170 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
placed in a parlor fire-place. The dining-room has 
a radiator fitted in the opening of the mantel, and 
connected by 5-inch pipes through the fire-place 
back, with the kitchen stove. 
F^tiniate o4' Materials and Cost. 
40 yards Excavation, r <v 25c. per yard.$ 10/'0 
]2.01)0 1 »iick furnished and laid @ $14<$1.00>.JC'.oo 
32 feet Slone Steps, and Coping, % 20 c. per It. 6.40 
450 yards Plastering, @ 30c. per yard.135.00 
1,069 feet l imber, @ 2c. per ft.... . 39.38 
viz. 1 sill, 4x8 in. x 39 ft. long. 6 Posts, 3x8 in. x 20 ft. long. 
1 Girt. 4x8 in. x 13 ft. long. 1 Tie, 3x6 in. x 104 feet long. 
1 Plate, 3x4 in. x 101 li.l’g. 1 Sill, 2x4 in. x91 ft. long. 
116Studding,2x3in. 10ft. l’g. 153 Studding, 2x3in. 9ft. l’g. 
70 Planks for Beams and Ceilings, @ 25c. each. 17. 0 
55 Buffers, 2 x 1 x 13, @ 13c. each. 7.15 
208 Siding. 10 inch. @ 26c each. 54 08 
100 pounds Tarred Pelting, c<i 3c. per lb. 3.00 
Materials in Cornices. Water-table, and Corner Boards 20.00 
165 Shingling Lath, @ 6c. each. 9.90 
28 bunches Shingles, @ $1.50 each. 42.00 
2<*0 fe<*t Gutters, Leaders, and lioofs, (a 8c. 3R ft .. 16.00 
96 pieces F loo ing, »> 26c. each . 24.96 
Stairs, complete, $ 0; Porch and Stoops, complete, $10 90.00 
Bay Window, complete.. 60.i 0 
8 Windows, complete, @ $12 each. 96.00 
3 Cellar Windows, complete. @ $6 each. 18.00 
15 doors, complete,® $9.50 each.142.50 
Closets and Shelving, $8; Mantels, $30 .. . 38.00 
Pump and Sink, $18; Nails, $15. . 33.00 
Painting, $1( 0; Cartage, $.'n... 120.00 
Carpenter's labor not included above. 103.00 
Total Cost, complete.$1,250.87 
-—«*o«—--- 
Bee Notes for May. 
BY L. C. ROOT, MOHAWK, N. Y. 
Bees will require most constant care in May, if we 
are to reach desired results. From the time they are 
placed upon their summer-stands, we should secure 
every advantage for brood-rearing, and should furnish 
artificially those essentials which are not naturally afford¬ 
ed. In the April Notes we gave the first requisites. As 
the number of bees increases, and it becomes necessary 
to add combs, those in the hive should be spread apart 
and the empty ones placed in the center. It is generally 
best to add but one at a time, which the queen will usu¬ 
ally fill with eggs in a few days, when another may be 
added. Watch the natural supply of honey, and if a time 
should come when none is gathered, feed moderately. 
If several rainy days occ r in succession, feeding should 
be continued. At this time feed a syrup of 3 lbs. of 
“ A sugar - ’ to a quart of water. 
Transferring. 
There is probably no way to secure straight, even 
worker combs in movable frames, with so little trouble 
and so satisfactorily, as by transferring. After much ex¬ 
perience, I find no better time for transferring from the 
box-hive to movable frames than just as the apple-trees 
begin to blossom. The room for the operation should 
have all but one window darkened, so that all bees that 
leave the combs will draw to the light one. The hive to 
which the bees are to be transferred, should be placed 
under the window in such a position that the bees may 
be readily brushed into it at the close of the operation. 
Have in readiness the different articles described below. 
After smoking the bees slightly in the hive you desire to 
transfer, turn it bottom up. and place an empty box over 
it, the same size as the hive. By tapping the hive gent¬ 
ly, most of the bees will leave it and enter the upper 
box. When most of the bees have left the old hive, 
piace the box upon the old stand, leaving the side raised 
a little at the fron*. of the stand, for the bees to go in and 
out, and remove the hive to be transferred to the room 
selected for the operation. Place the hive bottom up on 
a box, or other support, about two feet high. With a 
small common hand saw, saw the combs and cross-sticks 
loose from the side or sides you desire to remove. If 
the combs run square from side to side, it will often be 
necessary to remove but one side ; but if they ran from 
corner to corner, it will be best to remove two sides. If 
the grain of the wood runs up and down, split the sides 
to be removed with an ax in several places, and take out 
each piece separately ; but if the grain runs across, pry 
them off witli a chisel. During all operations use care 
not to crush any bees that remain in the hive. Upon 
a table or bench near by, place a transferring board (fig. 
1) about the size of the frame. Grooves, £ inch wide 
and i in. deep, are made at intervals of about 3 in. across 
the board. Cushion the surfaces between these grooves 
by tacking on several thicknesses of cloth, to pre¬ 
vent injury to the brood when the comb is laid upon it. 
Now, with a thin sharp knife, remove the outside combs, 
brush off the bees with a light wing, and set them one 
side, until you come to one containing brood. Place 
this upon the board above described, so that it will oc¬ 
cupy the same position as it did in the hive it was taken 
from, or if. as is often the case, it will cut to better ad 
vantage by turning it half way round, bringing the top 
to the end of frame, this may be done. Place the frame 
over the comb in sucli a manner as to bring the brood as 
Fig. 2.—WIRED STICKS. 
near the top and rear of frame as possible, as this is the 
warmest position in the hive. With the thin knife cut 
the comb to fit in this position. If the combs are not 
large enough to fill the frame, use from the combs first 
removed to fill out with. Have in readiness transferring 
stioks (fig. 2), i in. square and £ in. longer than the depth 
of frame. Fasten two sticks together at one end with a 
piece of fine annealed wire, long enough to bring them 
about one incli apart. Fasten one end of a piece of wire 
to the other end of one of the sticks, leaving its other 
end loose. In this way sticks will be in pairs ready for 
use. Push the end of the stick without the loose wire 
through the grooves where the comb needs support, and 
fasten to the end of the other stick by winding the louse 
wire snugly around it. which will bold the comb firmly 
in place. Use a sufficient number of sticks, as shown in 
figure 3, to keep it all snug. Do not let the sticks come 
across the brood any more than is absolutely necessary. 
Place tlie frame in the hive it is to occupy, and proceed 
with the next brood-comb in the same manner. Let 
them occupy the same relative position as before, keep¬ 
ing the brood as compact as possible. If there are combs 
without brood sufficient to fill one or more frames, place 
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Fig. 3.— THE COMB FASTENED INTO FRAME. 
them on the outside, leaving the brood in the center. Cut 
off all round finished edges, and avoid cutting the combs 
to waste; all pieces too small for use in the frames, should 
be kept for beeswax. Drone comb should be reserved; 
if white, save it for guides in surplus boxes ; if dark, 
put it in frames for extracting. Brush all bees from the 
window with a wet wing into the hive, and take to the 
old position on the stand. Empty the bees from the bos 
in front of the hive, and see that all enter. Contract the 
entrance, and in ail ways prevent robbing. Remove the 
transferring sticks as soon as the bees have sufficiently 
fastened the combs. For their first experiments, beginners 
should select a hive with old, tough and straight combs. 
Questions and Answers, 
“ How much increase in swarms would you advise ? 
My rule is, just as little as possible, and prevent desire 
to swarm. Sometimes the removing of one comb is suf¬ 
ficient. From some colonies it will be necessary to re¬ 
move nearly all the combs supplying them with empty 
frames. In no case would I advise more than the 
doubling of the number of colonies, and if swarms are 
light at the time of swarming, would not advise even that. 
Science Applied to Farming— XVII. 
BY PROF. W. O. ATWATER. 
More about Exhaustion and Enrichment of 
Soils. — Cropping. — Weathering. — Ferti¬ 
lizers.—AVrong and Right Ideas. 
Inquiries from various sources call for more de¬ 
tailed statements on the subjects of Exhaustion of 
Soils and Manuring. I very much wish that all in¬ 
terested in these topics could read a Lecture by 
Prof. S. W. Johnson on “ Exhaustion of Soils and 
Rotation of Crops,’’ in the Report of the Conn. 
Board of Agriculture for 1S71. In this are set forth 
more clearly, concisely and accurately than in any 
other brief treatment of the subject with which I 
am familiar, some very important principles re¬ 
lating to the 
Exhaustion and Supply of Plant-food in Soils. 
Some of these may be briefly stated as follows : 
Chemical science has established the facts that 
every crop requires a variety Of materials for its 
support. Part of these ingredients of plant-food 
are supplied in abundance by the atmosphere. The 
rest must come from the soil. Every ordinary soil 
contains the whole list of soil-ingredients of plant- 
food. To be useful to the plant, however, these 
must not be locked up in rocks or partly decayed 
vegetable matter, but be in an available form. In 
many soils the available supply of one or more of 
these is deficient, and hence the crops are small. 
Removal of Plant-food from the Soil.—Crop¬ 
ping, Leaching, etc. 
This available supply of plant-food is removed in 
various ways. The chief source of loss in the or¬ 
dinary practice of farming is in the removal of 
crops. A good deal is also leached out by drain¬ 
age waters; that is to say, it is dissolved by the 
water in the soil and conveyed below the reach of 
the roots of plants, and away in springs and streams. 
The loss of phosphoric acid in this way is slight, 
that of sulphuric acid, lime, magnesia, potash, and 
nitrogen, is more important. Considerable nitro¬ 
gen is also lost through chemical changes by which 
it is unloosed from its compounds in the soil, and 
escapes in a free state into the air. 
Re-supply of Plant-food to tile Soil.—Weath¬ 
ering. Atmospheric Supply.—Manuring. 
The re-supply of plant-food thus removed may 
be provided in various ways. We may, as Prof. 
Johnson says, “ rely upon those processes by which 
the original rocks of the earth’s surface have been 
converted into nutritive soil. We can await the 
operation of the natural agencies which are in¬ 
volved in what we call ‘weathering,’ the action of 
water and of the carbonic acid and oxygen in the 
air. When we leave the land in fallow—which is 
practiced much less now than formerly—these pro¬ 
cesses go on in the soil and prepare a quantity of 
plant-food for the crop of another year_By ac¬ 
tive tillage, throwing up the soil, so that it is ex¬ 
posed more fully to the air, and by drainage, if 
this he necessary to insure access of the atmos¬ 
phere, this process may be hastened. Most saline 
fertilizers, such as common salt, nitrate of soda, 
superphosphate of lime, and plaster of Paris, also 
act in a similar way to dissolve the elements of the 
soil, and thus prepare them for the crop ; so that, 
although these fertilizers may, in some cases, do 
nothing towards feeding the crop directly, they 
help to feed it by this indirect action in dissolving 
and bringing into active form the materials which 
the soil contains in abundant quantity, but in an 
inert state....” 
A small amount of fertilizing material is brought 
from the atmosphere into the soil by rain and snow, 
and certain investigations seem to indicate that 
some is also absorbed from the air by the soil. All 
crops, when removed, leave considerable, and some, 
as clover, a great deal of food-material behind in 
the form of roots and stubble, to enrich the soil 
for the succeeding growth. This is a very impor¬ 
tant matter in the rotation of crops. 
To quote once more. In brief, “Exhaustion is 
the reduction of the producing capacity of the soil 
below the point of profitable production, and de¬ 
pends either on the absolute removal of certain 
materials, or their removal to such a point that the 
supply is below the demand of the crop, and such 
removal must he compensated either by suitable 
fertilizing applications, or by making the unavaila¬ 
ble materials still present in the soil available by 
fallow, tillage, etc.”_Each one of the topics 
thus casually treated is worthy of considerable dis¬ 
cussion. Let us, however, confine ourselves for 
the present to two principal ones, noticing how 
much of different materials is removed from the 
soil by various crops, and how much is restored by 
various manures. 
The following table, which I translate from a 
much more extended one in the German Farmers’ 
Diary, frequently referred to in these articles, will 
