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Yol. XL— No. 1636.} 
NEW YORK, JUNE 4, 1881. 
[PRICE FIVE CENTS 
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[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881. by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
ripened home-grown bulbs are preferred. The 
growers wagon them about and soon dispose 
of 300 to 1.000 bushels in every township. 
Where the season is long enongh and the 
soil most favorable, the Yellow Dmvers O iion 
is preferred as a market crop by most of our 
growers. Some of the towns are quite onion 
towns, often shipping large quantities to the 
Boston market. This i3 notably the case with 
Cornwall, in Addison County, where excellent 
schools and a free library have developed the 
intelligence of the people far beyoud the aver¬ 
age. The Red Wethersfield, however, is still 
preferred by many who grow for their own 
use. The old large variety of this onion is 
rather later thau the Danvers, but, when well 
ripened, red onions are better keepers than the 
yellow kinds. The Early R;d Globe and Early 
Flat Rad are beginning to be tried with satis¬ 
faction where the seasons are rather short, or 
the soil not quite warm enough for the Large 
R :d or the Danvers. But for market, only the 
Danvers is planted. If the land is well pre¬ 
pared and manured in the Fall and the seed 
pnt in as early as possible, the crop of the lat¬ 
ter usually ripens well. But there is very little 
margin in the season, and the loss of a week 
in planting is often the loss of half the crop. 
After the right preparation of the soil is 
mastered, a knowledge (very important) of 
the best strains of seed secured, and skill in 
culture and handling attained, the onion worm 
still*remains a standing menace against the 
unskillfnl or the dilatory. Usually a srnUl 
bed of black-3eed ouion3 will be destroyed by 
them, or nearly so, in spite of every care, es¬ 
pecially in the years when they appear in unus- 
j. Some rely upon sail and some 
upon hot water for pro¬ 
tection. but usually a 
farm garden is not 
looked after close 
enough to stop their 
^ ravages before it is too 
late. The onion worm 
Y v, is decidedly the greatest 
- y of all obstacles to auia- 
teur onion growing, 
and from that point of 
view the greatest of all 
=j§ benefits to those who 
make a business of 
onion raising. The lat- 
^ ter rely only upon dig- 
Sing up promptly with 
a trowel (taking dirt 
and all) eveiy plant 
that by wilting shows 
the presence of the 
rT-- worm. A two weeks’ 
campaign, vigorously 
pushed, wins the victo¬ 
ry. The fire or a deep- 
dug grave is the only 
safe depository for the 
captured worms. 
Those who object to 
-jiL this work and yet will 
lr have onions, usually 
plant the Potato Onion 
‘ or top varieties, which 
I start large and strong, 
and do not readily suc- 
3Y cnmb to the attack of 
the worm. Both of 
' these kinds are unprof- 
_ itable for market on 
—J account of poor yield, 
though they are often 
grown for an early sup¬ 
ply, as well as for 
I know of but one variety of 
od, and that is both a poor 
a poor yieider. But there are 
ins of the Potato Onion or 
" which vary greatly in their 
;s. Some are of eveu less value 
than the top onion as a commercial crop. 
Seven or eight years ago I found, growing in 
has suddenly become the owner of a large 
apiary is overwhelmed by a work with which 
he is not familiar, and which ought to be done 
well and at the right time. He thus makes 
blunder on blunder, and the final result is loss 
instead of profit. My advice to beginners is, 
therefore, to begin slowly ; to bny one or two 
colonies of Italiau bees only, in movable frame 
hives of the Qainby or Langstroth pattern; 
then to bny a few books on bee culture and 
study in the books and in the apiary. All the 
outlay ought not to exceed $50, including the 
cost of the books, of two or three empty hives 
of the same pattern, and of a few other imple¬ 
ments, such as a good veil, a smoker, etc. 
Then, after a season in the study of the pursuit, 
if the work has proved pleasant, the number 
of colonies may be increased, little by little. 
If, on the contrary, the pursuit stems distaste¬ 
ful, the loss will be small and the riddance 
easy. Everybody is not fit to become a suc¬ 
cessful bee keeper. The business requires a 
tendency to observation, that only some per¬ 
sons possess. 
There is also another danger against which 
a beginner ought to be warned. It is the per¬ 
suasion that bee-keeping is a very profitable 
business. No doubt there is money to be 
made in bee culture; but for a few who have 
succeeded, hundreds have abandoned the pur¬ 
suit. or have relegated it to the second place, 
conducting K with some other business. I 
know some, among these last ones, who have 
become very good bee-keepers, and who in. 
crease largely their income with the profits 
derived from their apiaries. To sum up, I 
advise those who desire to try their hand at 
bee eulture, to begin slowly; to continue their 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS 
ONION GROWING IN VERMONT 
The Eaaex Boar, Black Duke. 
To the Eastern Farmer who is also a fruit 
grower, the question of what hog to keep is 
an important one. He has two objects in 
view in keeping pigsone to have them help 
eat the prematurely fallen and wormy fruit, 
and the other to make the largest amount of 
the most desirable meat, for the food consumed. 
While some may desire a hog "as long as a 
rail” for the sake of getting plenty of side 
pork and bacon, it must be remembered that 
all that class of hogs are thick-bided and vo¬ 
racious eaters, and soon eat themselves up. 
Moreover, one can hardly feed them so much 
that they will not squeal for more, and of all 
musicians the most discordant is a squeal¬ 
ing hog. For all purposes in the East, 
no pig so fully “fills the bill.” as the Essex. 
He is always quiet and peaceable, always 
in good condition ; his meat is fine-grained, 
and a very large ptoportion is ham and 
shoulder, the highest-priced and most de¬ 
sirable meats, and when slaughtered very little 
is wasted, and where it is best known the meat 
commands the highest price. 
An excellent specimen of the Essex breed Is 
shown by Fig. 277. This i6 the boar. Black 
Duke, 10(37, the property of Mr. J. S. Wood¬ 
ward, of Lockport, N. Y. He was farrowed 
October 15 ;h, 1879; sire, Duke of Richmond, 
2i: he by Imported Negro; dam Sister Sally, 
by Imported Raven; grandam, Lucy Long, 
by Stock well; great- 
grandum Hester, by 
Black Prince; great- ^ 
great - grandam, Im- 
ported Queen May. 
It will be seen he has 
some fine blood in him / w i 
and he is worthy of j f f - - — 
his ancestry. He is re- tfpr— - 
markably fine-limbed, .. 
thin-skinned and short- . 
nosed, with small, fine 
ears. In reality he is — 
in every way better 
than he i6 here shown, 
owiDg to the unfavora¬ 
ble position in which he 
was taken. He gets 
remarkably fine stock, 
and took first premium 
at the New York State 
Fair at Albany. 
T. H HOSKINS, M. D, 
Wherever the professional knowledge of 
farmers advances beyoud the hay, oats and 
potatoes period—the elemeutary stage, so to 
speak—the first sign is shown in the courage 
to attempt a garden. The garden vegetables 
most desired lu a farmer’s family are beets, 
cabbages aud onions- Beets almost anybody 
cau grow as soou as he has learned to thin 
properly, and keep out the weeds. Cab¬ 
bages are work for a higher class in the 
graded school of horticulture. Thanks to the 
greater skill and honesty of seedsmen, the 
worst of all the old obstacles, “ they won’t 
head,” is not now often met with, except by 
those who still buy their garden seeds out of 
the peddle-boxea annually left in the grocery 
stores- G sod cabbage seed is Bold by all re¬ 
sponsible Beedsmen, and with Wakefield, Win- 
ningstadt, Fottler or Stone-mason, the non¬ 
heading trouble is eliminated, But cabbages 
suffer from the cut-worm, the cabbage-worm 
and lice. Club-root is not often seen in farm 
gardens, where only a family supply is grown. 
Soon the gardener learns that a turn of stiff 
paper around the stem of the young plant ex¬ 
cludes the cut-worm, and that a few judicious 
dashes of scalding water slay the cabbage 
worms and the aphides. Then cabbages are 
plentiful on the farmers’ tables. The full 
course in farm gardening is made when success 
A FEW WARNINGS 
TO BEGINNERS IN 
BEE CULTURE. 
Bee culture, to be suc¬ 
cessful, requires brains, 
study, work and perse¬ 
verance. The regretted 
Samuel Wagner, origi¬ 
nator of the American 
Bee Journal, has de¬ 
fined these 
requisites 
in a few words: “To 
know what to do, and 
to do it in time.” 
Within ten years very many enthusiasts have 
engaged in bee-culture with the visiou of sud¬ 
den and untold riches to be reaped without 
work ; aud have bought the hives and imple¬ 
ments necessary for large apiaries. But in 
nearly every instance, their bright anticipa¬ 
tions have ended in disappointment, if not in 
disaster; for an inexperienced person who 
THE ESSEX BOAR, BLACK DUKE.—From a Photograph.—Fig. 277 
regular business, if they have one ; and to make 
of bee-keeping a pastime before investing 
largely in bee-bives. There is something very 
fascinating in the reports of large yields of 
honey and enormous profits therefrom, but 
only those who have had long experience in 
bee-keeping, need look for such grand results. 
Hancock Co., Ill. Chas. Dadant. 
with the onion is attained. This is reached in 
Vermont oy not more than one in a hundred. 
The three or four farmers in a town, who can 
succeed, have then in their hands amostprofit- 
able crop. Onions are almost a legal tender 
in most towns in Northern Vermont at a dol¬ 
lar a bushel. This is about as low as they can 
be brought here by our merchants, and well- 
