150 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Mat 



of discouragement, as such a season hiis not oc- 

 curred in Tears, and will not, probably, soo;i recur 

 again. Seisons of scarcity and dearth occur in all 

 rural pursuits. The whent crop fails, the coin is 

 cut off by drouth or untimely frosts, and cattle 

 meet with accidents, or diseases, yet no one thinks 

 of giving up these branches of husbandry. Let no 

 one, then, be deterred from enga<iing iu bee culture 

 because of the past untoward season. 



The chief reason that deters people from bee 

 keeping seems to be the fear of being stung. Yet 

 bees can be rendered as " harmless ns flies."' A 

 few puffs of smoke, thrown into the hive, renders 

 them perfectly peaceable, and you can handle them 

 with perf'..-ct impunity if you ire careful not to hurt 

 them. The smoke of tobacco is the most effectual, 

 acting upon them quickly, but any kind of smoke 

 can be used. A pipe made on purpose, called a 

 "fumigation pip*'," is very convenient for thi.s pur- 

 pose. H. P. Kidder, of Builington, Vt., manufac- 

 tures a very neat and cheap pipe for this use. Any 

 one who dislikes tobacco can use it without inhal- 

 ing the fumes, as the smoke is blown from the pipe. 

 By wearing gloves on the hands and a bee-hat to 

 guard the face and neck, a whole ref;iment of 

 bees can be defied. A good bee hat can bo madf 

 bv sewing a cylinder of wire-cloth (suih as used 

 for the fine sieves of a fanning mill) to ihc brim of 

 a heavy straw or felt hat. Let the cUind'T be 

 large enough to hang clear of the head and face, 

 ami long enough to come about down to the chin, 

 -and have a piece of thin calico or muslin sewed to 

 the lower edge, to button down under the coat or 

 vest. It should be narrow behind, so as not to 

 rest on, or interfere with, the collar of the coat. 

 Ko (ilace is left where a bee can get in, and you 

 would be perfectly safe to enter a iie-st of hornets 

 otherwise well clothed. We have been using a 

 veil, manufactured from blark linen thread, that 

 pleases us much. It affords perfect protection, is 

 COfufortable to wear, and obstructs the sij^ht but 

 slightly. It slips over the crown of the hat and 

 buttons down under the coat. It is also manufac- 

 tured by the same party at Burlington. When the 

 writ.-r, years ago, fir.st commeisced to handle bees, 

 ■ he suffered very much when stung. Now a stinu 

 in hands is not as annoying as a musquito bite. 

 The more stung the less the system minds it. This 

 . I fined is the exp'rience of others. By the use of 

 smoke and the bee har, or vail, the most timid per- 

 «on can handle bees with f .cility, and with the 

 great increase in the cost cf the "sweets of life" 

 we shall look for a rapid increase of bee hu>baridry. 



Rolling Prairie, Wis. L. L. F. 



Imraense Glass Structures. 



DxAR Farmer: — Having missed my connection 

 by an accident to our train I here spent an hour in 

 the extensive private grounds and grape houses of 

 Capt. E. B. Ward, the wealthy boat owner and 

 manufacturer, and though I expected something 

 extensive, was not prepraed for what I saw. Some 

 five years since Mr. Ward built his first grape 

 hou-^e, a span roofed building 60 feet long, iu which 

 he has grown some choice specimens of the varie- 

 ties of the Hamburg and the C difornia vines, lat- 

 terly he has converted it into a forcii g liouse by put- 

 ting in a flue and arranging it for propag iting grapes 

 from eyes, a 1 irge and fine lot of which are now 

 coming on. The next jear he built a second house 



80 feet long in which he now has grape vines and 

 intends to plant out in it this spring a row of 

 Peaches, Apricots Nectarines. The thiid house is 

 120 feet long, span roof 22 ft et wide. The fourth 

 one 110 feet long, same width. The fifth a smaller 

 house, 40 feet long, which is now used fi>r forcing 

 early vejjetables and propagating grapes f om cut- 

 tings. Tlie s-ixth buiidins is at least 80 feet long, 

 with the Hamburg grapes in varieties, and others. 

 The Tth to 11th houses, five in number, aie each 

 150 feet Ions, 24 feet wide, span roofed, three of 

 which are filled with four rows of Hamburg grapes. 

 In one of these houses betwi en the rows of grapes 

 are growing strawberries of the Wilson and Tri- 

 omphe de Gand varieties, now in blo-som and will 

 be out of the way as soon as the grapes make any 

 considerable growth. He is also now prep ring 

 the border for four more houses to be put up this 

 season, to be 125 feet long by 24 feet wide. The 

 ground is all thoroughly prepared, thiee feet deep, 

 by hair and offal from tanners, and manure from 

 cattle 'sards. &c. 



Those different houses now contain 1,292 vines, 

 embracing all the choice varieties usually culti- 

 vated under glass; a large part of them will give 

 .'•ome fruit this year. Out side he has nearly 600 

 hardy grape vines, embiacing some 15 variet'es, 

 the Delaware predominating. While selecting 

 vines for this planting he was asked if he wanted 

 some Deiawares. Answeiing no, the gi ntleman 

 whose grounds he was at asked him if he had ever 

 tastid them. Answering no again, he produced a 

 bunch for him, and witn the first taste he said give 

 me 200 of them ; this was when the vines were 

 higher than now and before he commenced propa- 

 g iting His great love for choice fruit seems to 

 find no other vent than to go into the growing to 

 the extent already shown. Such an amount of 

 fruit as these vines will bear cannot of course be 

 consumed by his i'amily and friends, and will most 

 likely be found in market in the season of its ripen- 

 ing. In other parts of his grounds, which are 

 admirably laid out and kept, is a fair show of pear, 

 cherry, and other small fruits, and a choice collec- 

 tion of shrubbery. We here saw a new method of 

 forcing asparagus by setting a hot bed frame over 

 the asparagus bed, banking it up outside with 

 manure, a row or bed nearly a hundred feet long 

 being covered thu.s, while a corresponding bed out- 

 side ol it, without it is designed to follow this in 

 succes ion. These grounds aie under the charge of 

 Thos. G Angell, who seems to fully undeist md his 

 business and to whose courtesy we are indebted 

 for attention while there. H. D. K. 



— In P. Farmer. 



Lovers of Honey may bo inteiested, though per- 

 ha >s not gratified to know, if they have not already 

 lea ned that the stock of Bees, in this region, is 

 about used up. Many Bee keepers have lost every 

 swarm, while others, and those most extensively 

 engaged in the business, have barely a remnant 

 left for seed. The cause of this fatality is attrib- 

 uted chiefly to unwholesome food, supposed to 

 have been made from what is known as "' Honey 

 dew," a secretion from a worm which inf. sts the 

 oak in the early spring. Wherever stocks were 

 left exposed, the severe winter did the job for 

 them, while many that were housed in waim and 

 i ill ventillated cellars, have moulded and thui 



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