Treatment of Bees—Receipts; 
187 
half a pound of copperas; and by slow degrees half a 
pound of potash and four quarts of fine sharp sand. 
The mixture will now admit- of any coloring matter 
that might he preferred, and is to be applied with a 
brush. It looks better than paint, and is as durable 
as stone. It will stop leaks in the roof, prevent the 
moss from growing and injuring the wood, rendering it 
incombustible, and, when laid upon brick-work, caus¬ 
ing it to become impenetrable to rain or moisture.— 
Farmers’ Cabinet. 
Bees. —But few persons are aware how early in the 
season bees eat honey faster than they procure it. By 
not attending to this in due time, learning from experi¬ 
ments, observation, or the experiments of others, much 
is lost. When the weather is dry, bees usually con¬ 
sume honey faster than they collect it after the middle 
or 20th of July, unless they have access to buckwheat, 
or other suitable flowers cultivated for their use; in this 
case, they may gain honey in September. 
We have learned the above facts from exact experi¬ 
ments, having weighed hives every week through the 
season. In a severe drought we have known bees to 
starve in the latter part of July, and those hives that had 
honey would lose as much in weight per week, as in the 
cold weather in winter. In common seasons, bees sel¬ 
dom gain any thing after the 1st of August, without the 
advantage for pasturage named above. 
This subject is important to bee masters who follow 
the old system, and destroy the bees when they take the 
honey. Some let them remain till the latter part of 
September, eating honey two months after they have 
ceased to collect any of consequence. In our short 
seasons for collecting honey, and long ones for consuming 
it, the habits of the bees must be studied very attentively, 
and there must be the most useful and economical ma¬ 
nagement, in order to make them profitable. 
To Destroy the Bee Milled. —To a pint of water 
sweetened with honey or sugar, add half a gill of vinegar, 
and set it in an open vessel on the top, or by the side of 
the hive. When the miller comes in the night, he will 
fly into the mixture and be drowned.— Boston Far. Jour . 
To Protect Sheep from the Gad Fly. —In August 
and September this fly lays its eggs in the nostrils of 
sheep, where they are hatched, and the worms crawl 
into the head, and frequently they eat through to the 
brain. In this way many sheep are destroyed. As a 
protection, smirch their noses with tar. Lay some tar 
in a trough or on a board, and strew fine salt on it: the 
sheep will finish the operation. The tar will protect 
them, and what they eat will promote their health.— 
lb. 
Compost—A substitute for soapboilers spent 
Ley.— Take of fine, dry, snuffy peat 50 lbs.; salt, i 
bushel; ashes, 1 bushel; water, 100 gallons. Mix the 
ashes and peat well together, sprinkling with water to 
mcisten a little ; let the heap lay for a week. Dissolve 
the salt in the water, in a hogshead, and add to the 
brine the mixture of peat and ashes, stirring well the 
while. Let it be stirred occasionally for a week, and 
it will be fit for use. Apply as spent ley, grounds and 
all. Both ashes and salt may be doubled and trebled 
with advantage, if convenient. The mixture must be 
used before it begins to putrefy; this occurs in three 
weeks. It then evolves sulphuretted hydrogen gas, or 
the smell of gas of rotten eggs; this arises from the 
decomposition of the sulphates in the water and ashes, P 
by the vegetable matter. A portion of geine is thus 
deposited from the solution.— Dana. 
Salt, Lime, and Peat.— Take one bushel of salt, 
one cask of lime. Slack the lime with the brine «iade 
by dissolving the salt in water sufficient to make a stiff 
paste with the lime, which will not be quite sufficient 
to dissolve all the salt. Mix all the materials then well 
together in a heap for ten days, and then be well mixed 
with three cords of peat; shovel well over for about 
six weeks, and it will be fit for use. Here, then, are 
produced three cords of manure, for about the cost of 
$2 10 per cord:—Salt, $0 60; lime, $1 20; peat, 
$4 50—$6 30.—3)$6 30($2 j0.— lb. 
Animal matter and peat. —There are some 
sources of alkali, for converting peat into soluble 
matter. Of these the chief is animal matter. Here 
we have ammonnia produced. It has been actually 
proved, by experiment, that a dead horse can convert 
twenty tons (or cubic yards) of peat into a valuable 
manure, richer and more lasting than stable dung ;— 
“ a barrel of alewives is equal to a load of peat. 5 ’ The 
next great and prolific source of ammonia is urine. 
The urine of one cow for a winter, mixed up as it is 
daily collected with peat, is sufficient to manure half 
an acre of land with twenty loads of manure of the 
best quality, while her solid evacuations and litter, for 
the same period, affords only seventeen loads, whose 
value is only about one half that of the former.— 
lb. 
Cooking Cotton Seed. —I have a large kettle, 
which holds from 5 to 6 bushels, set upon a brick fur¬ 
nace, (which is less than one day’s work for a mason 
to make.) I fill my kettle with cotton-seed fresh from 
the gin, and then fill up the kettle with water, and boil 
something less than half an hour; then empty the 
seed into troughs, and let my cattle and hogs to them. 
The milk and butter has none of that cotton-seed taste 
which the green or uncooked seed gives. Both cattle 
and hogs will keep in good order, winter and summer, 
on seed thus prepared; and when you are ready to fat¬ 
ten pork, you have only to add an equal quantity of 
cotton seed and corn, and boil as above. Experience 
has proved to me that it will' fatten sooner and be 
equally good as when fattened on corn alone. Your 
cows will give an abundance of milk all winter, when 
fed in this manner, with but one bushel of corn to four 
of cotton seed. Every one is aware of the advantage 
of boiling turnips, turnip greens and cabbage for the 
human stomach. The boiling of cotton seed is not less 
advantageous as food for stock. Besides, there is great 
economy in feeding seed thus prepared. By the usual 
method in feeding, there are more than double the quan¬ 
tity of seed wasted than are consumed by the stock.— 
S. W. Plant. 
New kind of Hemp. —We have received from the 
editor of the Attakapas Gazette a sample of the hemp 
yielded by the okra plant, which our curious readers 
are invited to examine. The Gazette remarks : “We 
published last week an article from the Opelousas 
Gazette, stating that the okra bark contained a kind of 
hemp which might be employed to advantage by our 
cotton-planters, in making their own rope and cotton 
bagging. We have since received a sample of this 
new article, and were really astonished at its resem¬ 
blance with genuine hemp, both as to color and. 
strength. We have not the least doubt that it would 
fully answer the purpose just stated, if manufactured 
by persons understanding the business.”— New Orleans 
Bulletin. 
Cure for Grubs in Horses. —Add a pint of strong 
vinegar to a cubic inch of chalk; when the effervesc¬ 
ence ceases, drench the horse with the liquid fit>m ® 
bottle.— So. Plant. 
