258 



THE ILLINOIS FAHMEK. 



Sept. 



an inferior quality. No patent hives are 

 used. The inside of the hive is eleven by 

 thirteen inches, and fifteen inches high; an 

 air chamber of two inches in the clear pass- 

 es up through the chamber of the box in 

 which the small boxes are placed. The 

 bees work out from this air chamber into 

 the side of the boxes instead of from below. 

 These boxes are made twelve inches long, 

 six wide and four high, of thin pine stufi", 

 and made almost or quite water tight. The 

 The bees are kept in low sheds about four 

 feet high in front, five at the rear and four 

 wide, with the roof some five feet wide. 

 The stands are placed on scantling, about a 

 foot from the ground. 



A CAEAP ICE HOUSE. 



The house is made fourteen feet wide 

 and thirty feet long, is simply a shed with 

 an almost flat roof, but with the boards 

 channeled at the edges to carry off the rain 

 water. The ice house is made in the south 

 end of this shed, and is fourteen feet square 

 less a wall of eight inches space, filled in 

 with saw dust and shavings. The floor is 

 a foot from the ground, laid a little slant- 

 ing to drain ofi" readily, and covered eight 

 inches deep with saw dust before putting 

 on the ice j it is then filled to the roof, and 

 eight inches of saw dust put over it. The 

 sides are about seven feet high j in the 

 eouth end is a ventilator of slats, six feet 

 long and a foot high, and the partition that 

 separates the ice from the shed is not car- 

 ried above the eaves of the shed ; of course 

 it is all open above, simply an open shed, 

 used for wood at the north end, and the ice 

 house filled with blocks of ice and covered 

 over with saw dust. Over the top of the 

 ice is set jars of fruit, fresh meat, milk, etc. 

 When ice is needed, the saw dust is shov- 

 eled from a block, the amount required taken 

 out, and the space recovered with the saw 

 dust. It can be taken out at all times of 

 the day ; nothing will mould in this house, 

 as is the case in the old fashioned houses. 

 "We shall give a drawing of it as soon as we 



can find leisure to do so. Had we not seen 

 this house and its practical demonstrations, 

 we might have had some doubts of its prac- 

 ticability, but it is the cheapest and the 

 best ice house that we have seen. Its con- 

 veniences should recommend it to all who 

 can appreciate an ice house. "We will give 

 minute instructions how to build it before 

 the ice season arrives. 



Thus was spent one of the nights and 

 mornings during the great reaper trial near 

 Dixon, taking a ride of ten miles each way 

 from the grounds through a part of the rich- 

 est spring wheat district in the State of 

 Illinois. 



Feoq Hunting in Catuqa County. — The Au- 

 burn Advertiser says the catching of frogs at 

 Montezuma, has become quite a considerable 

 trade. For two or three seasons past two men 

 have made the impaling of frogs their business. 

 Every other day they ship from Auburn a bar- 

 rel of frogs for the New York or Buffalo market. 

 They mrke very handsame wages. The method 

 of securing these basso profnndos of the marshes 

 is very similar to spearing for fish. The men 

 paddle off through the marsh in in the night 

 with a dark latern. They approach the haunt 

 of the frog very quietly, and -when near enough 

 throw their dart with -a certainty acquired by 

 practice, always hitting them back of the head, 

 killing them instantly. The hind quarters are 

 then carefully skinned and cut off, packed in 

 barrels and sent to their deistination. They gen- 

 erally secure two or three hundred in a night ; 

 and are paid $6 a handred." 



— A disappointed candidate for the office of 

 constable, remarked to us, rtcently, in speak^ 

 ing of men who would sell their votes, that they 

 were "as base as .ffisop of old, who sold his 

 birthright for a mess of potash /" 



~*mt- 



— An exchange paper, under the head of "Good 

 Advice," advises young men to "wrap them- 

 selves up in their virtue." A cotemporary well 

 says, " Many of them would freeze almost to 

 death if they had no warmer covering." 



— A man with a long head is not very apt to be 

 headlong. 



