18G6.] 
AMERICAN AG-RIOULTURIST. 
99 
to make and fill queen cells, and young bees or 
wax workers to make those cells. Where these 
are most abundant, success is the more certain ; 
a want of young bees causing the production of 
smaller and shorter queens; and larvse of un¬ 
suitable age, in case eggs are wanting, will 
furnish imperfect queens, if any. 
In Italianizing stocks in common box or straw 
hives, we would recommend early in spring to 
feed the stock containing the Italian queen, by 
pouring one tablespoonful of honey into the 
hole in the top of the hive, morning and even¬ 
ing, to hasten the production of drones and 
brood, being careful to cover the hole to exclude 
other bees. When the drones have appeared, 
blow a little smoke into the entrance, invert the 
hive (hive A), placing over it an empty one (hive 
B), then drum on the lower hive (A) 15 minutes, 
or until the queen and bees have gone up, (this 
can be ascertained by first making a large hole 
or several small ones in the top of the empty 
hive (B), which should be covered with wire 
cloth, or glass to observe when the bees ascend), 
then remove the hive with bees, placing it tem¬ 
porarily on the stand of the parent hive (A). 
Remove the drummed hive (A) to the stand of 
the stock (C) you wish to Italianize, removing it 
(C), and also driving out its bees and queen, 
■which shake out on a cloth in front of the first 
drummed hive (A), that you have previously 
placed on their stand. As the bees go in, catch 
and kill the black queen. They •will then raise an 
Italian queen from the Italian brood in the hive. 
Place the hive (C) containing black brood on the 
old stand of the Italian bees (A), shaking them in 
front. After ten days, drive out the Italian bees 
(that is the stock A in the hive of C) with their 
queen, again exchanging this stock with another 
until all are Italianized. On the first three 
pleasant days after the 12 th, counting from the 
time the Italian queen is removed, contract the 
entrances to the hives containing black drones. 
Should any queen meet black drones, which 
can be known by their imperfect worker proge¬ 
ny, they should be again treated as black ones. 
Another method, when frame hives are used, 
is, early in the spring to remove all the frames 
containing drone comb from the black stocks, 
replacing worker combs, and giving the stock 
containing the Italian queen one or more frames 
of worker comb. When the drones mature, re¬ 
move the honey board that covers the frames, 
and place over an empty hive or cap, and drum 
up the bees and queen, exchange as in the case 
of the box hives, repeating it every ten days if 
necessary. If the stocks are numerous, ten days 
after the queen has been removed from any 
hive, the new queen cells will all have been 
sealed. Then carry the hive to a room and di¬ 
vide the combs, putting one, two, or three frames 
with the adhering bees into empty hives, and at 
one side, being careful to give each at least one 
comb of maturing brood, and one of the largest 
and longest sealed queen cells. If the sealed 
queens happen to be all on one comb, a piece 
of comb an inch or two in size, containing a 
queen cell, can be cut out, and inserted into a 
similar hole cut in another comb, being careful 
not to chill or injure the queen larvse. Place 
the hives containing the combs, one on the old 
stand, and each of the others on the stands of 
stocks containing black queens, removing them 
away. When the workers fly out, they return 
to their former stand and enter these hives, and if 
the season is not far advanced, all will increase 
to good colonies. If practised early, this w ill 
answer for swarming; if late, the stocks may 
afterward be strengthened from stronger stocks. 
We have adopted the following plan, which 
we consider the most perfect system of swarm¬ 
ing, using® frame hives; Early in the spring, 
when the stocks become populous, we lift out 
the two outside combs, placing them near the 
centre of a similar but open bottomed hive, then 
crowd the combs in the old hive to the outside, 
replacing empty ones near the centre. Then 
we place over this the open bottomed hive, fil¬ 
ling up with empty frames. In this wa}’- the 
majorit}'- of the stocks can be emplo 3 ’ed filling 
hives for the new swarm, while a few can be 
raising queens in the natural wa}’. Such should 
not have additional room, but should be exam¬ 
ined every ten da}'s, and Avhen sealed queens 
are found, they may be removed, on the frames, 
to the upper hives, which should then be shifted 
with the adhering bees and combs to the stand, 
the lower hive being, removed, but that onlj’- a 
foot or two av^'a 3 ^ Little time is thus lost to 
either the old or new 0010113 -. A few of the best 
queens are selected for queen raising; their 
hives should also contain drone combs, the 
others, none. In this way all the better quali¬ 
ties of the Italians can be preserved, and per¬ 
fect purity be easily and safely maintained. 
Effect of Shelter on the Health of Stock. 
The comfort of stock is greatl 3 ' promoted b 3 ^ 
good shelter. How different do the sleek and 
contented cattle and sheep in a well protected 
barn- 3 'ard look, from the poor, rough-haired, 
pinched-up stock in an open field ! On enter¬ 
ing such a 3 -ard, the first thought is : How com¬ 
fortable the creatures look ! Hoav, “ the looks 
of things” should not be disregarded.—Then 
think of the economy. It ma 3 - cost something 
to put up sheds and high, tight fences; but in 
the long run, it costs more to feed half-starved 
cattle. Before any animals can fatten, a certain 
amount of food must be expended in keeping 
them comfortably warm. If healthy neat stock 
and sheep' have as much good food as they can 
eat, they will perhaps go through the winter 
in about as good health as they would if 
well housed or with the best shed room, even 
though the 3 ' be exposed to all the rigors of the 
climate, but the amount of fodder they Avill 
consume is immense, and if the 3 - are not quite 
well to start with, or get short of fodder, it will 
go hard with them. Cows will slink their calv¬ 
es, sheep will die, the lambs will be born dead, 
and other evils almost surel 3 ' follow. Close 
stalls or rooms for cattle and sheep cause dis¬ 
ease of the lungs, indigestion, colds, fevers, 
cutaneous disease, etc., the tendency to these 
disorders being increased by lack of cleanliness, 
by.improper food, etc. Fresh air, not neces¬ 
sarily cold, but much better cold than not fresh, 
is a prime necessit 3 ^ For breeding sheep or 
any but those rapidly fattening, the exposure of 
half open sheds is not objectionable, but for all 
kinds of neat stock and horses it is better if pos¬ 
sible to provide warm quarters. Health of stock 
and profit in feeding are so closely connected 
with good air, warmth, cleanliness, good food 
etc., that they all ought always to be aimed at. 
Too Much Land. 
The desire to own a very large farm is natur¬ 
al, but often proves unwise in its results. When 
a man wishes to practise a mixed husbandly, 
and his present acres are too few and unsuitable, 
it is doubtless "wise to annex more territory. 
Neighbor Jones has twenty acres of meadow 
land, which is suitable only for ha 3 % or grain, or 
hoed crops. But as he finds a small dairy 
would be profitable, and sheep would bring in 
good returns, it would be advisable for him to 
buy several acres of rolling or hilly land ad¬ 
joining. But this accomplished, let him stop, 
and be careful to buy no more than he actuall 3 ' 
needs for his special purpose. For, this new 
land will have to pay taxes, will have to be 
fenced, and may need other expenses laid out 
upon it. At any rate, it will add to his cares, 
and perhaps will bring in no adequate return. 
We know a firmer ivlio, ten 3 'ears ago, own¬ 
ed 150 acres, and was doing veiy well; he now 
owns five hundred, and is worse off than before. 
And why? Because'this large farm is a great 
bill of expense to him; he cannot afford to 
keep it up in good condition, and it hangs a 
millstone of care about his neck. His wife and 
children, both sons and daughters, are obliged 
to work hard to keep the great machine a-run- 
ning. Yfe presume his bo 3 -s declare they will 
leave home as soon as they are old enough; 
and the girls saa^ 11103 - before the 3 ’’ will 
marry farmers. , Neitlier sons nor daughters 
are educated as they deserve to be; thc 3 ^ cannot 
be spared for this from work on the big farm. 
Now we declare that such a farm is a curse to 
its possessor and hisfaniil 3 ^, and an injuiy to the 
whole agricultural interest. If that man wants 
to save himself and his household, he should 
sell at least one half of his land, improve the re¬ 
mainder to make it more productive, release his 
children from bondage, and tiy to make his 
home a place of comfort. He will live longer, 
lay up as good a propert 3 -, and will train up a 
more intelligent and a happier fimil 3 -. 
The Camels on the Pacific Coast. 
It must be well known to most of our read¬ 
ers that these strange and wonderful animals, 
natives of the East, and with which we as¬ 
sociate 01113 - Oriental ideas and scenes,—the 
Arab’s Ship of the Desert — the Tartar’s 
wealth in peace, and strength in war,—the 
Turk’s drudge and the Persian’s gloiy—in 
two distinct species are domesticated upon our 
great 'Western plains and deserts. Having 
seen in the possession of Prof W. H. Brewer, 
of Yale College, a striking sketch of a group of 
Bactrian camels on the Humboldt desert, Ne¬ 
vada, latitude 40°, we olitained permission to 
cojiy it, and he has favored us with some notes 
of his observations of the camels on the Pa¬ 
cific coast, where he has lately been. 
Camels were introduced into the United 
States at several times, both under government 
auspices and by private enterprise, but the most 
considerable importations were made 113 - or un¬ 
der Jeff. Davis, while U. S. Secretary of War. 
Both, the large Arabian one-humped camels or 
Dromedaries, and the smaller two-humped Bac¬ 
trian camels, were imported, the former we be¬ 
lieve from northern Africa, and the others from 
western Asia. One of tiie native keepers that 
came over with the latter, was “ Yuseph .Badra,” 
made somewhat famous ly J. Ross Brown, who 
had already seen him in his “ Crusade in the 
East.” Nearly or cpiite all of the camels were 
put first on the Southern deserts, that is on “ the 
plains” of Texas, New IHexico, Arizona and 
California, and none were used north of the 
northern line of Arizona until after 1859 or 60. 
Although high hopes were entertained of their 
usefulness there, the sequel has thrown much 
doubt over their availability for our uses. 
Of the wonderful power of endurance, the 
strength and fleetness of the camel, it is un- 
