42 



THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMEII. 



JOHISr H. ]M^]N^lSrY'S 



PATENT ADJUSTABLE REAPER AND MOWER COMBINED, AND SINGLE MOWER. 



•• ■ i ;'. .■■:■„ ^_. . 

 THE MANNY PRIZE. 



We present the readers of 

 the Farmer with the accom- 

 panjing cut, of the Manny 

 Reaper and Mower that is of- 

 fered by Messrs. Talcott, 

 Emerson & Co., of Rockford, 

 to the farmers of Illinois for 



the BEST WHEAT FIELD. 



The prize is to be awarded 

 by the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety this year, and we hope 

 . the competition will be worthy 

 lof the wheat growers of the 

 State. It will be a munifi- 

 cent gift to the winner and a 

 prize well worthy of the best 

 efforts. We shall be pleased 

 to record the names of the 

 applicants at the time of put- 

 ting in their crops. 



The Board of the State 

 Agricultural Society is now 

 in session, and we shall hope 

 to have the conditions of the 

 award for this nuinber of the 

 Farmer. , ■ 



Manufactured by Talcott, Emerson & Co., Successors and Surviving partners of Manny & Co., Rockford, Illinois. 



A suggestion is contained in Lang- 

 stroth's work on bees, ■^hich gives a 

 better explanation of this matter. The 

 size of the cell determines the process 

 of impregnation. A drone cell allows 

 the queen to insert her abdomen -vrithout 

 compression. The egg passes down the 

 ovaduct without the expulsion from the 

 sperraatotheca of any spermatozoa. — 

 Such eggs are unimpregnated, and will 

 produce drones. A worker's cell im- 

 pinges tightly on the queen's abdomen, 

 and forces from the spermatotheca some 

 of its contents ; at the moment the egg 

 is forced down the ovaduct, the sperma- 

 tozoon enter the egg. at the opening, 

 called micropyle. These eggs, thus 

 impregnated, hatch out workers. 



The queen is only a passive agent~in 

 the mattejT. Her volition decides noth- 

 ing, only the process of laying the eggs. 

 The sexual result depends solely on a 

 trifling mechanical operation — compres- 

 sion or non-compression. The queen 

 by age and repeated laying, may have 

 expended from her sac all her sperma- 

 tozoa. Her progeny will then soon 

 become drones. The colony of course 

 rapidly runs into ruin and decay. Last 

 summer, an old queen in this condition, 

 in one of my hives, died, and left drone 

 eggs only in the cells. The remaining 

 workers constructed at least one dozen 

 of queen cells, and attempted to create 

 a young queen from these drone eggs. 



We will add that queens are reared 

 successfully from impregnated or work- 

 ers' eggs only. The size and form of 

 the queen cell, and the kind of food fed 



to to the young larva, by some means 

 not well understood, occasion the full 

 development of workers' eggs into 

 queens. 



In some instances, unimpregnated 

 workers will be sufficiently developed to 

 allow them to lay eggs. Such eggs 

 produce drones only. 



Langstroth's movable comb frames 

 afford great facilities for examining all 

 these, and many other interesting points, 

 in regard to the habits, anatomy and 

 physiology of this interesting insect, a 

 knowledge ot which can be of great ben- 

 efit to the practical apiarian. 



To keep Pototoei from rotting. 



Ed. Illinois Farmer: It may be 

 interesting to some of the readers of 

 your valuable paper, to know my expe- 

 rience in preserving potatoes from the 

 rot after they are dug. Two years ago 

 my potatoes rotted very badly in the 

 ground. I dug them, and put about 

 one hundred bushels into a dry cellar. 

 They still kept rotting so fast that in the 

 space of two months, having sorted them 

 three or/our times, I had lost one-fourth 

 of them. I then put about half a bushel 

 of air slaked lime among them, and they 

 kept perfectly well until the next spring. 

 I have tried it since with success. 



Burleigh Dunlap. 



Peoria, Feb.imh, '60. 



At all times when potatoes are aflfect- 

 ed with the rot, dry air slaked lime has 

 proved of great value when sprinkled 

 over them, whether in the cellar or pits, 



and from this, some hare supposed that 

 sprinkling with lime at the time of 

 planting would prevent the malady, but 

 this is not well established. Lime has a 

 strong affinity for various substanc e 

 and when placed in the soil soon forms 

 new compounds, but not so when sprin- 

 kled on the dry potatoes, as it then acts 



directly on the growing fungus. — Ed. 



i» 



Sooth Fail Hortienltural Society — Monthly 

 Meeting. 



RoMi BiAUTY. — Mr. Lam«r had gather- 

 ed a bushel of thii fruit from grafts set two 

 years; thinks highly of it for good quality 

 and early bearing. 



Benjamin Vancil planted one hundred 

 trees twelve years sincej those with higk 

 heads arc either dead or dying; begin to 

 decay on south west side. It was recom- 

 mended to let hogs run in the orchard to 

 pick up the wormy fruit, but large hogs 

 (Land Pikes) sometimes injure the roots. 

 (China and Essex would be valuable for this 

 purpose, as they have a less propensity to 

 dig. — Ed.) 



Col. Bainbridge said the Quince was short 

 lived; knew several trees at Jonesboro, stand- 

 ing iu a hog yard, which were healthy and 

 productive. 



Mr. Baker recommended salt for the 

 Quince. 



The Curculio. — Mr Clark said we 

 must destroy this destructive inocct, by jar- 

 ing the trees in the morning and catch them 

 on a sheet; he had caught over a hundred at 

 a time from a single tree. Col. Bainbridge 

 said that a large flock of turkeys would take 

 care of the Curculio. (Better depend on 

 the sheet and jaring process. — Ed.) 



The thermometer has been three degrees 



