220 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Bee Notes for June. 
BT L. C. BOOT. 
The system ol management for the present month must 
he determined by the intentions of the bee-keeper. If 
box honey is desired, the boxes should now be properly 
arranged upon the hives. If the Extractor is to be used, 
extra combs should be supplied for this purpose. If in¬ 
crease of swarms is the object, rather than surplus honey, 
preparations for additional swarms should be made. 
In many locations, this is the month when natural 
swarms will issue most freely. In such sections, swarms 
may now be made artificially with most profit. There 
are many who allow swarms to issue naturally, but when 
unrestricted as to number, this is never desirable. Those 
who permit it should remember that it belongs to the 
benighted days of box hives and brimstone pits. It 
would hardly be possible for us to give the different 
methods of artificial increase in the limits of these Notes. 
They are treated upon at length in every practical work 
on the subject, and no progressive bee-keeper can afford 
to do without at least one such good work. 
“How much increase is desirable ? ’’—This question is 
often asked. In answer, we would say that probably 
most inexperienced bee-keepers will reach the greatest 
success by placing boxes upon the hives, as soon as the 
bees will occupy them, and allowing one swarm to issue 
from such, as the season induces them to swarm, but 
never allow more than one. In this way a reasonable 
amount ol increase may be secured, besides probably 
some surplus honey if the season be favorable. After the 
swarm issues, all of the queen cells should be removed 
from the combs, except one of the largest and most fully 
matured; or, what would be better, remove all, and in¬ 
troduce a laying queen. If the motto we have often rec¬ 
ommended, viz , “ Keep each hive supplied witli a lay¬ 
ing queen at. all times,” was observed, the gain of honey 
throughout the country would be doubled. If those bee¬ 
keepers who allow their bees to swarm without restraint 
would study the subject and see what they are losing, 
they would appreciate the value of this motto. It should 
be borne in mind, that when two or three swarms are 
allowed to issue, the old colony is without a queen from 
20 to 25 days. At a low estimate, 1,000 bees would have 
matured each day from the eggs which, under favorable 
circumstances, a queen would have deposited during 
this time. The loss arising from the absence of a queen 
for 20 days would amount to 20,000 bees. A colony should 
not be left qneenless for one day, as one can not afford 
the loss even of 1,000 bees. If much increase of swarms is 
desired, have laying queens in readiness, and when a 
colony is formed, which can best be done artificially, 
furnish it with a laying queen. Remove the boxes so 
soon as they are full, and supply their places with empty 
ones. All boxes and frames used should be supplied 
with starters, ot full sized cards of comb-foundation. 
[Mr. Root very properly advises bee-keepers to have 
one good work on the subject, but is quite too modest to 
mention the fact that he has written such a work him¬ 
self. The work is called “ Qninby’s New Bee-Keeping,” 
and it embodies the teachings of Mr. Quinby, but the 
work is really by Mr. Root, and it gives in full detail all 
the operations of the Apiary according to the best mod¬ 
ern practice.—Price, post-paid, $1 50.—Eds.] 
Salt on Wheat.— “J. P. G.,” Columbus, Ky. 
Salt in moderate quantities will not injure wheat, but it 
will not benefit it nearly so much as is claimed by some. 
For instance, it will not so moisten the ground in dry 
weather, as to avoid the ill effects of a drouth, nor will it 
destroy injurious insects. Pure salt does not attract 
moisture; it might possibly destroy insects if a suffi¬ 
ciently large quantity were used, but as so much as 5 
bushels per acre are rarely applied, its effect is not appre¬ 
ciable It is supposed that the beneficial action of salt, is 
to make the straw stiff', and to better fill out the grain. 
Early in the spring is the season for applying salt to 
wheat or grass that the best results may be obtained. 
How Much Hay for a Horse.- “B. F. II.,” 
Fairfax, la. A horse will eat 20 lbs. of hay, and 6 quarts 
of grain a day, and a large horse will consume one-fourth 
more than that. Much depends on the vigor <. the horse. 
The New Water Motor.— “C. H. G.,” Salt 
Lake City. We can give no more definite information 
about the water motor, nor of the address of the patentee, 
than we have already given. We believe the inventor is 
now in Europe, and is not giving any attention to his in¬ 
vention in this country. If any party made one for his 
own use, no penalty is attached to that, only a royalty 
could be exacted by the person holding the patent. 
Condition Powders or Medicine Food. 
—When a food for animals, or a medicine for them, is ad¬ 
vertised in our columns, it is proof that we know what 
the articles are. The “Condition Powders” to be given 
to horses and other animals, Egg food for poultry, con 
tain articles well known as tonics or laxatives, to regu¬ 
late the bowels; they not only contain useful ingredients, 
but they do not contain anything which may not be given 
with safety. Were we to publish the recipes, very few 
would be at the trouble of getting the various seeds, 
roots, etc., and mixing to make the powder themselves. 
The same things ready prepared, and to be bought at a 
moderate price, will be purchased, and as they are ready 
for use, will be given, when otherwise they would not. 
The English Bee-Keepers.— The season of 
1879 in England has been one of general disappointment, 
and none have suffered worse than the bee keepers. 
“ And now that this wretched season (‘ Agricultural Ga¬ 
zette,’ London) is coming to a close, those that really 
care for their bees must unbutton their pockets and buy 
food for them .. It will take years for the country to 
recover the loss ef hives of bees during the season of 
1879, and bees must not be only very scarce, but also very 
valuable.”—The English bee-keepers may have the con¬ 
solation that the probabilities are entirely against their 
having another such an unfavorable year. 
Abortion In Ewes.— “ J. C. D.,” Clinton, Conn. 
A ewe cannot be expected to produce a strong lamb, or a 
lamb at all, unless provided with nutritious food. 
“ Herd’s Grass,” (Timothy), and salt hay, is not sufficient 
to properly nourish a breeding ewe, and enable her to 
produce a lamb. “ Out of nothing, nothing comes.” A 
pint of bran and oats, or less, a day for each ewe, would 
probably have prevented the loss of the lambs. 
The Post-Stamp Nonsense.— Every now and 
then a letter comes to the effect that the writer has heard 
that a price has been offered for a million cancelled post¬ 
age stamps, and asking us to give the address of the per¬ 
son making the offer. Several years ago we heard of a 
similar offer in England. Parties here seem to have the 
matter all straight except the name and address of the 
one who will pay the $5, $50, $100, or whatever the sum, 
which varies greatly. The whole matter seems to us a 
piece of idle nonsense. Cancelled stamps are of no other 
possible use than to grind up to be worked into paper, 
and the mills can pay but a few cents per pound for this, 
or any other waste paper. But who makes the offer ? 
Record for Dairy Cow.— “W. K.” The new 
association for recording yields of Dairy Cows, is now in 
operation. The Secretary is L. S. Hardin, 309 Green¬ 
wich St., New York. The object of the Association, is 
the improvement of dairy stock, by encouraging the reg¬ 
ular noting of the yields of butter and milk, and by fur¬ 
nishing an opportunity for recording these in permanent 
form, of which certificates may be given. Any cows or 
bulls from recorded cows, can be entered irrespective of 
breed or kind. Knowing by these records the value of 
each of his cows, an owner will be apt to keep only his 
best animals, and endeavor to improve his stock, and if 
this recording should become general, it would soon 
double the value of our dairy animals. 
Short Notes about Food.— Two aged clergy¬ 
men were chatting together, when one of them, referring 
to his long years of effective labor, said “ he thanked God 
for having given him lungs of brass.”—The other replied 
“he was thankful that his lungs were not made of brass, 
for they would have been worn out long ago.”—Unlike 
other machines, our bodies keep renewing themselves 
as they wear away. We eat, say a piece of bread and of 
meat. After being mixed with saliva in the mouth, 
they go down into the grinding or dissolving mill, the 
stomach. From millions of little tubes all over its sur¬ 
face, a fluid is poured in called the gastric juice. By a 
sort of shaking up process this juice mixes with the food, 
dissolves as much of it as it can, and forms a sort of 
liquid which passes out of the right side of the stomach 
into a large tube called the duodenum (about 12 inches 
long). While the food is in the stomach some of it is ab¬ 
sorbed through its coatings and goes into the blood, to be 
distributed through the body as described below. As 
the dissolved food enters the duodenum, the liver pours 
in a little bile, a green bitter fluid, and before it leaves 
this tube another kind of fluid, called the pancreatic 
juice, is also poured in. Now, the bread and meat (or 
other food), having been ground (masticated) in the 
mouth, dissolved (digested) in the stomach, and received 
its four distinct or different fluid additions—the saliva, 
the gastric juice, the bile, and the pancreatic juice, is a 
sort of milky fluid, and it passes into the upper end of 
the small intestine, a tube about 25 feet long in a full 
grown person, which coils back and forth across the ab¬ 
domen down to its base, when it turns back and the 
whole coil passes under the stomach and down on the 
right side to its exit. A sort of worm-like (peristaltic) 
motion keeps pushing the food along. All over the in¬ 
side surface of the long tube (or intestines) are millions 
of little open mouths of tubes that suck out some of the 
fluid food and carry it into the blood in the veins. This 
blood, carrying the food particles, flows into the left side 
of the heart, where a sort of force-pump sends it through 
arteries into the lungs. There it comes in contact with 
the air brealhed in. Other veins carry it back to the 
right side of the heart, where another force-pump drives 
it out through the arteries that branch out to every point 
of the living body—even into the bones, the finger nails, 
and the hairs. As this food-bearing blood passes along, 
every part of the body picks out some particles which are 
just suited to take the place of other used up particles 
that it has pushed out into the veins—the veins carry 
the dead matter, some to the lungs to go out in the 
breath, some to the bladder to go off in the urine, some 
to the skin surface to escape there. Thus it is that this 
wonderful machine is daily and hourly rebuilt out of 
food—Different kinds of food serve different purposes. 
Carbonaceous food, as starch, sugar, etc., supply materials 
for making fat, and for uniting with air (its oxygen)’ 
that gets into the blood through the lungs to produce 
heat all through the body, just as carbon (coal) in the 
stove Iproduces heat there. Other portions of food, as 
lean meat, gluten of bread, casein or curd of milk (called 
nitrogenous substances), go to build up and repair the 
muscles and tendons of the body—they are strength¬ 
giving foeds. Some phosphates of lime in the food build 
up and replenish the waste of the bones_Three prac¬ 
tical hints: As above described, it takes from different 
fluids to prepare the food. If one swallows food without 
thoroughly chewing it to mix it with plenty of saliva in 
the mouth, an important ingredient is missing.— Second. 
If the food is not well ground in the mouth, it is longer 
and slower in dissolving in the stomach, and that organ 
is over-worked, and often becomes weak and diseased.— 
Third. If too much food goes down at a meal, the stom¬ 
ach is overloaded and can not properly prepare the food 
for the next process. Some of it goes into the intestines 
undigested (undissolved), through the intestine, produc¬ 
ing irritation, inflammation, colic, and often diarrhoea,, 
dysentery, or other disorders, often of a serious nature. 
Grimshaw on Saws, is a handsome volume of 
about 160 large octavo pages, on heavy paper, with over 
200 engravings, some of full page size, illustrating every 
possible style of saw, from the simplest to the most 
elaborate gang saws. Every detail about their manufac¬ 
ture and use, filing, setting, gumming, and repairing, is 
here given, and the book bears evidence of great thor¬ 
oughness and completeness. Every patent relating to 
saws issued since 1790 is here given, as well as various 
useful tables. The author is Robt. Grimshaw, Ph. D.,. 
published by Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, Philadel¬ 
phia. Sent from this office for $2.50 by mail. 
High. Farming— What is It ?—To be brief, is 
it the growing of the best crops on the best soil under the 
best conditions; and finally the crop giving the best 
profit in return ?—No. There are cases when a compara¬ 
tively poor crop grown on a poor soil with little or no 
attention, may give the best returns—as is the case in 
the imperative extensive farming of a new country. High 
farming is when much capital is expended on little land 
for the production of large crops of great value. The 
production of beef on the plains may be as profitable as 
the growing of onions, but it is not high farming—it is 
the character of the culture the soil receives and not the. 
profit, that determines whether farming is high or low. 
High farming is the profitable farming of old thickly 
settled countries, and the kind that we are tending to; but 
as yet it is by no means the best farming in all sections. 
The Farmers’ Friend, and Gnide for 
1880 is the title of a work of 200 pages about the size 
of the American Agriculturist, and filled with extracts 
from the agricultural papers in all parts of the country. 
Mr. Frank Harrison is the compiler, and at 50c. gives a 
great deal of excellent information for the money. 
A Beet Quarterly.—“The Sugar Beet” is the 
title of a journal of 16 pages about the size of this, which, 
has for its object the familiarizing of farmers with ali 
that relates to Sugar Beets and their culture, and to give 
news items concerning the beet-sugar industry. The 
editors are Robert Grimshaw and L. S. Ware, Published 
every three months by Henry Carey Baird & Co., Phila¬ 
delphia, at 50 cents a year. 
“Two Birds With One Stone.”—During a 
recent visit to a farmer friend, we noticed a leak in the. 
tin pipe, through which he was pumping water for some 
cows and called the attention of our friend to the sup¬ 
posed waste, only to be informed that these holes were, 
made on purpose to let some water run out into a large 
dish (which we had not observed) to furnish drink for 
the fowls. In this way, without any extra effort, both 
the cows and chickens were at the same time supplied 
with their necessary water. 
{Basket Items continued on page 245.) 
