1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
149 
Bee Notes for April. 
Last month we referred to the desirability of 
stimulative feeding, in early spring, whenever the 
bees could gather no stores. In the more northerly 
States, as also in Canada, there is no continuous 
yield of nectar until very late in May or early in 
June, when the white clover blooms. About 
the same time the raspberry blossoms furnish 
a rich harvest of fine honey. Before this time, 
if we except the maples—the early soft, and the 
later hard maple bloom, and the fruit blossoms, 
there is little for the bees to gather. Very often 
the unsuitable weather makes the early bloom of 
the maple and fruit trees of little avail. The wil¬ 
lows and scattering blossoms, like the dandelions, 
yield but little honey, though very valuable as fur¬ 
nishing pollen, which is a necessary food element 
in brood rearing. Even if there were bee-pastur¬ 
age in April and May in abundance, still the many 
cold, stormy days would make it impossible for the 
bees to gather honey. 
It is a well-settled fact that whenever the bees 
are idle, or cease from storing honey, the queen 
withholds her eggs, or at least brood rearing is j 
greatly abated. The season’s profits depend on the 
condition of the colonies as to numbers ; populous 
colonies can only follow from active brood rearing. 
The apiarist should spare no pains to stimulate his 
bees to the greatest activity during the spring 
months. 
What and How to Feed. 
It is recommended to uncap the honey in frames 
of comb left over from the previous season, in case 
they are dt hand. These are set into the brood- 
chamber beside the brood, one at a time, at inter¬ 
vals of three or four days, depending on the 
amount of honey in each. The fact that the cells 
are uncapped induces the bees to transfer the 
honey to other cells, and this stimulates brood¬ 
rearing. Some bee-keepers do not uncap the honey, 
but separate the brood combs, as the strength of 
the colony will permit, and place the comb, with 
its two or three pounds of honey, between the 
combs containing the brood. This is done at inter¬ 
vals of four or five days, as the strength of the 
colony will warrant. It must be remembered that 
the brood should always be covered with bees. As 
the new comb occupies the space needed for 
brood, the bees remove the honey, and thus the 
activity is secured. The writer has tried all the 
methods, and has obtained the best results from 
actual feeding, which can always be followed, 
whether we have the extra combs or not. Ex¬ 
tracted honey may be used for food, or we may 
make a syrup of granulated sugar. In feeding ex¬ 
tracted honey, it is best to add one-third as much 
hot water as there is honey. The warm, thin honey 
is more acceptable to the bees. The syrup may be 
made by using one pint of water to two of sugar, 
by measure. It may be heated until the sugar is 
dissolved. Feed this when warm. Three-eighths of 
a pound, or one-quarter of a pint per hive each day. 
The Feeder. 
The best feeders are so made that they may be 
placed immediately above the cluster of bees, and 
so not expose them to the chilling outside atmos¬ 
phere. They should also be easy of access by the 
bees and to the bee-keeper. A cheap feeder may 
be made by simply perforating the-tin cover of a 
common glass fruit jar with fine holes. After the 
. honey is put into the can, we have only to quickly 
invert the latter over a hole in the honey-board. 
The atmospheric pressure permits the liquid to 
descend only as fast as the bees sip it up. The 
only objection to this feeder is its form. It. so 
raises the chaff-cushion or blankets above the bees 
that they are not well protected from the cold. 
•Could the feeder be the shape of an oyster can and 
lie on its side, it would be complete. Such could 
be easily made. 
Improvement of Dfocky Pastures. 
—Clear out the rocks do you say ? That would 
mean, in some cases, an expense of two or 
three hundred dollars, and in most localities 
would not pay. Cut the brush, and plow the 
land? That would be impracticable often¬ 
times, so thickly strown are the rocks. A 
farm is in sight from the window where we 
write, where persistent cutting of brush has 
made a clean turf around every rock. It 
was a brush pasture five years ago, where 
grass was very scarce, and whortle-berry 
bushes, briars, and scrub oaks were plenty. 
Something must be done, or the field bo 
abandoned as a pasture. The owner, a very 
conservative and plodding farmer, assailed it 
in the latter part of August with bush 
scythes, cut everything up close by the roots, 
and after the leaves had time to dry burned 
it over. The dressing of ashes gave fresh 
start to the grass. The brush started in the 
spring, but there was much less cutting to be 
done the following August. They grew 
feebler every year until they were dead. The 
roots are now decaying in the soil, and feed¬ 
ing the roots of the grass. The only expense 
has been a few days’ labor for cutting and 
burning brush, and for grass seed. This 
method pays. 
A Wagon Seat. 
Mr. Jas. S. Lake, St. Croix Co., Wis., sends 
us a sketch and description of an adjustable 
wagon seat. A six-inch board has slots cut 
in each end, so as to 
go between the stakes 
of the wagon. An¬ 
other board, one foot 
wide, and three feet 
long, is fastened to 
the first in the posi¬ 
tion shown in the ac¬ 
companying engrav¬ 
ing. An old seat, 
from a harvester, or 
mower, is fastened upon the boards, when an 
easy and satisfactory seat is provided for a 
wagon for drawing wood, lumber, etc. 
Agricultural Experiments — The New 
York State Station. 
HENRY E. ALVORD, “ HOUGHTON FARM,'’ N. T. 
Farming is essentially an experimental 
business and has always been. Most farmers 
are experimenters. Experience, so necessary 
to successful farming, the thing as well as 
the word itself, is based upon experiment. 
But such work done by individual farmers 
has been of little general value because lack¬ 
ing in system, completeness, verification, 
comparison, and averaging of results. The 
first condition necessary to economy in ex¬ 
perimental work is organization and the con¬ 
centration of efforts. Hence the origin of 
the Experiment Station, a place where farm 
experiments becomes a regular business and 
the sole work of the place. Where,also,science 
can be brought to aid in the investigations. 
The first instance of such an organization 
by farmers themselves, is that of the Leipsic 
Agricultural Society, which bought a farm 
for the purpose near Mockern, in Saxony, and 
began systematic and scientific experiments, 
thirty years ago. Individual labors by scien¬ 
tific men for the general good of agriculture, 
like those of Boussingault and Lawes, bear 
earlier date. 
The Experiment Station at once found the 
need of high-priced labor and expensive ap¬ 
pliances beyond the means of the farmers 
themselves. But it soon proved valuable and 
won recognition as an institution worthy of 
public maintenance. Nearly every European 
government now supports one or more Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Stations. 
In America, stations have been established 
in four States—Connecticut, North Carolina, 
New Jersey, and New York. The first three 
named have had their stations more or less 
connected with colleges. In other States the 
Agricultural Colleges have instituted experi¬ 
ments without special funds for the purpose, 
notably in Michigan, New York (at Cornell), 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ten¬ 
nessee. 
Connecticut was the first State to introduce 
the public Experiment Station to the farming 
of this country, and it was largely secured 
through the interest and efforts of the senior 
proprietor of the American Agriculturist. 
Work was began at Middletown in 1875, and 
was there conducted for two years. Since 
that time the State appropriation has been 
expended at New Haven, all in laboratory 
work, chiefly analyses of fertilizers and feed¬ 
ing stuffs, by Professor Johnson and his 
assistants. Meanwhile Professor Atwater has 
continued field experiments in and around 
Middletown, as periodically recorded in the 
American Agriculturist , and superintended a 
series of co-operative trials by over three 
hundred colleges and individual farmers in 
several different States. 
In New Jersey, Professor Cook has had the 
advantage of a farm at New Brunswick, 
where he has carried on field and feeding ex¬ 
periments in addition to his laboratory work 
at Rutgers College. The North Carolina Sta¬ 
tion recently removed from its connection 
with the State University, to Raleigh, and 
now an entirely separate institution, devotes 
itself almost exclusively to chemical analyses 
of various kinds. 
New York is the first State to establish an 
Agricultural Experiment Station under a 
Board of Control, independent of other insti¬ 
tutions, and upon a large, well-equipped farm 
of its own. After annoying delays and hin¬ 
drances, this Station has been located near 
Geneva, where a farm of 125 acres has been 
purchased, winch is represented as well suited 
to the purpose, except, perhaps, that the soil 
is in too high a condition for experimental 
work. The place came into possession of the 
State on the 1st of March, and it will take a 
very short time to make the changes neces¬ 
sary in the ample buildings. The Station 
‘ will therefore go into full operation the 
present season, and with the appropriation of 
$20,000, made for its yearly support—liberal, 
and yet not a dollar too much—the useful¬ 
ness of the new institution should soon be 
demonstrated. It deserves the hearty support 
of the farmers of New York, and cannot fail 
to benefit those of other States. 
The Board of Control has placed the Station 
in full charge of Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, as 
Director, and he is already upon the ground. 
Dr. Sturtevant is known both at home and 
abroad for his investigations in animal and 
vegetable physiology. He has long been an 
advocate of the practical value of science 
applied to agriculture, frequently contribut¬ 
ing to the agricultural press, and successfully 
practising his theories upon his own “ Wau- 
shakum Farm,” at South Framingham, Mass. 
His experience and original methods as an 
experimenter will contribute to inspire confi¬ 
dence in the new work at Geneva, and add. 
value to reports which may be expected in 
the future from the New York Station. 
