lis 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



June 



the swarm be a weak one, strong swarms not be- 

 ing at all liable to damage by them ; fourth, that 

 the advantage of being able, by the aid of moov- 

 able frames to get at your bees to examine them 

 is all useless, because by so doing you disturb 

 their labors, break their sealed comb, irritate 

 them 80 that no one can come near, and if done 

 too much totally destroys them. Of course if any 

 person has the curiosity to examine into the 

 habits of bee?, or wants to exhibit them at some 

 fair, let him use a patent hive, but to mike them 

 pay as they go a well made box hive is the best, 

 it should be ventilated above and below by fine 

 wire cloth nailed over inch holes. There is no 

 necessity for ventilating the boney boxes for the 

 bees stop up all cracks and crevices as soon as 

 they begin to fill them. I know that by publish- 

 ing this you will raise a perfect storm in the 

 brfeasts of the patent hive men, but they and 

 practice are two things ; with them, their desire 

 being to sell rights and hives, and mine to pre- 

 vent people from going to a needless expense. 



ANTI PATENT. 

 Anti Patent is rather severe on the patent 

 hives. For the common practical bee keeping he 

 is doubtless right, in his box hive theory, yet it 

 must be conceeded that we have learned much, 

 very much from such men as Langstrotb, 

 Phelps, Quimby, Weeks and others of this class, 

 but it is certain that the attempt to get up some- 

 thing novel by others, have run the thing into 

 the ground. To the farmer who keeps a dozen 

 stand of bees, the box hive, with caps for surplus 

 honey, made smooth and tight to keep out the 

 moth, with well painted outside to ward oflF 

 shrinking and swelling will be found valuable. 



Ed. 



Remedy for Rinqwokms. — The North British 

 Agriculturist says that the disease locally known 

 as ringworm or tetter, which shows itself about 

 the head and neck of young cattle, in the form 

 of whitish, dry, scurvy spots, can be removed by 

 rubbing the parts affected with iodine ointment. 

 The disease may also be combated by^he use of 

 sulphur and oil; iodine ointment is however to 

 be preferred. As this skin disease is easily com- 

 municated to the human subject, the person 

 dressing the cattle should wash his hands with 

 Boap and hot water after each ointment. 



-«•»- 



Mulching — Captiow. — A writer in the Wis. 

 Farmer, says he mulched his young orchard 

 trees with unrotted manure, and the conse- 

 quence was, as the manure became rotten, the 

 white grub became so numerous that they ate 

 the bark off around the roots and killed many 

 of ike trees. 



White-Washing Extbaordinaht — The Rev. 

 James Williams, the well-known and philanthrop- 

 ic missionary, so long resident in the South Sea 

 islands, taught the natives to manufacture lime 

 from the coral of their shores. The powerful ef- 

 fect produced upon them, and the extraordinary 

 use to which they applied it, he thus facetiously 

 describes : 



" After having laughed at the process of burn- 

 ing, which they believed to be to cook the coral 

 for their food, what was their astonishment, when 

 in the morning they found his cottage glittering 

 in the rising run, white as snow ! They danced, 

 they sung, they shouted, and screamed with joy. 

 The whole island was in a commotion, given up 

 to wonder and curiosity, and the laughable scenes 

 which ensued after they got possession of the 

 tub and brush, bafflee description. The high- 

 bred immediately voted h a cosmetic and kaly- 

 dor, and superlatively happy did many a swarthy 

 coquette consider herself, could she but enhance 

 her charms by a daub of the white brush. And 

 now party spirit ran high, as it will do in more 

 cival zed countries as to who was and who was 

 not best entitled to preference. One party urged 

 their superior rank ; one had the brush, and 

 was determined at all events to keep it ; and a 

 third tried to overturn the whole, that they might 

 obtain some of the sweepings. They did not 

 even scruple to rob each othrr of the little share 

 that some had been so happy as to secure. But 

 soon new lime was prepared, and in a week not a 

 hut, a domestic utensil, a war club or a garment, 

 but was as white as snow ; not an inhabitant but 

 had a skin painted with the most grotesque fig- 

 ures ; not a pig but what was similarly whitened; 

 and even mothers might be seen in every direc- 

 tion, capering with extravagant gestures, and 

 yelling with delight at the superior beauty of 

 their white-washed infants." 



Cotton growing is to be tried in Western 

 Pennsylvania. The Erie Dispatch says a num- 

 ber of citizens of that country propose to test 

 cotton culture this season, and adds: — "The ex- 

 periment has never before been tried ; but from 

 the mild temperature of the climate late in the 

 fall, rendered so by the waters of the lake tem- 

 pering the cold north winds over a belt of land 

 several miles, and extenditg from the State line 

 almost to the western bounds of Ohio, it is confi- 

 dently believed that cotton can be successfully 

 raised here. 



figg* Strawberry culture has been attempted 

 the last fifty ye irs, but it is only quite recently 

 and since the sexual fertilization theory has been 

 understood, that complete success has crowned 

 the effort, and the strawberry become a berry 

 for the million. 



A good way of observing Lent — Paying 

 baok borrowed money, 



