as to easily enable it to compete in price with 
any, and most important of all a determina¬ 
tion to make and sell only the very best in 
every department have given their wares an 
extensive and rapidly increasing popularity. 
Besides this, there is a growing determina¬ 
tion among intelligent farmers to use only 
tools doing the very best style of work, and 
it is possibly this which explains the increas¬ 
ing popularity of steel plows. Any farmer 
From April 20 to December 1, the cow had 
no other feed but grass in the pasture ; then 
having dry hay and a little bran and mash. 
I think the cost of keeping cow from 1st of 
December till 8th of January would not ex¬ 
ceed 110. I milked the cow till the 13th of 
February, trying to dry her off for two weeks. 
When I stopped milking her she gave three 
or four quarts of milk per day. She had her 
calf 23d of February, 1875. 
PREVENTION OF SWARMING 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POOH AND 
THRIFTY STOCK. 
To prevent bees from swarming several 
methods have been advocated. 
1. Many persona supposing that beea 
swarm only for want of room, aim to pre¬ 
vent it by furnishing ab mdance of room, 
either in the main hive or in the surplus 
honey receptacles. But every experienced 
bee keeper ia aware that stocks will often 
swarm withoutoccupying the surplus storage 
room—or after they have partially filled it 
with comb; and in Mexico, where bees are 
often kept in flour barrels, I have seen them 
swarm when the barrels were not near filled 
with comb. I have repeatedly had swarm3 
from old gums holding over two bushels, 
and a few days ago a swarm issued from a 
stock of Italian bee3. to which over two 
bushels of storage room for surplus honey 
had been given—two hives being placed over 
the old stock, in the method described in 
plate v., fig. 16. of the third edition of my 
book. The bees had filled the second story, 
and were busily at work in vhe third. It is 
very evedent, therefore, that ample storage 
room cannot always be relied on for prevent¬ 
ing swarming. 
2. Many devices have been contrived for 
preventing swarming by contracting the 
entrance to the hive so as to prevent the 
queen from leaving, while free egress is 
allowed the workers. At one time I looked 
upon what I called my non-swarmer with 
considerable favor; but longer experience 
has convinced me that it will not answer. It 
is true that if the entrance is made exactly 
five thirty-seconds of an inch high, the queen 
cannot get out, the bees after swar ming will 
return to the hive. But such accuracy of 
adjustment is difficult to obtain, and the 
bees are seldom reconciled to the squeezing 
necessary to eater the hive, by which many 
of them have their pollen rubbed off. The 
whole colony is also thrown into great ex¬ 
citement every day, when the drones at¬ 
tempt to take their flight; and the entrance 
must be eularged daily, early m the morn¬ 
ing or late in the afternoon, to allow the 
bees to carry out dead drones and imperfect 
bx-ood which they have beeu dragging for 
hours about the contracted passage. 
3. Clipping the wings of the queen to pre¬ 
vent swarming is an old device, but one 
which with the ordinary arrangements of 
hives can never be relied on. A queen with¬ 
out wings feels perfectly competent to ac¬ 
company the swarm, and will hop eff the 
alighting board and In most cases be lost in 
the grass. The bees return to the parent 
stock to await the development of the young 
queens, aud will then swarm, often three or 
four times. 
4. From some experiments which I have 
tried this season, 1 think I can effectually 
prevent swarmiug, without in the least in¬ 
terfering with the natural instincts of the 
bees. 
The hives in which swarming is to be pre¬ 
vented should all have their alighting-boards 
resting on a large board placed on the 
ground, and the wings of the queens should 
be clipped in a way described on page 223 of 
my book ; so that if she leaves she may easily 
climb buck to the hive when attracted by 
the loud hum of her returning colony. She 
will not be disposed to leave often ; and the 
bees will probably aid her in destroying the 
maturing queens. Of this, however, 1 shall 
be more certain after an eularged course of 
observations. If the tecs should prevent the 
destruction of the young queens, and the old 
one should be killed, then the whole plan 
will fail. Of this, however, I have little tear. 
— L. L. Langslroth, in Practical Farmer. 
The Vermont Farmer illustrates the great 
importance of breeding only from thrifty 
stock, capable of eating and digesting a large 
amount of food by the following examples : 
“We have in our stable two horses, both 
healthy and of similar character and disposi¬ 
tion, that are a fair example of the principle. 
One of them will do fair work on hay and 
hold condition as well kb the other will on 
the same quantity of hay and three quarts of 
corn meal a day. The same difference has 
been observed for at least half a dozen yearB. 
A relative visiting us recently drove a sound, 
healthy four-year-old horse weighing 975 
pounds that was so lean he felt called on to 
apologize for his condition. He fed him 
six quarts of corn meal and six quarts of 
wheat bran a day and ah the bay he would 
eat. He had done no work and been driven 
very little, and yet he was poor as a crow— 
couldn’t get any flesh on to him. ‘That old 
mate’s colts are all just so.’ 
“ Some fifteen years ago the late Abijah 
Millsr, one of the most extensive and suc¬ 
cessful fanners and stock-raisers of Spring 
field, Vo,, hired a thoroughbred Durham bull 
for a season. He raised a few calves of nis 
gel , and the neighbors also. The next year 
he bo ght them all up, some fifteen or twenty 
in number. The steers were mature and 
sold for as much as oxen three years old, 
having been fed as calves on skim milk, and 
afterwards on hay and coarse fodder in win 
ter aud grass in summer. One yoke was kept 
until four years old and then weighed 4 U00 
pounds. We had the assurance of Mr. Mil¬ 
ler and his sun, Mr. A. C. Miller, the pres¬ 
ent occupant of the homestead, that these 
steers never had grain or extra keeping 
tli it they did noteat much more than others, 
but what they did eat made them grow a 
great deal faster than others. There are sev¬ 
eral descendants in the female line of the 
bull on the farm at present, and the animals 
of the family all possess the same remarkable 
digestive capacity which the original repre¬ 
sentative transmitted to his immediate prog¬ 
eny. The elder Mr. Miller lamented to the 
last day of his life tiat he heeded the advice 
of a busybody who told him he was spoil ng 
his herd aud omitted to buy the bull when it 
could be dune for forty dollurs, the animal 
beiiia worth a thousand. 
“ We do not mean to be understood as say¬ 
ing that a thoroughbred or a high grade is 
necessarily better than a native, but that the 
difference in power of different animals to 
make any return for food consumed is greater 
than most farmers admit or realize, and that 
this power is to be cultivated by selecting 
and breeding.” 
RELIEVING CHOKED CATTLE 
On an animal becoming cbolted with any 
bard substance that canDot. pass the gullet; 
harsh measures should never be used until 
all others have failed. 
The practice of placing a block against one 
side of the throat aud endeavoring to break 
the obstruction with a mallet, as is some¬ 
times practiced, is simply brutal. One of 
the simplest and at the same time most effica¬ 
cious remedies is to give a pint of lard oil or 
melted lard, by drawing out the animal’s 
tongue, raising the head ami administering 
from a thick bott e. This lubricates the gul¬ 
let, sickens the stomach, relaxes the muBcles 
of the throat aud in coughing, the lodged 
substance will generally pass either up or 
down. 
If the choking has existed so long that in¬ 
flammation of the throat has ensued, resort 
must be had to the probang, any flexible rod 
either whalebone, vulcanized rubber, etc., 
with a sponge or soft substance affixed to 
the end. Introduce the soft end into the 
throat, holding the animal’s head up, and 
the obstruction being r*ache , press it firm¬ 
ly down at any risk, for it is now a case of 
life or death. 
To relieve the inflammation, apply a slip- 
pery-elm poultice, keeping it in close contact 
with the throat by securing the folds in 
which it is placed by means of cords to the 
born*, keep the animal on light, soft food, 
assisted with linseed tea, until the inflam¬ 
mation is subdued. 
PLANTING RASPBERRIES AND BLACK 
BE R HIES. 
We have many inquiries as to the best 
time to set the above—whether “ fall or 
spring is the best.” We have always had 
the best success with fall planting. First, 
because every plant gro ws, leaving no vacan¬ 
cies in the row, while in spring settings we 
always fail to have good remits in their 
coming, and thus have vacancies in the 
rows, and as these cannot be tided up until 
the following fall or spring, the rows are 
always uneven. Second. Fall set plants 
make at least one-tbird better growth the 
first year than those set in the Bpring. Third. 
One has so much more time to attend to ft in 
the fall than the spring, and hence can make 
so much better job of it. 
It is well known that plants cennot be set 
In the spring unless land is of a very light, 
sandy nature, so long as ground is unsettled 
or kept wet by rai.is. and hence most per¬ 
sons fail to get them planted out before 
latter part of spring, and then the dry 
weather comiDg on, many failures and va¬ 
cancies occur. The past spring proves this 
to ua with a number of sorts we set, both of 
“tips” and “sucker’’ varieties, and we 
have fully resolved that hei eafter our plan¬ 
tations of raspberries will go in in the fall. 
“But won’t they heave out 1” and "bow 
must I 6et them I' 1 urn questions asked us. 
If it be sod land, it should be plowed at once 
in narrow furrows, 60 as to cut up the sod in¬ 
to as narrow strip* as possible. Lst this lie 
until first of November, then plow again 
across the furrows as they were plowed 
before, having had the laud well harrowed 
AN EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD COW, 
Ed .tor Rural New-Yorker : — I wish 
through the medium of your excellent paper, 
to inform those who are interested in choice 
cows what a source of profit our cow has 
been during the past season. She had her 
calf the middle of January, 1874. The calf 
had half of the milk two months ; theD I sold 
the calf lor $7. Up to the SOvh of April the 
i”w supplied the fami'y (of lour) with milk 
and cream and butter, besides occasionally 
selling several pounds of butter. I then pro¬ 
posed to my wife to weigh the butter she 
made. She did so, commencing April 20th. 
As soon as strawberries were ripe and until 
peaclnswere gone we used cream on fruit. 
Besides our own family, we had for two 
months iu the fruit season from one to four 
men, hired help, 
MOHAWK VALLEY CLIPPER STEEL 
PLOW. 
The great manufacturing establishment of 
the Remington Co., which attained such 
prominence duriug the war in the produc¬ 
tion of firearms, has measurably turned its 
foundries to arts of peace. While still man¬ 
ufacturing arms of all kinds in large quan¬ 
tities, this feature of the business is subor¬ 
dinated by the greater attention given to 
the making of sewing machines, and espe¬ 
cially its list of new and important agricul¬ 
tural implements. 
Prominent among these are their patent 
clipper steel plows, of one of which, the 
Mohawk Valley Clipper, we present a cut 
above. 
blackberries and black raspberries, mark off 
the land with a one lior.-e plow into furrows 
6 feet apart one way, (7 feet ia still beuer 
fur blackberries.) and 3 feet the other, and in 
each crossing put out a plant, setting black¬ 
berries and cane or sucker raspberries about 
as deep as they stood before, and “tip” 
raspberries so tney will be about two inches 
below the level. * Then, just before winter 
sets in, throw a good fork or shovelful of 
coarse manure or litter over each hill. This 
answers two purposes, one enriching the soil 
where the plants are by the soakings from 
manure, and tne other protecting them from 
••heaving.” Another plan is to make a good 
hill or mound over each plant. This prevents 
water from standing immediately over the 
plants, and plants being bo well piotccted by 
earth, are not harmed. Early iu the spring 
level these mounds down. ‘This plau not 
only protects them through the winter, but 
by thus drawing away the earth, leaves the 
soil over the plants loose and friable. These 
muuuds over the field can be leveled down 
by running over them with a light harrow 
early in the spring. If it be corn or potato 
land, one good, tnorough plowing and har¬ 
rowing will answer. 
The plants can be set any time before the 
grouud freezes, though it is well not to risk 
putting it off too late, as a fi-eeze-up may oc¬ 
cur to prevent. They can be taken up and 
transplanted auy time after middle to 20th 
of October. 
Parties at the South who 
This plow is made of the best hard¬ 
en es a day. We ened steel, in various sizes, and with steel or 
ring a very good cast points, wooden or iron beams as pur- 
the hot weather, chasers may prefer. The great advantage 
;; but my wife of the steel plow is its steel mold-board, and 
mces, from the this in some soils is absolutely essential to 
3th of February, doing good work. The mold-boards of these 
bs and a half— steel clippers will not clog anywhere, but 
Butter was sell- will keep bright and clean in wet or dry soil, 
uriug the season doing the work evenly and in superior man¬ 
ner. The steel clippers have taken numerous 
!53%lbs., 158 lbs. premiums, and have the not less valuable 
-age of over 30c. indorse merit of thousands of the best farmers 
lbs. at 30c. per in all sections of our country. 
; calf sold, $7— Probably no other firm has done so much to 
cream used in introduce aod make popular the steel plow 
am Dot churned, as the Remington Agricultural Co. has done 
mid certainly be with its patent 6teel clippers. The large 
I, $100. 1 think, capital of the company, and its close connec- 
extra feed she tion with the farmers of the country, have 
e fourth better. I given it unrivaled advantages for introducing 
ife made from j agricultural implements of every kind. Its 
butter. facilities for manufacturing have been such 
SAVE THE COMBS 
The heavy loss of bees the past winter and 
spring, has left an immense amount of empty 
comb upon the hands of bee keepers. This 
will be of great value this season in the re¬ 
building of our terribly depleted apiaries. It 
is estimated that the workers have to con¬ 
sume about twenty pounds of honey, to be 
able to construct one pound of comb. This 
being true, one pound of comb is equal iu 
value to twenty pounds of honey. In my 
vicinity, the wholesale price of honey is 
twenty cents per pound ; this would make 
our combs worth four dollars per pound. 
At these figures we can’t afford to melt our 
comb into wax, and sell it at twenty-five 
or thirty cents. ^ 
Every scrap of worker comb, if only two 
inches square, can with a little skill arid a 
few splints, be profitably used in patching 
up unfilled frames. After the frame of 
scraps is p acediu tne hive, it will take the 
workers but a little time to put it iu good 
order for breeding and storing purposes. 
Exchange. 
are ordering 
plants from the Nurr.h, should by all means 
do so in the fall, as ground opens here later 
in the spring by 4 to 8 weeks than what they 
can be set there.— Fruit Recorder. 
