1861.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
259 
.ye quite sure to be robbed by stronger ones, which thus 
get a bad habit, and will be induced to attack others. Late 
swarms which are strong enough to winter, but lack honey, 
should not be fed this month—as many recommend—un¬ 
less they can be fed sufficiently to construct comb in which 
to store it, and rear considerable brood. Next month, the 
brood will mature, and leave the cells, and give room for 
several pounds of honey.When two or three feeble 
colonies stand near together, and contain bees enough for 
a good colony, they may be united for a winter stock, if 
fed properly. To prevent quarreling, sprinkle with sugar 
water flavored with a few drops of peppermint, or other 
essence. Condemned colonies will have a little more 
honey if taken now, than if later ; yet when all the brood 
is matured and out of the way, it it will be nicer. Stocks 
in which much foul brood has appeared, should be re¬ 
moved at once. It will not do to wait for such to mature 
all their brood, as they continue to rear that till cold 
weather, and in the mean time may get robbed, which 
would infect other hives with the disease. When cells of 
honey and dead brood are mixed together in the same 
comb, it is best disposed of by burying—the honey is unfit 
for use, very little wax can be made from it, and the bees 
should not be allowed to take a particle. Stocks of any 
age may be attacked, and hence all should be examined 
where the disease is prevalent. When a stock is diseased 
just enough to condemn it, yet not sufficiently to prevent 
it from being wintered, it may be kept, but some hive 
containing combs and a small quantity of honey, should 
be provided to which to transfer in the Spring. Honey 
taken from such hives, when it can be cut out free from 
the mixture of brood, is suitable for the table; it may be 
eaten with no bad effects. The inferior pieces may be 
strained. By scalding thoroughly, and skimming, it 
may be fed to the bees with safety. 
lr.,o which are thrown various useful or interesting 
Items , Replies to Questions, Extracts from Letters, Glean¬ 
ings from other Journals, etc. 
Ask Questions—Send Items. —An unlimited 
number of suggestive questions are always welcome to 
the Agriculturist "Drawer and especially is this the case 
in regard to items of experience and observation that fur¬ 
nish information or hints to others. We by no means 
claim to have time, or room, or ability, to answer every 
query, but this journal is in one sense a great “ manufac¬ 
turing storehouse,” for receiving and “working up” the 
experiences and suggestions gathered from every quarter. 
The Crop Reports on page 284, with the Market 
Review on page 283, will be found interesting this month. 
That Mint to Agricultural Societies.— It 
may be well to remind the managers of Agricultural So¬ 
cieties of what was done by the Ozaukee County Society 
(Wis.), last Autumn. They subscribed for 100 copies of 
the Agriculturist at full rates, to be distributed as premi¬ 
ums to exhibitors. They of course received our premium 
of a Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine, which was ex¬ 
hibited and kept in operation at the fair, and sold at auc¬ 
tion at the close, for almost half of what they paid us for 
the subscribers. It is not too late for other Societies to 
do the same thing this Fall. 
What Rockland County Farmers Slid.— 
Last Fall they made up in one town a club of subscribers 
feff 100 copies of the Agriculturist, each one pledging a 
dollar if needed. They sent on the names and money 
early (or one of the club did so), and received the premi¬ 
um Sewing Machine. The Machine was put up at auc¬ 
tion and sold for $41, which was deducted from the $100 
to be raised, so that they were only assessed 59 cents 
each for the year’s subscription, and received the seeds ex¬ 
tra. The same thing could be done in a thousand places 
this year. Extra copies to all new new names coming in 
tills month. See pages 282 and 288. 
44 Noticing” Advertisements. —A manufactur¬ 
er writes that if we will give him a “ notice,” he will send 
a long advertisement, and “ pay for both it and the notice.” 
Well, friend, we don’t sell “notices.” If your adver¬ 
tisement Is not a deceptive one, nor otherwise objection¬ 
able, it will be inserted at the regular price. If the inter¬ 
ests of our readers seem to demand a “ notice,” and it is 
convenient, we may give one, but it must be just as we 
think. A firm sent us a barrel of a new kind of potatoes 
asking us to “ try and report by notice.” We did so, and 
they have never forgiven us. We are sorry, but we did 
just as they requested. They certainly could not expect 
But a barrel of potatoes would buy a favorable report if 
tie facts did not warrant it. 
New Agr. Supt. of the Patent Office.— We 
learn by telegraph from Washington, that Dr. Locke has 
just been appointed Paymaster in the Army, and that Mr. 
Isaac Newton, of Delaware Co., Pa., has been appointed 
to the superintendency of the Agricultural Division of the 
Patent Office. We are sorry to lose Dr. L., as from a re¬ 
cent visit to the Department at Washington, we had come 
to hope for a decided improvement over the old regime. 
But for aught we know, Mr. Newton may be the right man 
in the right place. He has a fine field open before him 
Flax Cotton— $500 Premium. —We announced 
last month, page 251, a premium of $30 offered by the 
Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic 
Industry, for a bale of the best prepared Flax Cotton, not 
less than 50 lbs. We are glad to learn that some public 
spirited persons placed funds at the disposal of the Society, 
so that the offer is now increased to $500 instead of $30. 
The offer is not confined to the State. The Exhibition is 
to take place at Providence, Sept. 11. Further informa¬ 
tion may be had by addressing the Secretary of the Soci¬ 
ety, W. R. Staples, Providence. 
Sowing Grass Seed Tliickly.—An aged farm¬ 
er of Pennsylvania, in a letter to the American Agricultur¬ 
ist, says: “_After nearly fifty years of experience 
a»l observation, among my neighbors and elsewhere, I 
am convinced that too little grass seed is sown. Here I 
see a field with only half plants enough growing ; would 
not a double quantity of seed have filled up the gaps ? The 
cost of the seed was 60 cents per acre. Another 60 cents 
worth of seed would have made this year’s mowing and 
pasturage worth $12 an acre, while it is now worth only 
$6. I never saw grass too thick ; but I have seen it too 
thin on hundreds of fields.. ..Formerly I sowed 4 quarts 
of clover seed and 8 quarts of timothy seed to the acre; 
now I never sow less than 8 or 10 quarts of clover, and 
14 to 18 quarts of timothy, and since doing this I have had 
no failure, but generally a heavy mat of fine grass.” 
Sweet Scented Clover (Mclilotus alba).— James 
Wolverton, of Schuyler Co., N. Y., sent us last Spring 
some seed which he called “ California Clover Seed, 
considered quite a novelty.” On growing, it proves to be 
the Melilotus alba, or sweet scented clover. It is very 
common in Europe, and in many parts of this country. 
The seed is kept at all large seed stores. It grows 4 to 5 
feet high, very branching, perennial, and is sometimes 
used for fodder when small. It yields a fragrant odor long 
after drying. The seedis used in Switzerland for flavor¬ 
ing cheese. 
Size of a Bushel Box. —An Oregon subscriber of 
the Agriculturist asks how to get up a bushel measure. 
If he can not buy a cheap, correct bushel measure, he 
can easily make a bushel or half bushel box. Our stand¬ 
ard bushel contains 2150>f cubic inches, (or to be very 
accurate 2150, 42-100th inches). Make the box so that its 
three dimensions in inches, multiplied together, shall just 
equal 2150K. Thus if it be 10 inches square it will need 
to be 21 % inches high. If a foot square, then very nearly 
15 inches high (accurately 14.934-1000 inches). A conve¬ 
nient half bushel box is one a foot square and ~)4 inches 
high. A bushel lacks only 10 cubic inches, or one-third 
of a gill, of being IK cubic feet. (The above is the old 
Winchester bushel, the standard in this country. The 
present Imperial bushel of Great Britain contains 2218 1-5 
inches, or accurately 2218 192-1000ths inches ; and 33 of 
our bushels equal 32 Imperial bushels.) 
Measuring flush oiled Corn in the Crib.— 
Allowing the old rule of two bushels of ears for one of 
shelled corn, multiply together the length, breadth, and 
bight of the corn in feet. Multiply this bv 2 and divide 
it by 5, for the bushels of shelled corn; or what is the 
same thing, multiply by 4 and cut off the right hand 
figure. Example. —A bin is 4 feet wide, 5 feet high, and 
15 feet long. These multiplied together give 300 feet. 
Multiplying by 4 gives 1200 feet; and cutting off the right 
hand figure leaves 120 bushels of shelled corn, or 240 bush¬ 
els of ears. This last is within one bushel of the ex¬ 
act grain measure, which is 241 bushels. 
44 Raw Bone Supcrjpkospliate.”— Our readers 
are doubtless aware that while we have attatched little 
value to superphosphate as commonly made, (of burned 
or sugar house bones) we have always regarded a solu¬ 
tion of raw bones in sulphuric acid, as useful for most if 
not for all crops. We are glad to see an article thus made 
advertised in this paper, by Messrs. Lister & Brother, and 
also by Messrs. Baugh & Son. Those who have to buy 
fertilizers of any kind, may do well to experiment with it 
upon their Winter grain. 
Spontaneous Combustion in a Hay Mow. 
—Chas. W. Haight, Westchester Co., N. Y. We have 
heard of such an occurrence, but have never known of a 
well authenticated case. A cloth dipped in oil and left to 
heat will sometimes take fire ; so will oiN-and shavings ; 
and oil spilled on hay or straw might produce a fire ; but 
simple moisture we think would fail to do so. 
The Great Sale of Hereford Cattle.—The 
large stock of Hereford Cattle bred by the late Lord 
Berwick, numbering about 300 head, will be sold at auc¬ 
tion on the 17th and 18th of September, at Cronkliill, near 
Shrewsbury, England. 
The Oldest Horse on Record. —Wilkes’ Spirit 
of the Times speaks of a small black Galloway horse 11 
hands high which died in 1789, near Haddonfield, Scot¬ 
land, at the advanced age of sixty nine years. Only a 
few weeks before his death he trotted for several hours, 
at the rate of 7 or 8 miles per hour. 
Tomato Wine. —Miles Barnes, Clinton Co., Pa.— 
We have had no experience in making wine from tomato 
juice, but should proceed as directed for blackberries on 
page 247 (August No.). One item, however, should be 
added to that recipe ; after the fermentation has ceased, 
cork the jugs or bottles tightlv. 
Transplanting Budded Trees.— These should 
not be set out until the new bud has made at least one 
year’s growth. A few may live if transplanted In the 
Fall or succeeding Spring, after budding ; but more will 
die, or make but a weak growth at best. 
Coal Ashes—Borers—Cranberries, etc.— Jas. 
Slaven, Morgan Co., Mo. Notes on all these subjects 
containing the information asked for, have been given in 
the former numbers of the present year ; and we can not 
so soon repeat them. 
Russia Bass Matting.— Bass mattings as explained 
on page 135, May No., is the inner bark of the Linden or 
Basswood tree, and is very convenient for tying up vines 
and plants, as it is strong and yet so soft as not to cut into 
the plants like round hard twine. It comes in the form 
of mats to be pulled in pieces for use, and is largely em¬ 
ployed by nurserymen in budding young trees. The Rus¬ 
sia mats advertised on another page, by D. W. Man waring, 
are excellent, as we have proved. 
Tar Water for the ©mion Maggot.— A writer 
in the New-IIampshire Journal of Agriculture says he has 
found tar water a sure remedy for the Onion maggot. 
(Anthomyia ceparum ). The mixture should be strong, 
and applied to the rows night and morning a few times, 
or until the maggots leave. 
Copperas as a Basinfectant. —“Old Subscriber," 
Reading, Mass. A strong solution of copperas in water, 
say a pound to three gallons of water, will generally re¬ 
move offensive odors from a sink or privy. 
Mercurial Barometer. —We have received sam 
pies of the Mercurial Barometers made by Chas. Wilde, 
(advertised in this paper). They are well made, strong, 
and appear to be really fine instruments. 
Condensed Coffee.— Gail Borden, in addition to 
his condensed meat and condensed milk, which are now 
extensively used, has commenced the manufacture of a 
condensed preparation of coffee, with milk and sugar ad¬ 
ded, so that it is only necessary to stir a teaspoonful of It 
in a cup of hot water, to produce an excellent dish of cof¬ 
fee. He intends to continue experimenting until a cup 
of tea or chocolate can be made in the same manner. 
Evaporator’s for Chinese Sugar Cane.— To 
several inquirers. From what we have seen, and from all 
we can learn, we think Cook’s Portable Sugar Evapora¬ 
tor is an excellent apparatus for boiling down not only 
cane juice but Maple sap. The card of the manufactur¬ 
ers will be found in our advertising columns. 
An English Farmer’s Prescription.— Feed 
the land before it is hungry ; rest it before it is weary; and 
weed it before it is foul. 
Value of Land near London. —We notice th 
recent sale of a plot of 163X acres of land in the P 
of Kingston, some 20 miles from London. It is desc 
as “ lying in a ring fence, tithe free, and land tax re¬ 
deemed”—that is, it is surrounded by an outside fence in¬ 
stead of a hedge ; is not subject to the church tax of a 
tenth ; and the annual taxes are commuted for by a cer¬ 
tain sum paid in advance. The purchaser, John G. 
Waite, the well known Seedsman, of 181 High Holborn, 
London, paid $75,000 for it, or about $460 an acre in July 
last, and was soon after offered an advance of one third. 
We are glad to hear of the success of our friend Waite, 
who by the way, is the agent and representative of the 
Agriculturist, in Great Britain. 
The “Return Table Apple Parer” is a new 
invention which we have tried, and find to be fully equal 
to any thing we have previously had in use. It costs 75 
Cents or $7,50 per dozen ; will probably be advertised. 
