284 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



JXJNE 



stirred, but the heating process is the best 

 •when weather and time will permit the work 

 to be done. — Ohio Farmer. 



$100 IN" PBEMIUMS FOB INDIAN CORN. 



Fully convinced that this vastly valuable 

 crop can be greatly increased by the judicious 

 selection of seed, the subscriber offers pre- 

 miums for corn grown in New Hampshire in 

 A. D., 1870, as follows:— 



For the best ICO ears of eight-rowed Corn . , . ^35 CO 



«< 2d " " " "... 15 00 

 For the best ICO ears of more than eight rowed 



Corn , 35 00 



For the second best 100 ears of more than eight- 

 rowed Corn 15 00 



Same number of twin or triple ears upon 

 the stalks, received same as above. The 

 traces must be secured by cords upon boards 

 or otherwise, so as not to break, and reach 

 the subscriber at City Hall, Manchester, by 

 noon of the last Tuesday of December next, 

 at -which time and place the awards will be 

 made. Size, beauty and quality, both of the 

 ears and grain, to be considered in awarding 

 the prizes. Each 100 ears must be grown upon 

 one farm, and upon plots of not less than one 

 acre. The four premium traces to be retained 

 by subscriber for distribution. Method of 

 cultivation must be furnished in writing, or 

 made verbally at time so it may be written. 

 New Hampshire's best farmers believe that 

 more tbau two hundred thousand dollars a 

 year of the money now sent out of the State 

 for corn, could be saved by a judicious selec- 

 tion of seed corn. 



Farmers, freely giving you my time and 

 money, I earnestly pray you to make an ex- 

 hibition that shall honor yourself and the State. 



The committee are to have no means of 

 knowing the owners of the corn until after 

 the awards are made. The Committee are 

 as follows : Levi Bartlett, Charh's H. Hayes, 

 James O. Adam^, VVm. H. Gihnore, Gen. A. 

 Hoyt, Gen. Ezra Glidden, C. N. Healey, D. 

 M. Ciough, T. E. Hatch, M. D., Hon. Charles 

 Jones, Parker W. Home, Rei Hills, W. D. 

 Locke, rhomas Lane. 



Vacancies filled by the subscriber. Corn 

 now on hand given away for seed. 



J. D. Lyman. 



Exeter, N. H., March, 1870. 



BEE NOTES FOR APRIL. 

 This is a very important month with the 

 bees, indeed it may be said that the month of 

 April decides the prosperity of most stocks. 

 Bees need and should have considerable care 

 during this month. Strong colonies have been 

 breeding more or less for the past three months, 

 but now they commence in earnest and the 

 last of this month should find them very pop- 

 ulous, and drones ought to appear in good 

 stocks by the first of May. Fmely ground 

 unbolted rye flour fed to them now is very 



important, so much so that no good bee-keeper 

 can afford to have his bees without it. Spread 

 it about an inch deep in shallow troughs, and 

 put it about a rod from the hives. On all 

 warm days they will not be slow in convincing 

 us that they fully appreciate the favor we have 

 conferred upon them. This answers the pur- 

 pose of fresh pollen (bee bread,) and is 

 eagerly appropriated until the real article can 

 be obtained from flowers. This feed stimu- 

 lates early and extensive breeding, and also 

 helps to lengthen out the supply of honey 

 until flowers appear, so that no swarm dies 

 for want of a few pounds more honey. It 

 would be a shame for them to come to grief 

 now, when they are so near through. I have 

 no doubt that a judicious feeding of about 

 three-fourths of a pound of honey per day 

 during this month and next, to even heavy 

 stocks would be amply paid for in large early 

 swarms and surplus honey during the season. 

 But this would require some care not to excite 

 robbing, and must not be omitted a single day. 

 The larvae of the bee moth should be looked 

 after as the season advances. In the morn- 

 ing there are usually more or less found on 

 the bottom board stiff with cold, but if not 

 destroyed will find their way up among the 

 combs again during the day. If hives have 

 not been properly ventilated, or from any 

 cause, some combs are mouldy, cut them out 

 now, for they are worse than nothing in the 

 hive. All upward ventilation should be shut 

 off now, if it has not been done before. — G. 

 W. P. Jerrard, in Maine Farmer. 



Surface or Mulch Manuring. — For the 

 reason that Nature applies her fertilizers upon 

 the surface and does not plough them under, 

 it is about time that agriculturists should con- 

 sider whether they or Nature are right when 

 they differ so radically in their practice. 



Does Dame Nature make a mistake when 

 she sets out to enrich a continent, by spread- 

 ing dead leaves, and twigs, and trunks, and 

 grasses, and weeds over the whole surface for 

 years and years and thousands of years. 

 Does Nature mistake when she interposes 

 a leaf before the beating rain drops, and 

 saves the earth from being pounded into 

 the semblance of a brick — keeps the soil light 

 and porous that the air carrying its ammonia 

 and its carbonic acid may penetrate to the 

 waiting roots below .f* Is she going wrong 

 when she lays a mat of decaying humus over 

 the soil, and only allows the searching June 

 sun to get to the earth as a gentle heat, inca- 

 pable of drying up the moisture held there by 

 the mulch ? Or are we wrong when we hide 

 away our fertilizers at the bottom of a furrow, 

 and leave the surface bleak and bare, to be 

 beaten down with the rain, and baked with 

 the sun, and in that condition to refuse the 

 good gifts which the air is willing to jield up 

 to a moist and porous soil ? — S. H. McAfee, 

 in Western Farmer. 



