1860.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
OO't 
eral application of manures for a considerable 
time prior to putting in seed, and to thoroughly 
mingle the fertilizers with every part of the sur¬ 
face soil. Manure scattered through the soil in 
lumps, gives too much stimulus to those roots 
coming in contact with it, while other portions 
receive little or no benefit. This causes a waste 
of the manure, and unevenness in the growth 
of the crop. The advantage gained by having 
the manure in the ground during several days or 
weeks prior to planting or sowing, is, that the 
circulating water or moisture tends to dissolve 
the soluble portions and diffuse them evenly 
through the whole, so that every seed may de¬ 
rive some benefit from it soon after germination. 
Sedgwick’s Improved Cultivator. 
The accompanying illustration shows the gen¬ 
eral form, and mode of operating a new imple¬ 
ment which we have recently tried to some ex¬ 
tent upon carrots, turnips, onions etc. It has 
several good features. The wheels are placed 
upon a long axletree, and by simply loosening the 
thumb-screws in the rings upon each side of the 
two wheels, they can be brought close together, 
or be spread two or three feet apart, so as to 
track between rows any distance apart. The 
wheels are wrought iron, and the whole imple¬ 
ment is so light that it can almost be raised at 
arms length, while it is strong enough for all 
practical purposes. The cultivating shares, of 
which there are five different forms, are so ar¬ 
ranged that they can be used in pairs, or three at 
a time. They can also he elevated or lowered, 
and set apart or together, at pleasure, thus adapt¬ 
ing it for almost all kinds of weeding. Taken 
altogether, it is an ingenious and very useful 
implement, and will be likely to come into general 
use, both in the garden and field. We find it 
especialy useful for carrots, onions, and tur¬ 
nips, as it can be run over the rows, cultivating 
on each side, while the sharp points of the 
shares, which project below, cut the ground so 
as to prevent destroying the plants themselves. 
Shoe the Fowls. 
The above is not a misprint for “ Shoo the 
fowls,” but means just what it says, viz., put shoes 
on the fowls. Domestic fowls would be of a great 
utility in a field of growing corn or potatoes, and 
especially so in the garden, if they could be kept 
from scratching up the plants. With a flock of 
poultry running among the vines, there would be 
no trouble from bugs. A long time since, we 
gave in the Agriculturist a plan for attaching a 
jointed spur to the back side of the legs of a hen, 
so that when she attempted to scratch, the false 
spur would catch in the ground, and throw her 
forward ; she would thus speedily scratch her¬ 
self out of the premises. That was considered 
a very ingenious arrangement, though not a very 
practicable one. But here is a remedy, both in¬ 
genious and practicable, and what is still better, 
it does not send the fowl away, but leaves her to 
gather the insects, and prevents her doing any 
harm with her feet. For the idea, we are in¬ 
debted to the following paragraph, which we find 
in an exchange, credited to the Rural Intelligen¬ 
cer : “ A friend of ours, boarding in the country, 
found his hostess one morning husily engaged in 
making numerous small woolen bags, of singu¬ 
lar shape. Upon inquiry, he was informed that 
they were shoes for hens, to prevent them from 
scratching. The lady stated that it had been her 
practice for years to shoe her hens, and save her 
garden. These ‘ shoes’ (I believe they are not 
patented) were of woolen, made somewhat of the 
shape of a fowl’s foot, after which they were 
closed with a needle and sowed tightly on, ex¬ 
tending about an inch up the leg. Our friend 
observed that some of the biddies, possibly con¬ 
ceited with their new honors, appeared to tread 
as thougli walking on eggs—particularly was this 
the case when, from the width of the shoe, one 
would conceive that their toes might be pinched.” 
Now is not that a capital idea 1 How easy it 
is to sew pieces of thin strong cloth around the 
feet of a dozen, or twenty, or fifty fowls, in the 
form of a bag, leaving it loose enough not to 
obstruct the use of the feet in walking and in 
roosting, but making it tight enough around the 
leg to prevent its slipping off. The animals 
may than be allowed to roam at large and gather 
grass-hoppers and other destructive insects. 
We shall put the plan into immediate practice, and 
increase our stock of poultry—to the undoubted 
advantage of our plants, now infested with 
myriads of insect pests. 
Agricultural Products of Long Island- 
Amount of Manures Used—Interesting 
Tables. t 
Two subscribers have complained of our re¬ 
cent article on the waste lands of Long Island, 
and “ flings ” have been thrown out by some of 
the newspapers. But no one has answered the 
arguments set forth, and we shall not waste 
words in responding. We readily acknowledge 
that many parts of the Island are exceedingly 
productive ; indeed, here are some of the finest 
lands for field and garden culture in the world. 
There is abundant proof of this in the continu¬ 
ous stream of market wagons crossing the ferries 
to New-York City during a great part of the 
year. These come from all over the western 20 
miles of the Island. An untold amount of pro¬ 
duce is also taken from the numerous bays arid 
inlets that line the North and South shores. The 
Long Island Railroad, running nearly through the 
center from East to West, though carrying to 
market but a small part of the produce, compar¬ 
atively, does a large business in this line. 
Mr. J. I. Shipman, the head Engineer of the rail¬ 
road, has furnished for the Agriculturist a state¬ 
ment of some of the operations upon the road, 
including the following: 
Sent to New-York and Brooklyn in Railroad cars. 
Milk—(quarts).. 
1858. 
18 59. 
3,221,145 
3,197.910 
Potatoes—(bushels). 
171,149 
163.373 
Blackberries—(quarts). 
60.879 
100,245 
Peaches—(baskets). 
5.044 
710 rr p. 
Hay—(tuns). 
1,200 
2.900 
Fish for market—(pounds).4,400,000 
Sent from New-York by Railroad cars. 
4,56S,000 
Ashes—(bushels). 
189.364 
317.714 
Horse Manure—(cart l’ds of 14 bu) 
71,077 
115 466 
Guano—(tuns). 
5.656 
7 004 
The greater part of the last three articles go¬ 
ing on to the Island, is sent by boats to the har¬ 
bors along the coast. Keeping this fact in mind, 
it will be seen from the following table that Long 
Island farmers buy and use manure freely : 
Stable manure taken by boat from New-York, and sent by 
cars over the Long Island Railroad, reckoned in car¬ 
men’s loads of 14 bushels each: 
For year ending April 1, 1855.19,177 loads 
. 1856.25,107 
. 1857.39,102 • 
. 1858.....36.515 •• 
. 1859.71,077 •• 
.' 1860.92,260 
The fact that the amount sent to the same por¬ 
tions of the island, has been largely increased, 
from 19,177 loads in 1855, to 92,260 loads in 1860, 
is proof that manuring pays. 
For the American Agriculturist 
Loss of Queen Bees. 
After much practical experience with bees, I 
conclude that more colonies are lost indirectly 
from the loss of Queens, than from any other 
cause. I will enumerate a few cases of loss re¬ 
sulting from this cause, which may be considered 
as primary. First —says farmer A to me ; “1 had 
a first rate hive last Summer—it was very full of 
bees; in fact, there were so many they couldn't 
all get into the hive, they clustered all over the 
outside the most of the season, and I thought 
they would certainly swarm; but, for some 
reason they didn't, and last Fall, (it might have 
been in Winter or early in Spring) I went. out. to 
see how they were getting along, and to my sur¬ 
prise, on lifting up the hive I found it full of honey, 
but no bees. This is what puzzles me : what be¬ 
came of the bees'!” 
It would doubtless require much time to con¬ 
vince farmer A, that the average duration of life 
of the queen is about four years—the average ot 
workers is six months. He has “kept” bees up¬ 
wards of twenty years, and has stocks ten years 
old, and the queen and bees must be at least as 
old, for, (in his opinion) she and a portion of the 
old bees never leave with the first swarm, as we 
know all writers say, because its “agin natur.” 
As he has asked the question, I will answer it 
according to the best of my ability, even should 
he think it some new-fangled notion. This stock 
of farmer A’s, since it had cast no swarm, very 
likely had an unfertile queen—the queens fre¬ 
quently lose their fertility after the fourth year— 
or. the queen might have died from old age at a 
time when no eggs were in the worker-cells, so 
that they could not artificially rear a queen. 
There might, however, have been worker-eggs 
and a queen reared, but at a time when the 
drones were killed, so that she could not have 
been impregnated. Now, a stock destitute of a 
