1861.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
301 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Chester County Swine. 
The points by which a genuine Chester County 
pig may be known, are well established. They 
are briefly as follows: Head —Short and broad. 
Face —Somewhat dished ; wide between the 
eyes and jowl. Ears —Fine and thin, stand¬ 
ing out from the head, and the point drooping 
a little forward. Neck —Short and thick, well 
set on the shoulders, which are prominent and 
full. Sides —Carry their full wi dtli back to the 
hams, and rounded ; never slab-sided. Hams — 
Rounded, swelling out behind and at sides, and 
presenting a full round appearance at all points. 
Back —Straight and broad. Color —Clear white; 
when well washed frequently presents a silky 
appearance. The least black spot or ap¬ 
proach to a sandy color indicates a grade ani¬ 
mal. Hair —Soft, thin in the back and belly, 
more thickly set on the sides and frequently a 
little waved. Bones. —Small and fine. Tail .— 
Fine, tapering and curled. So much for “ points.” 
What the Chesters will do : —At 8 weeks old a 
well cared for animal will measure about 30 
inches in length, and weigh 50 lbs. It will con¬ 
tinue to gain on an average, 1 lb. per day until 
2 years old, and when forced by high feeding, 
has frequently reached 1000 lbs. w r eiglit at that 
age. So remarkable is the aptitude to fatten, 
that at any age, or any season of the year while 
running to pasture, or with no food but the ordi¬ 
nary “slops” of the kitchen or dairy, it will 
keep in very fine order for the butcher. And 
with this disposition to fatten without being fed 
on grain, it is claimed for the Chesters that they 
will make more pork at a less cost than any 
other breed on this side of the Atlantic, at least. 
A Chester County, (Pa.,) Farmer. 
Commence to Fatten tlie Poultry. 
In a few w r eeks the stalls of the City markets 
will be decorated with the annual show of poul¬ 
try. Festoons of chickens interspersed with 
ducks, and flanked by piles of plump geese and 
portly turkeys, will invite purchasers to ftirich 
their tables with dainty viands. 
* Their good condition, and the prices they 
will bring, will depend very much upon the 
treatment they are now receiving. Fowls 
which are permitted to run at large until per¬ 
haps within a fortnight of Thanksgiving, and 
then are hastily stuffed with raw grain, will make 
a poor show beside the well rounded forms of 
the farm yard pets which have been kept fat 
throughout the season, and which only needed 
a little finishing off to prepare them for market. 
The business of fattening poultry for the Fall 
market should commence now r . It can be done 
better and more cheaply than later. Fowls fed 
on boiled potatoes mixed with meal will thrive 
finely. It will take a little longer to fatten 
them in this w r ay, but the feed will cost less. 
Cook the meal with the potatoes, and mix 
the whole well together. Moistening well 
with sour milk will be an addition. It will 
pay to cook grain of any kind for fattening 
poultry. Allow them to run in the yard until 
within two weeks of the time of killing, and sup¬ 
ply them with gravel and ashes, and with plen¬ 
ty of pure water. Young fowls should be gen¬ 
erously fed, not only to fatten them, but to fully 
bring out the second growth of feathers, or the 
flavor of the flesh will be very inferior. 
The kind of food used, has much to do with 
the flavor of meat. Ducks which are reared in 
filthy places, are far less palatable than when 
kept in clean quarters and fed with grain and 
other wiiolesome food. Many prefer the flesh 
of geese because of their cleanly habits in feed¬ 
ing. A little attention to these matters now, 
and proper care in dressing and marketing the 
year’s poultry, will make no little difference in 
their reception in the City, and in cash returns. 
A Simple Press, for Cheese, etc. 
We frequently find in the foreign journals, ad¬ 
vertisements of implements which are unknown 
in this country. Some of them are wmrtliy of 
being introduced, but this is not done, partly be¬ 
cause the foreign inventors do not sufficiently 
appreciate the importance of our market, to pay 
for securing American Patents, and partly be¬ 
cause no one here has had the enterprise to 
hunt up such implements and manufacture 
them. We have occasionally introduced articles 
of the class referred to, and shall continue the 
practice-The accompanying illustration we 
engrave from a cut advertised as a “ Cheese- 
Press, Ho. 5,” by James Mellard, of Rugeley, 
Staffordshire, England. No description is given, 
but the diagram shows at a glance the construc¬ 
tion, and the working of w 7 hat seems to be a 
very simple and effective press to be used for 
cheese, fruits, etc. Two iron rods stand on 
branching feet, which are fitted with castors or 
rollers to make the apparatus portable. The 
bed-plate, a,supports the material to be pressed; 
and the movable cross-bar, 6, is brought dow r n 
upon it w 7 ith considerable force by the screw 7 , s, 
which appears to pass freely through the top 
cross-piece, c, and to w 7 ork in a nut in the lever 
l, while it again passes freely through a morticed 
opening in the upper lever, m. It will be seen, 
then, that any desired amount of pressure may 
first be given with the screw by means of its 
lever handles, and then the pressure is followed 
down by means of the weights, «, acting upon 
the compound levers, to, and l. The upper lev¬ 
er, to, appears to be attached to the lower one, l , 
by means of a catch and successive notches. 
To save the frequent adjustments required by 
this arrangement, it w 7 ould seem to be preferable 
to let the end of l play in a groove along the 
under side of to, in which case it w 7 ould alw'ays 
be in place. We see no apparent use for the 
rod at the right, except as a guide to the w 7 eiglit, 
which would seem to be unnecessary. The 
above apparatus, if of iron, may be made quite 
light, and be taken to pieces readily and packed 
in small compass for transportation. As there 
is probably no patent on these presses in this 
country, they can be made by any manufacturers. 
---— — I ■ -- 
For the American Agriculturist . 
Wintering Bees in the Cellar. 
Last Winter, I had eight swarms of bees, 
three of which were weak “ second swarms.” 
At the commencement of cold weather I took the 
three swarms into the cellar, and set them on a 
scaffold, hung from the ceiling. I had heard of 
keeping bees in the cellar, so concluded to try 
it, as I knew these would perish if left out. 
They were kept in the cellar until the maple 
blossoms had opened in the Spring, when they 
were placed on their old stands, from which 
they were taken in the Fall. I do not think 
there was a handful of dead bees altogether. 
The five left out doors were stronger swarms, 
though I found in the Spring they had con¬ 
sumed most of the honey, and a good many of 
the bees were dead.' The swarms that were in 
the cellar proved to be the best in the collection; 
they grew stronger rapidly, swarmed earlier, 
and produced most honey. The cellar should 
be a dry one, and perfectly dark. Jabez 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Interesting Experiments with Bees 
About the middle of June of the present year, 
I observed a little cluster of bees upon the front 
of one of the hives, which appeared to be in 
confusion; on nearer inspection I saw a young 
queen in the midst, which explained the unusual 
anxiety they appeared to manifest. 
I conjectured that she had escaped to the out¬ 
side of the hive, after issuing from her cell, to 
avoid being massacred by the old queen, who, 
for some cause, had refused to vacate the hive 
by leading out a swarm; and had thus compelled 
her royal daughter to suffer as a usurper, or fly for 
her life. Being somewhat anxious fora swarm, 
and none having yet issued, I thought here was 
a chance; so I took the matter into my own 
hands. There was a box with glass sides par¬ 
tially filled with comb and honey, upon this 
hive. I caught the young queen and confined 
her under a tumbler, then took off the box from 
the top of the hive, with all the bees that were 
in it, and then let the young queen enter through 
a hole in the bottom, and at once placed this 
box upon the top of an empty hive. I next re¬ 
moved the old hive about twenty feet distant, 
and placed the one with the young queen upon 
the stand where the old one had stood, until the 
new hive contained enough as I judged for a 
good sized swarm, when I returned the old 
hive to a stand about two feet distant from 
where it had formerly stood. 
In the course of a few hours they all settled 
down into quiet every day life; and I congrat¬ 
ulated myself with the thought, that by a sort 
of snap judgment , I had succeeded in preserving 
an artificial swarm. This would doubtless have 
been the case but for a sad accident which soon 
befell the young queen, Three or four days sub¬ 
sequently I saw what I supposed to be another 
queen on the outside of an adjoining hive, pur¬ 
sued by a score or two of workers which ap¬ 
peared to have designs upon her life. I at once 
rescued her, and proceeded as before with the 
intent of making another artificial swarm. But 
when I put her in the box, they seized her, and 
had she not made a precipitate retreat, would 
have dispatched her at once. She fell to the 
