1076.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
91 
boihood showed to be safe, I should drill corn for 
fodder (at the rate of four bushels to the acre), on 
one of the quarter-acre plots, following in like man¬ 
ner with the remaining plots in succession at inter¬ 
vals of from four days to one week, according to 
the weather - . Sometime after the last of these 
plots is planted, the four that were in oats and 
wheat will be ready to be taken up in their turn; 
and they should have a second manuring before 
being planted to corn. This course would probably 
produce more fodder than would be required to 
keep the nine head of stock in best condition up to 
frost, and the surplus being cut and cured, and 
stacked in the field, would, with the addition of a 
little meal, probably carry them on in good condi¬ 
tion well toward the first of December. 
Whether this process would be cheaper and bet¬ 
ter than pasturing on land at the price, named, must 
depend entirely on the natural character of the 
pasture, their nearness to the barn, etc., etc. Un¬ 
der ordinary circumstances, I think it would be 
cheaper, and I am satisfied that it would be better, 
in a majority of cases. 
Such a method of keeping cattle gives one that 
control over the manure produced that must inevit¬ 
ably lead to an improvement of the land, and the 
system recommended, it should be understood, is 
only for the first year. If the process is to be re¬ 
peated in subsequent years, then the first two plots 
sowed to oats should be sowed to winter rye early 
in September (earlier than if for a grain crop). Rye 
6own this early may grow too large before the 
heavy frosts check it, and in such case may, with 
advantage, he pastured oil pretty severely (by 
tethering), when the ground is sufficiently dry. 
A correspondent in Maryland asks: “ Are Man¬ 
golds, Ruta-bagas, or Sugar Beets best for me to 
plant ? I intend to use them for milch cows, breed¬ 
ing ewes, sows with pig, and young growing pigs. 
I think I have seen in the American Agriculturist 
that any of these roots could be transplanted. Now, 
if this is so, could I grow my plants in beds, and 
plant them afterwards, just as I would sweet pota¬ 
to, or cabbage plants ? Hitherto my great trouble 
with these crops has been in thinning them out. 
Which are the best varieties ? ”—My experience and 
observation indicate that the best beet is that known 
as Lane’s Improved Sugar Beet, which approaches 
the size of the Mangold, but has much more sac¬ 
charine matter, though not equal in this respect to 
the smaller Sugar Beet proper. The Ruta-baga is 
also a capital root, but both require very high ma¬ 
nuring, and clean cultivation. Both may be trans¬ 
planted without difficulty; the ruta-baga in this 
regard differ in no material respect from the cab¬ 
bage, and may be transplanted at about the same 
size ; but I have had the best success with the beet 
family in transplanting them when most of the roots 
were from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in 
diameter. They should be topped at about the 
foot of the spreading part of the leaf, and the tap 
root should be cut off, so as not to fold up when 
inserted in the dibble-hole. When transplanted at 
this size, and with this precaution against too 
rapid leaf action, the bulb itself contains sufficient 
moisture to support the plant until it is establish¬ 
ed and formed new leaves. I have found the cul¬ 
tivation of these plants in seed-beds quite easy and 
inexpensive (the bed being in clean land), and the 
transplanting less laborious than thinning. 
- -<-—»<**«-- •«--- 
Bsa Notes for March. 
BY L. C. ROOT, MOHAWK, N. Y. 
The results of the past few years teach us the necessi¬ 
ty of proper management during this and the following 
two months. It is a common remark of those who have 
lost heavily of late, that they can winter their bees well 
enough, but their trouble is to get them through the 
spring months. Nearly all the old bees that are in the 
hives at the time they are taken from their winter quar¬ 
ters-even when this is done at a suitable time, will, un¬ 
der the most favorable circumstances, die within six 
wcek-s or two mouths ; hence the necessity of control¬ 
ling brood-rearing, so that it shall be attended with the 
least possible outlay and loss. Every intelligent bee¬ 
keeper aims to have his bees strong as early in the sea¬ 
son as possible, and his anxiety to secure this result is 
often the direct cause of the reverse. On the first fair 
days of this month, he takes his bees from their winter 
quarters, and places them on their summer stands, and, 
following the advice of most writers of the past, he ex¬ 
amines each to ascertain its exact condition. All this in¬ 
duces breeding, and if a few warm days follow, it will be 
found that the queen has deposited a large number of 
eggs. There is a limit to the bees’ capacity for labor, 
and if, under these unfavorable circumstances, they are 
busy with extensive brood-rearing, they will naturally 
die oft' much sooner than if they remained quiet until a 
later period, when brood-raising can be conducted with 
less labor. The loss of a bushel of bees from one hun¬ 
dred swarms in the cellar, where all may be seen, seems 
onormous, while twice that quantity may be lost from 
their summer stands, though from being widely scatter¬ 
ed on the ground, the loss is seldom realized. I am aware 
that in advising against a practice so long and generally 
advocated, I shall fail to induce many to adopt my views. 
One writer claims that upon the operations of the pres¬ 
ent month will depend the result of the season. That 
this month’s operations are all important I am fully 
aware. What the condition of the swarms is to-day 
should have been decided last October. The principal 
effort of this month should be to carry the bees over the 
occasional warm days as quietly as possible. The time 
to place bees on their summer stands will vary according 
to the latitude. The blossoming of the soft maple will 
best indicate the proper time ; or they may be taken out 
a little before this. 
How many Swarms in one Locality? 
I am asked what number of swarms I would advise 
keeping in one place during the working season. This 
will depend much on the amount of forage. There are 
locations where a largo number could not be kept, while 
a few swarms would thrive and give a fair yield. In al¬ 
most any locality there may be times when a certain kind 
of blossoms would materially aid a few swarms, while a 
large number would receive but little benefit. Yet for 
this gain, it would not be advisable to divide an apiary— 
placing the parts in two locations. If, during the gener¬ 
al yield, forage is abundant, I should bo slow to advise 
a division, even if there should be one hundred swarms. 
Answers to Quest ions. 
As to the best month to commence keeping bees?—be¬ 
ginners should not purchase stocks until May, as great 
care and experience are necessary to carry them through 
from the end of winter to that time....In answer to 
questions regarding the general condition of bees 
throughout the country, I would say that I have recently 
visited several beekeepers of this state, who keep from 
one to seven hundred hives each, and it is gratifying to 
find them in such apparently fine condition. 
Beo-Ucejiing at file Centennial Exliibition. 
I desire to call the attention of bee-keepers to the op¬ 
portunities presented by the Centennial Commission for 
the exhibition of bees, boney, and aparian implements 
generally, at the Centennial Exhibition. They offer to 
put up a special building for the purpose, and thero seems 
to be good reason to believe that every necessary facility 
will be given. I understand that the Bee-keepers Na¬ 
tional Convention will meet in Philadelphia, which will 
afford bee-men a fine opportunity. I will endeavor to 
give the necessary details in due time. 
■ I d rji I m u --- 
“A New Method of Growing Plants.” 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
A new genius has appeared; lie lives “out w 7 cst,” and he 
sends me a circular headed as above. He claims that by his 
“new method,” “ tomatoes ripen from fourto sixweeks, 
and cabbages from two to four weeks earlier than un¬ 
der any other mode known to gardeners.” He also states 
that his thirty years’ experience as a practical gardener, 
has developed this “ new process ” of growing plants, 
and ho wishes it to be “ distinctly understood ” that it is 
not “patented,” therefore he “shall be very careful to 
whom he imparts his secret! ’’—Like this western man, 
I too have been a digger and delver in the earth, for up¬ 
wards of thirty years, and in that time have learned that 
whenever any one laid claim to any “ secret” pertaining 
to the art—particularly if he offered to sell it as a secret, 
that he was either an ignorant pretender, or something 
worse. I need not say to your practical readers, that the 
only way that this would-be benefactor to the cabbage 
growing community, gets a crop any earlier than his 
neighbors in the same latitude, and on the same soil, can 
be by forwarding the plants by artificial means in 
hot-beds or greenhouses. If ho likes to go to that ex¬ 
pense, there is nothing to hinder his so doing, and 
for that matter, he might have doubled the time of 
“earliness” of such culture, compared with culture 
without these means, and still told the truth. But when 
he wants to make us believe that the knowledge of such 
means of forwarding is a “ secret,” as yet in his exclu¬ 
sive possession, and asks us to buy it, I for one do not 
wish to become the purchaser of such a doubtful pig, 
enveloped in such a doubtful bag. It can not bo too 
often or too earnestly impressed upon your inexperienced 
readers, that the laws that govern plant growth, are just 
as certain and unerring as the law of gravitation. Every 
plant according to its nature , requires a certain time, un¬ 
der a given temperature, to mature. For example, if 
tomato seed is sown in the open, ground in May, in the 
latitude of New York, the crop, will ordinarily ripen 
during September. The same seed sown in the open 
ground in February, in Florida, would bo likely to pro¬ 
duce its crop of ripe fruit in June—or in both cases, 
without artificial means, in about five mouths, and In 
these five months named, it would be found that the 
average temperatnro at these dates, from May to Sep¬ 
tember in New York, and from February to Juno in 
Florida, would be nearly the same. Now when, with 
our artificial appliances of hot-beds and hot-houses, wo 
can govern the temperature at will, it can easily be un¬ 
derstood. that when the same conditions of temperature 
that we have in early summer outside, can be obtained 
under glass, a plant of tomato, cabbage, or anything 
else, thus “forwarded,” so as to be sot out at the season 
it will grow outside, will mature just so much earlier. 
I wrote to the discoverer of “ the new method,” asking 
how much would be the cost of imparting the “ secret,” 
and find that his terms are very reasonable : for the 
County of Hudson, N. J., (where I, together with some 
hundred or more other market gardeners are located), he 
only asks $300 for the season, but “cash down,” is an 
imperative condition ; no after-claps can be considered 
for a moment. Now when it is claimed that the “ new 
method ” will mature tomatoes four weeks, and cabbages 
six weeks sooner than the old method, and that the quan¬ 
tities of these products are enormous in our county, 
amounting already to millions, and that their maturing 
so much sooner, would fully quadruple their value, it 
will be seen that for only $300 “ cash down,” the millenl- 
um of the cabbage grower can be brought about in this 
Centennial year. 
But no doubt in this, as in all other good things, some 
carping, caviling, doubting fellow, will be ready with 
impertinent insinuations; ho will be asking why this 
western man is so ready to sell his birth-right, or 
brain-right, for such a miserable mess of pottage as $300 
“cash down.” All he has to do is to pull up stakes, and 
come and plant his tomatoes and cabbages in Hudson 
Co., N. J., and realize in one season a hundred times 
$300, “cash down.” The columns of the American. 
Agriculturist have already saved hundreds of thousands 
of dollars to its readers, by preventing them from falling 
into the hands of sucli men ns the discoverer of the 
“new method” evidently is, but if any of them should 
feel like trying his “ secret,” let the bargain be on the 
“ no cure no pay ” plan—that is, let a contract be made 
that the “ new method ” will./?rs< be shown to the would- 
be purchaser to produce tomatoes or any thing else, four 
weeks sooner than the “old method,” but on noaccount 
should they pay $300 or any other sum “ cash down.” 
- i W ■<>. - 
A House Costing $2,000 to $2,300. 
BY S. B. REED, ARCHITECT, CORONA, I.ONO ISLAND, N. Y. 
This plan, embodying the principal characteristics 
of a design 1 made seven years ago, for tho resi¬ 
dence of Mr. Arthur Waller, Newtown, L. I., has a 
homelike, tasteful, and picturesque appearance— 
particularly now,with its neatly laid-out grounds and 
grown up shrubbery, which especially befit its point¬ 
ed style, and demonstrate the harmony that exists 
between these simple cottage outlines, and rural sur¬ 
roundings. It is thus adapted to either a suburban, 
or more retired country situation_B'llevts- 
ttion, (fig. 1.)—A noticeable peculiarity is the earth 
finish around the foundation, which is simply util¬ 
izing the earth from the cellar. This is banked 
against the foundation, up to within six inches of 
the w'ood, evenly graded at 45 degrees angle, 
and neatly covered with closely laid turf. This 
conceals a roughly constructed foundation; it in¬ 
sures more dryness of the cellar, and consequently 
of the whole house ; it guards the cellar against ex¬ 
treme heat in summer, and frost in winter ; and it 
gives such a visible breadth of bottom, as to add to 
its apparent strength. This earth finish around the 
foundation is especially adapted to wet or clayey 
soils, where it is desirable to have the cellar mostly 
above ground ; at the same time it secures greater 
altitude to the whole building_There are marked 
features of dissimilarity in the several openings, 
and in the details of the exterior dressing—each 
part being adapted to its special purpose, and so 
