the animal exhibits the slightest signs of un¬ 
easiness, A druggist will understand the 
above abbreviations. The ointment must be 
applied to the skin. 
sandy sow was 638 pounds net, thirty months 
old. The sandy sow was bred very young to 
a grade Chester boar—brought eleven pigs ; 
raised them all. Mr. Gary, in the meantime, 
purchased a pair of very superior pigs of the 
Poland China stock. The sandy sow was 
bred to this boar, raising eight beautiful pigs, 
three of them being sandy, with black spots ; 
two of them were butchered in November, 
1872, -weighing 363 and 347 pounds respect¬ 
ive! v. 
THE SPRING GUN 
SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES 
TO TRAP HAWKS, 
In New England, when the country was 
new, one of the commonest, and most effect¬ 
ual means employed for the extinction of 
bears, was the spring gun. As population 
increased, the danger became so great of men 
and domestic animals being killed or maimed 
by it, that its use has been abandoned, except 
in places remote from habitation. The man¬ 
ner of setting this deadly contrivance, is this. 
A gun heavily charged with balls or buck¬ 
shot, or both, is firmly fastened in two split 
stokes, at the gripe, and near the muzzle ; 
the rule for the hight of the gun, being that 
its aim shall be on a line with the lower prom¬ 
inent bone on the outside of a man’s knee. 
Opposite the look of the gun, another stoke 
is driven ; on top of this is fixed a short lever, 
turning on a pivot at its middle, one end of 
which rests against the front of the trigger, 
and to the other is attached a stout line of 
elm bark, which runs out in front of the gun 
60 or 70 feet, passing at intervals through 
cleft stakes, kept from pinching it by wedges, 
and is firmly tied to a stake at the further 
end. It will be seen that a slight pull on this 
lino will discharge the gun. A bark line is 
used because it is not subject to contraction 
and expansion by wetting and drying, as a 
twisted cord of hemp or the like is. This line 
is rubbed with mud or charcoal, so that its 
light color may not, make, it too conspicuous. 
The gun is usually set in the odge of a coni 
field at the place where the boar enters to 
feed on the young ears, when “ in the milk.” 
He always enters the field at one particular 
place, and usually makes in's visits every oth¬ 
er night. The gun is sometimes set in his 
paths in the woods, where they pass through 
narrow ravines. Whenever set, it is at night, 
and notice of it is given throughout the neigh¬ 
borhood. The gun is removed early in the 
morning. 
1 am indebted for this description, to Mr. 
Reuben Parker, Sen., of Ferrisburg, Vfc., 
an old bear trapper himself, and the son of 
one of the most successful and famous hunt¬ 
ers and trappers among the old Green Moun¬ 
tain boys. r. 
W htt.e there are a great many v r ho give 
their bees little or no attention, only about 
the time they expect surplus honey, and de¬ 
pend altogether on luck for success, there 
are those who wish to handle their bees so 
as to secure the best results. To all such I 
would say, Examine each hive as soon as the 
weather will permit, and note its condition 
as to honey, brood and bees; those with 
little or no honey Bhould be fed at once. 
Where several hives arc kept, there will be 
generally some with an abundance of honey 
and few bees, and other* plenty of bees and 
food and but little honey. Where such is 
the case, both will be benefited by exchang¬ 
ing combs ; hives without broods should be 
united to other colonies, as being without a 
queen, they will soon become a prey to the 
moth. 
To promote early breeding, l give rye flour 
sprinkled on shavings in shallow boxes—fed 
over twenty pounds hist Spring. Poes will 
not work on It after the natural supply of 
pollen can be obtained from the flowers. By 
carefully feeding some hives last Spring, I 
found them as strong in bees at the com¬ 
mencement of the honey harvest as others 
not fed were two weeks later, os on remov¬ 
ing sides of hives about the first of May, to 
give them boxes, the sides were covered 
with bees, and some of the outside combs 
filled with sealed brood—something I had 
never before observed so early in ( lie season. 
Feeding bees, to bo successful, must bo 
thoroughly understood, otherwise, it had bet¬ 
ter not bo attempted, at least, only on a 
small scale, by the beginner. In calling the 
attention of a friend to the bees working in 
boxes so early, while t he boxes on other hives 
were not yet occupied, lie said it was no won 
der, as they had been fed. To test whether 
he knew how the bees wore benefited, by 
feeding, I asked:—‘‘Do you suppose there 
was more honey in the hives, when the bees 
eommonced gathering from t he flowers than 
there would have been if they had not been 
fed ?” The emphatic reply was, “ Of course, 
as your feeding has filled the combs so that 
there was room for honey only hi the boxes." 
1 soon convinced him that he was entirely 
mistaken ; for if such lind been the ease, 
feeding would have been an injury, as there 
would have been much brood, and few bees 
in the hive. 
About tho first of March I commenced 
feeding regularly (there being plenty honey- 
in the hives), but never more than three 
oounces in 24 hours. This stimulated tho 
bees to greater activity, and the queen to lay¬ 
ing a greater number of eggs, so that in a 
short time the small amount fed would fall far 
short of the extra amount needed to supply 
the baes ; consequently, there was less honey 
iu hives when bees commenced gathering 
from flowers, than if they had not been fed, 
but from one-third to double the amount of 
bees and brood. Right here lies tho whole 
secret of feeding, which is to ha ve the hive 
full of bees, and combs with brood, when the 
honey harvest commences. 1 don’t care how 
much honey there is in the hive, as if there 
are only few bees, there will be little or no 
surplus honey. 
Our neighbors keep bees on both sides of 
us ; they are also kept by others in the place. 
Tho seasons of ’71 and ’72 were poor for 
honey here, but we got a fair return, and last 
season 1 took 61 pounds, in boxes, from two 
hives, and I did not hear of any honey being 
taken in the place outside of our apiary. The 
reasons are : 1st, we have tho Italian lie© ; 
2d, we aim to have the stocks strong early ; 
then we get a good share of the honey in 
boxes, while the neighbors leave the bees to 
shift for themselves ; the result is, if the 
honey harvest is short, they don’t get any ; 
and if it is a pood season, don’t get half as 
much as they would if their bees had proper 
care early in the Spring. 
In Conclusion, I would [repeat it, get the 
stocks strong in bees and brood by the time 
the honey harvest commences ; then yon 
will realize a profit from your bees. 
I noticed the following inquiries from a 
Kansas correspondent, some time since :—1. 
“ What is the cause of wingless bees in a hive, 
as I find a good many ?” 2. “ Do bees die in 
Winter, as 1 notice a good many in the hive I” 
In reply, 1 would say wingless bees are 
caused by the depredations of the larvae of 
the moth (worms) through the brood combs. 
2. Worker bees are short-lived, but the mor¬ 
tality is generally greatest during the work¬ 
ing season, J. E. M. 
Rochester, Pa., Feb. 27. 
E. M. Quimby says :—I use a good-sized 
steel trap, tie a small snow-bird, or the wing 
of a bird, on the treadle of the trap, and set 
it on t he ground when the hawks hover about, 
SF’.H.XTNTO- 
and 1 will catch every hawk around ; I have 
cleaned them out about my place. Tie the 
trap with a piece of strong rope or chain 
about three feet long. 1 hope every sports¬ 
man will devote a little time, and we can 
save hundreds ol' quail, etc. 
Gr-TJUNT. 
In 1872 I bred this sow to a young Poland- 
Cliinabonr, the offspring of the Poland-China 
hogs spoken above. On the tenth day of Jan¬ 
uary, 1873, she brought twelvo pigs ; owing 
to the Intensely cold weather she lost five ; 
seven of them were sandy or golden color, 
better described by Mr. Allen in his account 
of the origin of the Improved Berkshire hog 
than T can describe them. Four of tlioBopigs 
are sandy, or bright golden color, with the 
pure black spots, perfectly beautiful; three 
of thorn are sows; the fourth a boar. The 
other pigs are black and white, mostly white, 
pretty, but not so fine as the sandy ones. 
We now have the sandy sow pigs and the 
mother, which I intend to breed to a young 
Poland-China boar, fourteen mont hs old, that 
ran to posture during tho summer, and will 
weigh 450 pounds, and see how they will 
breed. The pigs from Polund-China boar by 
this sow are very superior to the jags by the 
grade Chester boar. 
Nature sometimes plays strange freaks, Ts 
this one of them ! Wo sometimes get from 
white stock rod, black, or spotted, and vice 
versa. Some animals breed entirely after 
tho male, other* the f'. male. Like does not 
always produce like in form, color or quali¬ 
ty, but goes back to some superior or inferior 
progenitors. Is this one of them ? Or is it 
to be traced to some other breed i The form, 
size, quality and habits are those of the supe¬ 
rior, high-bred, Berkshire hogs; color only 
different. 
I would like to have the Committee’s opin¬ 
ion of these sandy hogs. After a lapse of 
years have these hogs, by one of those strange 
and mysterious freaks of animal nature, 
reproduced the original from which they 
sprung ? These hogs can be seen at Mr. 
Gary’s farm, six miles from Baltimore, by 
way of Baltimore, Calverton and Powhattan 
Railroad, or by jirivate conveyance on the 
Franklin Turnpike, and the facts in regard 
to them verified. Agricola. 
Baltimore Co., Md. 
SPORTSMEN’S NOTES, 
Thai ; De'ad Fall. —Wm. B. Link evidently 
does not understand the dead fall recently 
given in the Rural New-Yorker. The bait 
is stuck on the spindle, the fork on which 
prevents the bait, being slipped on it toward 
the entrance. The spindle is so short that 
the animal does not enter t he trap more than 
half liia length at most, and the fall takes 
him on the neck or back, as the case may lie. 
Hundreds of fur animals are. caught in just 
such traps. The “ Figure four” is mere 
troublesome to make and to set, and is not 
so good. It is mostly used by boys for catch¬ 
ing ho'.iso rats and squirrels. 
To Calch, Coona.—Will some sportsman 
tell me how to catch coons in a swamp ? 
There is a swamp near our house in which I 
think coons run. There are also small water 
courses along which t hey fish for frogs. How 
and when shall I set the trap ? What kind of 
bait shall I use ?— a. s. n. 
TO REMOVE SKUNKS’ HIDES 
As I have caught and skinned a good many 
skunks within the last ten years, T will give 
Frank J. my method. Place tho skunk on 
his back and commence at the center of his 
unde*- jaw ; rip down the middle to tho fore 
legs; skin the head and nock, then take a 
rope or small chain, put round his neck and 
hang him tip just high enough to work at 
conveniently ; skin the forward pair of legs ; 
rip down the middle ; stop about t hree inches 
from the tail. Commence at the top, skin 
down and towards the back. Keep t he knife 
in your right hand and hold the skin with tho 
left; be very careful not to touch the carcass 
with tho left hand, nor the hair side of tho 
skin with the right. The glands that con¬ 
tain the essence, are placed on the under side 
near the tail ; skin very carefully here so as 
not to cut them. After removing the skin 
rip it open down to the tail, and nail it; up on 
some out building to dry. Remove the 
glands and bury them. Now, if you have 
done all of this with care, the fat will not be 
scented and you can cut if off und cook it out 
over the kitchen stove. The oil is valuable 
for harnesses, for greasing wagons, and all 
lubricating purposes. 1 have taken a quart 
from one animal. 1 killed some once, and 
not having time to skin them the same day, 
they froze, and I put them in a stream of 
running water to thaw them; when I 
skinned them there was no scent on tho hair, 
the water having carried B all away.— r. c. c. 
BERKSHIRE8 BREEDING BACK 
In the Rural New-Yoricf.r of January 18 
is the report of Mr. A. B. Allen upon the 
history of the Berkshire hog, submitted to 
the .Swine-Breeders’ Convention and reported 
ttpon by George VV. Jones, Jacob Kenny 
and I. N. Barker, Committee of the Con¬ 
vention, stating thutt he family from which 
tho present improved and superior breed of 
Berkshire hogs was produced was of sandy 
or buff color, about equally spotted with 
black, was of a large size and a slow feeder, 
requiring two and a half to three years to 
reach full maturity. Mr. James A. Gary, 
proprietor of “The Meadows,” has on his 
farm a beautiful sandy or golden-colored 
sow, with a few black spots scattered over 
the body ; bred from pure white hogs in ap¬ 
pearance, for two generations, to my knowl¬ 
edge. These hogs were a cross with the 
Berkshire, Chester and Grade hogs, which 
had bred white. The mother of the sandy 
sow was a -mail, white hog, compact, well 
built, with large lop ears ; the sire, a very 
large white boar, bred from a spotted sow, 
bearing all the marks of a Berkshire hog by 
a grade Chester boar ; the net weight of this 
hog, the grandsire. of the sandy sow, was 460 
pounds. The sow was sold, not butchered, 
at tho farm; the weight of the sire of the 
DOG WITH MANGE 
I would like to know a good reliable rem¬ 
edy for the disease of dogs I think is called 
"mange.” We have a fine shepherd dog, a 
year old, and are afraid he lias it, from his 
constant scratching. We have never given 
him veiy much meat or grease, and he is a 
light eater.— m. e. w. 
Mahew says he has succeeded best with 
an unguent composed as follows : 
rc *! n ;--A» much as you please to take. 
huijjli. hub.—A sutllciericy to make the resin 
PIG-PEN PAPERS 
Lameness of 1‘igs and loss of the use of 
the hind legs is believed, by a. correspondent 
of the N. E. Farmer, to be a species of found¬ 
er caused by highly concentrated or oily food, 
such as corn meal or milk in large quantities, 
and which he has cured by Weedin' —by cut¬ 
ting off tin- end of the tall, repeating the op¬ 
eration two or three times if necessary. He 
has never known it to fail to cure. 
Stopping of (Trine, in Pips.- M. W. Hough¬ 
ton lost one pig from this cause, saved an¬ 
other by sending through the water course 
of the animal, with a syringe, the following 
preparation A piece of ca.st.ile soap as large 
as a walnut, made fine and dissolved ; half a 
pint of molasses and water ; one toaspoonful 
of tine salt. 
