1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



137 



food for bees ; when feed is scarce it would 

 pay to furnish Alsike clover for food. Bees 

 must have access to water. Raising queens 

 in any but the natural way causes a deprecia- 

 tion of both brood and queens. 



In dividing colonies, secure the young queen 

 for the new hive. If to save honey is not the 

 object, two hives can be made out of one colo- 

 ny each Summer. Do not divide before the 

 first week in May, and not then unless the eve- 

 nings are warm. Leave most of the young 

 bees in the old hive. Avoid having workers 

 enough in the new hive to fill the cells before 

 the new queen begins to lay. Do the chang- 

 ing in the middle of a warm, sunny day, as 

 then most of the stout, able-bodied stingers 

 are absent in the fields. 



Do not believe in forcing and feeding bees. 

 Bees brought out prematurely' by artificial 

 means will not be strong, and. never live to 

 make honey. I winter my bees in a large, 

 dry cellar, kept perfectly dark. Do not regu- 

 late the temperature. The cellar should be 

 cold enough to keep the bees in a semi-torpid 

 state. Put them in the cellar in December, 

 and let them remain mitil Spring. The hives 

 should have holes, that the bees may come out, 

 so that they will not become restless and dis- 

 contented. Take no extra pains to ventilate 

 the cellar. Out of 100 colonies kept in this 

 way, I do not have a pint of dead bees in the 

 Spring. I prefer in-doors wintering to out- 

 door. One colony wintered out will consume 

 30 pounds of honej', while one wintered in- 

 doors will eat 5i povmds. Bees wintered in- 

 doors are as healthy in the Spring as when put 

 in the cellar. 



For tJie Nexo England Fminier. 

 BUTTER MAKING. 

 Milk Sbelves.— Saltpetre in Butter. — Wliite Specks. — 

 Care of Cream. — Churning. 



I have been quite interested in the various 

 articles on butter that have appeared in your 

 paper, from time to time, especially in "Car- 

 rie's" description of her "milk closet," and in 

 the discussion between "S. O. J." and O. S. 

 Bliss on the use of saltpetre in butter. 



Mr. Bliss objects to the use of saltpetre, 

 but reconnnends the use of potash and sal- 

 soda in the preparation of annotto-ine. I 

 have never used anything excepting salt in my 

 butter, but do not see why saltpetre should be 

 any more objectionable than potash and sal- 

 soda. 



I would hke to ask "S. O. J." if a small 

 quantity of saltpetre, mixed with the cream, 

 would have a tendency to prevent the sour 

 milk from hardening and staying in the butter 

 in white curdy specks, that require so much 

 time and patience to remove. I think I hear 

 some one exclaim, "there is no need of having 

 white specks ; / never do !" Perhaps ijoxi never 

 do, but I do not happen to be so favored. I 

 think that living in the Valley and buying cows 



in the fall and selling again in the spring, as 

 we do the most of our cows, we do not have 

 as good a chance to select good butter cows 

 as those who raise their own stock. My rea- 

 son for thinking so is, that one winter, after 

 we bought our winter stock, I hardly had a 

 churning without white specks, and as soon as 

 we sold a part of the cows I had no more 

 trouble. 1 hope there are some of your nu- 

 merous readers that can give me a remedy for 

 white specks. If they will be so kind as to 

 do so, 1 shall be greatly obligi-d. 



I would like to give your readers a descrip- 

 tion of my milk rack, which for some reasons 

 1 like better than "Carrie's." One is, because 

 I do not have to scald the milk, as it sets so 

 high in the room that the creani will rise as 

 well and as quick as it ought to in summer. 

 In fact, I had rather make butter in winter, 

 than in summer. And again, my rack can be 

 taken down in spring and packed away until 

 wanted for use in the fall. The side boards 

 to my rack are seven feet in length and seven- 

 teen inches wide, with seven cleats on each, 

 seven inches apart, commencing at the top, 

 and leaving room underneath to set a table 

 to use in straining and skimming the milk. 

 The shelves are formed of two slats, two and a 

 half inches by one, not standing edgewise, as 

 they ai'C not fastened, witli the exception of 

 the bottom one, wliich can be screwed in at 

 each end, and easily removed. The top is 

 covered with a wide board, with a two-mch 

 strip nailed to each end and the front side, 

 both for strength and looks. It will hold 

 inside twenty-eight pans of milk, but I seldom 

 use the two or three lower shelves for milk, as 

 I do not get as good creaui on milk set so 

 low, as from that in the upper part of the 

 room. 



Not having as much room as I wished for 

 milk, my husband took two strips of board, 

 fifteen feet long, three inches wide and one 

 and a cjuarter thick, and rested one end and 

 the centre on the rack, the other end extended 

 to the door-casing where it is supported by 

 brackets. This is a very good shelf for a 

 small mess of milk, as it is out of the way of 

 dust and in no one's way. 



I skim my cream into large pans and set it 

 in the lower part of the rack, where the tem- 

 perature is lower than where the milk sets, 

 stirring it thoroughly at every addition of 

 cream. I churn twice a week, and never 

 churn any cream unless it has been skimmed 

 twelve hours at least. Use Morse's cliurn, — 

 thermometer broken, however, — and warm the 

 cream in the cluirn while churning, by putting 

 warm water, (ice water in summer) in the 

 section for that ptirpose. When the cream 

 begins to curdle, add when necessary, one 

 cupful of orange carrot juice to twelve of 

 butter. It will be ready to take from the 

 chiu'n in from fifteen to thirty miiuttes. I 

 work all the buttermilk from it as I take it 

 from the churn. I do not wash in winter, un- 



