q ^ and too little hay to do it with. 1 asked how 
disposes of his corn stalks as he cuts 
Cg> r * them—if he lays them down. No; each 
_ __ man cuts five rows at a “ bout,” setting it 
v Af! ATTfYKT T T'TTF'RB U P around n standing hill in the center row, 
v iiUAixuis Axil iimo. making the sliock its large as can be conven- 
WOKKING EDITOR OUT OF HARNESS, iently handled with a pitchfork after it is 
- husked, and binding it with t wo rye straw 
Appioa Faiiiuic. bands. Jle says he has tried other modes 
There is usually a great fall of apples j jnt f ound j 10ne superior to this, all things 
? _ 4! 4- .Vt.lrx.i l.nt fi’Aiii ... _ 
VACATION LETTERS. 
A WORKING EDITOR OUT OF HARNESS. 
Apples Fulline. 
pitman. 
this time of year not in market, but from considered. If three men work together, 
the trees. And as 1 walk through these one does the tying. If there is a better mode 
orchards aud tread on the fruit wherever I j ie wants know it.. Let those of your 
go, I resolve again to renew my protest readers who think they have a more econom- 
against orchards m meadow. O, if those jeal way, state it. 
sleek, smooth, playful pigs were only here, winter Uye in the Corn Field, 
with rings in their noses or the rims thejeof Job Hkginbotham and I walked tlirough 
taken off! O, if they could have been here 1)js coru Md ycSlerUay . Uc Baid> M he 
from the time the apples >egan to fal bom asked me to go and sec his corn, that he 
the stings ol the moths 1 What a saving wanted lo show me something that had been 
there would have been 1 What a growth of slC(] lo him , lbe RtmAL Nkw-York- 
pigs would have resulted, and at bow much ER l found , t fl|ie field of corn |}C rfee.lv 
less cost! Pigs maj thus be made to pay cleal . of weedg bllt with a rich carpet of 
their own way. Again comes m the sub- g ree n between the rows. 
jeCt ° f Hurdle Fences. “ °> W or wheat,” I said. 
And 1 suggest that those who have un- _ Exactly, was t he reply ; “ and 1 atn 
patented, strong, portable, and easily and salisfieil it will pay me. The land was 
securely put up hurdle fences, send sketches highly manured. Not a weed lias been al- 
thereof with specifications as to the mode h>wed to grow. Just as soon ns the corn 
of making them, kind and size of lumber, appeared I put on one ol Ihomas smooth- 
&c., to the Rural Nkw- Yokkeh, that there harrows, and kept it going until the cul- 
may appear a long chapter on the subject, bvator could do the work heller, 'lheu 
If any one has and uses such a fence, let " * 1 * 1 cultivator and hoe I worked it as long 
him speak right away , for i am resolved to “ ,L fleen »ed uecessajy. Finally 1 sowed 
make this sulijeeL of hurdles a liobby until winter rye between the rows, occupying a 
they are used as labor-saving machines more space of about, two and a-lialf feet, (the rows 
ll.rtii llimr in ll.ia f'/innI v\r Ol tllills file il.l)QUt tlllCe Ulld U-hUif feet 
than they are in this country. 
When lo Flow Stubble Land. 
I leimed over the fence to-day near where 
Farmer Catchup was cutting his last acres 
of timothy. 1 saw his barley needed cutting 
and he said lie should go into it to-morrow. 
What are you going to do with the laud, I 
asked ? 
“Fall plow it.” 
When ? 
“ Well, I don’t know. I’ve got teams 
enough; it might he done right away; but 
I don’t know as it’s best. The ground seems 
to gel too hard before spring.” 
Why not plow it aud sow it with winter 
wheat or rye? 
“ Wouldn’t that be running itpretty hard ?” 
Don't, Nature cause the weeds to spring 
up? And does she wait for the land to rest 
before she shirts another crop? Now I’ve 
seen just what I suggest done many a time— 
not for the sake of the crop so much as to 
have the land occupied. Bow rye or wheat 
as soon as you can get it In after the barley 
is off', and you will have excellent fall and 
winter feed. After Ihe frost has injured the 
clover so as to make it unhcallhful food, the 
rye or wheat will be green, fresh, palatable 
and healthful. And it will help you to save 
the winter fodder. Then in spring, if you 
choose, turn it under—aud it is always ready 
—and it will not hurt any crop you please 
to grow on land. 
This seemed to be a new idea to him, 
(though 1 am quite sure the hint has hereto¬ 
fore been given in the Rural,) and he 
“ reckoned” he must try it. So I record the 
suggesliou again, lest some one who may de¬ 
sire to try it may have overlooked it. 
Fcru Corn. 
1 received from the Department of Agri¬ 
culture a few kernels of corn from Peru— 
don’t remember the name, if it had any. I 
sent it to one of my friends up here in the 
country, and to-day, July 27th, it is eight, 
and a-half feet high, and no sign of silk or 
tassel. Of course 1 did not expect it would 
amount to anything, hut I had a desire tosee 
what it would do so far North. An acre of 
it standing close and as full of sweetness as 
these stalks seem to be, if cut up just at this 
stage, or a week or t wo later, would make a 
“ heap ” of excellent fodder, either for August 
and September or winter feeding. And it 
occurs to me to ask the farmers of I lie North¬ 
ern States why they do not sow the large 
Western or Southern varieties of corn for 
forage, instead of these small, yellow varie¬ 
ties that, when sown so thickly, become 
dwarfed and make, comparatively little 
growth ? Has any one tried the experiment ? 
Aud it so, is there any objection to it ? Does 
it not make more aud as good forage? 
Cnttiiui Corn. 
apart,) and cultivated it in lightly. There it 
is, you see; a good nibble for hungry stock 
INQUIRIES ANSWERED. 
D. H. Towle, Woodbine Co., Minn., in 
Rural New-Yorker, April 29, asked the 
following questions: 
1. What is the best way of preventing 
natural swarms when you make artificial 
swarms? 
2. The quickest and most convenient way 
of finding the queen ? 
3. What success do bee keepers find in fer¬ 
tilizing queens in confinement? 
4. D<> Italian queens, fertilized by black 
drones, produce Italian drones? 
5. The best way of removing the bees from 
a frame of honey or brood? 
C. Are queens sent by mail any distance 
safely ? 
The following replies have been on hand 
some time. The foregoing inquiries have 
been answered, hut “in a multitude of coun¬ 
selors there is safety:” 
1. I never was troubled with natural 
swarms after making them artificially in our 
favorite manner, which is to take combs of 
brood and bees, promiscuously, from strong 
stocks, sufficient to make a good swarm; 
put thorn together in a new hive and set 
where you please. Give them a young queen, 
fertile or not; she will be accepted, and a 
good colony will result. 
2. The quickest and most convenient way 
of finding the queen, I think, is to take the 
combs out one at a time and glance them 
over. It is no trouble at all to find the 
now. 1 don’t see that it affects the growth Italians. 1 opened eighteen hives this spring, 
of corn a particle. Just as soon as that corn sa ' v queens in all, cleaned out the dead 
is ready to cut it will he cut; and as soon as bees, and closed up, in an average time of 
it is cut it will be hauled to that yard by the twelve minutes cacti, 
barn and set up In such shape that it will Have not yet tried it. 
cure, aud my cows will profit by the feed of 
rye in August and September. I’ll save my 
meadows (for I don’t like to feed them close 
in the fall) and keep up tlioflow of milk. So 
far as I can judge, it is a good practice; if I 
find it is not, you shall hear from me.” 
That is right; and if any other reader has 
tried it let him report results. 
Growing Turnips. 
I noticed during a ride of twenty miles, a 
few days since, that farmers have a great 
many turnips growing in odd patches here 
and there. One farmer said to me that lie 
grow two hundred bushels lastyenr, in spots 
that would have grown only weeds. He 
found them a great help last, winter. But 
he said lie would like some one to tell him 
the best time of day and the best way to 
feed them to cows giving milk. His women 
folks have a fancy that they give a turnip 
4. This, as the darkey said in regard to 
chicken stealing, “ is a great moral question.” 
Some practical apiarians contend that Italian 
queens fertilized by black drones will pro¬ 
duce pure Italian drones; others say they 
will not. I think that the matter can easily 
be proved beyond a doubt, by any person 
Who is willing lo give it sufficient, time and 
attention. If an Italian queen, fertilized by 
a black drone, will produce pure Italian 
drones, a black queen, fertilized by an Ital¬ 
ian drone, will produce pure black drones; 
and if such drones be mated with pure black 
queens, aud there is any Italian blood in 
them, ft wit! siiS\\ v itself in some of the prog¬ 
eny. We gave this idea io the readers of 
the Illustrated Bee Journal a year ago, hut 
have never heard of its being experimented 
upon. 
5. Bees are usually easily shaken from the 
i' oixo uatu u mnv uitvii hr v i;mu •«. iiiiiiiii . . . . .. , 
, , ,. , , ■ , . comb, by giving it a quick motion m the 
flavor to butter, and he wants dairymen of . .... • .? / . . , 
, . . “ .. right direction. The few remaining should 
/jvixnvirtnrtft Ia 4nll li ini Law tA oir.n.l it it it D 
experience to tell him how to avoid it, if it 
can be avoided. 
City Visitors in the Country 
are, as a rule, a great pest. I declare, I 
should be tempted to hang myself if I knew 
I caused my friends to feel as some women 
do feel about the presence of their city rela¬ 
tives, judging by what they say Why will 
people leave the city and impose themselves 
upon over-worked aud ser van Hess farmers’ 
wives at Hie very busiest season? It is 
abominable! And if I did not more than 
“ earn my bread,” or pay for it in some ser¬ 
viceable way, I wouldn’t stay away from the 
sanctum Another day. It don’t harm a fel- 
be carefully brushed off with a wing or 
bough. 
6. Queens are safely sent long distances 
by mail. I received seven in this way from 
Jefferson, Wisconsin, last season, Five were 
received ns late as Sept. 6, and all were 
alive, although in one box; all the workers 
sent were dead.—1. F. Tilling hast, Fac¬ 
tory ville, I}a. 
—- ■+++ - 
BEE NOTES. 
Bees n Ntiisauce. 
In my store are hundreds of bees, at¬ 
tracted by the sugar and sirup, and they 
low to blister and brown his hands and get | iavo i, ecome quite a nuisance, as they fre 
up an appetite that enables him to digest 
fried pork and potatoes, baked pork and 
beans, pork-apple pie, 11 country sausage,” 
fried cakes, washed down with sweetened 
hard cider, etc., etc. 11 is sleep is as sweet 
and peaceful as though he had never done 
wickedly nor had a conscience. 
quently sling us. Now I write to see if 
some one cannot tell me how to get rid of 
them, or how to prevent their coming. If 
any of your readers know ol a way by 
which this evil (for it. has become such) can 
he remedied, 1 will he greatly obliged by 
their sending the information to you for the 
to thinking, and already we bear of ventures 
in the business. Early in the spring, Mrs. 
J. C. Savery of this city, well known for her 
active position on the woman suffrage ques¬ 
tion in this State, purchased thirty ltives ol 
bees, and, like Mrs. Tupfer when a pioneer, 
went to work, giving them her personal su¬ 
pervision. She has now forty hives, from 
which she will take about twelve hundred 
pounds of honey this season, a pretty fair 
compensation for woman’s work. Women, 
bees and flowers are a proper trio.” 
Arboriculture. 
■iclti 
jops, 
Polly Ann Pepperpot asked, “ what on benefit of myself and Hie public.—G. Beggs, 
earth was the use of living if one couldn’t Macon, Ga. 
eat, drink and sleep?” And if you could 
see her go through the dishes a family of 
fourteen eat upon aud from three times a day, 
do the cooking, washing and ironing for Hie 
same, take care-of the milk of fourteen cows, 
mop the kitchen aud dining-room floors (for 
she will not have a dirty carpet under her feet) 
as often as they need it, fight llies, darn the 
stockings, make and mend the shirts, visiL 
the neighbors on occasion, attend all the 
I notice that farmers here are anxiously fmiemIs ’ weddi »S a aiul cliurch reelings 
watching the progress of the com crop. 
These recent rains cause apprehension. The 
fear is that early August will develop frost 
as a consequence of so much evaporation. 
Many of the weallierwise predict it, and say 
it is sure to follow a wet July. I notice they 
pick open the corn as they pass through it. 
The moment it is fairly glazed they will go 
into it with their corn cutters. Indeed they 
will not wait for it, all to glaze, because a 
night’s frost will do more damage to the 
stalks than will he gained in corn if allowed 
to stand until ripe. 
I saw Joseph Swampscot grinding up 
his corn cutters yesterday, during a shower, 
when there was no working out of doors. 
He says the frost don’t catch him with his 
corn fodder standing exposed, if he can Help 
beside running a Bible class aud sewing so¬ 
ciety, and visiting and watching with Hie 
sick in the neighborhood, as I see her do it, 
you 'wouldn’t wonder that she lias a good 
appetite, a healthy digestion and sleeps well. 
The only wonder is she finds time for eating 
or sleepiug. But she does. 
There ! that will do this time ! 
-- 
To Detect the AtluIteration of Ten. 
The simplest method is to burn the tea 
and weigh the ashes. Any kind of tea from 
the best quality down to ilie most common 
must not leave over 5 per cent, of ash; while 
those adulterated sons have actually given 
jo to 4o per cent, of ash, proving that ut least 
Purity of Italians. 
One of your correspondents says ;—“The 
Italians to he pure must show tlieir yellow 
bands; yet they may show the three stripes 
and not be pure.” 
In our experience, when every bee in a 
colony shows plainly Hie three bauds, the 
queen from which they wore raised has 
proved pure and wall “duplicate herself.” 
If there has been a cross of black blood in 
their ancestry, it will occasionally show' it¬ 
self in at least a few of the worker progeny, 
Still it may be because we have not crossed 
hybrids with pure Italians, and the progeny 
thus obtained with Italians again, and so 
continue long enough to produce the purely 
marked workers. How long it would take 
to thus breed out all traces of black blood in 
the markings, I do not know. No short 
time I think.—I. F. Tillinghast. 
Women and Bee Culture. 
A Des Moines, Iowa, correspondent says: 
“Mrs. E. B. Tupper of Brighton, Wash¬ 
ington county, having proven that there is 
80 to 40 per cent, of worthless or injurious something women can do by making lier- 
stuff had been added, It a pound of such se if 01ie 0 f the most successful bee-keepers 
4-..« ........ 4- .. — ~ 1 li. . 1 1 I *.. P .. * 
tea were to cost $1, it would contain from 
60 to 70 cents’ worth of tea and some six 
BIG FOREST TREES 
Anti Mammoth Fruit Trees in California. 
California’s Biff Trees , those majestic 
denizens of the forest, whose huge trunks 
show a diameter of thirty feet, or a circum¬ 
ference of ninety feet, and a bight of three 
hundred and twenty-five feet, are conceded 
to he without a rival among the sylvan won¬ 
ders of Lite world. We claim, also, to have 
the largest grape vine known to the present 
age—a description of which we gave in the 
Rural New-Yorker of January 14. 
Now we have to speak of Big Fruit Trees 
in California. If they are not the largest in 
the world of their several kinds, it is, doubt¬ 
less, because they are not llie oldest. In an 
old Mission orchard, at San Buenaventura, 
in Southern California, arc trees measured 
by the editor of the Ventura Signal, and an¬ 
other gentleman, who give the following as 
the result of actual measurement of the trees 
described thus: 
Three date palms, from seven to nine feet 
in circumference, and from forty to fifty feet 
high. Pear trees, eight feet in circumfer¬ 
ence; olives, seven. Three English wal¬ 
nuts, the largest six feet in circumference, 
about thirty feet high, and sixty feet spread 
of top. All except the palms were heavily 
laden with fruit. We wish tiie editor had 
stated whether the date palms had ever 
borne fruit or not. Certainly, they are large 
enough and old enough ; hut the date palm 
seems a very fastidious tree about bearing 
fruit. We know of several in Solano county 
a dozen years or so old, that, have never, we 
believe, yet borne fruit. 
We have seen the date palm and the olive 
growing in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well 
as America, but we do not remember ever 
to have seen any that would compare in 
size with those above described growing in 
California. T. h. h. 
in the country, and gained a reputation 
it, lie has too much stock to carry through ounce. 
ounces of plaster, sold for about 6 cents per throughout the Union for superior knowl¬ 
edge in apiacullurc, lias set other women 
ARBORIOULTURAL NOTES. 
Inverted Cuttings. 
G. P. says that he has heard that if a wil¬ 
low pole or large cutting of a willow is put 
into the ground top end down, it will make 
a weeping tree, and lie wants to know If this 
he true. If the cutting is Laken from a weep¬ 
ing variety it will, otherwise it will not. All 
these stories in regard to inverting cuttings 
or grafts to make weeping trees, or to pro¬ 
duce fruits without cores or seeds, is sheer 
folly, belonging to the dark ages of arbori- i 
culture. Nature is not so easily thwarted, I 
and a little study will show any one who is 
not crammed full of superstitious nonsense, 
that a slight departure from usual methods 
of propagation is not going to make any par¬ 
ticular difference in final results. Boring 
holes in trees and filling them with sulphur, 
expecting that the tree will take this sub¬ 
stance into its circulation, and thereby make 
the fruit obnoxious to insects, is another folly 
of the same sort. There are hundreds of 
such old time humbugs that have been the 
traveling companions of ignoramuses ever 
siuce fruit trees were cultivated. 
Shade Trees Wanted. 
Have just purchased a house and lot, and 
there is not a tree of any kind about it, and 
I am in a hurry to gel shade trees. Would 
you advise me to get maples? If so, had I 
better get small ones and leave on nearly all 
the brandies, or would it be belter to get 
larger ones and cut the top oil' aud the 
limbs?—G. P. Pawned, Vt. 
Maples are as good trees os one needs to 
Lave for shade. Get good sized trees, say 
ten to filleen feet high, and stocky. Have 
them carefully dug up, preserving all the 
roots possible; shorten the branches to about 
one half tlieir original length, aud then plant 
the trees carefully, either this fall or early 
next spring. If several trees are wanted, 
obtain different species and not plant all of 
one, because a variety is desirable, even on a 
place of limited extent. Long avenues, bor¬ 
dered with trees all of one kind may do for 
people of peculiar taste, but it is certainly 
monotonous and looks stiff, formal, and de¬ 
cidedly unnatural. 
I.ime for Fruit Trees. 
The Horticulturist says:—It is a good 
plan for all fruit growers to apply lime freely 
in their orchards every two or three years. 
A half bushel to eucii tree, or 100 Imshels 
broadcast, per acre, will suffice. Light loamy 
lands will be best benefited by the lime, and 
shell lime is better for fruit trees than the 
usual stone lime. 
SALTING HAY. 
X. A. Willard, in Rural New-Yorker 
of July 22, counsels against sailing hn\ in' 
the mow, and therein writes unwisely, in out 
judgment. Excessive or irregular salting j s 
undoubtedly ill advised, but a moderate sa¬ 
line application is good. We have put on 
three to four pints per load on a good deal of 
hay for the last t wenty-five years, and favor 
such application to all hay that does not un¬ 
fortunately get too dry to rcadiiy dissolve 
the salt. Animals need salt both winter ami 
summer. They do much better with than 
without it. Apart from its direct action on 
the system, it is worth more than cost, (ex¬ 
travagant as that is under monopoly rule,) in 
satisfying a natural craving for it, thereby 
promoting quiet and contentment which are 
conducive to thrift. 
The most practicable way of properly 
salting stock in Hie summer season is to keep 
it constantly before them to lick when they 
choose. It would, of course, lie boiler if it 
could be incorporated with their food, but 
that is not feasible when they run to pas¬ 
ture. With the winter feed it is different. 
Such amount of salt as an animal would eat 
during the lime required to consume a ton 
of hay, should be put upon that hay when it 
is stored. It corrects acidity, prevents must, 
and flavors to a point that causes iL to be 
eaten with a relish. It is something after 
Hie manner of preparing human food. Every 
meal we partake of is seasoned with salt. 
Bread, butter, meats, vegetables—all have a 
little. If Mr. Willard's system is the best 
for animals, would it not be equally good for 
him* Let him try it, then, and report. Let 
his butter, his meals, his every article of diet 
be prepared without salt. Let him have a 
dish of the same on a shelf near by, w hereto 
to resort at his pleasure. If, after a fair trial, 
lie finds the system a good one, ami reports 
accordingly, we will accept his conclusions 
against sail ing hay. Till then, we shall ad¬ 
here to a practice which seems to us to have 
sound sense for a basis, which we have long 
practiced, and know lo he good. w. b. p. 
-- 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Flax in Ort-gon. 
The Willamette Farmer says :—“ From 
parlies ivell informed on the subject, we 
learn that there are about 6,000 acres of flax 
under cultivation the present season. The 
product, it is thought, will reach at least 
60,000 bushels, and will yield a revenue lo 
our farmers of not less Hum $100,000.” 
Arnold's Hybrid Wheat. 
A correspondent inquires how Arnold’s 
Cross-bred wheat stood the last winter’s 
freezing. Ours wintered well and came up 
even. Mediterauean, right by, killed badly 
Both were in a very exposed situation. The 
Arnold’s is a number of days earlier than 
the Mediterauean. — Pocahontas, Florida 
Springs, N. Y. 
Sort'llnin in the South. 
A writer at Charleston, S. C., says: 
“ Let Sorghum juice, Sorghum cane and Sor¬ 
ghum mills go to—the Yankees! No plant I 
ever tried so impoverishes the soil ; and in 
most counties you can find one or more 
Landless girls or hoys whose limbs have 
been mutilated by the mills, and in return 
for all this, we have a few paltry tub-lulls of 
foul, unpalatable “sorghum” which my 
family shall not eat. Moreover, my slock 
will not cat the fodder nor thrive upon 
the grain. Such is my experience with 
Sorghum.” 
How to Grow Peas Profitably. 
I see wluit one of the editors of the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker says of Farmer Sensi¬ 
ble’s two crops of peas annually. But he 
don’t tell us whether Farmer Sensible finds 
it to pay to grow peas as compared with 
such crops as corn, barley, outs, &c. I con¬ 
fess I never yet found any profit growing 
peas. I should like to know how to make 
them profitable; and if any of the readers 
of the Rural New-Yorker know how, 
and the variety to do it with, let him tell his 
fellow-farmers. I know they are an excel¬ 
lent and nutritious food for stock ; hut will 
they pay as well as corn, any where ? That s 
the question.—J. B. Webb. 
Male a ml Female Ilcinp. 
J. K., Paris, Bourbon Co., ICy., writes: 
“ It has been observed by those who culti¬ 
vate hemp in this State, that the male plant 
dies long before the female plant. Has this 
been noticed before, and what is the expla¬ 
nation ?”—This is in accordance with Mee¬ 
han’s theory of sex in plants. There is less 
vitality or hold on life in one case Ibau hi 
the other; and it is t lie amount oi nutrition 
which determines the vital power— defective 
nutrition determines the male sex. Not 
only in hemp, but in every plant, male flow¬ 
ers or the male parts of flowers die first.— 
Gardener's Monthly. 
