arwwivc 
NEW YORE, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y, DEC 
PRICE SIX CENTS 
»«. 5 « I’Eli YEAR. 
" in ” l " A,t <.. to year m by the ... ... Company, the . . the Librarian of Congress at WaaUingtou.] 
moot of the sash at its lower part; but the 
top of the lower sash will overlap the bottom 
of the upper one, ami between the two bars 
perpendicular currents of air, not felt as 
draft, will enter and leave the room. 
Fixing Shingles. —An exchange says: 
Farm buildings frequently undergo repair at 
this season of the year. Especially are new 
costs if 13 per cord. Coarse creek gravel suit¬ 
able for concrete Can be had for $L per load, 
five loads to the cord. Will a wall one foot 
thick; five feet below and two above ground, 
concreted, sustain a residence and be dur¬ 
able ? “ What are the component parts of 
gravel and lime necessary to make the 
same.—H. A. Pratt. 
A Composition for Covering House Hoofs. 
—Take one measure of line Band, two of 
sifted wood ashes, and t hree of lime, ground 
up with oil. Mix thoroughly and lay on, 
with a painter’s brush, first a thin coat, and 
A CHEAP COTTAGE 
BEE KEEPING NOT EASY FOR WOMEN 
AND CHILDREN. 
The accompanying sketch is of a cheap 
cottage built with the design of utilizing all 
the space within. It will be noticed that 
while the halls are large enough to be con¬ 
venient, all that can be spared from them 
has been added to make tho rooms more 
spacious. The opening usually filled by 
folding doors is eight feet square, making 
t he parlor and dining room u large saloon, 
thus greatly adding to the hospitable look of 
the house, without demanding great unused 
spaces. Tho stairs, enclosed between two 
walls, are more cheaply built. Eac:h room 
has a clos'd, and, with one exception, has 
straight edges making it convenient to car¬ 
pet. 
The house is ten feet between joints on the 
first story nine feet above. With a cellar 
ten feet square and a stone cistern, it was 
built and painted for <3,500 when common 
lumber cost <17.00 per thousand ; clear lum¬ 
ber <."5.00; carpenters wages <3 to <4 per 
day; masons wage* <4 to <5 per day ; com¬ 
mon labor, <3. 
i j. v/. ivuut at a recent tanners' discussion 
at Utica, N. Y., is reported as saying: 
There are two bee magazines which claim 
that bee-keeping is good business for old 
women and children, because it is so easy. 
This is a mistake. The work is very difficult 
when the boos are kept in large number-. 
It is necessary, to do well in bee keeping, to 
have good stocks. Some swarms are cheaper 
at <35 than others are at <1. A large force 
will do a large amount of work. You cjm 
tell when a hive is strong by liftlngjt up, and 
when a layer of bees appears on the bottom 
board, it is a good swarm. Go around in 
the spring and see that every hive has a 
queen. Then, to increase brood, move tho 
frames away from the center and put in new 
Comb, and the queen will till tho center. 
This must not, bo done too fast, for the 
cluster must be large enough to warm the 
hive. While this is going on, bees may have 
to bo fed. Great core must be taken to 
secure enough available food. The great, 
point in securing surplus is preventing 
swarming, r watch every hive. The queen:.’ 
wings are all dipped. When the swarms 
come out, we go and pick up .the queen and 
cage her ; then open the hive and cut out all 
queen colls and remove one or two brood 
combs, uud put in empty frames. We must 
take out just enough to counteract the 
desire to swarm. I think there is a class of 
bees in a hive uot old enough to get honey, 
and arc idle. These may bo employed by 
lotting them make comb. To reach ereatest 
WOOD 
PANTRY 
CHEN 
X IO 
OEOROOM 
BEDROOM 
BEDROOM 
12 X 12 
CELLAR 
WAV 
DINING 
ROOM 
PARLOR 
Second Floor. 
then a thick one. This composition is not 
only cheap, but it resists fire well .—ScUiJiJic 
American . 
Water-Proof Cement .—The Manufacturev 
and Builder says :—“Soak plaster of Paris in 
a concentrated solution of alum, then dry it 
and bake it in an oven, at such a heat as is 
used to change gypsum or alabaster into 
pluster of Paris ; then grind to powder and 
use with water like plaster. Lt is white, but 
may of course he colored ; sets very quick, 
becomes very hard, so as t*> take a high 
polish, and is nearly as cheap as plaster of 
Paris.” 
Precaution Against the Spreading of Fire. 
—It is suggested that if partitions were made 
of solid plunks, with a thin baton, lathed 
and plastered, that a fire could not extend 
from one room to another, except under ox 
traordinary circumstances, nor could tho fire 
ascend between t he partitions. 
Ground Plan. 
roofs laid on barns and out buildings, lt 
maybe worth while to state what is amply 
proved to be a fact, that oiling or painting 
shingle roofs at the time of laying the 
shingles, pays. Dipping the butts into hot 
whitewash is also recommended to be done 
as the shingles are laid. There can bo no 
doubt of the economy of thus protecting 
roofs from decay—by either painting, oiling 
or whitewashing. 
Tn Make a Cellar ,—Can you or some of 
the readers of the Rural inform me which 
is the best way for me to make a cellar. 
My soil is sandy loam. Good quarry stone 
NOTES AND 
UERIES 
Troughs under the Eaves of Burns.— Is it 
not singular that so many farmers who per¬ 
sist in throwing their manure out under tho 
eaves of their large barns fail to put up cave 
troughs to carry oil the water and prevent 
the washing of their manure ? I have a burn 
100 feet long. My stable is in a lean-to along 
one side of It. Thus tho entire fall of rain on 
one side of the barn and on the lean-to would 
run into the manure and soak away the 
liquid portion which would run of! through 
the yard, did 1 not have an cave trough to 
catch this water and conduct it into a large 
cistern from which 1 force this water with a 
pump into troughs before my cows in the 
stable. Tell your farm readers how they 
may save their manure and the trouble of 
digging out watering place in poudholos or 
streams by putting up eave troughs and 
saving the water that falls on their barn 
roofs.—ffi. r. c. 
Glass lloofs .—It has been suggested that 
the roofs of all dwellings be made of glass and 
the attics used as conservatories instead of 
lumber rooms. There is less necessity for 
this in the country than in tho city ; for 
there is space in the country, about each 
dwelling for the proper lighting of all the 
rooms of the house. But there are many 
country dwellings erected, especially when 
of other style, in which glass roofs would 
render the rooms immediately under the 
roof, far more valuable and pleasant. The 
gables with their windows, do not always 
furnish the needed light and at the same 
time secure economy in the arrangement of 
looms. Glass is yet to be more used as 
roofing material, even in country houses. 
A Simple Plan of Ventilation.—The fol¬ 
lowing simple method for ventilating ordi¬ 
nary sleeping and dwelling rooms is recom¬ 
mended by H, Hinton in bis “Physiology 
for Practical Use” :~-A piece of wood, three 
inches high and exactly long as the breadth 
of the window, is to be prepared. Let the 
sash be now raised, the slip of wood placed 
on the sill, and the sash drawn closely upon 
it . Tf the slip hns been well fitted, there will 
be no draft in consequence of this displace 
PRUNING BROODS 
I RUNTNG brood combs is generally quite 
unnecessary ; in fact, is more injurious than 
otherwise. If they even require excision, it 
call only bo when they are so overcharged 
with pollen as to render breeding impossible, 
In which case tho operation should be per¬ 
formed in tho spring. Pruning them after 
tho bees have swarmed and east, is very un¬ 
wise for several reasons. First, there is a 
possibility than, during a glut of honey, the 
bees would build droue combs exclusively if 
any ; second, that having to replace the e-- 
eised comb, they would build drone comb, 
they would be less likely to yield a surplus in 
their super; and third, there Is the un¬ 
doubted fact that bees winter much better in 
old comic than in new ones, because, being- 
coated with so much silky fiber, they are the 
warmer of the two ; and again, there is the 
chance that in an unfavorable season they 
may be unable to build any comb at all.— 
British Bee. .Journal. 
Changing tiie Nature of Bees. —Gen. 
Adaii - , who makes the study of I he honey 
bee a specialty, proposes some curious 
changes in the honey bee that are to be ac¬ 
complished by a careful attention to their 
breeding. He proposes changing some of 
their habits and characteristics. He says 
their stings should be weakened, their pro- 
bosecB lengthened, their swarming instinct 
und the enmity of queens destroyed. 
■ 
'""1 ° I 1 
ROOM 
KI- 
K IO 
IO 
