1882 .] 
AMEBIOAE" AGKIOULTURIST. 
319 
Fig. 2.— SIDE ELEVATION. 
. Brought over . $ 518.48 
4,000 feet 1-inch Finishing Stuff, at $30.00. 120.00 
1,000 feet l}<-inch Finishing Stuff, at $35.00. 35.00 
800 feet 2-inch Finishing Stuff, at $30.00 . 24.00 
700 feet X by 4-inch Ceiling, at $25.00. 17.50 
350 feet IX by 4-inch Flooring for Piazza, at $25.00. 8.75 
250 ft. 1H by 4-in. Ash Flooring for Kitchen, at $30. 7.50 
4,000 feet 6-inch Common Flooring, at $18.00. 72.00 
300 feet K-inch Finishing Stuff, at $35.00. 10.50 
3,000 feet Mouldings, V/i cts. average per foot.. 75.00 
1 Pair Front Doors, 4 ft. 6 in. by 8 ft., upper panels 
glass, 2-inch. 16.00 
1 Door, 2 ft. 8 in. by 7 ft., 2-inch. "| 
7Doors, 2 ft. 8 in. by 7 ft., l>^-inch. I Average 
4 Doors, 2 ft. 6 in. by 7 ft., l!4-inch. j- $2.25 
6 Doors, 2 ft. 8 in. by 6 ft. 8 in., l>^-inch. I each. 
6 Doors, 2 ft. 6 in. by 6 ft. 8 in., lj^-inch. J 54.00 
14 Windows, 4 Lights, 14 by 36 glass, 1%-in.') Aver- 
12 Windows, 4 Lights, 14 by 32 glass, lX-in. I age 
2 Windows, 4 Lights, 12 by 32 glass, 1%-iu. | $2.75 
7 Windows, 4 Lights, 14 by 28 glass, 1^-in. I each. 96.25 
8 Cellar Windows, 2 Lights, 14 oy 20 glass, $1.50 each. 12.00 
8 Sets inside and 27 Pairs outside Blinds, av. $1.75. 61.25 
:275 Days Carpenter Work, at $2.00 per day. 550.00 
175 Yards Excavating, at 15 cts. 26.25 
130 Perches, 16% ft. to perch of stone, laid at $1.50. 195.00 
12,000 Bricks, laid at $12.00 per 1,000. . 144.00 
1,400 Yards Plastering, 2 coats brown.l white.at 20c. 280.00 
Stone Steps, etc., $10.00; Center Pieces, etc., $25.00.. 35.00 
4 Marble Shelves with Brackets. 30.00 
Painting and Material. 250.00 
Wood-burning Furnace with Pipes, etc. 150.00 
Bath-room Fixtures and Plumbing. .. 75.00 
Nails, $40.00; Gutters, etc.. Tin Work, $35.00 . 75.00 
Doors, Windows and Blinds, with Trimmings, etc.. 125.00 
.200 lbs. Tarred Paper, at 7 cts. . 14.00 
Extras and Incidentals. 22.57 
Total Cost.$3,100.00 
Bee Notes for August. 
In many parts of the country there is a great 
dearth of nectar-bearing flowers this month—only 
•enough to keep the bees at breeding. If the bees 
secure no honey, they should be fed sparingly, a 
very little each day, so that the queen may not stop 
laying. In this way the brood rearing can be kept 
up, and there will be abundant bees to secure a 
rich store of autumn honey, and insure safe win¬ 
tering. If the queen once stops laying, it is often 
very difficult to start her again. Some bee-keepers 
say that feeding does no good, as upon trial the 
■queen still refused to lay. In all such cases the 
feeding was commenced too late. We have tried 
•experiments in this direction for many years, feed¬ 
ing part of our colonies, and omitting to feed 
others, and have always found the importance of 
feeding abundantly demonstrated. 
Robbing. 
Whenever the bees are not gathering honey, their 
industrious instincts lead them to become free¬ 
booters, and, robbing once commenced, woe to the 
weak colonies of the apiary. Nuclei are also very 
likely to fall a prey to these pillagers. Nothing 
more quickly induces robbing than the spilling or 
leaving of any honey or syrup about the apiary. 
Xet the bees once get a taste, and they become 
xavenous, and are at once on the rr'mpage to ap¬ 
propriate the property of others. Such a spirit of 
plunder may also be engendered by too frequently 
opening the hives during these times of enforced 
idleness. The colony robbed should have the en¬ 
trance nearly closed, so that only one bee can pass 
out at a time. Then almost any colony will defend 
itself, unless it has become entirely dispirited, 
when it must be closed up entirely, or carried into 
a cool room for a time. If closed, give sufficient 
ventilation, that the bees may not smother. 
Strong colonies are those that bring profit, and 
such will defend themselves against robbers at all 
times. The Italian bees are far less liable to suffer 
from robbers than are the blacks, while the Syrians 
are rarely thus troubled. Robbers that attack a 
Syrian colony find they have “caught a Tartar.” 
Notes. —The Syrian bees are more than sustain¬ 
ing their reputation. They have all of the points 
of superiority possessed by the Italians, magni¬ 
fied, except that of amiability, and as they are 
handled, they are becoming very manageable. 
This year our queenless colonies are very peace¬ 
able, while last year they were exceedingly irrita¬ 
ble. Their late and early breeding are points in 
their favor. For prolificness, they are marvels. 
They are superior in the points where Italians fail; 
they are slow to leave the hives on very windy 
days, a trait which natural selection would develop 
in the windy regions of Syria, and they are ready 
to go into the sections to store their honey. 
The National Bee-Keepers’ Association will meet 
in the Washington Park Hall, opposite the Exposi¬ 
tion Building, in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 3d to 
5th. Everything indicates that this meeting will 
be one of the best ever held in the world. Every 
bee-keeper should arrange to attend, if possible. 
Our Waning Forests. 
In all the numerous articles that have fallen 
under our notice about the destruction of our 
forests, we have never seen any doubts expressed 
about the facts in the case, or anything l^opeful 
upon the other side of the question. The impres¬ 
sion left upon the mind of the reader is, that every 
acre of woodland cut off is never renewed without 
artificial means, and that the country is doomed to 
barrenness in a few' generations at the longest, by 
reason of the disappearance of our forests. It 
takes so many millions of acres for fuel, still more 
for lumber, millions for railroad ties, agricultural 
tools and machines, lasts, shoe pegs, matches, 
boxes for packing, etc., every year, and at this rate, 
the country is soon to be denuded of its forests, 
the streams dried up, and our agriculture and 
manufactures depending upon water-power are 
coming to ruin in a very short time. This is the 
picture as it is presented to us by the city editor, 
as he looks at things from his sanctum. It is 
about time this nonsense was exploded, and the 
facts in the case stated as they appear to us wood- 
choppers and clod-hoppers in the country. It is 
undoubtedly true that there has been a great de¬ 
crease of forests in the old seaboard States, since 
the first settlement of the country, for that has 
been a necessity, without which there could be no 
agriculture, and not much increase of population. 
It took at least a hundred years in these States to 
remove so much of the forest as was an obstrue- 
j tion to agriculture. Not more than one-fifth of the 
area of a country need be left in wood, to secure 
its highest productiveness in farm crops. This 
point has not yet been reached in some parts of 
the seaboard States, yet in other parts it has been 
somewffiat passed, and there is a deficiency of wood 
for fuel and timber. The alarmists overlook the 
most important fact that very much of the timber 
land that is cleared in the older States is very soon 
renewed by natural agencies. There is a regular 
system of growth and clearing, and timber and 
fuel are as much reliable money crops as com and 
potatoes. On fair, average soil, a forest will renew 
itself once in twenty-five years. It would proba¬ 
bly pay better to stand thirty or forty years, but it 
is available, and can be turned into ready money 
every twenty-fifth year. A farmer with twenty-five 
acres of forest can clear an acre every year, with 
no diminution of woodland. In the rural districts 
of Connecticut, with which we have been familiar 
for the last fifty years, there has been no waning of 
forests. Ship-timber, near seaports, has grown 
scarce and high, but the price of wood for fuel is 
no higher, and in some markets is even cheaper 
than it was fifty years ago. The Census shows 
that, in the exclusively agricultural towns, there 
has been no increase of population, and in some of 
them a decrease during the last 40 or 50 years, so 
that there is no more demand for fuel and timber 
to-day than there was in the days of our grand¬ 
fathers. Wood for fuel, except in the shape of 
kindlings and charcoal, has gone out of use in our 
cities and villages on the seaboard and along the 
line of our railroads. Farmers, not a few, within 
four or five miles of these villages, are beginning 
to use coal, and the base-burner, once in the parlor 
or sitting room, soon drives out the wood fires and 
stoves from the rest of the house. Coal is found 
to be far cheaper, and a cleaner and more conven¬ 
ient fuel than wood, even for those who own wood 
lots. Kerosene is also becoming available for heat¬ 
ing, and we see no prospect in the future that wood 
for fuel will ever be any more in demand than it is 
to-day. It is doubtful if it ever will be dearer for 
lumber. Iron is taking its place in ships, bridges, 
machines, houses, and ymblic buildings, and the 
demand for iron, stoDe, brick, as the most desir¬ 
able materials for building is likely to increase as 
the country increases in wealth. In some of these 
rural districts there is more danger of a relapse into 
wilderness and barbarism, than of exterminating 
our forests for the advance of high farming and 
civilization. In 75 of our farming towns there was 
a decrease of 12,000 in population during the last 
decade, which means an increase of woodland. In 
a ride of an hour, yesterday, in one of the towns 
bordering on the Connecticut River, we passed six 
old chimney stacks and cellars, the sites of deserted 
homes, the road for much of the way bordered by 
forests. Even in the Nutmeg State, where we use 
some superfluous wood, it is difficult to feel the 
alarm about waning forests. Connecticut. 
Keeping Off Insects.—“ T. B.,” Wilkes- 
barre, Pa., says that he has for years used and still 
uses the following for keeping insects from his 
Beans, Squashes, Tomatoes, and other plants: 
When the seeds are put in the ground, or the 
plants are transplanted, he puts a few lettuce seeds 
in the hill, or puts some lettuce plants there. He 
says that this will keep off the bugs, “and no mis- 
