1861. 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMEK. 



205 



rroducts, especially wheat, ■which is agaiQ 

 becoming the great staple of the State. — 

 With such a magnificent premium list as is 

 offered we cannot fail of a good show. Add 

 to this that we have the assurance that the 

 Fair grounds are the most ample, and will 

 be fitted up in superior style, with abundant 

 facilities for transportation, and who will 

 think of remaining away, or rather, what 

 farmer or mechanic can afford to lose this 

 opportunity to inform himself and take les- 

 sons in this great industrial school. No one 

 need fear for the want of accommodations in 

 the city, as they will be the most ample. 



The testing of heavy ordnance and of 

 other arms will be highly interesting. But 

 lew people ever have an opportunity of the 

 kind ; certainly we of the West have not, 

 nor is it probable that this opportunity will 

 again occur, or at least very soon. 



Let every one look over the premium list 

 (copies of which can be had of the officers or 

 of J. P, Keynolds, Corresponding Secretary, 

 Springfield,) and see if there is not some- 

 thing that they can compete for ; especially 

 should fathers encourage their sons to get 

 up something for the Fair, for even if they 

 take no premiums this time, they will learn 

 the ways and be ready for a more successful 

 trial next year. Recollect that niggardness, 

 or perhaps to use a more appropriate term, 

 stinginess, is not economy, and that if you 

 wish your sons to rise in the scale of useful- 

 ness you must give them opportunities for 

 improvem;;nt, and we would ask in all can- 

 dor if a week can be spent more profitably 

 than in attending this great industrial gath- 

 ering from the field, the orchard, the work- 

 shop and the studios of the Northwest. The 

 richest gems from all these sources will here 

 be placed side by side for comparison, for 

 criticism or eulogy. A farmer should be a 

 lover of the useful and the beautiful both 

 in nature and art, and in no place can he 

 find these so happily blended as within such 

 a show ground as this will be. The rail- 

 roads are to carry goods for exhibition to and 

 from the Fair frea, and passengers at half 



price. This, in itself, is no small induce- 

 ment to visit the city, the commercial center 

 of the Upper Mississippi and of the upper 

 lakes. A week spent in seeing the city and 

 the great Fair will be to the sober and in- 

 dustrious a week well spent, for no one can 

 fail of returning home with enlarged views 

 of the resources of the great prairie slopes 

 that give life to western commerce and sends 

 up the smoke from thousands of engines that 

 are busy fashioning the work of use and of 

 beauty. 



< 6 > 



Bee Moth and Swarming. 



^ The bee-keeper should be unceasing in the 

 inspection of his bee-hives, as a few days' 

 neglect may result in losing entire swarms 

 by the moth. They should be looked at 

 every two or three days and the grubs killed. 

 We nearly lost a swarm a few days since on 

 account of not keeping up a sharp lookout. 

 The hive was not opened for about ten days, 

 and when it was opened the moths had a 

 grub in nearly every cell, and some of the 

 combs were eaten entirely up. This hive 

 was the first that swarmed, and by some 

 means they failed to raise a queen, and being 

 weak the miller had a good chance t'^ lay its 

 egsrs. Had the hive been one of the old 

 box hives we should probably have lost the 

 entire swarm, but the combs being movea- 

 ble we cut out the comb and scraped the 

 hive clean, then took about six sheets of 

 comb from another stock that had brood 

 comb in it and placed it in the weak hive, 

 and the consequence is that our bees have 

 gone to work and are now as busy as ever. 

 How it will succeed in the end is yet to be 

 found. Perhaps on account of removing 

 part of the former from the strong stock 

 they may not swarm, and it remains to be 

 seen if the old swarm will recover and do as 

 well as the new swarm would have done. — 

 We have practiced artificial swarming and it 

 succeeds admirabh', and were our hives all 

 of the same pattern we should never allow 

 a hive to swarm naturally. * 



