1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



401 



Melons — Few will be left fit for eating 

 after the lOlh, unless carefully protected. 

 Seeds may be saved from the fully ripe ones, 

 washed and dried. 



Parsley — Seed may be sown to produce 

 for next spring's use. 



Pickles. — Use the small cucumbers for 

 pickling in vinegar or for salting ; packed in 

 a tub, a layer of coarse salt and a layer of 

 pickles, they will make their own brine and keep 

 an indefinite time if they are kept under brine 

 by weights. A few will soften on top, these 

 must be thrown out. We have kept them thus 

 year after year. Have some on hand now 

 that were salted three or four years since, 

 sound as ever, and keep them in the cellar. 



SQtJAsnES. — Pick winter squash before any 

 frott. for a very light touch olcen defeats their 

 keeping. Pack them away in a dry place free 

 from cold. Handle them with the greatest 

 care. 



Tomatoes — Green tomatoes make nice 

 pickles, put down in sharp vinegar wiih green 

 peppers, spices, &q. Make ketchup of ripe 

 ones, can, &c., for winter use. 



Gather and save all seeds, as they ripen ; 

 •weet herbs, &c., as they come to maturity. 

 Let nothing be wasted ; what cannot be mar- 

 keted or used may be made use of for the 

 compost heap which should receive constant 

 liberal additions. W. H. White. 



South Witidsor, Conn., 1870. 



BEES IN AUGUST. 



Great care should be used this month not to 

 tempt bees to robbing ; leave no honey where 

 they can get at it, and do not open hives to 

 expose the combs while bees are flying, for 

 this is almost sure to make trouble when honey 

 is scarce in flowers. See that all stocks are 

 strong and have a fertile queen. 



Queenless swarms should be united to one 

 having a fertile queen or treated to brimstone 

 now, for if left to themselves they must soon 

 either be robbed or devoured by worms. The 

 same may be said of all weak swarms. 



In this vicinity we have had a very poor sea- 

 son for bees, and I have similar reports from 

 several other localities. Here, black bees that 

 cast swarms as well as the young swarms will 

 most of them, I fear, need more honey than 

 they will have to carry them through the win- 

 ter. 



Italians have been more succ'^'ssful. No 

 only are their store combs well filled but they 

 have made a good surplus. Five stocks in my 

 yard have stored three hundred pounds of 

 honey m boxes, — an average of sixty pounds 

 each. 



Buckwheat usually yields a large supply of 

 honey, and in sections where it is cultivated is 

 a great help to light swarms. Although the 

 houey obtained from it is of inferior quality 



and not very saleable in the market, it answers 

 every purpose for the bees in winter and as it 

 blooms after most other sources of honey are 

 gone, would probably pay a large profit if 

 sown near apiaries, for its honey alone. So 

 profuse is the jield from this plant that the 

 swarming fever is frequently revived and 

 swarms issue during its bloom. 



J. H. C, of Temple Mills, asks about the 

 utility of so many drones and how to manage 

 them. When a single colony is isolated far 

 from other bees, as is frequently the case, 

 probably the great number of drones would 

 not be objectionable, but when several are 

 kept in one yard, either usually has enough 

 for the whole. The drone is the male bee 

 and the queen leaves the hive to meet them in 

 the air for fecundation. At this time no eggs 

 or brood is left in the hive from which another 

 queen can be raised, and her loss would be a 

 total loss to the colony. Hence it is desirable 

 that she should make as quick a trip as possi • 

 ble and not remain long in the air exposed to 

 the many accidents that might befall her. 

 Drones are great consumers and the less there 

 are more than is actually necessary, the ber.ter. 

 A strong colony will have some drones in 

 summer but what they can raise in a piece of 

 comb as large as one's hand seems to satisfy 

 them as well as half a hive full. In moveable 

 comb hives ail the drone comb can be removed 

 but about that amount and worker comb fitted 

 into its place. This puts a stop to raising so 

 many drones, and the colony is made much 

 more prosperous thereby. — O. W. P. Oerrard, 

 Plymouth, in Maine Farmer. 



■WILLOW FENCE. 



In giving a description of Mr. D. Whit- 

 field's farm, near Pontiac, a correspondent of 

 the Michigan Farmer says, the first thing that 

 took my attention was the willow fence. Its 

 beauty and its thriftiness was quite an attrac- 

 tion ; and on examination I found it was a liv- 

 ing protection against cattle, sheep or hogs. 

 This fence has grown up so rapidly that the 

 shoots were strong enough for stakes. These 

 were put in from two to three feet apart, and 

 the smaller shoots were wattled between them. 

 The stakes all grew, sending out their thick 

 shoots, and the larger layers in the wattles 

 followed the example. There are enough 

 shoots now on tbis hedge to furnish a great 

 number of farms with sets, and it can be 

 trimmed every year into any shape that sui'S 

 the owner, supplying sets by the million, and 

 there is now a great demand for them. He 

 has other hedges coming on, and he intends to 

 ft nee his whole farm as fast as it can be con- 

 veniently done. This is the best and most, 

 rapid growing fence I have yet seen, and I 

 have no doubt will be a great acquisition 

 to the agricultural communitv. As the stakes 

 grow in size, the hedge stiflons and grows in 

 strength. 



