TEN CENTS 
WFROVEFVJENT 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, M AY H, I GO7 
strong stocks. 7 had live weak swarms, and on j 
examining them about the iirst of February 
commenced to feed on sugar, as above, once a 
■week, and they Imvc remained quiet, and come 
for their feed when the hive is opened. I have 
fed by pouring the melted sugar on a piece of j 
comb and placing above the movable frames 
of the hive.” 
w. W. Fisitek, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., writes: 
“I would say, in answer to Harvey Hall, in 
the Rural, of April 6tli, that I have learned 
from experience in bee-keeping, by observation, 
that bees can be wintered without loss as easy 
as a hcrd.of cattle. Feed the bees with sirup 
made of sugar or refuse houey, in the hill; and 
also In the spring with the same, and unbolted 
rye flour and water for the young bees, and there 
will be no danger of losing ft swarm. The lol- 
lowing recipes for making artificial bee food are 
given :—For Making Sirup .—To ten pounds of 
sugar add four pounds of water, boil live min¬ 
utes, skim well and cool. Use good brown or 
coffee sugar. For Preparing Gandiud Honey for 
it™ ty —Place the honey in a kettle with a lit- 
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Conductor earnestly labors to render ttie Bubal a Bell- 
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other Subjects connected with the business ot those 
whose interest* it zealously advocates. As a Family 
Journal it k eminently Instructiv- and Entertaining 
nelmj so conducted that It can be sarcly taken to the 
TIomcR of people of Intel itscncc.tasti- and discrimination. 
U embraces more Agricultural. 11 arlle aUUTnl , Sdentl He. 
Educational, Literary and News Matter, Interspersed 
wltb appropriate engraving's, than any other journal, 
rendering It by far the most complete An kicclttjkal. 
Literary AND Family Newspaper In America. 
Terms and other particulars see last page. 
AYRSHIRE rtTJi.T 
WALCOTT 
excellent milking qualities. As compared with 
other celebrated breeds they are recent in their 
origin, and are supposed to have sprang from 
the original stock of the county of Ayr, which 
extends along the eastern shore of the Firth of 
Clyde, Scotland. 
old at Saratoga. The engraving is a (air rep¬ 
resentation of his points as wc remember them 
in his appearance last tall, at Saratoga. His 
heifer-like head is peculiar, and Is a feature 
admired by - fanciers ol milking stock. The 
Ayrshirea are pre-eminently celebrated lor their 
RURAL FARMERS’ CLUB 
To Club Readers. 
The Rural Farmers’ Club is a success. 
From the tone of numerous letters received wc 
imply that it is highly interesting to our readers. 
Our aim is to bring to the farmer’s home the ad¬ 
vantages of an interchange of facts and experi¬ 
ence among the cultivators of the soil a con¬ 
densed, pointed, practical discussion of a wide 
range of subjects. You, farmers, must sustain 
this. What you would say to your neighbors in 
a friendly chat about farm operations, write to 
us, and we will tell it for you to a host of wil¬ 
ling listeners all over the laud. Wc want, and 
your neighbors want, your facts and experience, 
and no fanner’s fingers arc so stiff with toil but 
that he can handle his pen well enough to give 
these. And we will illustrate for you, too, if 
you only send along sketches or models—no 
matter how rude if the idea is made plain—of 
any labor-saving, convenient, or valuable devices 
or implements, not patented or a monopoly, 
which you cousidcr would help your brother 
farmers to know of and use. 
unsheltered place; trees, high buildings and 
other Obstacles if too near, may have conBidera- 
ahlc Influence in Increasing or diminishing the 
quantity of rain falling into the tube. It Bhould 
be located, if possible, so as to avoid eddies 
caused by the wind. The wooden cylinder 
should be sunk in the ground until its upper 
cud is even with the surface of the earth. The 
upper cylinder to catch the vain is screwed to 
the tube in which it is measured. Experiments 
must he made with the gage and measuring 
scale until It is found what height of water in 
tho lower tube represents one inch in the upper 
cylinder; then measure this lieiglit, on the scale 
and divide it into tenths and hundredths. The 
scale thus made, plunged into the water in the 
smaller tube, will tell the amount In inches and 
tenths and hundredths thereof, of the rain that 
has fallen. 
and compact body, well-formed chest and eapa- 
li, there is little waste through the 
system; while, at the same time, 
ry complete assimilation of the food, 
Opening «>»’ 1867 for Bees, 
S. J. Parker, M. D., Ithaca, N. Y., writes :— 
“The first pollen gathered by my bees this 
Spring (1867,) was on Sunday, March 31st. This 
was brought In eagerly after a hot forenoon, at 
to 4 o’clock. April 3d and 4th, still more 
was gathered; and April 7tli was a good pollen 
day/ But to-day (April 8th,) they arc crowding 
in with it. To-day, too, is the first day In which 
they collected dew early In the morning, in the 
door-yard and garden. This year, by the sound 
clous stomac 
respiratory system; while, at the same time 
there is a ve _ 
aod thus she converts a large proportion of her I 
food into milk. It is the verdict, of many dairy¬ 
men that, for the quantity of food consumed, the 
Ayrshire cow gives a larger return of milk and 
Of a better quality than any other breed. A 
prominent and well-developed specimen oi a male 
of this breed —a first prize animal on several 
occasions—is herewith presented in miniature, 
showing the development of the body in con¬ 
trast with the small, heifer-like head which is 
characteristic of this species of stock. 
in this wise: —Lay two oak scantling, 3 by 3 
inches square and 3 % lect long, parallel on the 
shop floor three feet apart. Then spike a strip, 
2 hy 2 and 5 feet long across two ends or the 
scantling; then four two-inch plank 8 inches 
wide and 5 feet long, spiking them on like clap¬ 
boarding, and finish with a plank 14 inches wide 
for the front. Turn your crusher over, affix a 
stool l’or the driver, and the chains to the cross¬ 
pieces for the team to draw by, and the imple¬ 
ment is completed. 
THE RAIN-GAGE, 
We have thought many of our readers would 
be interested by a description of the rain-gage, 
an instrument intended to measure accurately 
the quantity of rain which falls in any given 
period of time. The one wc herewith illustrate 
has been adopted by the Smithsonian Institution 
for use by its observers in various parts of the 
country, and is probably as accurate and simple 
an instrument for this purpose as can be de¬ 
vised. 
More About (trowing Corn. 
“A Western Pennsylvania Farmer,” re¬ 
plies thus to “ Eastern Pennsylvania Farmer’s” 
criticisms on his article about growing corn: 
“1st, Manure.—! bed down with chaff until it 
is exhausted, and then with saw dust, so that all 
the dropings of the horse and cattle stables 
is short manure as soon as tho snow disappears. 
The dropings and litter of tho sheep cotes is 
corded up out of doors, and is fermented or short 
manure by the 35th of August, and ready for the 
wheat. 1 manure no other grain crops. ■■ My ro¬ 
tation is corn, oats, wheat, clover. 
2d, Plowing.— On the same ground where I 
have raised over two hundred bushels ot sound 
ears of corn per acre, by plowing ten inches deep, 
my predecessor raised fifty to sixty bushels un - 
derthe “pennymite” regime, plowing three to 
five inches. Com roots rind the bottom. 
3d, Home-made Guano .—I tried “putting it in 
the bottom of the hill at planting,” two succes¬ 
sive years; result, rotted seed and replanting. 
tried plaster in the bottom of the hill with the 
ABOUT PL0W3, 
Potatoes— iiarnct. Chili and uoouricn. 
8. F. Tooley, Marshall, N. Y., writes for onr 
Club, that—“The best varieties of potatoes 
raised in this section are the Goodrich Seedling 
and the Garnet Chili, both originated hy Mr. 
Goodrich of Utica. The first, is an excellent 
potato for Bummer use, aud keeps sound until 
planting time. The Garnet Chili is a large 
yiclder, averaging from two to lour hundred 
bushels ner acre. It is the “stand-by” with 
It is frequently t,he ease that a farmer will buy 
two plows of the same make and pattern, and 
one will prove to bo a much easier running and 
holding plow than the other. Why V It may be 
that the castings are warped and do not fit to¬ 
gether well; but far more generally, because the 
iron In the two moldboards Is not of the same 
temper, — the plow with the softest moldboard 
being the poorest of the two. The furrow ad¬ 
hering more closely to the soft moldboard, makes 
the draft of the. plow heavier, and, likewise, pulls 
the plow around to the right, away from the 
land, therefore making It run unsteady. As an 
illustration take two pleasure sleighs; the one 
having on hard cast shoes and the. other soft cast 
shoes. When these two sleighs run over apiece 
of bare ground the one with soft shoes draws very 
much the hardest, and has the most side draft. 
It Is quite difficult for fumaccmcn to make their 
moldboards always of the same proper temper, 
and especially is it so where they melt soft ma¬ 
chinery iron at the same heat with hard plow 
As a general rule the best and most uni- 
IMPROVED CATTLE—AYRSHIRE8, 
Within a period of about severny years u.v; 
leading breeds of cattle have been vastly im¬ 
proved with respect to appearance, size and 
The precise period when 
" ‘ j not material, 
36 of it are found 
back more or less. 
productive power, 
this improvement commenced is 
though tolerably distinct trace 
iu records a hundred years U 
Previous to that time the prevalent breeds ot 
cattle on the Continent and the British Islands 
were noticeable rather lor the incompleteness |_ 
of their make up, the diminutiveness of their i m h 
bodies and the paucity of their products whether 
for the dairy or for slaughtering purposes. The 
peculiar distinctive divisions are Long-Horns, 
Middle-Horns, Hornless or Polled and Short- ^ 111 
Horns. There are several intermediate varieties s ;|||| 
differing, in some characteristics, but still re- h ||§| |_J 
talning a general family resemblance to one or S 8 jjg 
the other ol the leading classes. % . 
Whether it has been by crossing, on the part , j 
of breeders, or, from improved management and 
keeping, certain it is that all the leading stocks . . 
have shown marked improvement within the It consists of a brass or tin cylinder a , b, c, , 
last thirty or forty years. Among the most no- three inches in diameter to catch the rain; a 
tiecable of these improved breeds, and marked small cylinder, e, f, to receive the watu and 
favorites with cattle breeders and dairymen, is reduce the diameter of the column, to allow 0 
the Ayrshire, supposed to bo an Improved de- greater accuracy in measuring the height,; a 
vclopmcnt of the old Tiswater, once in high whalebone scale, », divided by “ 
repute iu various parts of England. Flint, in as to indicate tenths and hundredths of an In 
his treaties on milch cows aud dairy farming, of rain; a wooden cylinder, u>, », insert' p 
devotes considerable space to this breed, aud manently in the ground (represented by t 
concludes that for dairy purposes purely, or shading) for the protection and ready acj 
mainly, the Ayrshirea deserve the first place, meut of the instrument. 
To cousecmeneei of the cow’s small, symmetrical I The rain-gage bhould be placed m an op , 
.Salting Butter. 
It is becoming a very prevalent complaint, 
among butter dealers, that farmers are not care¬ 
ful enough as to the kind and quantity of salt 
they use in preparing butter for market. Some 
put in too mnch, others hardly enough, while 
too inauy are careless as to the quality of the 
article used. Ordinary barrel salt is reported 
to contain so much lime as to cause a soapy 
texture to the butter, while lacking the pre¬ 
servative power essential to good flavor and pro¬ 
tracted keeping. An exchange states that the 
iron 
form plows come from those linns who make that 
particular tool a speciality and a study. Their 
mechanics become familiar with selecting and 
melting iron for that purpose, and their castings 
are apt to be fitted together with extra care. 
Plow Maker. 
Peas and Pork.— A writer in the American 
Stock .Journal advocates the raising of peas for 
fattening pork. Grouud or boiled they ara 
deemed excellent for other stock, also, when 
mixed with cut hay, straw or com fodder. 
But the Canadians rely on peas for pork-making, 
deeming six bushels of these equivalent to ten 
bushels of corn, lor this purpose. Tho pea is 
au excellent decomposer of stiff and damp 
clayey soils. 
Feeding Bees. 
W. D. B., East Hardwick, Yt, writes that iu 
his experience, “ the best feed for bees is honey 
if you have it, but if not granulated white sugar 
melted, having water enough added to make 
it’about as thick as honey. This makes a good 
substitute for bee’s honey as a food, and is not 
very expensive. Maple sirup will answer, after 
the bees commence to fly, but is not safe to feed 
long before the spring open?. A little feed now 
will be likely to produce early swarms Irom 
