1884] 
AMEEIOAIT AGEIOULTUEIST. 
treated in the same manner. As soon as the soil 
can be made fit for the seeds, sow spinach in rows 
fifteen inches apart, and at intervals of a week 
until the middle of May. Beets may be sown in 
the same manner, especially for greens, or they 
may be thinned, leaving a part of the seedling 
beets to form roots. By proper management the 
farmer can provide a daily supply of greens. 
Preparing Corn Ground in the West. 
Over a large part of the Western prairie regions 
corn is by far the most important crop. Except 
for the first two or three years after the sod is 
broken, it is the most certain, and the most re¬ 
munerative. There is no way to ensure a crop the 
same year the ground is opened. But when 
breaking is done quite early, as soon as vegetation 
starts, and the seed is put in the sod with a spade, 
or better with a horse-planter having a “ sod at¬ 
tachment,” a moderate crop may frequently be 
obtained. On certain soils, and in wet years, sod 
corn sometimes yields thirty bushels per acre ; but 
this cannot be counted on with certainty.—A much 
surer way is to break the sod as usual, and follow 
the breaking plow with a smaller stirring plow 
which throws up a strip from tlie bottom of the 
first furrow. This subsoil can be torn to pieces i 
with the harrow to form a good mellow surface 
bed. Corn planted in this way, with a planter, 
will yield an aver.age crop without any cultiva¬ 
tion. In hot, moist seasons the yield will be larger. 
In preparing land for corn farmers differ in 
opinion as to whether it is better to gather and 
burn vegetable rubbish, corn stalks and the like, 
or to cut it up with a stalk cutter and plow it un¬ 
der. The latter urge that the stalks and stubble 
covered by the plow enable the land to stand 
drouth better and that rotting in the ground they 
help to increase its fertility. The former argue that 
this rubbish furnishes harbor for insects during 
winter, and that burning the trash kills large num¬ 
bers of these, and destroys many seeds of weeds. 
It is claimed, too, that some of the stalks which are 
plowed under remain near the surface and inter¬ 
fere with the regular operation of the planter, the 
runners rising nearly or quite out of the ground 
when passing over them, and then dropping too 
deep for a time.—Where the listing machine is 
used it is absolutely necessary to rake and burn all 
trash on the surface. Some readers of the Ameri¬ 
can Ag>-iculUi7-ist may not be acquainted with this 
peculiar machine for planting corn. It looks like 
a right and a left-hand plow with the landsides 
placed together, forming in fact a stout shovel 
plow. It is usually drawn by three horses and 
throws up a furrow on each side. Just under the 
inside is a sort of miniature subsoil plow, or stirrer, 
which tears up and mellows the soil in the bottom 
of the furrow. In the machines most used about 
here the planting apparatus is separate from the 
furrowing part, and follows after it, drawn by a 
different team ; but sometimes they are united iu 
one.—Farmers differ as to the merits of the two 
methods. The truth seems to be that in warm, 
dry springs, on laud free from trash the combined 
implement works admirably, especially for late 
planting after the ground becomes warm, since it 
allows the plowing and planting to go on together. 
It is by all odds the cheapest, as two men with four 
horses will, with the combined implement, plow the 
ground and plant five to seven acres of corn per day. 
In Nebraska and Kansas there is some difference 
of opinion as to the comparative advantages of faU 
and spring plowing for corn, with a large prepon¬ 
derance in favor of the former. When land is 
moist enough in autumn to plow well, it is usually 
if not always best to plow it then; but if so dry 
that it cannot be well plowed, leave it until spring. 
Whether the plowing should be deep or shallow 
depends upon the kind of soil. On deep, black 
soft loams, corn roots will penetrate as readily into 
the subsoil as into the plowed portion, and tittle is 
gained by stirring it, though an occasional deeper 
plowing, even in soft loamy soil exposes fresh,por¬ 
tions to the atmosphere, and develops more 
plant food. For stiffer subsoils, packing easily, it 
pays to plow deeper to pulverize and aerate them. 
Where deep plowing is the rule, its advantages 
will be most striking in dry seasons. In 1874, a 
very dry year in Nebraska, there were in Sai'py 
County two corn fields, side by side, each contain¬ 
ing about sixtj’ acres. The soil was the same, 
plowed and planted at the same time, and culti¬ 
vated substantially alike except that one was 
plowed seven to eight inches deep, the other three 
to four. The former yielded about forty bushels 
per acre, the latter showed only an occasional ear, 
and yielded not over six or eight bushels per acre. 
Taking one year with another, on all prairie up¬ 
lands, it is safe to plow pretty deeply. Yet it must 
be admitted that in some cases good fair crops of 
corn have been raised by planting between the old 
corn rows, and not plowing the ground at all.—For 
fall plowed ground it is frequently necessary, and 
always desirable, to cultivate it before planting. 
This is usually done with the common four-shovel 
corn plow. The pairs of shovels are spread as far 
as possible apart, and on returning, two shovels 
are made to run between the marks made going 
the other way, and the other two run outside, thus 
stirring all the ground. This cultivation keeps 
down weeds until the corn gets a start, and loosens 
up the surface soil so that it warms better and 
starts the corn sooner. After thus cultivating, it 
pays to harrow once across the cultivator marks, 
and many good farmers roll before planting. 
All of these things take time, and many are im¬ 
patient of anything but the shortest and easiest 
way. Now it is possible for a smart man with a 
good team and implements to plow the ground, 
plant, and cultivate an acre of corn with one day’s 
work of himself and team, thus : fourteen acres of 
land can be plowed in six days, and planted in one 
day, with a two-horse planter and check rotver; 
harrowing once, one day ; cultivating first time, 
two and a half days ; other two times, three and a 
half days, making just fourteen days in all. It 
is conceded that there would be more profit in 
giving more time to it and doing the work better. 
Shelf for the Stable Dog. 
A good dog about the stable is very desirable, 
and the writer is confident he has saved many dol¬ 
lars by keeping one. It is not fair to let him sleep 
just where he can find a place to lie down, while a 
dog-house is apt to be neglected and be infested 
with vermin. To afford the dog a chance to be 
cleanly and comfortable, make him a shelf or plat¬ 
form of one inch pine, planed, two feet wide by 
three feet long, or according to his size. Tack a 
two-inch cleat around three sides of it, projecting 
an inch on the upper side. Put this up securely 
where it will not be too much in the way, but will 
still be in sight of the main entrance to the stable. 
If not in a corner, it can be supported in front with 
two by one inch pieces, as shown in the engraving. 
Twelve to eighteen inches is a convenient hight 
from the floor. A good thick mat, soft and clean, 
or even a piece of carpet, should be provided, and 
the dog can very soon be taught to lie there and 
keep an eye on his master’s property. D. Z. E. 
9T 
Bee Notes. 
BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 
Varieties of Bees.— The good qualities of 
the Italians are: amiability, industry, length of 
tongue, and the masterly manner in which they 
defend their combs from the bee-moth larvae. 
Their undesirable traits are : persistent clinging to 
the combs when an attempt is made to dislodge 
them, indisposition to enter surplus receptacles, 
and their manner of filling the cells so full of honey 
that it touches the cappings, which gives to the 
combs a dark, watery appearance.—The Black or 
German bees are superior comb-builders, their 
eombs are straight and true, and are snowy white 
on account of the empty space they leave under the 
cappings ; they readily enter the surplus depart¬ 
ment, and they can be easily shaken from the 
combs ; while their unpleasantly irritable nature, 
and their unprofitable habit of not storing very 
much surplus unless the pasturage is excellent, 
are certainly undesirable characteristics.—The 
Syrians, which have lately been introduced, have 
no valuable qualities not possessed by the Italians, 
while they have the additional bad ones of ex¬ 
treme viciousness, prolificness, and of not properly 
ripening and sealing the honey. It may seem sur¬ 
prising that we should consider extreme prolific¬ 
ness undesirable. It is valuable to the man who 
rears bees and queens for sale, but not to the honey 
producer, who looks to the quality rather than to 
the quantity of his bees. The Syrians breed from 
early spring until late in autumn, never stopping 
so long as a drop of honey remains in the hive ; 
while tiieir main object in rearing bees appears to 
be that the bees may gather honey with which to 
rear more bees. Their philoprogenitiveness is 
greater than their acquisitiveness.—For producing 
extracted honey, the dark, leather-colored Italians 
have no superiors, but the producer of comb-honey 
who ignores the good qualities of the German bee, 
does so at a loss. In short, the best bee for pro¬ 
ducing comb honey is a judicious cross between 
the dark, leather-colored Italian and the brown 
German, or so-called ‘‘ black bee.” 
Queens Entering the Surplus Department.— 
Many bee-keepers, when working for extracted 
honey, have been troubled by the queen en¬ 
tering and depositing eggs in the section boxes, 
or in the combs of an npper story. To rem¬ 
edy this, zinc honey boards have been used, 
perforated with holes of such a size as to allow 
workers but not the queen to pass tlirough. The 
principal objection to these honey boards is their 
expense ; and one bee-keeper the past season suc¬ 
cessfully substituted slats of wood placed near 
enough together to exclude the queen but not the 
workers. These cost only a third as much as zinc. 
Labels.—A neat, attractive, but small one is best 
for glass packages. When honey is put up in tin 
there is some excuse for adornment with labels, but 
even then highly colored, flaming labels give too 
much of a tin-can, bar-soap, groceryfied appear¬ 
ance. Leave the gaudy “ chromos” to the packers 
of fish, fruit and vegetables; the product of the 
apiary requires nothing of the kind ; it is beautiful 
in itself. “ Beauty unadorned is most adorned.” 
Straight Combs Without Separators.— 
Separators, that is, sheets of tin introduced 
into the surplus department of hives to insure 
the building of straight combs, are being dis¬ 
carded by many of the leading honey producers. 
Had sections been made narrower when first in¬ 
vented, and had the “glassing” of filled sections 
never been in vogue, probably separators would 
have remained unused. Sections an-inch-and-a- 
half wide, instead of the usual two inches, are the 
