening, 

 is applied to hinder a blaze of the cobs and retain 

 the smoke in the cask. A supply of cobs may be 

 introduced two or more times a day, for a week, 

 when probably the meat will be sufficiently 

 smoked for food. 



Now for the most important part of the opera- 

 tion. Every person of experience knows how dif- 

 ficult it is to keep bacon sweet through the sum- 

 mer months ; flies and other nauseous insects are 

 attracted to it, and deposit their filthy eggs and 

 slimy larva in every available crevice, till the 

 meat is worthless, and more than all that, all an- 

 imal matter has a tendency to taint and decom- 



pose, and bacon is very liable to suffer in that 

 way, unless indurated with salt to such a degree 

 as to render it unpalatable. As smoke is a dis- 

 infectant, and a strong antiseptic, all the bacon 

 that is to be kept for summer use I let remain in 

 the smoke-house, and occasionally fumigate it with 

 a paa of smoking cobs, the best preventive of 

 taint as well as repellent of flies, bugs, and other 

 nauseous insects. I have kept bacon, through 

 the summer months, by this process, free from 

 taint and contamination of all insects, "as good 

 as new." I make no pretension to the invention 

 of preserving meat in this way, further than the 

 after smokings, which I have had no knowledge 

 of having been done by any of my acquaintance. 

 North Wilmington, 1861. Silas Brown. 



Far the New England Farmer, 

 A GOOD CORN STORY. 



Mr. Editor: — One of your agents called on 

 me last summer, and I showed him a piece of 

 corn where. I had used phosphate of lime and 

 plaster paris in the hill, and he wished me to give 

 the result through your paper. My land is a 

 gravelly loam, pitching considerably to the south 

 and east ; rather late in the season I carted ma- 

 nure on to the grass, and as soon as I got enough 

 for a day's plowing, I turned it under with a side- 

 hill plow, plowing from eight to twelve inches 

 deep. I put on about twenty-five loads of ma- 

 nure to the acre. After it was all plowed, I took 

 a heavy roller and rolled it all down as smooth as 

 I could, then I harrowed, furrowed, and planted on 

 the top of the sods, using one large spoonful of 

 plaster and phosphate of lime to the hill ; hoed 

 three times, and had over 200 bushels good sound 

 corn on about three acres. My corn is of the twelve 

 rowed kind, and very early. I left two rows 

 where I put nothing in the hill ; they yielded only 

 two-thirds as much as those right beside that had 

 plaster and lime ; the corn was not near as sound 

 and good, worth but very little, if any, more than 

 half as much as that where the plaster and lime 

 wer« put. 



And now about different kinds of corn. I saw 

 in the Farmer of March 16, Wm. F. Bassett, of 

 Ashfield, thinks the King Philip corn the best. 

 I have had thirty years' experience in raising 

 corn for myself, and am satisfied that the twelve 

 rowed corn that I have raised during that time, 

 will yield from five to ten bushels of corn more 

 per acre than any eight rowed kind in this vicin- 

 ity, and is two or three weeks earlier at least, and 

 the meal is worth several cents the bushel more 

 than the King Philip, or Brown corn. I planted 

 some of the King Philip the past season, spread 

 manure and plowed in, and manured in the hill 

 with summer manure. It was planted three or 

 four weeks earlier than the twelve rowed, and 

 was not ripe so soon by eight or ten days, and 

 did not yield more than three-quarters as much. 

 I shelled some of the twelve rowed and some of 

 the King Philip, and gave to my fowls together, 

 and they would take all the twelve rowed first. 

 Within the last thirty years I have tried several 

 kinds of eight rowed corn, that were very highly 

 recommended, but never have found any that 

 would yield as much, or was as early as the twelve 

 rowed kind. L. C. French, 2d. 



Bedford, N. E., April, 1861. 



