cal description, the Judges close by saying: 
“ We have no hesitation in awarding to this 
Power a Gold Medal.” Of tiie Two-Horse 
Thresher and Cleaner, the Judges say : 
“This ronohinr la of great value, and has 
several features different from any thresher and 
cleaner within our knowledge. The thresher is 
overshot. The cylinder Is of wood, covered with 
sheet iron and heavily handed ; is heavier than 
usual; accurately balanced, so that very little 
vibration is produced when revolving at its 
highest speed. The cylinder revolves about 
1,200 times a minute, when the horses travel at 
the rate of IX miles per hour. 
room to work it. The head of this Fork is pro¬ 
tected by self-tightening bands, through which 
the tines pass, making it impossible to break. 
Although very strong, it Is small and compact, 
and can be used by a toy. It will lake off a load 
of bay ordinarily m three to six minutes. 
Figures 2 and 3 represent Walker's Im¬ 
proved Harpoon Horse Pitch-fork. The Har¬ 
poon style of Horse Pitch-fork has conic in 
quite recently, and until it has been thorough¬ 
ly demonstrated, a looker-on would swear it 
could not do the business. But it does, and 
has some advantages over the four-lined 
triously gathering a winter store from other 
quarters, the season remaining favorable 
longer than ordinarily, 1 was surprised, 
upon examining their combs, a few weeks 
later, to find them filled with honey. Up 
to this date they are doing well. 
Do any of the apiarians who contribute 
to the Rural New-Yorker experiment on 
cultivating pasturage for bees ? It so, which 
is the best? Langstrotii, in his book on 
the honey bee, recommends the cultivation 
of borage (Boraffe officinalis.) Where can 
the seed lie procured, and how is it culti¬ 
vated? Gan the seed of the Alsike or Swe¬ 
dish while clover, he procured, and the plant 
cultivated profitably both for cattle and bees 
in the northern part of N«nv Jersey?— 
J. J. D. B. 
EMPIRE AGRICULTURAL WORKS, 
Cobtcsklll, N. Y. 
TRANSFERRING BEES 
From n Box to n Movable Comb Hive, 
Places which have no particular signifi¬ 
cance in themselves sometimes become fa¬ 
mous as the theaters of great successes or 
defeats; as Waterloo in the old world and 
Lookout. Mountain in the new. A clever 
Dutchman, his name which it was Coble, 
settled long ago in what, is now the County 
of Schoharie, in the State of New-York; 
and lie settled by a roaring stream of water 
in that mono tain-region, and the Dutch for 
a stream is kill, so this roaring stream was 
called Cobleskill, and in process of time a 
little town was built up at the place where 
Mynhorr Coble had settled, and this town 
took the name of Cobleskill, and thatisthe 
way it. came about. All this was perfectly 
natural, but the fame of the Schoharie Dutch¬ 
man did not extend beyond Albany, 40 miles 
to the northeast of C-ohleskill, and things 
were going on in this quiet way among these 
northern spurs of the Catskill mountains, 
until about lhe year 1859, one Minard Har¬ 
der, who united the genius of a mechanic to 
the enterprise of a man of business, having 
successfully figured nut his idea of what a 
threshing machine should he, and a horse¬ 
power to drive it, set to work, at Cobleskill, 
to supply the farmers with the aforesaid im¬ 
plements. And it is the success of this en¬ 
terprise which has madethename of Cobles¬ 
kill famous, since the products of this manu¬ 
factory have been sent, far and near, from 
Vermont to Texas, and from Maryland to 
California. 
Having before met with Mr. Harder, in 
the fields of his triumphs at agricultural fairs, 
we had a desire to see him in his own shops, 
which desire wo were recently enabled to 
gratify, by an excursion over the Albany and 
Susquehanna Railroad, which took us into 
this romantic region of Schoharie, and there 
we found the plucky manufacturer, and saw 
how he did things at the Empire Agricultu¬ 
ral Works. A reliable water power furn¬ 
ishes a cheap and steady motor to this estab¬ 
lishment, which is a great saving of expense 
and risk, over the use of steam ; and having 
the best of maple, ash and basswood timber 
at hand, Mr. Harder is saved the expense 
of importation from a distance 
A threshing machine, to do the business, 
1ms to be put through severe work, and must 
be well made. Mr. H arder does not offer 
a cheap and inferior article, but having faith 
in thu intelligence and discrimination of 
American farmers, will make none but such 
as will give satisfaction, in performance and 
durability; and such machines arc always 
cheapest in the end. 
In selecting a Power to run his Thresher, 
Mr. Harder made choice of the Endless 
Chain Railway, or Tread Power, which is 
operated at about one-quarter less expense, 
for tiie same amount of work, than a sweep 
power. 
At the head of this article are fac-simile 
engravings of the two Gold Medals which 
we naw in the possession of Mr. Harder, 
and which explain themselves. The great 
Auburn Trial in 1800 is held to be the most 
thorough and satisfactory of any like per¬ 
formance in the. United Slates. 
Tho New York State Legislature appropriated 
$5,000 lor tho purpose of carrying out this trial, 
and intrusted its management to tiie N. Y. State 
Ag. Society, by which the following well-known 
gentlemen wore selected ns tho Board of Judges: 
Hon. John Stanton Gould, President New York 
State Agricultural Society, Hudson, N. Y.; Hon. 
Ezra Cornell, ex-Presldent, Itltucti; Hon. A. B. 
Conger, ex- President, Htivpratrow; lion, llonj. 
P. Johnson, Secretary. Albany; Hon. Elisha 
Foote, U. S. Patent Oltloe; Hon. E. It. Potter, 
Kingston, R. I.; Hon. Samuel Campbell, New 
York Mills; Prof. Benjamin Pierce, Cambridge 
University; Sanford Howard, Sec. Michigan 
Boardof Agriculture; Henry Wuterman, Engi¬ 
neer, Hudson; T. L. llarison, Morley. 
In their Report of t his trial, the Judges say: 
“ As every fanner Is aormnlnted with the 
general principles of endless chain horse pow¬ 
ers, we will conilno our description to points 
which are peculiar to tilts machine. Tt is some¬ 
what longer than other machines with which wo 
me acquainted; the sides are also somewhat 
lower, admitting more air to mid under the 
horses .in hot weather. The entire length of the 
chain i h 18 3-12 feet. There me 31 links, each" 
inches long. It is 4 foot 7 inches wide from out¬ 
side toout-ido of silla. Weight of the Horse 
Power, 1,850 pounds.'' 
Then, after speaking of the chain of an 
imperfect power, the Judges go on to aay : 
“Alternate tension and relaxation will cause 
a jerking and Irregular notion, which consumes 
power uselessly, ami wen no lit the machine nip- 
idly. riiis difficulty is obviated in .Messrs. 
machine, by pm ting in an odd, In¬ 
stead of an even series of links. In this wav 
In the Rural New-Yorker I see an in¬ 
quiry how lo transfer bees from a box hive 
to a movable comb hive. My method is to 
turn the hive bottom up, drive the bees with 
tobacco smoke, cut the combs from the sides 
of the hive with a long knife and.cut the 
cross sticks; then pry tho sides oil the lop, 
which will leave the combs standing, all to¬ 
gether bottom up ou their upper end, as 
they are not so liable to break to pieces. 
Then lake oil' one comb at a time, brush the 
bees into a clean box, giving those on the 
combs a little smoko occasionally to invite 
them lo keep their place, and as last as each 
comb is freed from bees fit it to tiie coinb 
frames. Either fasten it by winding com¬ 
mon twine across it, two or throe times, or 
by small strips of tin, and put each frame 
into its place as soon as the comb ia fitted. 
As soon as you have them all fixed, take 
out one of the center combs, find the queen, 
put her on, set. it in its place and brush or 
shake the bees from your box on to the tops 
of the frames, and they will soon get their 
places. 
I prefer changing a colony in the evening 
or in a cool, dark room, using as little light 
as possible, because they do not fly so much. 
1 also scrape or cut the caps from the cells 
of honey for an inch or two from the top, as 
they stick the combs to the top liars sooner 
than if not uncapped. If lliero is no capped 
honey in the combs, I feed them a piece of 
comb honey three or four inches square, 
with the caps cut off; and if tho frames are 
shifted from Die center to either side, they 
will stick them all in from six to ten days, 
when the strings or clamps may be taken 
off. If fed a little at a time, and every night 
or two, they will increase with incredible 
rapidity. 
I would advise J. A. B. to change his 
swarms as soonr as convenient. He should 
discard most of the drone, comb, if not all of 
it, and give the bees free use of the rye bran. 
I examine each comb, as soon as cut, from 
the rest, for Die queen, and secure her under 
a wire dish cover, with a few bees. 1 feel at 
case as soon as she is found and secured. 
She i3 generally ou the comb containing the 
most brood. I have changed fourteen 
swarms in this way without an accident or 
killing a queen. Enrico. 
fP^PrizfiGcfdMedaT^ 
(fir ' tftrm&nieC'* 
tfnr$sAtr , $ Ctfcst/ftTC 
iiuusuuns answered oy tnose wiio can answer 
from experience :—What is tho best way ol' pre¬ 
venting natural swarms when you make artifi¬ 
cial swarms? Tin; quickest, and most convenient 
way ol finding the queen? What success do 
bee-keepers find in fertilizing queens In confine¬ 
ment? Do Italian queens, fertilized by black 
drones, produce Italian drones? The best, way 
of removing tiie tiers from a frame of honey or 
brood ? Ami queens sent by malt any distance 
safely?—D. II. Towi.n, Wondhitic. Co., Minn.— 
Will some experienced bee-keepers tell me what 
is the cause of “foul brood," and if it can bo 
cured? How should the combs tie treated, so 
•hat tboy can bo used without the danger of 
spreading the disease? How can swarming bo 
prevented ? Rkadioh, Painesville, O. 
“The teeth, which are heavy, a rod riven in and 
clinched on theinner side. By this arrangement, 
if a tootli breaks, another can bo replaced in the 
same spot, which cannot so well be done when 
put in with n screw. 
“The feed table ascends 2 X inche.3 next to the 
cylinder, nod stones and other hard substances 
which may tic in the straw roll downward, -with¬ 
out injury to the teeth. 
“ The arrangements for separating the grain 
from the straw are unusually good ; two forked 
nrms in tin* separator ure continually rising ami 
falling, which keep the straw loose and facilitate 
the separation of the grain. 
“The sieves are larger than usual, five in nnra- 
hor, shaken laterally, and supplied with a very 
powerful stream of wind. 
“ The mechanical construction and execution 
arc of tho very best kind, mid we have no hesi¬ 
tation in saying that, iu uni- opinion, this ma¬ 
chine embodies tin* greatest advances that have 
yet been made In tho art of separating grain 
from the straw, 
“ We fully liollevo it to he admirably adapted to 
meet ihe wants of tho farmers, ami, therefore, 
wo recommend to the Executive Committee to 
give a Gold Modal to 'his machine.“ 
To the above description wo will only add Hint 
over tho concave is a linens long ns tho cylinder, 
and about 8 inches wide, through which a cur¬ 
rent of air Hucks all the dust from before tho 
cylinder, and carries It out with tho chaff and 
straw* 
Besides these principal machines, Mr. 
Harder makes a single Thresher without 
the separator; also a Fanning Mill, and a 
circular saw Wood Sawing Machine, all of 
which are illustrated and explained in a neat 
pamphlet, which lie will send on applica¬ 
tion. Up to last season Mr. Minard Har¬ 
der had associated with him in business his 
brother Rufus, but desiring to “ push things” 
in Ids own way, he took the whole concern 
into his own hands. 
fork, in ease of handling, compactness of 
form and simplicity of construction. You 
may set a harpoon lmy-lifter into the Lop of 
a load of hay, and it will take up all the 
horse can pull, and there is no handle or 
lines to catch in going through a window or 
over a beam. Figure 2 represents the Har¬ 
poon wiili the point set for being plunged in 
the hay for a draft. When it has been set 
deep enough in tho load the lever is set up 
loricnltnrr 
PL0RAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Now English OlntlioliiH, 
named ‘‘Joint Standitab,” was recently 
shown at a meeting of the Royal Agricultu¬ 
ral Society. It had flesli-colorcd flowers, 
marked with crimson and purple forming a 
magnificent spike. 
New Hollyhocks. 
Ttie London Field says:—“ Mr, William 
Chater of Saffron Walden, annually pro¬ 
duces a collection of new flowers, us perfect 
in shape, fine in quality and varied in color 
as can well be conceived. The following 
new varieties, raised by Mr. Cb ateh, can be 
confidently commended; — Alfred Chater, 
Bullion, Champion Conquest, Eclipse, Joy, 
Majestic and Marvellous. 
Fig. 3. Fig. 3. 
and locked, by which the hinged point is 
turned out at a right angle, forming a foot,- 
piccc, which holds Die li -i: t .hm falling off, 
while the Harpoon is drawn <ip. When the 
draft is landed in ils place on the mow or 
stack, the. lock is trigged by a jerk of the 
cord, which lets the point fall hack straight, 
and the Harpoon is taken out as easily as if 
it was a common pitch-fork. 
The manufacture of these implements is 
one of Die special Lies of Wheeler, Mel- 
ick & Co., of the New York State Agricul¬ 
tural Works, at Albany, N. Y , to which we 
invite the attention of all persons in want of 
something nice in tho way of hay-lifters. 
HORSE HAY PIT0H-F0RK& 
(attt'ilcnin Kortunel. 
W. P. A. writes to the London Field: 
“ Of' the many fine plants for which we are 
indebted to Mr. Fortune, wo think that, 
tested by a jury of ladies, this would be pro¬ 
nounced the finest; for to the size, purity 
and doubleness of the white camellia this 
plant adds the delicious aroma for which 
the whole tribe of Gardenias are so much 
prized. The great market growers who 
cultivate the Gardenia hy the. thousand for 
the supply of the bouquet makers of Covent 
Garden, grow them principally by means of 
the beat of fermenting materials. The gene¬ 
ral plan is to have a pit filled with spent 
hops from the brewers’ or tan for bottom 
heat, and then linings,of stable manure 
around the sides of the pit. The plants in 
the growing season delight iu a brisk, moist 
temperature—indeed, from the commence¬ 
ment until near the maturation of the growth, 
they will grow in a vapor bath strongly im¬ 
pregnated wilh ammonia; but to mature 
the wood and set the flower buds, it is ne¬ 
cessary that they he exposed to a drier at¬ 
mosphere and a free circulation of air. Cut¬ 
tings of the Gardenia strike with the utmost 
freedom In a close, moist temperature, with 
some bottom heat. 
“ Though heat from fermenting material is 
the most suitable for the cultivation of this 
tribe of plants, it must not he supposed they 
will not grow in the ordinary plant stove. 
Plants so treated we have now of G. For - 
tunei, G. florkla and G. Jlorida intermedia 
finely set with bloom buds. During the 
growing season they were placed in the 
closest part of the stove, and were well sup¬ 
plied with manure water. When the growth 
was complete and the flower buds forming, 
they were exposed to full air, and for some 
months past they have been in a cool house 
with the camellias. When we want bloom, 
they will be removed to a forcing house, and 
there remain to make their growth. As a 
forcing plant, to come into bloom in March 
and afterwards, we know nothing so valu¬ 
able as the Gardenia. It is a universal 
favorite with all who know it, and will ever 
remain so. The only drawback is that in¬ 
sect pests of every kind have a great affec¬ 
tion for it. Mealy bug, white and brown 
scale, thrips and red spider, ea< h grow fat 
and multiply upon it. The beti remedy for 
these pests is to lay the plants upon their 
sides, and then syringe them when in a dor¬ 
mant state with water healed to 120degrees; 
then follow with a dressing of Abyssinian 
mixture of full strength, and the visitation 
will he subdued, if noi eradicated. The 
kind mostly grown for flower-market pur¬ 
poses is C. radi'uns. It is a dwarf, free- 
blooming species, and, careliiily managed, 
flowers most profusely.'’ 
Sometime before the year 1850, as we now 
remember, there was a contrivance in use 
for unloading hay by the use of a large iron 
PURE ITALIANS. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the RURAL New- 
Yorker, in answer to the question pre¬ 
viously asked in our columns, “How are 
we to know that an Italian stock is pure?” 
replies:—” A queen, to be pure, should du¬ 
plicate herself. In other words, she should 
produce queens of an uniform color, (allow¬ 
ing for the difference in the season,) and 
pure workers must be pcacable and quiet to 
handle under ordinary circumstances. The 
Italians, to be pure, must show three yellow 
hands; yet they may show the three yellow 
stripes and not lie pure. Workers from 
queens raised from hybrid mothers, and fer¬ 
tilized by pure drones, cannot, as a general 
ihing, be told from the pure. But raise 
queens from them, and they will show they 
are not pure. 
“ The first Italian queen I ever saw, and as 
pure as any I ever had, raised queens exactly 
like herself, and nearly half of her workers 
showed four yellow stripes. As there were 
no Italian bees within a circuit of fifteen 
miles, the queens raised from this are met 
with black drones; yet, not one of these 
queens produced a black bee. This, I know, 
is different from what is taught in some 
books on bee-keeping; but 1 have found it 
to be so every time. But queens raised from 
those queens and mated with black drones, 
would raise half or more black bees. If a 
mating queen with a black drone, produces 
any black bees, I am inclined to doubt the 
purity of her mother, or else my bees ere 
contrary to all others. 
“Bees will go four miles for forage, and 
perhaps farther. They will hybridize three 
miles at least, as I have proved Lhe past sum¬ 
mer. The pure are better Ilian the hybrids 
on account of disposition, but tho hybrids 
will store equally as much honey.” 
arnermt) 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Wire Cloth for Corn Cribs. 
We read of a man who lined the entire 
lattice work of his corn crib with wire cloth, 
costing ten or eleven cents per square foot, 
which protected his com from rats and mice 
perfectly. 
Fleas In a Darn-Yard, 
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Ga¬ 
zelle turns his sheep into his barn-yard if he 
wants to get rid of fleas. The wool soon 
gathers them, they do the Sheep no harm, 
get well greased, crawl out of it, and instead 
of hopping about they fall to the ground. 
FrouitE 1. 
tooth fork, in the shape of a common garden 
rake, operated then as now, by a horse, rope 
and pulleys. But that contrivance had no 
device for tilting or discharging its burden, 
and was as tedious a thing to handle on the 
hay-nmw, as the old McCormick hand rake 
was on the reaper. To make the Horse 
Flay Fork more efficient and easy of hand¬ 
ling, engaged tiie attention of inventors, 
among who was Mr. Palmer, whose Self- 
Sustaining and Self-Adjusting Horse Pitch- 
lork was patented in 1802.' Figure 1, in 
the above cut, is an illustration of Palmer’s 
Excelsior Horse Pitch-fork, as it appears 
when the hav has been discharged and it is 
ready to be dipped into the load for another 
fork full. The operator lakes lmkl of the 
handle, seta his foot on the fork-head, and 
the lift is ready; then lie lays the handle 
flat, tho brace locks in its place, the horse is 
started, and up goes the hay. By a jerk of 
the cord the lock is trigged and the hay 
clumped ou the mow where it is wanted. 
014 Iron ns a Fertilizer. 
J. J. Lake. —We do not think that it will 
pay you to haul much old iron to use in a 
garden or otherwise. There are very few 
soils indeed that do not contain all the oxide 
of iron plants require. 
stea<l or ay even serjtSa ol' links. In this way 
omy o/iz. of ttio links can t>o a tangent at the 
t orso,l tune at once; the point of greatest UnsUm 
wll A always bo met by the point nr 
r filaxatUm at the other, which equalizes 
a i ld lt T ° move much more 
smooihly, ;t" l with greater economy of power. 
principle , 8 curried out in tho urrung- 
montor thu reels. 
, ^construction of this machine jsauch as to 
Wdnminfl r5* t0nt SpCi °' J "T 'hl’eshinu. by a 
* ll ‘ w Htl ' easy movement of tho horses. The 
reveiMMiri'i-Vi. 43 -J revolutions to one 
rm n .’l The pillion makes 
- ” to mm revolution of theJavge wheel. 
The » of t le hand wheel is 38k Inches, 
in om 'm ljor of revolutions of t he chain 
willin' ?hr was ’ ??? ordl 11 H to 0, ir Observations 
rAvr,m,!!?Pr hlnK ' W t ” '• Assuming seven 
the chi n " u ,!V ae !U the true motion of 
u iriif iMtmf , nlve ' lf 'eon rods less than oneand 
Thisslow i-?fn tr y 0f tlie horses In an hour, 
it to tha movement of the chain adapts 
‘•toTV oxrm ' well as horses, 
.. I ha motion rollers have a greater diameter 
" machines, being six inches. 
*s, that they make fewer 
■ axes in traveling a given 
red°re, the friotiou is propor- 
■_ execution of this power is 
toturnendation. A very carc- 
every part showed thorough 
workmanship and material iu 
wins .i,i'nH,"oi S i S huhted; tho strength 
.. 
turJSbmid 0t ' ,,mt » ; »iae m arm file- 
White Hurt and Hack. 
1 desire information in regard to the use 
of white marl mixed with muck as a fertil- 
BEE EXPERIENCE-PASTURAGE. 
--- >• 1 VVIIJI 1 l 
than most other u 
■the result of this 
revolutions on their 
distance and, th.: 
hon'dly diminished. 
I ne mechanical 
deserving of high c 
tui examination of 
and conscientious n 
every place; noth I 
of material 
In an humble way, I have begun to stock 
an apiary, which, at present, consists of five 
stocks—two old stocks transferred from the 
common to Langstrotii’ a movable comb 
hives, two swarms of the past season, and 
one stocked with bees rescued from the sul¬ 
phur pit hy drumming them from the com¬ 
mon hive in October, with the design of ex- 
perimenting on wintering hy feeding. I 
filled their hives with empty combs, and 
placed in the spare honey box a mixture of 
honey and sugar. Upon examination, a 
few days after, I found that but few bees ac¬ 
cepted my free will offering, but were imlus- 
TWO DORSE POWER AND THRESHER, AND CLEANER IN OPERATION. 
izor on sandy land somewhat worn — its 
effect, proportion of each, how used, profit 
etc. Will some one who has tried the ex¬ 
periment reply through the Rural New- 
Yorker?—J. F. E., Barry Co., Mich. 
No better fertilizers can be used on sandv 
land than marl and muck. 
Pulleys are furnished with lhe Fork so it can 
be rigged to deposit, tho hay in any part of tiie 
mow. It. is equally adapted for stacking. The 
handle being short is out of the way hi going 
over or under bourns, through shed windows, &c. 
The bale and brace are made of tornuaht iron, 
and thu tineaof eel.and sickle shooed. It is very 
strong and durable, and will hold as much as a 
horse can draw. The bah- folding to the handle 
when the hay is discharged, it occupies but little 
