284 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July,. 
ting to kill them. When flushed, if the day is cold 
and the wind blustry, they may fly ten miles or 
more before they alight. It takes No. 6 shot and a 
good choke-bore to bring them down at that time, 
whereas, No. 8 or 9 is fully large enough in the 
early part of the season. 
They seem to be wilder in cloudy or rainy than in 
fine weather, late in the autumn, for they take wing 
almost as soon as they hear the human voice, or 
detect the presence of a dog, but on sunny days 
they will often permit the animal to approach them 
to within fifteen or twenty yards, as if they were 
too lazy to fly, or revelled so much in the sunshine 
that they disliked leaving the spots where its warm 
rays fell. When they do rise, however, it is 
with a startling whirr, and as soon as they get fairly 
on the wing they scud away at such a rate of speed 
that it requires a close, hard-hitting gun to stop 
them. Most of the birds spring from their shelter 
on hearing the voice, or the report of a gun, but 
several may stay behind, and as these often rise 
singly before adog, a man can grass the majority of 
them. When the ground is covered with snow, they 
may be readily found in the timber, as they keep 
cackling, crooning, and chattering to one another, 
like domestic fowls when roosting. 
Bee Notes for July. 
It has been asserted that it injures the queen to 
have her wings clipped. This is not true. Struc¬ 
turally, the wing is very simple; it consists of a 
thin membrane, spread over veins which arc firm, 
and consist of a double tube, one inside the other. 
The inner tube carries the air, and the outer the 
blood to nourish the wing. Clipping has been 
practised by many of our best apiarists for years, 
and no one has ever detected the least harm from 
it. Ants do the same thing by their queens, and 
for the same purpose. The advantage of this prac¬ 
tice is great. There is no danger of losing a col¬ 
ony. The bees will come forth from the hive, and 
the queen will, as usual, attempt to follow, but is 
unable to go with the swarm. The bees will gen¬ 
erally cluster, though they may not; and as soon 
as they find that the queen is missing, will go back 
to the hive. The queen may get so far from the 
hive that she can not return, but this is the loss of 
the queeu, and is far less than the loss of a strong 
colony. In five cases out of six the queen will 
return all right. 
This practice not only saves bees, but time as 
well. The hiving of swarms is often a great task, 
and when they alight, as they sometimes do, at the 
very top of a tall tree, it is well nigh impossible. 
This matter becomes still more serious when sev¬ 
eral colonies come forth at once. They often clus¬ 
ter all together, and the trouble of separation and 
properly hiving them is great. If the queen’s 
wing is clipped, all of this is saved. One has only 
to go to the front of the hive, and as the queen 
comes forth, which is usually late in the exit, pick 
her up and put her in a cage; a tumbler turned 
over her in the new hive will do. Next remove the 
old hive a few feet temporarily, and put the new 
hive containing the queen on the old stand. It is 
well to fill the new hive with “ foundation,” and to 
add one frame of brood, in all stages, from the old 
hive. The bees will soon come to the new hive, 
and when all have entered, the new hive may be 
put in the desired place, and the old one returned 
to its old stand. At nightfall, liberate the queen, 
and all is done. If it is desired to prevent any 
further swarming, we have only to examine the 
old hive, now nearly empty of bees, and destroy 
all of the queeu cells but one, which should al¬ 
ways be the largest. In this way hiving takes but 
a small amount of time and labor. 
The best time to clip the queen’s wing is when 
she commences layiDg. As soon as eggs are seen 
in the worker cells, which will be about eight days 
after the queen leaves the cell, we should clip the 
queen, as then there are few bees, and it is easy to 
find her. If the wing is clipped before there are 
eggs, very likely she may not have mated. The 
queen only mates on the wing. 
Until one has had some experience, the clipping 
better be done in-doors, before a window ; if the 
queen escapes, there will be no danger of losing 
her. She will fly to the window, and is easily caught. 
Catch the queen by the wings with the right 
hand, and let her feet rest on the left hand, taking 
care not to press her abdomen. She will not use 
her sting. With one of the fingers of the left 
hand, on which she is now resting, press down on 
her feet, so as to hold her. Then take a pair of 
small scissors, held in the now liberated right 
hand, and carefully cut off about one-third of one 
of the front wings. As the queen is resting on her 
feet, there will be little danger of cutting them. 
For years we have always clipped all of our 
queens, and have experienced only advantage. 
We could not think of keeping bees, and not 
practice this method. 
Bees at the Fairs. 
At the last National Convention, which was one 
of the most pleasant and profitable bee-meetings 
ever held in America, it was resolved to make an 
effort to have many fine exhibitions at the State 
and district fairs of 1882. In England and other 
parts of Europe, these exhibitions are conducted 
on a grand scale, and excite much interest. They 
are thought to be great educators, and to stimulate 
the honey market to a large degree. Last year a 
very successful exhibition of this kind was held at 
Toronto, Canada. A similar exhibition was held 
at St. Joseph, Missouri. This, too, was a great 
success. It is the aim at these exhibitions to have 
a large show of honey, bees, and apiarian imple¬ 
ments. Also to manipulate the bees, at certain 
specified times each day—behind a screen, so that 
no harm can result from stings. It is desirable to 
have a separate building, a little apart from the 
others, which need not be expensive, and where 
the bees shall be kept. It is important to secure 
the offering of generous premiums. The State 
and Central Societies of Michigan have already 
secured favorable action by two of the largest 
Agricultural Societies of that State. Let all other 
societies do the same. It is probable that in no 
other way can the interests of bee-keepers be so 
rapidly advanced. 
Note. —The cold spring has been very unfavor¬ 
able for bees. Those who have followed our 
advice and fed their bees, have done wisely. One 
of the largest bee-keepers of the country writes us 
that his bees stopped breeding entirely in May. 
This would not have occurred if he had fed liber¬ 
ally. There is no doubt that the Syrian and Cy¬ 
prian bees are far ahead of the Italians in breeding 
early in the spring. 
Notes on Time of Cutting Hay. 
BT PROP. J. W. SANBORN, HANOVER, N. H. 
I have read the articles of Prof. Jordan, and 
the remarks in allusion to his and my work on 
“Early versus Late Cut Hay,” in the June number 
of the American Agriculturist, and wish to add a 
word. I started with the belief that both prac¬ 
tice and science taught that hay should be cut at 
least as early as bloom. My experiments have 
forced me out of this conviction, and turned my 
attention to the scientific side of the question, 
and I am convinced, from as thorough a study of 
the matter as present facts will admit, that science 
has far from shown that hay cut in bloom is su¬ 
perior to hay cut out of bloom. I am inclined to 
believe that the scientific facts of to-day rather 
favor the later cutting. The various materials 
classed under the general term, carbohydrates and 
albuminoids, and perhaps of fats, undergo a ma¬ 
terial change from bloom to a period subsequent 
to that time, and those changes, on the whole, are 
favorable to feeding value. The Germau digestion 
tables were for a long time considered conclusive 
on this point, in favor of the earlier cut hay. I 
deem them entirely inconclusive. First, digestion 
does not measure the amount assimilated, and if 
it did, it would be still inconclusive, for the food 
digested at bloom is not the food digested out of 
bloom, for, as already said, grass undergoes a ma¬ 
terial change in composition from bloom to a 
period subsequent to bloom. After four years of 
accurate trials, under carefully arranged condi¬ 
tions, I conclude that Timothy will grow from 30 
to 40 per cent from bloom to fifteen days follow¬ 
ing ; that a pound of later cut hay will make more 
growth of steer or of milch cow. It will produce 
less milk if cut more than a week after bloom, but 
it will have a higher percentage of cream. The 
total nutritive effect of hay, cut after bloom, if 
prior to a full formation of seed, so that it will 
“ shell ” in ripening, is greater. 
How to Save Liquid Manure. 
In ordinary farm practice, by far the larger part 
of the liquid manure of the stock kept is lost. 
No effort is made to save it. There is no barn 
cellar, no gutter behind the stabled animals, no' 
absorbents. Analysis shows that the liquid ma¬ 
nure is quite as valuable as the solid, or even more 
so. In 1,000 pounds of fresh horse dung there are 
4.4 pounds of nitrogen, 3.5 of potash, and 3.5 of 
phosphoric acid. In horse urine there are 15.5 
pounds of nitrogen, and 15.0 of potash. In 1,000 
pounds of fresh cattle dung there are 2.9 pounds 
of nitrogen, 1.0 of potash, 1.7 of phosphoiic acid. 
In the urine, 5.8 pounds of nitrogen, 4.9 of potash. 
These are the most valuable constituents of ma¬ 
nure, and no farmer can afford to have them so 
generally run to waste. There is very little loss 
where there is a gutter-well supplied with absorb¬ 
ents, and a barn cellar well coated with dried 
peat, muck, or headlands, to absorb the liquids as 
fast as they fall. But barn cellars are still in the 
minority. Mr. Mechi had a very expensive ap¬ 
paratus for distributing the liquid manure over his 
farm, by means of tanks and pipes, and thought 
it paid, but failed to convince his cotemporories 
of the fact. However that may be, it is out of the 
question to apply liquid manure in this manner, 
economically, upon the average farm. It takes too 
much capital, and requires too much labor. By 
the use of absorbents, it can be done economically 
on a small or large scale, with very little waste. 
Some use a water-tight box, made of thick plank, 
covering the floor of the stall. This is a very sure 
way to save everything, and the only objection to 
it is the expense of the box, and the increased 
labor of keeping the stalls clean. We used for 
several years dried salt-marsh sod, cut in blocks 
eight or ten inches square, taken from the surface 
of the marsh in ditching. This had an enormous 
capacity for absorbing liquids, and a layer of 
these sods would keep a horse or cow comfortably 
dry for a fortnight. Refuse hay or straw was used 
on top for purposes of cleanliness. The saturated 
sod was thrown into the compost heap with other 
manure, where it made an excellent fertilizer. 
Later we used saw-dust, purchased for the purpose 
at two cents a bushel, as bedding for a cow kept 
upon a cemented floor. A bed a foot thick would 
last nearly a mouth, when it was thrown out into 
the compost heap. The saw-dust requires a longer 
time for decomposition, but saves the liquid ma¬ 
nure. Our present experiment, covering several 
months, is with forest leaves, principally hickory, 
maple, white-ash, and elm. A bushel of dried 
leaves, kept under a shed for the purpose, is added 
to the bedding of each animal, and the saturated 
leaves are removed with the solid manure as fast 
as they accumulate. The leaves become very fine 
by the constant treading of the animals, and by 
the heat of their bodies, and the manure pile 
grows rapidly. It is but a little additional labor to 
the ordinary task of keeping animals clean in their 
stalls, to use some good absorbent, and enough of 
it, to save all the liquid manure. What the absorb¬ 
ent shall be is a question of minor importance. 
Convenience will generally determine this matter. 
No labor upon the farm pays better than to save 
the urine of all farm stock by means of absorb¬ 
ents. These are in great variety, and, in some 
form, are within reach of every man that keeps 
cattle or runs a farm. Stop this leak, and lift your 
mortgage. Connecticut. 
