187?.] 
AMERICAN ACRIOULTURISR. 
49 
Chas. S. Sargent is Director of both. His report for the 
year ending in August last is at hand, by which we learn 
that essential improvements have been made in the 
Garden, and that the Arboretum is increasing in im¬ 
portance. It was characteristic of the excellent James 
Arnold that he should provide in his will for an arbore¬ 
tum, which, when established, will be of national im¬ 
portance and usefulness, and most fortunate for the be¬ 
quest and the public, that in its most important stage, the 
formative, the arboretum should be in the hands of one 
who so combines enthusiasm and executive ability with 
competent knowledge as does Prof. Sargent. 
Tlie Jerusalem Artichoke.—In an 
item upon the native country of this plant, published last 
month, we asked for any information in regard to its use 
by the aborigines. Hon. W. C. Flagg, Moro, Ill., whose 
lore is not solely pomological, calls our attention to the. 
fact that Palfrey, in his History of New England, vol. 1, 
p. 27, says that the Indians raised “ a species of sun¬ 
flower whose esculent tuberous root resembled the arti¬ 
choke in taste.” This certainly looks as if the plant was 
known to the red men, but there is room for more evidence. 
The Heath of E. €3. Henderson.— 
Mr. Edward George Henderson, founder of the widely 
known horticultural firm of E. G. Henderson & Sons, 
Wellington Road, London, Eng., died on Nov. 4th, last, 
at the advanced age of 94. He had not taken an active 
part in business for 12 years. 
flasket Items c©st» 
tinued ost page 73. 
Bee Notes for February. 
BY L. C. ROOT, MOHAWK, N. Y. 
Bees, that are wintered in-doors, should be left entire¬ 
ly undieturbea during the present month. Those win¬ 
tered on summer stands should be examined, and if dead 
bees have fallen before the entrance, they should be re¬ 
moved. During fair days remove the roofs to allow the 
sun to shine directly upon the hives. If the new Quinby 
hive is used, remove the lid to let the sun shine upon the 
packing, and the inside of the lid, and dry out all the 
moisture. In preparing caps for any kind of hive, which 
are to be packed with straw or chaff, and placed over the 
hive when left on the summer stands to winter, it would 
be well to have the top of the cap loose, so that it may 
be removed, and the sun allowed to shine in and dry up 
the moisture. In handling hives for any purpose, at this 
season, let every movement be made with the greatest 
care , to avoid as much as possible disturbing the bees. 
Judging from present indications, bees may be expect¬ 
ed to winter well; the honey contained in the hive seems 
to be of superior quality. On the first of Jan. I weighed 
several hives that had been weighed the first of Dec’r. 
Four hives in my bee-cellar, where the temperature was 
from 46° to 48°, had consumed as follows: the first i lb, 
another } fi>, and two others one lb each. A hive left on 
a summer stand had consumed a little over two lbs. I 
propose to give the amount consumed by these swarms 
monthly, as well as the condition of the same in the 
spring, that the readers of Bee Notes may receive the 
benefit—so far as this single instance may go—of these 
observations on the two methods of wintering bees. 
Entrances to Hives. 
From some descriptions given by the late M. Quinby, 
of the entrance to his standing frame hive, several in¬ 
quirers seem to have received a wrong impression. It 
will readily be understood that with the hanging frame, 
which hangs inside of a hive, with a space between each 
ENBTRANCE TO HIVE. 
pair of frames, as well as between the ends of the frames 
and front of the hive, and between the bottom of the 
frames and the bottom board, that the entrance may be 
cut in the bottom of the hive, or a hole bored anywhere 
in the end of the hive for bees to enter, the same as may 
be done in a common box hive. With the new Quinby 
frame, where one frame sets directly against another, 
and all rest upon the bottom board, the bees must enter 
the hive through an entrance under the frames. This 
entrance, as shown in the engraving, is made by cutting 
a passage in the bottom board, about half an inch deep 
at the front edge, and slanting gradually up and back for 
about four inches to the level of the bottom board. A 
piece of hoop-iron is nailed across this opening, on 
which the ends of the frames may rest. This entrance 
should never be deep enough to allow a mouse to enter. 
The width should vary at different times during the sea¬ 
son. If it should be open the entire width of the frames, 
during the busiest season, it would be advantageous. 
With this in view, the entrance should be made wide, 
with means provided to contract the same, even to one- 
quarter of an inch if necessary. 
Questions and Answers. 
Tipping Hives.— “ Do you tip hives forward to slant 
the bottom board to the front?”—When swarms are 
first hived, in an empty movable frame hive, with frames 
running from front to rear, if the hive is tipped to the 
front, it will aid in securing straight combs. As soon as 
the combs are properly started, and before it is desired 
to put honey boxes in place, the hive should he set level. 
For no other reason do I consider it desirable to set 
hives other than level, while there are many reasons why 
they should be level. 
Direction on Combs. —Will it make any difference in 
the prosperity of a colony whether the combs run from 
front to rear, or from side to side?”.. Not any difference. 
Bees in a Keg.— C. A. T., of Topeka, Kansas, has a 
swarm of bees in a keg, which he desires to transfer to 
a common box hive. I would advise him to make a sim¬ 
ple movable comb hive, as described in “Beekeeping 
Explained,” and follow the directions given in “Bee 
Notes ” for May, 1876. If thought best to use the box 
hive, one should be made a little higher than the depth 
of the keg containing the bees, and as large square as 
the diameter of said keg. After driving the bees from 
the keg, as directed in the Notes above referred to, turn 
the keg top down, and remove the hoops. With a nar¬ 
row saw, saw off the sticks that hold the combs in place 
at the sides of the keg, and saw the combs loose from 
the staves. After removing the staves, saw the combs 
loose from the bottom. Now place the combs bodily in 
the new hive, in the same position as when taken from 
the.keg. Cut .a stick long enough to reach across the 
hive, and n il it across the bottom, so as to hold the 
combs firmly against the top of the hive when inverted. 
Place it in the same position on the stand as the keg 
occupied, and shake down the bees in front of it. 
Connecticut Agriculture. 
The “ Nutmeg State,” as it is often called with¬ 
out a truthful reason, is ranked as one of the manu¬ 
facturing States, and it does produce a wonderful 
amount and variety of “Yankee notions,” clocks and 
carriages for example, as well as an immense quan¬ 
tity of staple fabrics and wares of almost all kinds, 
not to mention destructive things, as the three 
million dollars worth of war material just carried 
out in two steamships from New Haven, to Con¬ 
stantinople, with much more going there and else¬ 
where all the while. Compared with Illinois and 
Ohio, Connecticut does not make much show as a 
farming State, yet it has some pretensions in that di¬ 
rection. In proportion to the entire population, it 
has nearly twice as many farmers who read agricul¬ 
tural journals, as any other State. It has 95,508 
individual Farms. Though only ope of these 
contains over 1,000 acres, yet 5,787 have between 
100 and 500 acres, and twenty-six between 500 and 
1,000 acres each. These farms comprise 2,364,421 
acres, of which 1,646,757 acres are under cultiva¬ 
tion; 577,383 acres in woodland, and 140,331 in 
other lands unimproved. The valuation of these 
farms is $124,241,382, averaging $4,870.68 each. 
They produced (in 1870) $26,482,156, or an average 
of $1,038 each. Farm implements cost $3,246,599. 
Connecticut has the first “ Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station” proper, established in this country, 
which is already doing much to aid the farmers to a 
very large saving in getting good fertilisers, and 
avoiding imposition. (See Prof. Atwater’s account 
elsewhere.) A long established Board of Agri¬ 
culture, helps largely to keep farmers wide-awake 
and going ahead. The Annual Farmer’s State Con¬ 
vention, which held its session at Middletown, 
Dec. 13,14, and 15, was a well managed gathering, 
and in many respects a model one, presided overby 
Ex-Gov. Hyde, of Stafford, but chiefly, though quiet¬ 
ly arranged and engineered by the Secretary, T. S. 
Gold, of West Cornwall. Dr. P. M. Augur, State 
Pomologist, had charge of a fine assortment of ap¬ 
ples, etc., from various quarters, showing the capa¬ 
bilities of the State in this line. Meetings were held 
mornings, afternoons and evenings, at each of which 
an intelligent speaker led off with an address on a 
specified subject, and after each address farmers 
from all parts of the State joined in a vigorous dis¬ 
cussion pro and con, upon the leading topic of 
the meeting. Much practical information was thus 
brought out, and those attending each carried 
home new ideas for his own guidance, and for dif¬ 
fusion among his neighbors. Full stenographer 
notes of all said and done were kept, and the gist 
of them will hereafter appear in the Secretary’s 
Report, which is printed for distribution. We omit 
for want of space a full report of the meeting,though 
information collected at this, as at other similar 
gatherings, appear under various headings in the 
successive numbers of the American Agriculturist. 
Science Applied to Farming—XXVI, 
Agricultural Experiment Stations, and Fertili* 
zer Control Systems — Their Advantages — 
European and American Experience. 
The following occurs in an article by Prof. S. W. 
Johnson, on “Science as a Means of Agricultural 
Progress,” in the Tenth Annual Report of the Shef¬ 
field Scientific School. The statements are true as 
they are pointed; 
“ If we gather from the best consideration of the 
evidence at our hands that a field needs potash or 
nitrogen, or phosphoric acid, we find plenty of par¬ 
ties willing to sell us these things, but we also find 
that we can not depend upon getting the worth of 
our money. Our markets are full of ‘ superphos¬ 
phates,’ ‘poudrettes,’ ‘tobacco-grower’s,’ ‘bone 
dust,’ ‘bone flour,’ ‘ground bone,’ of ‘bone meal,’ 
‘pure,’ ‘best,’ ‘finest,’ ‘celebrated,’ ‘rotted,’and 
‘dissolved,’—of ‘ meat scraps,’ ‘blood and bone 
fertilizers,’ ‘ animal dust,’ etc., etc., some good, 
some bad, and in many cases the good appearing 
to be on the way to the bad. Many of our farmers 
have laid out their money for some of these things 
and know that they were cheated, by not getting 
what was promised and what they supposed they 
were securing. Some have been bitten so badly 
that they purchase nothing, unless it is ashes, plas¬ 
ter, bone, fish scrap, or something which they can 
judge of by its looks. Some again have purchased 
these very fertilizers whose value they believed 
they could estimate by inspection, only to learn 
when too late that they have been ingeniously de¬ 
ceived, and that the supposed ‘ bone ’ contained 
twenty to fifty per cent of water, oyster shells, 
plaster, or niter cake, which had no value for their 
farming. 
“ The German farmers have had the same experi¬ 
ence. It is just about twenty-five years since in 
Germany, as here, the trade in superphosphates, 
guano and similar commercial fertilizers began. 
The same stupendous frauds by adulteration and 
dilution of good things were practiced there as they 
have been here, and we have great reason to fear, 
still are carried on here. But the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion has perfectly cured and rooted out these evils 
in all the districts where it has been established and 
appreciated. The Experiment Station there [in 
Germany] is prepared to furnish the farmers at 
small cost with an analysis of any fertilizer he pro¬ 
poses to buy. The farmers there avail themselves 
of this aid. They will buy no fertilizer without an 
exact statement of its composition, and they buy 
with the understanding that any deficiencies in the 
stipulated amount of fertilizing matters shall be 
made good or deducted from the payment. Under 
such circumstances manufacturers can sell nothing 
that is not substantially what it claims to be. A 
further result of this system is that low-grade fer¬ 
tilizers are little sought, and those makers who can 
supply the best article, of uniform quality and at the 
lowest rates, have the business. With large sales the 
dealers prosper, while the consumers are satisfied 
with their purchases, and instead of trying to see 
how they can get along with small use of purchased 
fertilizers, they are studying how to use the great- 
