362 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEE. 



Dec. 



The average price of fine wool in one of our 

 principal ^00! markets (Boston), for the last 

 thirty-five years, has been fifty-cents per pound; 

 of mediuKi, forty-two cents per pound, and of 

 coarse thirty-five cents. 



The average value of the clip of 1860 might 

 safely bo put at forty-two cents per pound, thus 

 making the total value of the growth, of 1860, 

 twenty-six and a half millions of dollars. 



A SrrcEssFrL Winterixg of Bees. — As the 

 season has come round when the careful aparian 

 looks well to the comfort of his little busy friends, 

 the writer is reminded of his success last winter, 

 and gives his experience for the benefit of those 

 who have as yet no settled plans for the better 

 preservation of their bees during the cold 

 'Weather. 



The writers hives have moveable combs The 

 size is fourteen inches every way on the outside, 

 and each one is p'aced by itself on a small plat- 

 form close to the ground. On the top of each 

 hive are four holes for supers. The cover which 

 goes over the supers is large enough, say four- 

 teen aLd a half inches in the clear, to slip over 

 the hive, and when the supers are off, covers the 

 hive completely, and still leaves two or three in- 

 ches space between the top of the hive and the 

 outside cover. (In summer this cover is raised 

 sufficiently to place supers under, and rests upon 

 cleats, which are screwed on the four S'des of 

 the hive nt any height desired). Last winter, 

 the writer ope: ed one of the holes on the top of 

 the hive, and tacked wire cloth over it, and then 

 put on the cover (or surtout I call it). The 

 opening made in the cover, to correspond with 

 the entiance to the hive when slipped wholly 

 down, is not more than one and a half inches 

 long, and a half ii ch high. Thus no current of 

 a-ir can blow into the hive, and the moist atmos- 

 phere rises through the ho'e in the top, instead 

 of collecting dampness in the hive. 



The writer was never so successful in winter- 

 ing his bees as the last season. Upon raising 

 the covers in the spring, instead of a dampness 

 of debris, and large quantiiies of dead bees, the 

 floor T;as 'Ivy, and the caps of the cells lay along 

 in regular order under the spaces between the 

 combs — showing that the bees had not moved 

 much. 



The number of dead bees was much less, and 

 evidently those which had died a naturtil death 

 — not tl'.e slick, whole winged ones, but dark, 

 jagged winged, hard workers — perhaps a half 

 tumbler full in each hive. 



Though the size of the hive is here given, it is 

 not necessary that it should be adopted for the 

 better preservation of the bees.* The principle 

 can be followed out by using the square box hive, 

 common among farmers. Another advantage in 

 connection with this arrangement is, that if the 

 bees fall short of honey, they can be readily fed. 



One of my hives, (about February), had not a 

 drop of honey in it. I filled a tumbler full of 

 plain barely candy, and inverted it over one of 

 the bales, and the bees readily consumed it all. 

 One pound (cost twenty-five cents), carried them 

 through, to the time of fruit blossoms, when, 



(the weather being favorable), they laid up suf- 

 ficient to last till white clover came. — Cor. Bee 

 Journal. 



—•*~ 



Clover — Saving the Seed. 



TO THE FABMEKS OF THE WEST. 



Eds. Rubal New Yokkee : — As I have a good 

 many inquiries respecting raising clover, and 

 saving seed from the same, I would take this op- 

 portunity of giving my mode of operatian. I 

 try to cut the first crop and get it off the last 

 days ot June, and not later than the 4th of July. 

 The second crop I save for seed, letting it stand 

 untill I think two-thirds at least of the heads are 

 ripe, when I take my reaper, with the platform 

 on, and cut, raking it off in gavils and putting 

 them in rows, so as to save time in gathering. 1 

 then let it lay until it gets one or two good show- 

 ers, and soon as dry, having no barns, (and by 

 the way I would get out the seed out of doors,) 

 I take and make a bottom of rails at loast eight 

 inches from the ground — say ten feet wide and 

 forty long, according to the amount of clover. 

 I build the side very square up — if anything a 

 little wide on top — until the last two or three 

 roads, owing to the size of the stack, throwing 

 them in the middle, ijnd top out, good, with 

 coarse prairie hay, or a load or two of corn- 

 stalks, bound up and lapped over, so as to make 

 a sure thing of it. This done. I let it stand un- 

 til the ground freezes and the weather settles. I 

 then take one of Birdsell & Brockaw's Premium 

 Clover Threshers aad Hullers, cotubined, and 

 make short work of it in preparing it for market. 



Our yield in this western country, on an aver- 

 age, is three bushels ; I have raised seven. I am 

 sure, as a general thing, our western farmers do 

 not seed one-htjlf enough for the benefit of the 

 land. I know of pieces of land here that never 

 get a load of manure or a coat of clover fur ten, 

 and sometimes fifteen years, and consider it a 

 poor way of farming. A good crop of clover 

 seed pays me better than a crop of wheat , wheat 

 at seventy-five cents and clover at §3 per bushel. 



Yours truly, 



Hugh IIuls. 



St. Charles, Ills., Nov. 1862. 



Shrinking of Hay and Coiin by Drying. — An 

 exchange states that the loss upon hay weighed 

 July 20th, when cured enough to put in the 

 barn, and again Feb. 20th, has been ascertained 

 to be 27 1-2 per cent, go that hay at $15 a ton 

 in the field, is equal to $20 and upwards when 

 weighed from the mow in winter. The weight of 

 cobs in a bushel of corn in November, ascertained 

 to be 19 pounds, was only 7 1-2 pounds in May. 



«•• 



B^^What a world this would be if all its in- 

 habitants could only, with Shak spear's shepherd, 

 " Sir, I am a true laborer ; I earn that I wear ; 

 I owe no man hate ; envy no man's happiness ; 

 glad of other men's good; consent vrith my 

 farm." 



