1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
327 
We cull attention to the liberal offer of 
the publishers on page 328, under the head of “ Money 
Saved.” There are thousands who could be greatly bene¬ 
fited, if led to read more of the useful; and if the extra 
oilers made stimulate such persons to read and think more, 
they will doubtless be benefited, and the Publishers’ end 
will be gained. 
Cost of those Bouts. —H. Moses, Exeter, 
N. H., wants to know the cost of one of the boats de¬ 
scribed in the American Agriculturist of August. The 
materials will cost about ten dollars, including two coats 
of paint and wrought boat nails. If common nails are 
used and only a coat of pitch outside, which will answer 
for hunting purposes, $4 or $5 will cover the cost. 
lust of Fairs.—On pages 353 and 354 
will be found a very full list of fairs to be held in Septem¬ 
ber and October, to which attention is directed. 
Coi-ii-BIuslcs. —The husks of corn are very 
well worth the trouble of saving. When dried and 
torn into strips they make excellent mattresses, clean and 
sweet, and very soft and elastic. Plaited into a rope and 
wound round a central point, they make serviceable door¬ 
mats, the^manufacture of which will furnish pleasing and 
useful fireside employment for many a stormy day when 
outside work is impossible, or for the long evenings of 
winter. They are worth saving for these purposes alone. 
Suit and. Mnclc.— J. E. Larmier, North 
Haven, Ct., ask how much salt is sufficient for an acre of 
sod ground to be plowed this fall, or whether lie may ex¬ 
pect a good crop from well-pulverized muck, without other 
manure. We would not advise salt to be applied in the 
fall. Top-dressings of all soluble manures are more effi¬ 
cient when applied in the spring, more especially of those 
so very soluble as salt. If the sod ground is to be sown 
with wheat, we would apply two bushels per acre next 
April. As regards the muck, if it is rotted it will hoof 
benefit, but if salt or lime is applied along with it, the bene¬ 
fit will be considerably increased. We would advise the 
muck to be composted with four bushels of lime and one 
peck of salt to the cord of muck, and after lying through 
the winter spread it early in spring. 
More nhont the flattie Fays. — John 
Miller, Slackwater, Pa., recommends that the little 
orphan pigs be fed with milk and lukewarm water, with 
a teaspoon, taking them on the knees wrapped in a cloth. 
In the course of one or two days they will learn to drink 
the milk and water out of a pan. The water should be 
gradually decreased until pure milk is given. Another 
correspondent, who forgets to append his name, to his 
letter, says the pigs will thrive belter on sour milk (but 
not thick), fed a little and often. 
Cure for Hot in Slaecj*.—J. Miller says 
that turpentine is a preventive of rot in sheep. To ad¬ 
minister it,, for every twelve head mix a tablespoonful 
with two quarts of wheat bran and one quart of salt; give 
this once a week. 
Harvesting' Peas.— Win. Koeing & Co., 
St. Louis, Mo., ask how to harvest peas on ground too 
uneven for the mower. A horse rake may be used, which 
will gather them into rows, from which they may be 
forked up, when cured, into the wagon. Peas, when 
ripe, leave the ground very easily; in small quantities 
they may be “hooked” up with a scythe, but when the 
field is large the rake may be made available. 
Horse l*otato-!>igger.—I. C. M., East 
Toledo, O., asks which is the best horse potato-digger. 
R. H. Allen & Co., 189 Water street, New York, have a 
very good potato-digger. We can not tell the price of it. 
They claim that it will dig the potatoes and separate them 
from the earth, leaving them in the row on the surface of 
the ground. Any mode of successfully digging potatoes 
by horse-power must necessarily be a great improve¬ 
ment on the old-fashioned hoe or fork. 
Sweet Porlt. —It is beyond a doubt that 
cleanliness has much to do with the flavor of pork. The 
filthy state in which many fattening hogs are kept has a 
tendency not only to give a rank taste to the meat, but to 
render it positively unwholesome. Avery common mode 
of penning hogs at this season is in a rail pen, without 
protection from the weather. The consequence is that 
such pens are not fit to keep a living animal in ; wet and 
filthy, cold and uncomfortable as they are, hogs will not 
take on fat., and a great proportion of the food is wasted 
while they are kept in them, while the filth, a consider¬ 
able amount of which the hogs will consume, must be 
detrimental to their health and to the health of those who 
eat their flesh. It is not only safer but more economical 
to give fattening animals good shelter and dry beds 
and litter, and keep them quite clean. The labor will be 
well repaid. 
Blow to get rid of Sorrel. —L. Horning, 
Montgomery Co., Pa., asks if some of our numerous read¬ 
ers can give him a plan to get rid of red sorrel—will lime 
doit?—Lime, of itself, will not destroy sorrel; we have 
seen it flourishing on the very verge of a lime-kiln. Cul¬ 
tivation will destroy it, and lime will encourage the 
growth of clover and grass, which will tend to smother it 
out. Direct applications of ashes or lime seem to en¬ 
courage its growth, and we know of no plan but to plow 
it under before its seed is ripe. The seeds ripen very 
| early in summer. Then keep the soil in good condition, 
producing good crops, and sorrel will be of no trouble. 
Cleansing' Hills B*ans. —S. Owens, Ma¬ 
laga, N. J., asks how she can get her milk pans perfectly 
sweet. Wash with hot soapsuds, and rinse well in 
clean cold water, and if still sour, rinse with water in 
which soda or lime has been dissolved. Either lime or 
soda water will destroy any acid or sour smell which the 
pans may have, and will render them perfectly sweet. 
Wire asai! Hoard. Fence. —I. T. Smith, 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sends us estimates of the cost of 
wire and board fences as follows : 
9 lbs. wire. @ 754c. (>7t4c. 
1 post, 20c. 20c. 
7 stays, lc. 7c. 
1 5). staples. 1214c. 
Per rod. $i.07 
5 boards, 8 ft. each, @ 2c. per foot. 80c. 
2 posts, @ 20c. 40c. 
1 lb. nails. 8c. 
Per rod. $1.28 
Tims, he considers a board fence to be the more ex¬ 
pensive of the two. As the fence question is one of the 
most important ones a farmer can study, we shall be glad 
to hear from our correspondent, as he intimates. 
MTempevatni'e of :t i»>j>a*iiag-B3oaise 
for keeping Milk. —I. Wilson, Monroe Co.. Iowa, 
has some springs which run from a bank, the temperature 
of which is 62". He asks if they could be made available 
fora milk-house. These springs must receive warmth 
from the upper soil before they escape, as this is a very 
high temperature for spring-water and would not be suf¬ 
ficiently cool to keep milk well. There is no doubt that 
cooler water could be found by digging into the bank and 
forming a cave ; if a spring could thus be found of a tem¬ 
perature of 50° or less, a very good milk-house might be 
made, The floor should be paved with stone and a chan¬ 
nel dug out all round the inside, through which the water 
should be made to flow. In this stream the milk-pans 
should be set. 
- - -— - —> —-— 
Bee Notes for September.— By 31. Quinby. 
Any old hive, weak or otherwise, should be examined 
now. Unless-in sections where buckwheat is in blossom, 
weak hives will in all probability bo plundered, unless 
they are protected. Contract the entrance or remove 
them at once. Refuse honey may be carefully fed to light 
hives, but leave none near the apiary. Diseased stocks 
should be removed now, that they may not be robbed, to 
the detriment of the robber. Such bees can be given to 
queenless stocks ; but to guard against infection, confine 
them for forty-eight hours in an empty box or hive. The 
honey, such as is not fit for table, can be scalded, 
skimmed, and used for feeding. Other parts of the 
comb, mixed with brood, should be buried in the 
ground, to prevent the possibility of contagion. With 
Italians, there is usually but little disease. There 
need be no particular hurry about removing con¬ 
demned healthy hives, that are strong enough to 
defend themselves, as it is well to allow the young 
bees to mature and leave the combs clean for another 
year. It is quite common to find in the apiary a hive 
with plenty of stores, few bees, and no queen ; this occurs 
especially with box hives. If such hives are not infested 
with worms, they may be saved by supplying a queen and 
bees from one or more other hives. They will unite 
more readily if removed a mile or so from the old stand. 
A swarm that has filled up without a queen will have so 
much drone comb that it will not be worth while to try 
to winter it. Few bees and no sealed brood indicate a 
queenless hive. It is sometimes desired to winter light 
stocks, which is doubtful economy. In such a case the 
bees must be fed freely to induce them to build comb and 
rear brood. Now is the time to do this, if it is done at 
j all. If it is necessary to feed a strong hive, October is 
the best time. Remove all surplus boxes. Honey that 
is now unsealed will be removed into the hive. It is re¬ 
ported that the prairie flowers of the Western States fur¬ 
nish abundant honey in September, and that colonies 
often get enough to carry them through the winter, and 
that they frequently gather a surplus. But we of New 
England and the central States need not expect any thing 
of this kind. It is presumed that most of the readers of 
the Agriculturist are sufficiently advanced to use movable 
combs in some form, and with them comes the necessity 
for a closer intimacy with our bees ; of studying their na¬ 
ture, and learning what they will bear, etc. It will be 
found that their mood or temper varies with the weather, 
and that they may be trained to allow all our manipula¬ 
tions without resentment. 
§un<lry flBaiinl»aigs.-—Several subscribers, 
while writing very laudatory of these humbug exposures, 
say they come too late in many cases. That can not be 
helped. The ingenious swindlers usually send their 
documents only to distant points. Some of them watch 
this office, and, after getting a new scheme all ready, 
time their mailing so as to operate just after a number of 
the American Agriculturist has gone to press, so as to 
have a month to work in. Most of them pretend to 
limit the time in which their specious proposals can be 
responded to, so as to hurry up their victims before they 
are themselves checked by exposure. The only preven¬ 
tive is to give the cold shoulder to all these grand schemes 
for enriching you, and to promptly mail to us any new 
circulars received which have not already been men¬ 
tioned in these columns. While gratified to know that 
few of the vast multitude of our readers are now liable 
to be caught by the swindling fraternity, we are sorry to 
learn that some were taken in by “ S. C. Thompson & 
Co.,” who obtained confidence by filling small orders 
very satisfactorily, and then failed to fill a great many 
large cash orders, and pocketed the cash sent. The con¬ 
cern has vanished out of sight, or finding; the successful 
operators are probably now engaged in some new scheme 
under other names, and the sufferers have only dear- 
bought experience in return for their good cash. The 
only treatment for all these splendid circular ®r letter 
schemes offering large returns for little money is that 
recommended by Cuffee to Pompey in “ cholera times,” 
viz.: “ De safest way is to cat notting ’t all, and den you 
no ’sposc yousef.” One who lost $G0 by S. C. T. & 
Co. writes that he sent the money because ho saw the 
advertisement in such papers as the New York Tribune , 
Toledo Blade , Western Home , and others like them— 
papers which ought to reject all advertisements of unre¬ 
liable or unknown character.The following letter, 
received by one of our subscribers, who is a dealer in 
groceries and also postmaster, exhibits one of the shrewd 
schemes of OSS Broadway swindlers to get men into the 
meshes of their nets. Mr. A., being an honest man, 
sends the letter to us to hang in our rogues’ gallery. 
Others who have bitten at the tempting bait, and in¬ 
volved themselves in aiding and abetting (as they sup¬ 
pose) a swindling scheme, will be glad to get out by paying 
a heavy blackmail assessment! This letter has a printed 
heading, with the 241 partly crossed by a pen-mark : 
[COPT.] 
THOMAS B. THAYER, 
DEAI.KI’. IX 
GROCERIES, LIQUORS, TOBACCO, ETC. 
No. 241 SIXTH AVENUE. 
New York, July 8th, 1871. 
Jonx Aqrn, Esq.- 
Dear Sin : I have been in the Grocery business since 1869. 
About three months since, I was compelled to fail. I suc¬ 
ceeded in saving between six and seven thousand dollars 
worth of Sugars. Coffees, Teas Tobaccos, and Segars. My 
creditors got all the balance. They suspected me of taking 
these goods, but were unable to prove it; so I have the 
goods safe. Now, sir, 1 have a confidential proposition to 
make to you in reference to the disposal of these goods. 
In the first place, your name was given to me by a young 
man that was engaged in a house you bought goods from, 
although he does not know of this matter, or me writing to 
you. If you will sell these, goods for me, I will give you 
one 04) third of what they bring, with the understanding 
that you send me every two weeks my two (%) thirds of the 
money. The goods are assorted just right for a Retail Store, 
and suitable for vonr market. 
I am anxious to have these goods turned Into Cash as soon 
as possible, so I can have the money to go into some other 
; business. 
If you accept the proposition, let me know how to ship 
the goods, and I will do so at once. 
Respectfully, 
Thomas B. Tiiaykr. 
G88 Broadway. 
N. B.—This matter must be confidential, whether you ac¬ 
cept the proposition or not. If my creditors find out about 
these goods, they would have them seized, and perhaps 
cause considerable trouble. T. B. T. 
Address me at 6"-'8 Broadway. 
.C. E. Weldon, to be addressed “Miss Jenny Everett, 
G88 Broadway.” for a “ blind,” sends n letter very similar 
to C. Emerson’s, printed last month, and is from the same 
party. Mr. Gavler will have to give special attention to 
ladies’ letters hereafter, as the swindlers are quite gener¬ 
ally donning the crinoline [adjdress for a “blind.". 
One of the “ Queer ” operators, who mails circulars, ap- 
