AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
327 
dent. Clover seed, also, is likely to turn out 
well. This county (Franklin) is generally re¬ 
garded as the most productive in this article in 
the State. 
I might also state, that I planted two pounds of 
the Mexican potato in my garden, and am so well 
pleased with both the quality and the yield of this 
new article, that I intend to plant all I have the 
coming season. I obtained half a bushel from 
those two pounds. In quality, they are fully equal 
to the Mercer for table use—of good size (although 
the seed was small), and, like the Mercer, of ob¬ 
long form. The eyes are very li‘.le indented— 
less so than any potato I know. 
Our agricultural exhibitions, which promised so 
well a few years ago, have been suspended, owing 
to some local difficulties, and perhaps also to some 
mismanagement. B. S. S. 
Cliambersburg,Vx., Oct. 11, 1858. 
[We are glad our esteemed correspondent, 
though having editorial duties to perform for two 
periodicals (German), delights in the employ¬ 
ments of farm life. His suggestions respecting 
the frequent and extensive exchange of seed 
among farmers are specially important. This 
should be more generally practiced.— Ed.] 
-- 
Waste Manure in Cities—Home-Made 
Fertilizers. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I am aware that you have, from time to time, 
deplored the loss, to farmers, of so much of 
the very best fertilizing materials, now yearly 
washed, or carted into the rivers, from the great 
cities. But the subject should not be dropped, so 
long as we are paying the Peruvian Government 
so many millions of dollars each year for guano, 
to say nothing of the expense of getting it. home. 
The Chinese, whose ideas of “ outside barbar- 
ianism ’’ we are accustomed to “ reciprocate,” 
are capable of instructing us on this point, as you 
appropriately showed in the September Agricultu¬ 
rist. Who would pretend to say, that one-half 
the money now annually expended upon foreign 
ferlilizers would not, if rightly applied, secure 
much more real value from the waste of cities, 
besides contributing materially to their sanitary 
condition 1 
As land in the vicinity of market towns is al¬ 
most yearly increasing in value, and the products 
of the soil advancing in price, so is the demand 
made upon the compost heap, which those towns 
are abundantly able to meet; and that city, or 
corporation, will well earn the title of benefactor, 
which first moves in this matter, and, by a system 
of sewerage, vats, and deodorizers, manufactures, 
and turn over to the farmer, in proper shape, its 
now worse than wasted manures. 
A Farmer turned Citizen. 
Remark. —This subject is an important one, 
and may well claim attention, as it has always 
done in these pages, and elsewhere. But we have 
this much to say : there is not one farm in two 
thousand, on which there is not a great waste of 
animal excrements, human and other, as well as 
of vegetable matters, which might be turned to 
very profitable account, as fertilizers. That is a 
fine theory which embraces the idea of gather¬ 
ing up and returning to the soil, the organic ma¬ 
terials wasted by the thousands inhabiting our 
cities and villages—it would be still better in prac¬ 
tice, if the millions living on farms would begin 
at home the work of saving and using the solid 
and liquid excrements, the offal, the decaying 
veeetables, the muck and swamp mud now going 
to waste. The first movement towards saving 
home manures must begin among cultivators 
themselves. Let the work begin then, in and 
around their own dwellings, and it will very soon 
extend to the cities—to the manifest advantage, 
sanitary and pecuniary, of all classes. 
Bees and Bee Culture. 
The sight of large buckwheat fields in full flow¬ 
er, as we were journeying in August last, led us to 
wish that bees were cultivated on a more exten¬ 
sive scale in every place where white clover and 
buckwheat are grown in large quantities. Bee¬ 
keeping, like every other branch of domestic econ¬ 
omy, has its successes and its failures, and re¬ 
quires care, intelligence and prudence. Bees 
left entirely to themselves can, without doubt, 
usually provide for themselves ; but it is quite as 
true, that bees left to themselves cannot provide 
for their owners. They need to be taken care of 
as much as poultry need it. And if profit is to 
be derived from bees, it must be from bee culture. 
There is no more need of trusting to luck than 
there is in agriculture. A rainy season, like the 
last Summer, may be unfavorable to swarming, 
and to a large ingathering of honey. And so 
drought may injure corn or grass. Of course the 
products of the hive vary in amount from year to 
year, but so do the products of the orchard, the 
garden, and the farm. If bee-culture, as some 
suppose, were merely a matter of luck, we should 
have nothing to do with it in the Agriculturist; 
but viewing it in a different light we have devoted 
to it, and shall continue to devote to it, no small 
part of our attention. The past numbers of this 
volume will always be valuable for reference in 
this department, as well as in others, but we have 
by no means done with the subject. The topic is 
not only one of the most interesting connected 
with rural life, but also one of no small import¬ 
ance as regards profit. As we said a year or 
two ago (volume 16, page 83), “ here is a crea¬ 
ture that works for nothing, and finds itself; that 
needs no superintendence in its foraging excur¬ 
sions ; that asks only for shelter and occasional 
supervision and protection from its enemies, and 
that, furnishes an indefinite number of pounds of 
costly sweets, all ready for the table, or packed 
for market, in an attractive form, all of which 
is absolutely saved from utter waste.” What 
can be more profitable 1 What can more richly 
repay the owner for the care and outlay required 
on his part. 
We take it, that the great secret of successful 
bee culture consists in knowing what to do, and do¬ 
ing it at the right moment ; and this secret we 
shall try to divulge openly in our columns, without 
extra charge. There are also some things about 
bees and bee-hives that call for experiment, and 
respecting which diversity of views prevails. 
These also may he discussed profitably, for the 
comparison of views of intelligent men on such 
subjects is surely desirable. We therefore solicit 
from our regular contributors, and from our cor¬ 
respondents and readers, hints and suggestions 
which may he instructive and interesting, con¬ 
cerning the care ancj treatment, as well as the 
habits of the honey-bee. Our ample pages will 
afford the room required hy those who would 
otherwise desire to have a journal devoted entire¬ 
ly to the apiary. 
Though we do not often undertake to moralise 
on this subject, we cannot forbear to quote the 
following well-told story, from the Worcester 
Spy, which has its practical lesson appended : 
a donkey among the dees. 
A laughable occurrence took place a day or twc 
since upon a farm in the outskirts of the city, ir 
which a donkey occupied a very prominent part 
and showed himself to be a far less intelligent 
animal than the one “ we read of,” who, when 
penned up in the farm-yard with the chickens, re¬ 
marked, as he trod them under foot, “ Ever) 
one for himself and God for us all.” 
This modern donkey being penned up in a 
yard, under circumstances quite similar to those 
of his ancient prototype, undertook the more dan¬ 
gerous experiment of treading on the bees ; so he 
thrust his ugly nose against the hives, and made 
a determined onset upon the whole row, as if each 
individual hive was a trough of meal. Not relish¬ 
ing such familiarity with their domestic arrange¬ 
ments, the bees rushed out in swarms and com¬ 
menced their assaults upon him in such a savage 
manner as made the poor beast think he must 
leave in a hurry, which he accordingly did. But 
the bees, not content with acting merely on the 
defensive, seemed determined to punish him foi 
his temerity, and give him a lesson which should 
last him through life. Literally covering his 
whole body, they stung him on bis nose, they 
stung him in his ears, they stung him in his eyes. 
Upon his back and upon his belly, upon his neck 
and upon his legs, they fastened themselves by 
hundreds and by thousands, and wherever a sting 
could penetrate, the poor donkey had to take it. 
Frantic with rage and pain, the animal hrayed 
and bellowed, and ran and jumped, and lashed 
his sides with his tail; and finally, as if in utter 
despair of getting rid of his assailants, he threw 
himself upon the ground and rolled over and over 
in an agony of pain. Finding this to be of little 
use, and that his assailants seemed to multiply 
rather than diminish, the poor donkey picked him¬ 
self up again, and seeing the kitchen door open, 
with ears and tail erect, and eyes glistening 
with tears and terror, he made a rush into the 
house. Thither the bees followed him and 
such a scene as then ensued has seldom been 
enacted. In vain the donkey rolled upon the 
floor—in vain he jumped over the cook-stove, 
overturned the chairs, and upset the table, the 
bees had not done with him yet, and it was not 
until the whole household, summoned by the noise, 
had worked vigorously for some minutes with 
napkins and dusting brushes, that poor Jack Don¬ 
key was sufficiently rid of his enemies to be able 
to leave in safety by another door than that which 
he had entered. 
This is no fable reader, but a veracious narra¬ 
tive ; yet there is a moral to it just as good as if 
it were a fable, and one which the strong, who 
attempt to oppress the insignificant and appar¬ 
ently weak—and the meddlesome, who are in¬ 
clined to poke their noses into other people’s 
business, and the covetous, who hanker after 
that which does not belong to them, would do 
well to consider—for all such are liable to the 
same experiences as the donkey met with among 
the bee-hives. 
-- — - — - —•- 
Wanted by a market gardener, an experienced 
cooper to assist in heading cabbages. 
