240 
APRIL 0 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Sweet-scented Vernal Grass — Anthoxanthum 
odoratum. 
This is another Email iiass, possessing con¬ 
siderable merit on account of some of its pe¬ 
culiarities. As the eterns are quite short, only 
a light crop can be cut for hay—in the words 
of Mr. Gould, “ not oyer three-quarters of a ton 
from an acre.” The grass starts very early and 
flowers early in the sea=on. It Is not a favor¬ 
ite with any kind of stock, though often recom¬ 
mended for pastures on account of itsearliness. 
The stems and tops are the most offensive to 
stock. It is very fragrant, especially after 
wilting, giving an odor which is much ad¬ 
mired. This is one of the reasons why it is so 
often recommended for lawns. T. M., in the 
Treasury of Botany, says:—“The fragrant 
resinous principle which occurs in this grass, 
and is called cauniarin , is a widely diffused 
natural perfume, being found in the Tonka 
Bean, the Faham Tea-plant of the Mauritius, 
the common Sweet Wood-rnff, the common 
Melilot, and the Blue or Swiss Meiilot.” The 
grass is a native of Europe, and is entensively 
naturalized in North America. It likes rich, 
moist soil and cool Summers. In the northern 
part of Michigan, and perhaps in other places, 
the Indians raise this grass and ubc the stems 
for mats, card baskets and other small arti¬ 
cles for the sitting-room. The delightful odor 
remains with the grass for a long time after 
ft is cured and used in this way. 
Professor W. J. Beal. 
Jjarm tonomg. 
PASTURING GRAIN FIELDS. 
As a rule here the farmers have their land 
fenced into small lots so a6 to be able as much 
as possible to pasture as soon as the crop is 
. taken off the fields. Iu Summer, wheat and 
oat fields are pastured and in Winter, corn 
fields, as soon as the corn is gathered. Thi6 
year considerable loss ha6 been sustained by 
farmers who, on account of bad weather, were 
unable to gather their corn In Eeason to ob¬ 
tain the benefit of allowing their 6tock to 
have the run of tbe com fields, or, where they 
had not sufficient 6tock of their own, to rent 
out their corn fields to others. And at this 
late date on account of the scarcity of feed 
caused by the short crop and very long Win¬ 
ter, farmers are renting their corn fields to 
stock-men. This course is a serious question 
of profit with many, as it is very doubtful 
whether the amount received for the corn¬ 
stalks will pay for the damage to the land by 
tramping by large droves of cattle when it is 
so wet. 
This damage is no inconsiderable one when 
it is beyond question that where the land is 
muddy and stock is allowed to tramp oyer it, 
as they are certain to do when turned in to 
live on the stalks and corn that 1 b left, the land 
and crops will (eel the effects of such treat¬ 
ment for two or three years. I believe it a 
“ pency-wise-aud-pound-foolish " policy that 
induces farmers to allow it. It does not 6eem 
to injure land to pasture it late in the Fall or 
during the first part of Winter, hut very few 
of our best farmerB care, as a rule, to have 
their fields pastured after New Year’s, unless it 
is so cold that the ground does not thaw out 
any during the day-time. But as this year 
seems to be an uncommonly hard one, and as 
fodder is getting very scarce, a number of 
farmers have allowed their fields to be pas¬ 
tured later than usual; iu fact, many of them 
now have droves of cattle in their corn fields 
clearing up the Btalka although the recent 
rams and Bnows have made the fields nearly 
knee-deep in mud. This kind of tramping 
will seriously injure the cultivation of the land 
the present Spring and its ill effects will be 
visible for two or three yeajs more. 
Miller Co M Mo. N. J. Shepherd. 
- - 
Deaconed Calve* aa a Fertilizer. 
In disposing of “deaconed”—calves I first 
procure a large crockei y cask, one tight enough 
to hold E6hes. I then put in a layer of asheB 
and then a layer of " deacon" cut in pieces 
so as to pack cloEeiy, and keep on in thiB way, 
every alternate layer beiDg of good wood 
ashes. Let the cask stand uncovered so that 
the rains can keep it moist. The ashes will 
dissolve meat and bones, rendering the whole 
one of the best fertilizers for any crop in the 
Spring following. I often wonder why men 
who call themselves farmers let bo valaable a 
matter go to waste and breed flies and vermin, 
while they themselves breathe the bad air that 
fills their barn yards. 
I once applied some of the above described 
fertilizer to a plot of rntabaga turnips and 
they yielded at the rate of 800 bushels per 
acre. Another good way to dispose of “ dea¬ 
coned ” calves is to dreBs them and pnt them 
In a common feed steamer and cook them, and 
then feed them to fowls, After the fowls have 
taken all the meat off the bones, take the 
bones and pound them fine, so that the fowls 
cun eat them, and then you may begin to look 
for eggs, for this food will not fail to make 
them lay. Isaac Feaslee. 
Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
®|f flinrpari. 
GRAFTING THE GRAPE-CAUTION. 
Disappointment has been the lot of not a 
few planters who yielded to the peach craze of 
the last few years ; but, while wc deplore the 
circumstances which have been unfavorable, 
there is reason to fear that the grape fever, 
now so prevalent, will ultimately be attended 
by a like want of success for lack of intelligent 
choice from the many new candidates for pub¬ 
lic favor. To write a long discussion of tbe 
merite of this variety or that would, or should, 
lead the editor to consign my paper to tbe 
waste basket, inasmuch as almost every writer, 
as the saying goes, “has an axe to grind." I 
would, however, most earnestly urge upon 
those who contemplate planting for market 
the propriety, if not the necessity, of adopting 
the new varieties possessing higher flavor and 
better qualities than the old, as the further 
cultivation of the taste of the fruit-consuming 
public must, at least in a few years, create tbe 
demand for 6uch grapes. By crossings and by 
hybridization we now have grapes of different 
colors, ripening at different periods, and the 
FLOWER OF 
clientage of the growers is most rapidly in¬ 
creasing. Now is the time to strike for the 
higher qualitbs—for all the rich spiciness 
attainable In the grape. 
It is, comparatively, but a few years since the 
grafting of the grape was thought by most 
people to be a chimerical idea. Attempts were 
made by various methods, in a small way, and 
many of them proved failures. Whole vine¬ 
yards are changed now by grafting, but this 
work is only done by experts who have gained 
their knowledge by long practice. 
In conversation with Mr. Charles Downing, 
a few weeks Bince, this genial veteran in hor¬ 
ticulture related to me the circumstances 
attending his first trials in the line of grape¬ 
vine grafting. He had a cutting of a desirable 
variety, from which he wished to test the fruit 
aseoon as possible. He commenced operations 
by sawing off a large vine below tbe surface 
of the ground; he then proceeded with a car¬ 
penter's bit to bore a hole into this stock near 
the edge, a little less than the size of his giaft, 
upon which he made a square, even shoulder 
an inch or less from the lower end, and trim¬ 
med it down to fit tightly in the hole iu the 
stock. Grafting wax was used iu the ordinary 
way, and then the soil was drawn up to stock 
and graft. The growth of the graft that sea¬ 
son was extraordinary—about twenty feet— 
“but,” said Mr. D., “ I might have grafted a 
hundred in the same manner and ninety-nine 
may have missed.” 
I come at last to the caution intended to be 
given in this article: Tbe outer harsh coat of 
the grape-vine is not the true bark, but seems 
intended by nature as covering for the sappy 
bark against tbe inclemencies of tbe seasons. 
Now, this is not to be regarded in matching 
the graft to the 6tock by any of the methods 
practiced, but the true green bark, which is 
very thin on the last year’s growth, must Le 
perfectly adjusted to the inner bark of the 
stock, which can be more plainly seen. Nor 
can this be perfoimed successfully if the split 
by cleft-grafting is twisted and ragged. The 
wedge of the graft should also be longer than 
is usual in tree grafting. 
It is insisted by 4fr. J- H. Ricketts, of this 
place—who has had large practice In this spe¬ 
cial work—that in cleft-grafting small stocks 
two and three years old, the operation should 
be completed by winding first with large cord 
and over this fine copper wire, not larger than 
l-lfith of an inch. The wire is not to be loos¬ 
ened or removed until considerable growth of 
graft is attained. Grape wood will not impinge 
upon the graft so closely as the wood of fruit 
trees, which gives a show of reason to big 
argument. 
In saddle-grafting in the house, wind the 
whole length of the saddle closely with cotton 
twine. This being placed in the ground, the 
cord will rot off as the stock and graft unite. 
Newburgh, N. Y. a. a. b. 
Apiarian, 
THE WORKER BEE. 
If we examine a hive in the month of May, 
June or July—the busy season of the year, 
when the population has attained its fullest 
development—we shall find therein three dis¬ 
tinct kinds of bees—a queen, a large number 
of drones, and many thousand workers. 
Later in tbe season, usually after the first of 
September, the population will be found to 
consist of the queen and workers exclusively, 
as drones are not then tolerated in healthy 
colonies. It is superfluous to describe the 
worker bees minutely, as all who take an in¬ 
terest in the subject, have frequently observed 
them in the vicinity of tbe hive, or when gath¬ 
ering honey or pollen. They are not Inappro¬ 
priately called woi'kers, though the queen is by 
no means an idle inmate of the hive. She lays 
all the eggs from which the young bees spring, 
and the workers perform all the other labors 
of the colony. They cleanse the interior of 
the dwelling, by removing tbence all impuri¬ 
ties; they close with propolis the cracks or 
crevices which might harbor worms or moths, 
or allow the escape of heat from within ; they 
build the combs, nurse the brood, guard the 
hive, and provide all the honey, pollen, propo¬ 
lis and wax needed in the economy or essen¬ 
tial to the prosperity of the colony. 
Though each individual worker is, or can 
become, qualified to perform, in an emergen¬ 
cy. all these several labors, vet ordinarily there 
is a subdivision of labor among them. Their 
duties may properly he classified under two 
headB—the internal or domestic, such as the 
production of wax, the building of comb, the 
nursing of brood, the capping of cells, and the 
garnering up of honey and pollen, and the ex¬ 
ternal, such as the gathering of the substances 
and materials requisite lor the support aod 
welfare of the associated body. The bees that 
attend to the domestic duties, rarely leave the 
hive except for exercise ; while the otheiB are 
almost constantly on the wing. The workers 
are hatched from an impregnated eerg, which 
can only be laid by an impregnated queen, and 
these eggs are always depoeited in the small or 
worker cells. The egg hatches in three days. 
In six days the cell is capped over by the 
worker bees, and iu twenty-one days from the 
laying of the egg, the bee emerges from the 
cell. 
The workers possess an orgaB of defense— 
the sting—which they are quick to use if occa¬ 
sion requires. This is not curved, as in the 
queen, but is straight. The gland which se¬ 
cretes the poison is double, and tbe sack in 
which it is stored, is as large as a flax seed. 
The sting proper, is a triple organ, consisting 
of three sharp spears, veiy smooth and of ex¬ 
quisite polish. The piost highly-wrought steel 
instruments, under a high magnifier, look 
rough and unfinished, while this part of the 
sting shows no such inequalities. One of these 
spears is canaliculate—that is, it forms an im¬ 
perfect tube—aud in this canal work the other 
two, which fill the vacant space, and thus the 
three make a complete tube, and through this 
tube, which connects with the polsou sack, 
passes the poison. Tbe slender spears which 
work in the tube are marvelously Bharp, aud 
project beyond it when used, and are worked 
alternately by small but powerful muscles, so 
that they may pass through buck-skin, or even 
the thick scarf-skin of the hand- They are also 
barbed at the end with teeth, seven of which 
are prominent, and extend out and back like 
the barb of a fish-hook. Hence the sting can¬ 
not be withdrawn if it penetrates any firm 
substance, and so, when used, it iB drawn from 
the bee, .and carries with it a portion of the 
alimentary canal, thus costing the poor bee 
its life. 
The question—“ How long may a worker 
live does not, consequently, admit of a pre¬ 
cise and definite answer. It is certain the 
worker bee never attains a great age. Those 
reared in Autuinu may live for eight or nine 
months, and if in queenless stocks, where liitle 
labor is performed, even longer; while those 
reared in Spring will wear out in three mouths, 
and when most busy, will often die iu from 
30 to 45 dayB. None of these bees survive the 
year through, so there is u limit to the number 
which may exist in a colony. 
Prof. Cook plaeeB the number of workers in 
a good colony at from 1,500 to 4,000, but qual 
ifies this statement by saying, “ It is possible 
for u colony to be even much more populous." 
An indirect function of all the bees is to 
supply animal heat, aa their veiy life requires 
that the temperature inside the hive be main¬ 
tained at a rate considerably above freezing. 
In the chemical processes attendant upon nu¬ 
trition, much heat is generated, which may be 
considerably augmented at the pleasure of the 
bees, by forced respiration. The bees, too, by 
a rapid vibration of tbeir wings, have the pow¬ 
er to ventilate their hives, and thus reduce the 
temperature, when the weather is hot. Thus 
they moderate the heat of Summer and temper 
the cold of Winter. Ligurian. 
