arm %asxtom$. 
UNDERDRAINING. 
All my land needs underdraininR. This is 
what I wish to know how to do. I suppose your 
first advice would he to get a book on under- 
draining; but I do not understand the theory 
from the communications of your correspon¬ 
dents. it seems that all underdrains, to be dura¬ 
ble, must 1)0 water-tight— either stone laid In 
cement, or of tile with cement at the Joints. 
Now it appears to me to be a poor drain where 
the water lias to penetrate a tilo or be incut, and 
where the subsoil is packed closely around t he 
tile it seems to me it will do but little Rood lu 
ventilation. Would not a draiu made by placing 
stone upon their edge and covering with fiat 
stone, making it sufficiently close to exclude the 
dirt and yet admit the water to enter the whole 
length of the drain, be much better than one 
made of tile, and much cheaper, where stone is 
abundant? I am aware that water will pene¬ 
trate tilo, but it is too slow a process when the 
earth is saturated. I am not aware that water 
can penetrate stone and cement. I would like 
to have some of these tilings explained to me. 
These are very natural inquiries, and, at 
the same time, give evidence of what has long 
been the great hindrance to draining. The 
objects and modes of draining are not well 
understood, and though we cannot treat the 
subject elaborately here, it may be in our 
power to render oar correspondent, and oth¬ 
ers similarly situated, some material aid. 
The primary object of putting down trader- 
drains is to relieve the soil of any super¬ 
abundance of water that renders it too wet 
to be cultivated successfully. For this pur¬ 
pose a drain of stone, constructed as above 
described, would bo very useful, and for a 
series of years answer a good purpose, though 
by no means as efficient and durable as a 
well constructed tile drain. 
It is not true that drains for land should 
be constructed of cement, or even that, a tile 
drain should be cemented at. all at the junc¬ 
tion of the tile. Drains should be made not 
less than three feet below the surface—four 
feet would be preferable—and so dug and 
laid that the line of descent should be on a 
regular grade the entire distance. Any sag 
or depression would hinder the fall and reg¬ 
ular tlow of the water, which, accumulating 
at such a point, would soon deposit a sedi¬ 
ment that., by tilling the bore of the tilo, 
would destroy the usefulness of the drain. 
A moment’s thought will make this plain 
to our correspondent, and others Interested. 
For the same reason drains should, as far as 
practicable, be laid iu straight lines, begin¬ 
ning at the head with small lile, onc-and-a- 
half or two-inch tilo being best, and for long 
lines, where a large quantity of water may 
be expected to accumulate, having these dis¬ 
charge into lile of a larger size to carry off 
the water of united laterals in one main 
drain. Any practical man can elaborate 
this idea, and cany it out according to his 
wants. 
The best practical form for the bore of tile 
is egg shaped, having them so laid, that the 
smallest part of the bore will form the bot¬ 
tom. Drains in which t.he bottom of the in¬ 
side of tile arc flat and broad are more easily 
obstructed, and when the amount of water 
la small it is prone to stand at such obstruc¬ 
tions, deposit the muddy sediment and ob¬ 
struct the flow of water, if not fill the pipe 
altogether. Iu laying tile much care is 
requisite to have them laid so as to form an 
even surface inside and as compact joints as 
possible. Defective tile should lie at once 
discarded. After being properly laid an in¬ 
verted sod, or a coating of straw may he 
placed over the joints to prevent tlie dust 
from getting inside, until it has settled, after 
which there is little danger in that direction. 
It will lie readily understood that water 
can enter at every joint as well as pass 
through the tile. It will also to some extent 
soak along outside of the tile until it finds a 
good point for entering, as it is sure to do if 
the pipe is not already full. 
In digging drains for pipe, experience has 
demonstrated that the cut for the tile should 
be made only large enough to admit laying 
them correctly, as they will thus be less liable 
to get out of place, and there will be much 
less loose dirt to work into the joints and 
obstruct the flow ot water. The ditch should 
be filled as last as practicable that nothing 
may disturb t.he level of the drain, or obstruct 
it by displacing even one tile. 
Where good tile can be had at twelve to 
fifteen dollars per thousand, of a length that 
sixteen will lay a ryd, farmers and others 
who have used both aver that tile is cheaper 
than stone, where the stone costs only the 
quarrying and picking up, drawing and lay¬ 
ing, leaving out of the question the better 
quality of the drain laid with tile. 
To obtain the greatest benefit, from a drain 
after it has been well put down, the land 
should not only be plowed, but subsoiled 
and otherwise well worked, after which the 
fears of our correspondent that lile would 
not carry off the water when the soil was 
saturated would be in a great measure 
„ groundless, as the saturation he so much 
dreads could, if it occurred, remain for but 
a brief period. 
In tliis connection another prominent 
feature in underdraining should not be over¬ 
looked. Open drains may be constructed to 
carry off the large amount of water that ac¬ 
cumulates in the wet season, but the highest 
office of the underdrain is to insure the pas¬ 
sage of all water possible through the soil, 
to be discharged by the drain. The reason 
for this we can only briefly explain here. 
Every observant person understands that 
from all decay of animal and vegetable mat¬ 
ter there is sent off into the air certain gases, 
not necessary to name in detail. These be¬ 
ing lighter than common air rise, and as it 
is one of the wise provisions of nature that 
nothing should hi; lost, it is provided that 
they be returned to the earth through the 
medium of rain and snow. These gases are 
either themselves food for vegetable life, or 
they contain elements that act upon the 
vegetable and mineral constituents of the 
soil, rendering them soluble and preparing 
them as legitimate food for the young plant. 
If the farmer allows this rain-water to run 
off on the surface of the soil, this valuable 
auxiliary is lost for the time being. But if, 
on tlie contrary, he bus provided under¬ 
drains and ho worked his soil that it may 
drink up these showers, the major part of 
these fertilizing gases may be retained in 
the soil as tlie water passes through it, and 
is discharged through the drain filtered as 
pure as Ihe spring at the foot of the moun¬ 
tain. 
This is tlie process nature adopts to re¬ 
turn the fertilizing gases to the soil, and 
hence the old adage that “a spring snow is 
the poor man’s manure.” Often after the 
warm spring days rain and snow fall to tlie 
earth so impregnated with ammonia washed 
from the air, that it is perceptible, not only 
to smell, but to the taste. The annual rain 
fall, over a large portion of tlie United 
States, is under forty inches, and each show¬ 
er comes freighted with fertility. It. is the 
part of wisdom for the husbandman so to 
prepare the soil as to receive and render 
those elements available as an aid to his 
labors. 
- 4 -*-*- 
LEACHED ASHES. 
At a recent meeting of the Western New 
York Farmers’ Club, a correspondent from 
Gencseo asked when and bow to apply 
leached ashes to crops for the best results ? 
Mr. Quin by had used over ten thousand 
bushels iu tlie last three years, and found 
them good for all crops on a sandy or chest¬ 
nut loam soil, He would cover his entire 
farm with them if he could get them. If put 
in the hill they started corn early and with 
vigor. Had increased his wheat crop over 
one hundred per cent, by applying two or 
three hundred bushels per acre. They also 
benefited grass, and were one of the best 
fertilizers for clover. On some of bis land, 
which had been bard run before lie got it, it 
was difficult, to make clover catch, but 
leached ashes made it grow splendidly. A 
new seeded field was only partly ashed last 
year, and where the dressing was omitted 
the clover was poor; on the rest, very luxu¬ 
riant. lie ashed part of a rye field and got 
a great increase of grain and good clover 
catch. Thought heavy day soil was not 
benefited as much by ashes as lighter loams 
or sand. 
Mr. Collins had put leached ashes an inch 
deep on four acres of heavy clay land, and 
got a line crop of corn. The still' clay be¬ 
came more friable, and plowed up mellow 
instead of ill lumps in a dry lime. 
fins* lit me. 
Mr. IIayward bad tried gas lime, and 
never received any benefit from it as a fer¬ 
tilizer. It would kill any vegetable growth 
to which it. was applied in much quantity. 
Would use it. to exterminate Canada thistles 
and quack, The price of both manure and 
leached ashes has constantly increased. 
-4-4-4- 
Thraxlilna Corn in n Thrashing Machine.— Re¬ 
cently at a mooting of the Western New York 
l imners' Club. Shelby Reed exhibited a quan¬ 
tity r>i" corn cobs and stalks which had been 
passed through an ordinary thrashing’ machine. 
The grain was pretty thoroughly separated from 
r Iio cob, and the latter, with the stalks and husks 
torn and mashed fine. Members ol' the Club 
thought the fodder would boat if st ored in stacks 
in that fine condition; besides the soft and sound 
corn couid not be separated. It. was suggested 
that it might be a good process in eases where 
both stulks ami grain were to be led immediate¬ 
ly to stock. Mr. R. stated that it took from 
three to four miuutcsto thrash a shock contain¬ 
ing a bushel and a half of ears. 
-*44- 
Lands that Need Draining.— A Michigan “Pio¬ 
neer" writes us:—“ Lands that require draining 
after being reclaimed from (he forest are not 
worth squatting upon, saying nothing about 
paying’ Sl.io per acre for them." This corre¬ 
spondent. would be Just as near sane in bis asser¬ 
tion if he had said that lands which require 
plowing are not worth squatting upon; or that 
crops which require culture are not worth plant¬ 
ing. He should remember that what may be 
true Of Michigan may not be true of Now York 
lands. Ho denounces “ sweeping assertions " in 
others, but overlooks the fact that, he makes 
quite as silly and sweeping ones iu his own com¬ 
munication. 
- » ♦» - - 
To Kill Canada Thistles.—H. B. R. should not 
allow a leaf of them to remain above ground. 
Defoliation is the surest way to kill them, and 
the easiest. 
pmrran. 
WINTERING BEES, ETC. 
Not very long ago I noticed an article iu 
the Rural, by a very distinguished con¬ 
tributor, upon uniting two or more swarms 
of bees by the use of the fumigator. Now, 
that fumigator might have been very essen¬ 
tial forty years ago, but it is no more so now 
than an alligator or crocodile. 
Approximate the two stocks you wish to 
unite, by moving one a short, distance at a 
time until it glands beside the one you wish 
to uuite it to, and facing in the same direc¬ 
tion. Allow them to stand a day or two 
until t.ho bees mark their new position. 
Then, towards night of some warm day, 
blow smoke enough from corn cobs, decayed 
wood, old or new cotton-cloth rolled up, or 
tobacco, in at tlie entrance, to subdue or 
cause them to fill themselves with honey. 
Then remove them to some warm, light 
room away from robber bees, when, if one 
or both are in movable comb-hives, the pro- 
scss of uniting is very simple and easy. Care¬ 
fully remove the honey boards and blow a 
little more smoke among the hoes, if neces¬ 
sary to keep them quiet,; remove empty or 
crooked combs from one and replace with 
full or straight combs, or combs containing 
brood, from the other. Then remove one of 
the remaining combs at. a time, and with a 
goose quill brush the bees into the hive con¬ 
taining the swarm. Now adjust the honey 
board and return the hive to its proper 
stand. Raise the windows ami brush the 
bees, which have accumulated upon them, 
down, and they will fly to their hive.. By 
the following morning you will usually find 
a dead queen upon the entrance board and a 
united swarm of bees. There is no danger 
of their killing both. Then, if they have not 
sufficient honey for wintering, the remain¬ 
ing combs, containing honey, should he 
placed in an empty hive with holes in the 
bottom to match those in tlie honey board, 
or the honey hoard can be removed and the 
hive placed upon the top of the hive con¬ 
taining the swarm, so that the bees can car¬ 
ry the honey down and store it in the main 
hive, &c. There is no danger of being stung 
after you once get a swarm of bees into a 
room and get lo operating with thorn. 
If they fee both iu Ul<> common or box 
hive invert both hives, saw off the cross 
sticks and combs from one side of one of 
them and with a chisel pry the side, off; then, 
with a knife, remove the combs, and brush 
the bees into the other hive and return them 
to their stand as before. The combs con¬ 
taining honey should be so placed in posi¬ 
tion in the upper section or chamber, where 
the bees can carry it down and store it. To 
facilitate this, slice off the caps of the cells 
containing honey with a sharp knife. 
It is useless to spend much time iu trying 
lo drive bees from one hive to another by 
hammering, &c. I have often spent time 
enough hammering a hive to have removed 
the bees twice over. It is not necessary to 
remove one of the queens before uniting 
unless you wish to preserve a certain one of 
them. It is advisable when some hives con¬ 
tain old queens and some young ones to 
approximate one of each and then remove 
the old queen before uniting, giving the 
swarm the young queen. 
The uniting or handling of bees in any 
way never should be attempted unless the 
weather is warm enough to enable them to 
fly unless it is an extreme necessity, or unless 
there is a prospect of there being weather 
warm enough for them to fly ami discharge 
their excrement before the approach of cold 
weather, when they will he confined to their 
hive for weeks and even months. 
Feeding Jicca. 
The same contributor recommends the 
feeding of twenty or twenty-five pounds of 
liquid bee feed per swarm, or to the amount 
of between four or five dollars, which is, in 
fact, more than an ordinary swarm is worth. 
This valuable information came to hand 
about the l?th of the present month. 
Now I supposed that all bee feeding with 
liquid bee feed for wintering bees should 
have been done early in October, or imme¬ 
diately after natural supplies failed to give 
the bees a chance to seal it up while the 
weather was warm, which prevents it from 
souring and giving the bees the dysentery, 
and all that train of evils which arises from 
late feeding with liquid bee feed. 
Mr. A. C„ iu the last Rural, wants to 
know how to make tlie very best bee feed. 
The best liquid bee feed can he made from 
good white or brown sugar and water. The 
better the sugar the better the bees relish it. 
It should be boiled. It is useless to skim off 
the scum if you boil it. long enough. It 
should be, when cold, about, the consistency 
of honey. There can be candy made of 
sugar which I think is decidedly better fol¬ 
iate feeding than any liquid feed. Tbe fol¬ 
lowing is a recipe for making it, taken from 
Langstrotu : 
Add water to sugar, and clarify the sirup 
with eggs; put about a teaspoonful of cream 
of tartar to about twenty pounds of sugar, I 
and boil until the water is evaporated. To 
know when it is done, first dip your finger 
into cold water and then into the sirup. If 
what adheres is brittle when chewed, it is 
boiled enough. Pour it into shallow pans, 
slightly greased, and when cold, break it 
into pieces of suitable sizes. 
Four pounds of candy will, it is said, sus¬ 
tain a colony having scarcely any winter 
stores. 
To feed it in movable comb hives, elevate 
tbe honey board upon strips about, an inch 
and a half, and lay the candy upon tbe top 
of the frames where the bees can cluster 
upon it. Invert the common or box hive 
and prune the combs a little, and lay pieces 
of candy upon them. 
In order to feed it now you will have to 
house your bees during the winter. Bees 
should be wintered in a temperature ranging 
from thirty-five to forty-five degrees, and in 
total darkness. T. S. Roys. 
Hampden, Colorado Co., Wls., Nov., 1869. 
We are sorry the publication of this com¬ 
munication has been so long deferred. The 
hints it, contains may be of Use hereafter; 
and in this connection we suggest that if 
apiarians do not file the Rural for reference, 
they will find it profitable to make for them¬ 
selves from its columns an Apiarian scrap¬ 
book. 
-4-44- 
BEE KEEPING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
In nearly every town in Massachusetts 
there are more or less persons who keep 
bees. Only a few, however, can be found 
in this State who make bee keeping their 
only business. Tbe fact that the laud in 
Massachusetts furnishes very poor pasturage 
for bees binders many from going into this 
business who otherwise would. We have 
many good practical bee keepers who thor¬ 
oughly understand the business iu all its 
branches, but, no man in this State attempts 
to keep over one hundred stocks of bees, 
and even with that number there is only 
now and then a season when a large amount 
ol surplus honey is stored. 
In the part of the State where I live the 
honey season is very short; it seldom lasts 
over six weeks, say from May 20th to tbe 
first week in July. I have known many 
seasons when no honey was collected later 
than the last week in June. During this 
short harvest we have more or less cold, wet 
and cloudy weather. But wheu flowers are 
plenty and the weather is suitable to cause 
the honey to secrete in them, a large crop of 
honey is secured even if the season is short. 
We depend wholly on the fruit blossoms 
and white clover for our honey. 
Last season was a very poor one for 
bees here. White clover und other flowers 
were never more abundant, but no honey 
was stored even by our strongest stocks; 
there was no honey in the flowers on 
account of the cold wet weather. I remem¬ 
ber seasons when only a. few flowers and 
but little white clover could be seen, but 
honey was plenty, and bees stored large 
quantities. One great drawback to bee 
keeping is the easterly winds that prevail 
during ihe months of April, May, and, 
sometimes, June. 
It is a fact well known to observing bee 
keepers that when the wind is east of North 
or South no honey is secreted in the flowers. 
Wenham, Mass. H. Alley. 
-♦-*-*- 
FRAME HIVES vs. BOX HIVES. 
I see some criticism of my communica¬ 
tion of Nov. 13th, from the fact that I was 
not particular enough in describing my hives. 
I have between forty and fifty hives, mostly 
in good condition; a part arc the Langs- 
tuotii and a part arc of my own invention. 
I make the lower part to contain two thou¬ 
sand cubic inches; inside, the caps we use 
here are six inches square and five inches 
deep. The hive, inside,should be ten inches 
high, twelve and a half wide, aud long enough 
for two thousand cubic inches. When the 
hive is nineteen inches wide inside, it will 
hold six caps on top. 
I take boards wide enough to board per¬ 
pendicular—two boards twenty inches wide, 
seventeen inches high, and a board one inch 
square, which I nail on the bottom. This 
prevents warping, aud adapts it better to set 
on the batten board. The back board is 
twelve and a half inches wide. In front in 
the lower part is a glass, seven-by-nine or 
eightrby-ten, in a sash, and a door to shut 
over it, so that by opening it we can see the 
bees work, examine tlie caps, and, when nec¬ 
essary to feed them, take out the caps and 
put in the feed, then shut the door and till is 
safe. I make some a little higher and insert 
four caps. 
This is why I recommended the man to 
make his hives higher and put on caps, in¬ 
stead of killing his bees. My bees are in the 
cellar; I think they winter better than out 
of doors. A. Wilson. 
Marcellus, N. Y. 
■- 444 -- 
Readers and Correspondents interested in this 
department must be patient; we might fill a 
page with their favors, if we had room. 
EDITED BY W. F. CLARKE. 
CANADIAN RECIPROCITY. 
In the Rural of January 15th, in the 
Canadian Department, the question of reci¬ 
procity is modestly mentioned in connection 
with a disposition to adopt retaliatory meas¬ 
ures on the part of the Canadians, should 
the Americans continue their restrictive 
policy against our products. The editor 
says:—“ But self-defence and self protection 
are mighty instincts and first laws of nature.” 
The language would indicate that Canadians 
were improving on tlie question of protec¬ 
tion, or that such a commercial policy was 
about to be instituted against, the Americans 
iu retaliation for the high duties which our 
products are subject to on entering the 
American markets. There is so much mis¬ 
understanding about the real position, that a 
few plain statements may not be unaccepta¬ 
ble and will have a tendency to clear up a 
little of tbe mist that obscures this question 
of reciprocity between Canada and the 
United States. 
Canada being a British Province, its legis¬ 
lation has always been iu the interest of 
Great Britain, whether that legislation has 
been inimical to Canadian interests or not. 
In contrast with this, American legislation 
has been in the interest of the United Slates, 
whether it was prejudicial to the commer¬ 
cial interest, of Great Britain or otherwise. 
On this point is based the solution of the 
whole question of the difficulty of a com¬ 
mercial treaty between the two countries. 
To illustrate our Canadian position, we ask 
the United States to admit our coal free of 
duty. We are answered in a very common - 
sense, business way, “ Why don’t you levy a 
duty on English coal and supply your own 
demand instead of begginga foreign market. 
Canada East and West imported from Great 
Britain iu 1808 coal,free, 101,000 tons; from 
Nova Scotia, 9,000 tons. Here is a fine 
market for Nova Scotia coal. Why not sup¬ 
ply it?” 
Again, Canada has, undoubtedly, a large 
supply of salt, and with free access to Amer¬ 
ican markets could be developed to the 
great advantage of both countries. But 
here cornea in the difficulty; Canada im¬ 
ported from Great Britain in 1868 salt, free 
1,176,605 bushels, why 6houhl the United 
States protect the suit interest of Canada, 
if Canada refuses to legislate for that in¬ 
terest; for free admission of Canadian salt 
with a duty against English is protection to 
the former. 
The facts are, so long as Canadians are 
unwilling to adopt a policy which will de- 
velope their own resources, build up their 
towns and villages, attract capital and im¬ 
migration to the Provinces, why should the 
Americans institute such a policy for them 
by giving them a market which they could 
create for themselves ? 
The people of Canada, through the press 
of tlie country, have been led to believe that 
the Americans were averse to a commercial 
treaty; but such is not the fact. The truth 
is the United States are willing to negotiate 
a treaty in her own interest and that of 
Canada, but not also in tbe interest of Great 
Britain. There is no doubt but the United 
States’Government would give us a free 
trade, if for that consideration we would pro¬ 
tect the interests of Canada. The products 
of the Dominion are not sufficient to affect 
injuriously the same class of products in the 
States; but the market, there is of more im¬ 
portance to us than that of Great Britain 
As an example, our only market for sawed 
lumber is iu the United States. In 1869 our 
total export of that article would only supply 
one half the consumption of Chicago, had it 
all been exported there. 
I will give one more illustration of the 
different policy of Canada from that of the 
United States. Canada, with a low tariff on 
manufactures, imported in 1867, $16,500,000 
in cotton, woolen and linen goods, or an 
amount equal to six dollars and fifty cents 
per capita of the population, or one-third of 
the entire export of the Provinces of Ontario 
and Quebec. These goods were imported, 
no doubt, on what might be called good 
terms to the manufacturers ; but not so with 
the importers, consumers and the country at 
large. They should have been manufac¬ 
tured here in our midst; that would have 
been an immense advantage to us, in con¬ 
suming a large quantity of products that 
we could not export to pay for them. At 
the same time, not a few of the show-rooms 
of manufacturers here are overstocked with 
goods by the competition of English manu¬ 
facture. 
The only possible road to prosperity for 
Canada, out of the Union, is a union of 
tariffs with the United States. If that is the 
“ self-defence and protection ” that our Cana¬ 
dian editor has in view, we can assure him 
a large support in this section. 
Paris, Out., Jan., 1670. 
M. W. Brown. 
