260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
tion will be mixed—some cells partly filled with bee- 
bread, and finished out with honey and sealed over. 
This can be readily detected by holding it up to the light. 
That containing some honey, yet unsuitable for the table, 
can be fed to light stocks. 
In many sections all old stocks should be examined to 
detect foul brood. Those in which the disease is confirmed, 
should not be kept as stocks another year. If weak, im¬ 
mediate removal is necessary, to prevent other bees ap¬ 
propriating the honey—it is nearly certain to produce the 
disease in every hive that gets it. There are some colo¬ 
nies diseased just enough to spoil them for stocks, yet 
they may be united ; but it requires a great deal of care 
to make such safe from robbers till transferred in the 
Spring. There must also be some partially filled hives 
preserved through the Winter to receive the bees. To 
have the full benefit of (he transfer, it should be done in 
March or April. Without some combs and a few pounds 
of honey, a colony would not probably do anything. A 
young swarm, or old colony that has stored only ten or 
fifteen pounds of honey, intended for this purpose, may 
stand till next month, that all the brood may be hatched. 
Contract the entrance so that only one bee can pass at a 
time, unless it is certain that they are strong enough to 
repel all robbers. These light hives can be saved to ad¬ 
vantage till another swarming season The brood in them 
should all be matured, and no dead bees left between the 
combs. The hive must stand right end up through the 
Winter, otherwise the honey that leaks out wall soak into 
the wood at the top, and loosen the combs. Let this honey 
freeze thoroughly through the Winter. Jf the Fall con¬ 
tinues warm, worms may hatch, when it will be necessa¬ 
ry to apply the sulphur match to destroy them. There 
will not be any worms to trouble such hives another 
year until quite late, making them very valuable for stocks. 
A hive half filled with combs containing a few pounds of 
honey, that has a good colony introduced early, will be 
filled, and cast a swarm about as early as one that has 
wintered its bees and is already full. Waste no combs 
that can be made available for the bees another year. 
Save the white combs for surplus boxes ; that too dark 
for this purpose—unless it contains drone cells—may be 
fastened into the hives to receive the new swarms. It is 
worth much more for these purposes than to melt into 
beeswax. 
The Crops for 1860—Good Prospects for 
Farmers. 
It will he no news to a large proportion of our 
readers, to report that most farm crops are yield¬ 
ing better this year than for a long time past— 
they have the proof of this before their own 
eyes. There are exceptions, however. Were 
we to form an opinion from onr own experience, 
%ve should say that crops were never worse. 
Never have we known so severe a drouth as lias 
prevailed just around us. Yesterday and to day, 
(Aug. 13th and 14th,) for the first time since 
breaking ground in Spring, have we had rain 
enough to wet down to the lower roots of corn 
and potatoes. Our fruit and ornamental trees 
have made scarcely any new growth of wood, 
and many of those set last Spring, have literally 
dried up. Potatoes, after a hard struggle, have 
produced some small tubers, and then succumbed 
to the parching heat. Early planted corn that got 
its roots down deep into the soil before the dry 
season, is doing finely, but the later planted is 
shriveling, and will not yield half a crop. Win¬ 
ter grains were not greatly injured, as they were 
far advanced, and the roots too deeply established 
in a warm, moist, hut not over wet soil, to suffer 
before maturity. Early sown Spring crops got 
out of the way of the drouth, but everything 
put into the ground after May 1st has suffered. 
The grass crop, which needs abundant moisture 
in Spring and early Summer, has suffered very 
materially. With us hay is already worth $18 to 
$20 or more per tun, or one-third more than at 
this time last year. 
What we have said of this region, applies to 
several other limited localities ; at some points, 
in parts of Kansas, for example, the drouth has 
been so severe, that actual starvation stares many 
$ husbandman in the face. But we are glad to 
know that these are exceptions to the general 
rule. While we and some of our readers must 
be content with half filled, and even empty barns, 
we will nevertheless rejoice with the great mass 
of those who are more fortunate. From almost 
every part of the country there comes up a gen¬ 
eral thanksgiving. Never before have there been 
seen such vast fields of waving corn, whose tow¬ 
ering stalks stretch far upward, and are thickly 
studded with well developed ears. The splendid 
weather in April and May favored the prepara- 
ration of the ground, and the planting of a large 
surface, and it was well improved by farmers. 
The season has been so exactly adapted to this 
crop, that it is already advanced almost beyond 
the contingency of an early frost. 
From all we can gather, we judge that in from 
one-third to one-half of the country, the grass 
crop was a comparatively moderate one—in some 
places it was very short—but in the other half or 
two-thirds, the yield was fair, and the abundance 
of corn stalks and of straw, if properly cared for, 
will make up for any deficiency in hay. In some 
places, wheat is not grown so extensively as in 
former years, though a larger breadth was sown 
almost everywhere, than during the previous two 
or three years. But taking into account the in¬ 
creased amount of land sown to wheat last Fall 
and in Spring, in the country generally, and the 
unprecedented good quality of the Spring wheat, 
we hazard nothing in saying that the wheat crop 
of the United States for 1860 will exceed that 
of any former year by many millions of bushels! 
A single fact is strongly indicative of the un¬ 
usually good prospects of farmers. The direct cor¬ 
respondence between the Agriculturist Office and the 
cultivators of the country , by far exceeds that of any 
other newspaper office or other establishment in the 
world , and the casual remarks which are con¬ 
tained in our letters, written without any com¬ 
mercial end to serve, are the most reliable indi¬ 
cations of the real condition of the crops. 
Usually, during May, June, July, and August, we 
are accustomed to read a vast number of com¬ 
plaints of poor crops. Every one suffering from 
rain, or drouth, or other cause, actually or in 
imagination, is prone to speak of it to his neigh¬ 
bors, and especially, when writing on business or 
otherwise to his agricultural paper. During the 
present year , our letters containing complaints of this 
kind, have scarcely been one in a hundred to what 
they were in the two or three preceding years! 
This circumstance is strikingly significant of the 
general good prospects and consequent buoyant 
hopes. 
And not less important to our cultivators are 
the market prospects. A large surplus crop on 
one's hand, would he of comparatively small 
value, if there were no demand for it, or if only 
a minimum price could be obtained. But this is 
not the case now. 
The revival in all branches of business, stimu¬ 
lated in part by the agricultural prosperity, and 
in part by a natural reaction from the depression 
of the past three years, greatly increases tiie home 
consumption ; while moderate crops abroad cre¬ 
ate a large export demand. Within sight of our 
office are numerous ships loading with breadstuff's 
for foreign ports, and every water craft that can 
carry a cargo of corn or wheat across the ocean, 
is being pressed into service. The prospect, 
therefore, is, that though the amount of our crops 
will prevent the rise of prices to the high figures 
ruling prior to the Fall of 1857, yet it is probable 
that remunerative prices will he obtained for the 
surplus breadstuff's our farmers have to part with. 
But let no one raise his expectations too high. 
The country is deeply in debt—resulting from the 
mad career of speculation into which ninety-nine 
out of a hundred were drawn before the crash of 
1857. While the good crops of ti is year will re¬ 
lieve the country from the immediate painful 
pressure which has weighed us down for many 
months past, other years of effort, and toil, and 
economy, Will be required to throw off the incu¬ 
bus of debt. While we go to work with greater 
courage, and higher hopes, let us draw lessons of 
wisdom from the past. Let us not discount the 
future—nor borrow to expend now what we hope 
to have the ability to pay hereafter. Let us write 
upon the lintels, and post up on every conspicuous 
object around us, “ Pay as you go !” Let us 
be content with our present acres until they are 
our own, and not bind ourselves for more until we 
surely know how they are to be paid for, which 
was not the case when our present liabilities 
were assumed. Let us be content with our 
present enforced style of living and dress, until 
our present ‘ store debts ’ are liquidated, and we 
have in hand the means of procuring not indis¬ 
pensable luxury and finery. Put not the price of 
an acre of wheat or corn, or of a horse or a fat 
bullock, upon the back in the form of a silk drees, 
or fine coat, or in household furniture, until the 
acre of produce is grown, or the bullock fattened, 
wherewith these articles are to be purchased. 
Live as comfortably, or as luxuriantly, as you can, 
but first get out, and then keep out of DEBT ! 
--o ^-- 
Go to the Fairs. 
The fair season has already opened, when the 
treasures of the field and orchard, the garden and 
hot-house, the sty and the stable, are tempting¬ 
ly displayed under white tents, and in rough 
board stalls. The very name of fair calls up long 
loaded tables of luscious fruits, purple clusters of 
the vine, downy peaches, plums blushing through 
the powdered bloom, heaps of yellow pears and 
crimson apples, great rows of bags stuffed with 
premium wheat and rye, pens of sleek porkers 
and patient sheep, stalls of neighing steeds and 
smooth ribbed cattle, and last but not least, acres 
of good natured men, women, and children, most 
ly bailing from the farm, and given up to the 
enjoyment of the festal day. We are sorry to 
learn that some of the fairs will be altogether 
omitted this year, and that in many others pru¬ 
dence will compel the absence of all the bovine 
tribes. Stately Durhams, comely Devons, and 
homely Alderneys will no more occupy the stalls. 
The pulmonary murrain is a reality in many oi 
our districts, and it is doubtless the part of wis¬ 
dom to prevent all unnecessary herding of cattle. 
But without this special attraction of our Au¬ 
tumn shows, they are well worth attending. We 
consider them worth far more than they cost, as 
a holiday for farmers. As a class we are more 
overworked, and have fewer opportunities for so¬ 
cial gatherings and enjoyment than other people. 
The farm, as a rule, is short handed, having at 
least three times as much work on hand as can 
be done by the present laboring force, and tiiere 
never seems to come a day of relaxation. The 
hoys can not go a fishing until planting is ovei, 
and then they must take a rainy afternoon. Then 
hoeing is pressing, and the mowing presses still 
harder, and the scythes are hardly put up for the 
Summer before the fairs are announced. It is 
meet after i lie fatigues of the Summer work arc 
over, that all the sons and daughters of the farm 
should have a grand rally, and look at eacli oth¬ 
er’s faces, as well as at the products of the soil. 
Old ties of friendship are strengthened, and new 
acquaintances mutually pleasant and profitable 
