1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
251 
perfectly tight, it might not become candied. If every 
one sending this honey to market would seal it, aud send 
an affidavit that it was not adulterated in any way, it 
would do much towards its reputation for pure honey. 
Its remarkable whiteness often makes buyers doubtful. 
The boxes in the hive described last mouth can be ex- 
amined at any time by just moving the sides, and not 
allowing a bee to fly. Do not wait for every cell to be 
sealed, as there will be a few Bcattcretl ones uncapped 
for a month. Take off all as soon as the general smooth 
surface of all the combs is sealed over. The quicker 
MAN>Elt OF SECUKINQ FKi-VXES. 
boxes are filled, the finer the combs appear. If left only 
a few days after being sealed, the bees will, by running 
over it, soil the pure, white surface. The honey, of 
course, is jnst as pure, but the yellow tinge added makes 
it just a little less attractive in market or on the table at 
home. If a full box that has been quickly filled is removed 
at once, and replaced by an empty one, a gain of one 
or more might be the result. If bees are getting honey 
at the time boxes are taken there is but little danger of 
robbing, and they may be set near the hive for the bees 
to leave them, allowing the young bees just hatched to 
creep to tae entrance. Do not let the hot sun shine on 
the boxes at any time. The best time to market honey 
is usually October. To keep it through the hot weather, 
put it, 1st, where it is dry ; 2d, dark ; 3d, cool ; 4th, 
where it will not be stolen. 
The methods of queen-rearing will have to be deferred 
until another month. 
[The materials for illustrating the hive described last 
month did not reach us in time for the engravings to ac- 
Fig. 4.— CLAMP FOU FASTENING COVER. 
company the arlicle ; we give them here : Figure 3 sbowa 
the manner in which the frames are held in an upright 
position by means of a bent piece of hoop-iron attached 
to the lower part of one end of each frame ; this hooks 
into a flat piece of similar iron fastened to the bottom 
board. This engraving ia much out of proportion, it 
having been drawn from a small model made of parts of 
the usual size. Its object is solely to show the manner 
of supporting the frames. The clasp or clamp for fasten- 
ing together the side of the cover of the hive is shown 
in fig. 4. This is a simple and efficient unpatented 
invention of Mr. Quinby's, and we presume he furnishes 
them on application — Ed.] 
Ogden Farm Papers.— No. 41. 
We receive ample evidence that the Jersey 
cow is well adapted to the Southern soil and 
climate. Mr. J. H. Freeman, of Jackson.Teun., 
recently wrote: "After three days' experiment 
■with ' Belle of Ogden Farm ' as a milker, I give 
you the following result ; 
evening, 13 lbs.=2D lbs. 
evening, 13Vi lbs. =2354 1° 9 - 
evening, 13!{ lbs.=29 lbs. 
May 10.— Morning, 16 lbs. 
May 11. — Morning, 15 lbs. 
May 12.— Morning, W% lbs. 
Total in three days St. 1 , lbs. 
(About fourteen quarts per day.) 
The calf was in each instance allowed to 
take what it wauled. I would state, however, 
that the calf, while hearty aud vigorous, does 
not seem to take as much milk as other calves 
of same age'. I hope you may have a dozen 
heifers as good milkers as this one, but. can't 
say I am sorry you sold Iter. No amount of 
money can tempt me to sell her." 
" Belle of Ogden Farm" was dropped January 
19th, 1871, and was consequently less than 28 
mouths old when this experiment was made. 
The calf (her first one) was dropped April 15th, 
1873, and was twenty-six days old when the ex- 
periment iu question was made. 
A correspondent writes : " I see that you have 
renewed your complaints of abortion among 
your cows. By your writings, it seems you 
feed steamed corn-1'odder. If you trace the 
matter up, I think you will find that the abor- 
tions arc produced by the fungus growth (smut) 
on the corn-fodder. Experience lias taught mo 
that all fungus growth on vegetables — ergot of 
rye taking the lead — are productive of abortion 
in animals. Fungus, high feeding, a great ten- 
sion of the milking secretions, are all existing 
causes to abortion. Ihave known abortions to be 
produced in mares by the fungus on oat-straw. 
The large-growing corn is mote .apt to have 
fungus than the kinds that produce a smaller 
stalk, and high manuring produces it also. 
This is one of the things to be overcome in 
high manuring and in forced vegetable growth. 
The greater the overgrowth of the plant the 
more liable to disease. The only remedy I can 
suggest about fungus in corn-fodder is to go 
through the field before cutting, and select the 
stalks that have fungus and cut them down. 
Whether wetting or soaking feed with fungus 
dust on it will destroy it or not, I can not say, 
but, chemically speaking, I think its effects are 
unchanged by the wetting or steaming process. 
Hoping this may be of some benefit to you, and 
the means of preventing abortions among aui- 
mals belonging to others, I remain," etc., etc. 
"P. S. — I have known clubbing cows on the 
back with a club to produce abortion. I always 
keep a leather whip or two about the stables. 
From what I can learn, fungus produces nausea 
and contracts the uterus. I suppose there is 
something among the drugs (perhaps whisky) 
that would antidote the effect of fungus." 
There ! This is a copy of a well-meant letter, 
from a man who knows a good deal more about 
some things than he will when he shall have 
extended his sources of knowledge by further 
study and observation. I am glad to have re- 
ceived it, and congratulate him on having 
writtcu it. It is a step iu the path of specula- 
tion and investigation that can not fail to lead 
to good results if faithfully continued. All such 
efforts help to make farmers more intelligent 
aud more useful. At the same time, it is only 
a step, and the path is beset with difficulties that 
are not now foreseen. The causes of abortion 
in cows lie in the distant horizon, and no one 
has yet gone far enough to find them. Exam- 
ining this letter in the light of my own expe- 
rience, I find : (1) That only a small percentage 
of our cows have aborted while on corn-fodder. 
(2) Not nearly all of them have aborted on 
steamed fodder. (3) The first case we ever had 
was in a stable where only long hay (and of 
good quality) was fed. (4) Quite a number 
were young heifers with their first calves, and 
there had never been the least stimulation of the 
lacteal secretion — had been no lacteal secretion 
at all. (5) We have had at least as many case3 
where we have fed very moderately as where we 
have fed abundantly. (6) Small-growing corn 
produces often more fungus than that of rauker 
growth. (7) It is at least "not proven" that 
high manuring (which is necessary to a vigor- 
ous growth of com) is conducive to the produc- 
tion of fungus. 
And these seven findings show that my cor- 
respondent is further from a solution of the 
question than he fancies. Whether corn-smut 
has the effect he suggests I do not know. It 
is established \.ha\. the ergot of rye conduces to 
abortion iu the human subject. It is inferred 
(aud with much plausibility) that it has the 
same effect on the cow. Beyond this, bo far as 
I have been able to learn, wo can make no 
positive assertion. I have never known of a 
case of nausea iu a cow, and do not know what 
its effects would be. I did not suppose them 
to be subject to any "retching" that could pro- 
duce a contraction of the uterus. If corn-smut 
has tiie same effect as ergot, surely its treatment 
for some hours with live steam ought to destroy 
it. At all events, this process is not to he 
classed with any mere welting. The suggestion 
about clubbing cows over the back does not ap- 
ply lo any case within my knowledge. I would 
as soon think of shooting a cow, aud done with 
it. Neither do I think that a "leather whip" 
is a proper article of furniture for a cow-stable. 
Under no circumstances should a cow or a 
heifer be touched or even threatened with a 
whip, or in any other way abused or frightened. 
I have had occasional abortions traceable to in- 
juries received from other cows, but this is very 
different from and much less serious than those 
causes about the origin of which, as Lord Dun- 
dreary says, " no fellow can find out" — those 
mysterious and apparently contagious abortions 
among a herd of cows kept under precisely the 
same conditions that have for years before 
maintained a perfect state of health. 
The New York State Agricultural Society 
has made a very strenuous effort to learn some- 
thing about this matter of abortion, and em- 
ployed a very competent committee to examine 
into the subject. Their investigations extended 
through the years 1867, '68, and '69, and covered 
every conceivable class of causes which might 
directly or indirectly produce the disease. The 
result of all their labors is practically nil. They 
were unable to form any theory which could be 
made to account for the facts that came under 
tlreir notice. Conditions which attended fre- 
quent abortion ia one case were equally marked 
in others where there was no abortion at all. 
Even ergot, which seemed a probable cause, 
was not convicted of guilt. Dr. Carmalt (the 
Commissioner of 1869) says in the appendix of 
his report: "Your Commissioner has been un- 
able, after a careful examination, to establish 
any constant relation between the amount of 
ergot and the frequency of abortion, but the 
latter occurs irrespective of the amount of ergot 
iu the grasses constituting the hay." 
The subject is of the utmost importance, and 
can not be too carefully studied by all who have 
the care of cows — but the investigations con- 
cerning it have been carried much too far for it 
to receive material help from individual farmers 
who jump at conclusions which have long ago 
been proved fallacious. We know much less of 
abortion than we do of the potato-rot, and we 
