204 
IMBSH 28 
BEE N0TE8. 
Feeding Bees a Bad Practice .—An English 
bee keeper says :—“My opinion is that feed¬ 
ing bees, as a rule, is bad ; except on abso¬ 
lute danger of their dying, I do not think 
they ought to be fed* It mush be wrong to 
teach bees to rely on the bottle, as it might 
tend to make them idle. We have some 
proof of this ; for it is well known that in the 
tropics, where the bees can get honey all the 
year round, they store but little, but in the 
cold regions of the North, 
with a very short season, they 
collect the most honey. I 
took some pains to inquire 
into this subject when in 17 " 7 # 
Switzerland. I could not be¬ 
lieve thut so large a quantity 
of honey, which I saw in the 
market, could have been _ 
gathered in those narrow . 
valleys bo long locked up in ~ -. 
frost and snow ; but one sea- l 
son, when I happened to be - 
there at the end of May, I 
could see the reason very 
wen.” 
When in a Queen Capable ' -mM xtyj/J' 
of Laying f—In answer to the 
question, “How Boon after 'im'l 
hatching is a queen capable of pM 
laying?” Mr. Quimby lias 
known them to lay in 7 days ; /> - 
Mr. Nillis thought the aver /V 
age in the working season was \7 ' 
i) days ; Mr. Doolittle, 4 to |M7«' 
G days ; Mr. Bettbingkr, 4 to 
6 days, and he would kill 
queens that did riot lay in 10 
Wintering Bees in a Warm 
Boom. — E. Gallup says he 
has seen twenty-live stocks of fajESgMB 
bees wintered in « dry, warm 
room In a cellar with cement 
floor, and kept bo warm that 
they bred all winter. These 
were box-liives, turued bot- 
tom up, with bottom board 
removed. There was no dys¬ 
entery among these bees. 
Superiority of Italian Bees. — W, F. 
Clarke, editor of the American Bee Jour¬ 
nal, thus suras up the superior merits of the 
Italian over the common or black bee:—1, 
they are better honey gatherers ; 3, more 
quiet and peaceable ; 3, less liable to be in¬ 
fested with the moth ; 4, more handsome. 
Clipped Queens. — E. Kretphmer, Coburg, 
Iowa, says lie has an Italian queen bee that 
has had both of her wings clipped close to 
her body as a special mark, and this five 
seasons, and last year she was one of the 
most prolific queens lie had. 
thrown the scent. If they are then carefully 
carried to a brook or barrel of water, and 
suddenly submerged, they may be killed 
without the scent being let off. In this case, 
the skins are worth the trouble of trapping 
and skinning. If not scented, and duly 
cleansed, the fur is quite valuable, and makes 
very pretty carriage robes. 
HOW TO KEEP 
GUN. 
A hunter tells how he uses his gun in the 
following language : — When 1 clean my 
fowling-piece I set it where it can get hot 
enough to make sure of being perfectly dry 
inside, but not so hot as to spoil the metal. I 
xt flmtltttir jgai[£ 
BLACK COCHINS. 
The White Cochins came from coal black 
Cochins. I know this to be a fact. Mrs. 
Herbert of Powick, Worcestershire, Eng., 
first brought the white ones into notice. It 
was about 1851. She exhibited the first 
while ones seen in England except ing that 
the Dean of Worcester (I forget the rever¬ 
end gentleman’s name) who owned the black 
ones, and I think imported them, might have 
had some, but did not bring them.into public 
Short Horns through Collins having once 
used a white bulk A Working Farmer. 
-*+♦- 
POULTRY NOTES. 
Tameness and Profit. —A. D. C., in Cottage 
Gardener, says :—“ The most forcible lesson 
we have learnt in seven years' experience is 
that ‘favorite hens' are unprofitable—and 
worse, for they make poultry-keeping an in¬ 
tolerable, distressing business. We have in 
former yeans trained liens to the mo t famil¬ 
iar tameness; and we advise any one who 
cannot help making pets of their hens to give 
up keeping poultry. The favorites are sure 
to grow fat and unhealthy—a trouble to 
themselves and to their masters. ' Fair field 
and no favor’ Ls the only 
rule.” 
Something Wrong with 
^ Chickens.— We have the com- 
mon barn-yard fowl, inter- 
mixed with Brahmas. Our 
! liens are never sick — never 
|i§i3§sGg| have the gapes nor the chol- 
| - j era ; but they have black 
blood in their veins; their 
flesh is dark, in some darker 
g§m|||gl§ than in others ; they do not 
j look nice cooked and have a 
strong taste. Our neighbors 
Ms are troubled in the same way. 
j One lady told me she cooked 
a chicken, the bones of which 
were black as a coal. What 
ails them ?—Mrs. D. M. John- 
Poultry Book. — II. J. E., 
Clarion Co., Pa., is advised to 
i^ jggpj purchase The People’s Praeti- 
cal Poultry Book—price $1.50. 
For sale at this office. 
1 xThq (Oardt'it. 
msm ' = 
SPROUTING VEGETABLE 
NseSJS - SEEDS. 
PRICK-EARED SKYE TEKR1ER. 
A PRICK-EARED SKYE TERRIER. 
We do not take much stock in dogs (for 
good personal reasons) but there are many 
people who do, and who relish seeing either 
a good dog or a good picture of one—hence 
on this page we give an illustration of what 
are known iu Scotland as “ Prick-Eared Skye 
Terriers.” They are found in the greatest 
perfection on the Isle of Skye, are plucky, 
good fighters, affectionate, and take water 
like a retriever. Martin, in his “ Dogs of the 
British Islands,” thus gives the point* of this 
dog : 
The Prick-Eared Skye has a long body, Bet 
on short legs, slightly bandy. His colors 
should be blue, head, ears, and legs only a 
silvery-tinged fawn, and well feathered ; the 
hair on the body, as you say, straight, and 
not fine ; while the hair on hand, ears, and 
legs should be silky. The other points are : 
Square muzzle, large head, large black nose, 
eyes small, black, and not prominent; and 
the ears of these most in favor are short, set 
erect, and close together.” 
-♦ ♦ » • — 
TO TRAP SKUNKS. 
A correspondent of the Country Gentle¬ 
man writes The method of catching skunks 
in this section, where they are a great nui¬ 
sance, is by baiting them in a large box-trap. 
Set the trap near their nocturnal wanderings, 
baited with a piece of meat, and 1 they are 
almost sure to follow their inquisitive noses 
iuside, and may bs found safe and sound the 
next morning, and usually without having 
can then load it and put it to its place ; which 
is on the top of a cupboard in the dining¬ 
room where it may remain for months 
capped, but always discharges whenever re¬ 
quired. Loaded or unloaded it is left at half- 
cock. My locks are so arranged that at half- 
eoclc the hammers are only about half an 
inch from the nipples, and will not injure 
the spring of the look. When coming home 
from hunting, no matter how foul my gun 
is, it is put in its usual place at half-cock, 
where it keeps perfectly dry and free from 
rust. 
When my barrels get too smooth in the 
bores I take a tight swab, hammer glass 
right fine, and roll it In the glass, and with 
that give the gun a good scratching. This 
is easily done, and is much better than to 
send it to an inferior gunsmith, who may 
ruin the gun. 
•-♦♦♦- 
SPORTSMEN'S NOTES. 
Shooting on Illinois Farms.— Talking of 
shooting in Illinois an IUmoisian writes that 
the trespass laws are very stringent, and 
unless you can get the consent of parties 
owning the ground, it is useless to attempt 
to shoot over it. The stock farmers in this 
section of the couutry will not allow their 
most intimate friends to go into their past¬ 
ures with dog and gun ; they will not do it 
themselves for fear of stampeding their cat¬ 
tle. They have printed notices stuck up 
around their premises, warning hunters to 
keep out of their inclosures. Some employ 
men to ride around their pastures for that 
purpose. 
The New Hampshire Qame Law makes 
it unlawful to kill deer between the first day 
of January and the first day of August; and 
snipe, woodcock, plover, quail, yellow-legs, 
and sand piper,*, between February 15 and 
August 15; partridges or grouse between 
February 1 and September i, except when 
doing damage; robins, thrushes, larks, blue¬ 
birds, sparrows, martins, woodpeckers, bob¬ 
olinks, yellow birds, linnets, fly-catcliers and 
warbleiB, at all times. 
Cartridges for a Henry Rifle. —(S. S.) We 
do not kuow the address of the manufac¬ 
turers of these cartridges. 
Deal-fall for Mink.— G. W. M., asks some 
of our readers to tell him how to make and 
set a dead-fall for mink. 
notice. The first she sold at an exhibition 
were at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, at the 
Christmas show. I bought two roosters for 
$25 each and sold one after I had him a year 
to Mr. Hodgkinson, banker of Birmingham, 
he sending me a five pound note for him. I 
happen to have the letter by me at the pres¬ 
ent time wherein that gentleman alludes to 
my purchase of him aud his desire to have 
him, &c. 
I raised several hundred chickens from buff 
hens — cross breed ones—-but, singularly, 
never had one white offspring though there 
were many black ones and no black hen or 
any other rocsters but the white ones on my 
farm, the homestead of which was half a 
mile from my other poultry. Two years 
after, 1 bought a dark, falcon-hocked rooster, 
with none of this strain of blood, and the buff 
and partridge liens, which were sired by the 
white fowls bought of Mrs. Herbert, 
brought several white ones which I gave into 
the keeping of a neighbor when I left En¬ 
gland, and that is the last I know of them. 
But before I left England, I heard that many 
birds bought at an auction sale in London, 
where Mrs. Herbert sold upwurd of an 
hundred of pure White Cochins, which 
averaged about £8 each or, I think, more, 
were often having blaek chickens, and this 
doubtless occurred occasionally for several 
generations after. 
When I was a boy the sheep in the neigh¬ 
borhood were chiefly Leicesters; and a 
relative of our family had a flock descended 
without any alloy from Bakewell’s flock, 
having been bred “iu-aud-in,” that is with¬ 
out any animal from any other source what¬ 
ever ; and they were white ; but once in a 
while a black lamb would appear and it was 
the case generally at that time with Leices¬ 
ter sheep, although a black ram was never 
used aud in most cases no black ewe lamb 
was bred fi‘om. The cause of this was the 
use of a black sheep by Bakewell himself and 
which I believe was not repeated. The 
breeder whom I mean as the one having the 
fiock pure from Bakewell’s, was Valen¬ 
tine Barford of Foxcote, Northampton¬ 
shire, and who was noted as a defender of 
“in-and-in breeding.” 1 mention this to 
show how long a color will lie dormant in a 
race and then show, thus the black chickens 
come from the original source of the white 
ones. Ses how white calves drop from 
' Many persons delay the 
- - sowing of vegetable seeds un- 
fg: - til rather late iu the season, 
and then try to make it up by 
-- I soaking for a few hours or 
sprouting before being put in¬ 
to the ground. This is a kind 
of inake-shif t system that rarely proves satis¬ 
factory, for several good reasons or causes. 
If the sprouting of seeds commences before 
sowing, they must be placed in soil sufficient¬ 
ly warm and moist to insure a continuance of 
growlli; for the least check is sure to destroy 
vitality. We do not condemn the usual prac¬ 
tice of soaking seeds in ord er to hasten growth, 
by any means, when there Ls a possibility of 
gaining time by the operation, but only wish 
to remind our readers that there is more to 
be lost than gained in doing it, unless pre¬ 
cautionary measures are taken to supply the 
growing seeds with moisture after being put 
into the ground. Frequently we have a 
drouth of longer or shorter duration after 
the first dash of spring rains are over, and 
this usually comes just in time to catch the 
late-sown seeds. 
The safest plan with all seeds which will 
not readily rot in rather cold, wet ground, 
like peas, lettuce, tomato, beets and spinach, 
is to sow early and let them sprout in their 
own good time, which will always be as 
early as the weather permits. 
If it should happen that any have been 
overlooked, or a late sowing is desirable, and 
a little hurrying up of germination wanted, 
tlien soaking may answer; but if the soil is 
not moist it must be made so at the time of 
sowing and tlien kept in this condition either 
by rains or artificial watering until the young 
plants have made a good beginning. As 
every one who aspires to a good vegetable 
garden may have occasion to apply water to 
the plants this spring, it is well to make 
preparation for a supply early in the season. 
Cold water from a well or spring should not 
be applied until warmed a little ; therefore 
some old hogsheads or tanks may be pre¬ 
pared now and put in a convenient place into 
which the water can be stored for use. A 
warm, sunny spot by the side of some out¬ 
building, wifi answer the purpose very well; 
aud we are quite sure the time and expense 
of preparing these receptacles will not be 
wasted. 
■--- 
The Ben nie Pea is spoken of in Canada as 
of extra earliness, and sold iu the Toronto 
market last summer at $4 per bushel in the 
pod. 
Send us your experiences, the past year, 
with garden vegetables. Interchange of this 
character will be found of mutual profit 
especially now when choice is being made. 
