AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
243 
STORING HONEY FOR MARKET. 
FAIRS, PREMIUMS, ETC. 
Mr. Editor : I can readily appreciate the 
difficulties and perplexities that committees 
of awards have to encounter, more especial¬ 
ly when they are but partially acquainted 
with the subject or matter of which they are 
to judge. But few exhibitors are willing to 
present an article that, in their own estima¬ 
tion, is inferior to others of the same class— 
all can not be best. Consequently, when an 
impartial judgment is passed, there must be 
many disappointments ; censure and accusa¬ 
tions follow, even when an honest desire for 
juctice has been observed. Notwithstanding 
all this, I must beg leave to differ in one in¬ 
stance from a committee of our State fair, 
and risk the fate of a grumbler. I am favored 
by the peculiar nature of the article beyond 
most exhibitors, because I can show facts 
that should lead to a different judgment. 
Therefore, after making all due allowance 
for partiality in favor of self, I cannot school 
myself into the belief that my name should 
be at the bottom of the list. I find in the 
“ Journal of the New-York State Agricultu¬ 
ral Society” for Oct., 1854, the awards on 
honey as follows, (but three lots on exhibi¬ 
tion) : Henry Eddy, North Bridgewater, 
Mass., best 20 lbs.; James Curtis, Blooming 
Grove, Orange Co., N. Y., 2nd best; M. 
Quinby Palatine Church, N. Y., 3rd best.” 
There you see where the “shoe pinches.” It 
squeezes the harder because I had presumed 
to know as much about honey as any apiarian 
in the State, (taking the supposition for a 
fact, that I have raised the most). When the 
manufacturer exhibits a superior article of 
cloth, or the dairyman his extra quality but¬ 
ter, and receives his premiums for superior 
skill, what is it for ? Does it not emphat¬ 
ically say to others, “ Go thou and do like¬ 
wise”—make an article like it as nearly as 
possible 1 But how is it respecting this pre¬ 
mium honey ! First premium (six specimens) 
was stored in wood boxes, and glass laid 
over the top, or rather bottom—the honey 
brown. Now during the twenty-five years 
that I have sold honey, I have always found 
the brown honey ranging lower, from five to 
twelve cents, than the white. Yet I have 
occasionally found a customer—perhaps one 
in a hundred—who preferred it to the white. 
This is a matter of taste. Some will prefer 
brown bread, brown sugar, &e.; yet the ma¬ 
jority choose to have these things light co¬ 
lor, as well as honey. Second premium 
(two specimens) the honey was white, of a 
superior quality—but one specimen was 
stored in a tall glass jar with an oval top 
very pretty for exhibition, but impractical as 
a market article ; the cost of the jar would 
exclude it. The other, a wood box—the 
honey beautiful and well suited for market, 
yet not at the highest price. I found a differ¬ 
ence the present season of seven cents per. 
lb. with the same quality of honey in wood 
and glass boxes. Third premium (three 
specimens) honey white, superior, &c.; but 
what added to its value as a market article, 
was the superior packages—boxes with glass 
sides—top and bottom wood, and in size suit¬ 
able for small famlies, each comb of proper 
size to come to the table, and could be taken 
from the box without breaking a cell of the 
others; while from specimens number one and 
two it would be impossible to get a suitable 
piece without dividing combs, causing the 
honey to drip over that remaining, giving it 
a soiled appearance, together with a chance 
of its being wasted. Now the criterion by 
which I am disposed, in this case, to judge 
the quality of the article, is its market value, 
(not committee judgment). I have taken to 
market this season over 11,000 lbs.* Sold 
most o f it to one dealer (in Washington 
*Mr. L. ThQrm, No. 5, Washington Market, was the 
buyer, and will verily these statements. 
market, New-York), for which he paid me 
near $2,000 ($ 1,983) .The price for that stored 
like number three, sold seven cents per lb. 
above that of precisely the same quality in 
wood boxes, and nine cents above the brown. 
What do these facts show! Would that 
committee advise me, or any one else, to 
raise the best quality which sells nine cents 
less than the committee’s third quality, or 
at seven cents less than their second quali¬ 
ty. The difference in my pocket would 
have been hundreds of dollars, instead of a 
few cents or shillings. 
Notwithstanding I may have failed to show 
an error in the committee, still I am desirous 
to have the bee-keeping readers of your pa¬ 
per protected from erroneous impressions, 
that they may have their surplus honey 
stored in accordance with its destination^ 
that of the greatest market value is not the 
kind for the fair. M. Quinby, 
Author of Mysteries of Bee Keeping, 
Palatine Church, Montgomery Co., N.Y., Dec. 1854. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
PROFIT OF CROPS -WEEDS—CISTERNS, &C. 
Often and again has a word of advice been 
given to the farmer and gardener, and as 
often been disregarded—nay, in our own ex¬ 
perience we find it easier to give than to take 
advice. Still, there is no harm in trying to 
aid each other, if in this manner we can de¬ 
termine the best method of doing things, and 
how to make the most out of a limited capi¬ 
tal. 
Now, as the winter has fairly set in, there 
is some little leisure for the mind, and this 
is the time when the sharp, calculating brains 
of our utilitarian people may cast up a few 
figures. We speak from experience when 
we say, that it is no difficult thing to obtain 
from $400 to $500 clear profit from an acre 
of ground, per year. 
And, in the first place, let us suppose that 
an acre of land has been well plowed and 
manured, or is in good heart from a previous 
crop of potatoes, celery, &c. Suppose now 
that, at the 1st of March, this land is planted 
with early cabbages, each standing eighteen 
inches apart. How many will it produce ? 
And considering that this crop will be offby the 
1st of August, how many heads of celery can 
be produced from the same ground, with ex¬ 
tra manure, allowing the rows four feet, and 
the roots eighteen inches, apart. 
Estimate the cabbages at $4 per hundred, 
and the celery at two cents each, and if we 
mistake not, the reckoner will be surprised 
at the return profit. Of course the necessa¬ 
ry labor, manure &c., should be taken into 
account. 
Again, suppose half an acre has been oc¬ 
cupied through the winter with spinach, and 
that immediately after the breaking up of 
frost, a half be sown with radishes, and the 
remainder be planted with lettuce. There 
will then be a large market value produced 
and out of the way by the time tomatoes 
can be planted, which continue bearing 
through the season. Here are two exam¬ 
ples to show how an acre of land may be 
successfully cropped, leaving the calcula¬ 
tion to be worked out by the reader. Suffice 
it to say, that the profit will not be less than 
that asserted above, as those croakers will 
find who consider $50 or a $100, the highest 
they can get. It must be remembered, how¬ 
ever, that these results can not be obtained 
without good culture, which, if given, will 
yield quadruple profits. Surely the matter 
is worth a trial. 
Another matter of consideration, is the 
difference it will make to the pocket, wheth¬ 
er the crop be carefully weeded or not. 
Judging from the freedom with which they 
luxuriate on many farms, one would suppose, 
unless experience taught him otherwise, 
that the greatest abundance of weeds was 
necessary to protect our marketable com¬ 
modities, and make them tender. Now it 
happens that a handy laborer, with a good 
hoe, will go over an acre of cropped land in 
three days when the weeds are small; but if 
allowed to attain any size, they will not only 
hide the crop, but acquire such firm foot¬ 
hold as to make it almost impossible to dis¬ 
lodge them; and then not without bringing 
away much of the earth, and nourishment 
intended for the plants. Besides, the labor 
required to remove them will be many times 
greater, without yielding in the end more 
than half as large a crop. Here is another 
calculation to make, and the time imployed 
in computing it will not be lost. 
Again, all organic material in the neigh¬ 
borhood of a homestead becomes a manure 
more or less fertilizing. How much of 
nature’s decomposition is continually going 
on; how many gallons of urine and drainings 
are constantly running away from decayed 
manure-heaps, and cow-houses. Now, a 
covered, water-proof cess-pool, or cistern, 
will collect material enough the first year to 
pay expenses, and all after will be clear 
gain. Here is another item which, if not a 
direct profit, is so much saved, and remem¬ 
ber Ben Franklin’s maxim, “ a penny saved 
is twice earned.” 
If any one is disposed to doubt the truth 
of these remarks, let him sit down and reck¬ 
on the product on the debtor’s side, and the 
$100 per acre profit on the other side, and 
see how much he will have left for invest¬ 
ment, or to pay off bad debts, of which too 
many have to complain. 
ECONOMY IN THE CONSUMPTION OF THE TURNIP 
CROP, BY USING THE TURNIP CUTTER. 
In a season like the present, when the 
yield of the turnips is deficient in many 
parts of Great Britain, the following ex¬ 
tracts will be found more than ordinarily 
interesting: 
The advantage of using the turnip cutter 
is two-fold ; saving the teeth of old ewes, for 
which the Swedish turnips especially are 
too hard; saving the waste of this valuable 
root, which, where partially scooped out by 
the sheep, is rolled and trampled about with 
great waste. The economy effected by this 
machine has been stated to be no less than 
one-third of the whole produce. If it be 
taken, however, at only a fourth or fifth, 
why, it may be asked, has not every farm in 
the country been long since furnished with 
this cheap apparatus ! So says Mr. Pusey, 
in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, 
on English agriculture, 1840. 
I have endeavored to ascertain the profit 
of turnip cutting. If, of two lots of lambs, 
the one received, during winter, cut turnips, 
and the other uncut turnips, the fold with 
cut turnips would be worth twenty per cent 
more than the other fold. The former 
would sell for forty shilling a head if the lat¬ 
ter fetched thirty-two shillings, and the cost 
of cutting would be one ’shilling per head, 
leaving seven shillings clear profit upon one 
sheep. If this statement had been made by 
an amateur agriculturist, one would have 
been rather skeptical. It was given to me 
word for word by two experienced practical 
farmers ; and I only write it down from 
their mouths for the consideration of their 
brethren in any benighted districts of Eng¬ 
land, or even Scotland, if such yet there be. 
Let them consider s that seven shilling per 
sheep upon turnips comes to seventy shil¬ 
lings per acre upon the turnip crop, nearly 
the average rent of land for four years’ 
course till the turnip comes round again. 
And what is the investment of capital ? 
Fiv* pounds for one best Banbury turnip 
