supplied in proportion to the vital force and 
circumstances of the hen. It has been said 
that a lien has but 000 ovules in the ovaries 
and that tlie.se are expended during 
the four or six years in which she is produc¬ 
tive. This is mere fancy, and is erroneous. A 
Brown Leghorn hen has lived 10 years and 
laid over 2,000 eggs. The writer owns a Ply¬ 
mouth Rock lien that is now seven years old 
and has laid more than 1,300 eggs, and in her 
eighth year is laying six eggs weekly. But if 
the food is reduced the hen will stop laying as 
surely as a mill without grist will stop paying 
out flour. In very cold weather, too, 
and when sick with the roup or the snuffles, 
this hen stops laying; other cases of similar 
import are not rare, so that we may be sure 
that the production of eggs is a matter of 
management, and not one fixed ab init io when 
the chick was in the shell or, indeed, what is 
also implied in such a case, when the egg 
was formed in the ovary of the parent fowl. 
Indeed one cannot toll how far to go back in 
such a case. 
Well, then, let it be repeated: the old hens 
are inclined to brood, and if wo want eggs next 
Whiter we must let thorn brood, if it is only 
upon a chalk ogg or a hard-boiled one. We 
don't want chickens at this late season. But 
the hen needs a rest, and at this time, when 
eggs are cheap, she may very well take her va¬ 
cation and a rest and lay up material for eggs 
to be laid in tho next few months. She must 
be well fed meanwhile. Put her in a comfort¬ 
able, clean place with a heap of com, some 
gravel, dry sand or ashes, and fresh water 
every day, and let her rest in peace. Next 
month she will leave her nest wondering, per¬ 
haps, why that chicken did not come, and 
after a few days will begin to lay, and by 
November she will bo down to her work filling 
the basket—provided always that the mate¬ 
rials are supplied in abundance, as com, 
wheat, buckwheat and fresh water. 
* « 
Apiarian. 
PRACTICAL HINTS IN APICULTURE. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
It is the object of this paper to call attention 
to a few practical questions in apicuiture ) 
which in the opinion of the writer are 
not sufficiently considered even by many 
of our best bee-keepers. 
Poor Queens.— How often do we no¬ 
tice, in reading the reports of bee-keep¬ 
ers, that some colony in the apiary 
gave z'esults that far eclipsed those given 
by most of the others; while others 
seemed to gather but little more than 
their own needs required. Every atten¬ 
tive apiarist who observes closely, has 
noted the same fact in his own exper¬ 
ience. The conclusion is obvious : some 
queens are superior, while others are 
practically worthless. The most suc¬ 
cessful cattle breeders, even with the 
best breeds, find that to achieve tho 
best results they must continually M eed 
out from their herds, selling off those 
that vary from the highest standard of 
excellence, and valuing above price 
some members of their herds. Bees 
are no exception to this law, hud that 
apiarist is most wise who closely watches 
his bees, killing the poor and worthless 
queens that are sure to appear, and sup¬ 
plying their places with others reared 
from queens and, so far as possible, 
mated to.drones, winch are tho descend¬ 
ants of the choicest queens in his bee- 
yard, My first advice then is: Don’t 
retain any but the very best queens. 
Constantly improve, by the most severe 
selection, the quality of your bees. 
Stimulative Feeding. —It is well 
known to all students of apiculture that 
have had experience with Italian and 
German bees, that breeding ceases 
whenever tho bees fail to find honey. 
But to keep the colonies strong we 
must secure continuous breeding, which 
can be secured by feeding a little each 
day whenever breeding ceases from a 
failure of tho honey harvest. Neglect 
of a lit! le thoughtful care in this direc¬ 
tion takes largely from the pockets of 
our bee-keepers. With the new Syrian 
bees this seems unnecessary, as they 
breed continuously irrespective of the 
honey harvest. 
Strong Colonies. —Another great er¬ 
ror consists in tolerating weak colonies 
in the bee-yard. The heading of this paragraph 
is the golden rule in apiculture, in Spring, in 
Autumn, indeed, at all seasons; if neglect has 
brought weak colonies, unite them, as weak 
colonies give no returns, and are sure to fall 
an easy prey to the bee-moth, to robbere, and to 
the other ills that stand in the way of success. 
Increase of Colonies Prevented,—To 
secure strong colonies, preparatory to a large 
yield of surplus comb-honey, and not to 
thwart our own plans by inducing the 
swarming fever, has been the sore puzzle 
which has confronted most bee-keepers. True, 
this is usually accomplished by proper care to 
ventilate, to shade the hive, and to so increase 
the space within the hive that the bees shall 
not become discontented with the old home 
and essay to move out into a new. Yet who 
has not found that, despite all these precau¬ 
tions, the bees will sometimes reject all over¬ 
tures in their mad fury to move into new 
quarters ? In case this inordinate desire to 
swarm is manifest, there is still a way to satis¬ 
fy the bees without lessening' the working force 
in the hive. If the bees seem determined to 
swarm usually there are several cases: if 
there is one, let the fu-st swarm be placed in a 
new hive. When the second swarm—I refer 
to a swarm from some other hive—comes out, 
it will likely lie on the same day; put this in 
the hive that swarmed first, after having de¬ 
stroyed all the queen cells in that hive. Tills 
colony is just as strong now as it muis before, 
in brood and bees, and the bees will be satis¬ 
fied to settle down to work in the sections. A 
third swarm can bo put in the hive from which 
earnest he second swam i; a fourth into the third, 
etc., etc. We thus have increased but one, 
have satisfied the bees and still have kept all 
the colonies strong. If desired, at tho last we 
may unite tho swarm that issued first with the 
young bees and brood left in tho hive from 
which issued the Last swarm, in which case we 
have not increased our number at all. If we 
now give plenty of room there will be no 
further attempt to swann, and we are almost 
sure to secure the best results in surplus hone}'. 
How to Induce Work in the Sections.— 
Young bee-keepers are often at a loss how to 
get the bees to go into the sections. First, all 
other space except that occupied by tho sec¬ 
tions, should be filled either with brood or 
stores. This is usually enough, If not, an 
arrangement by which we may place the sec¬ 
tions in the brood chamber, or above at will, 
will aid us. If placed below till the bees get 
well at work in them, and then removed above, 
the bees will almost always continue to work 
in them. The bees may often be induced to 
work in sections above the brood chamber by 
simply placing a little drone brood in one or 
two of the sections. As the brood hatches the 
Sirboncnltural. 
THE DIAMOND WILLOW. 
KX-GOV. ROBT. W. FURNAS. 
A new variety of willow, or rather one of 
which the merits are of recent discovery, is at¬ 
tracting attention in the West, particularly 
along the Missouri River Valley. It is popularly 
known as “ Diamond ” Willow—sometimes as 
“ Post Oak,’’getting the first name because 
of the frequent, peculiar, diamond-shaped in¬ 
dentations in the wood; and the* second, on ac¬ 
count of its durability, especially under 
ground. The latter characteristic is certainly 
new of tho willow family, which is noted for 
soft, perishable wood. The red, or inner 
wood very much resembles red cedar, and is 
almost as durable for any purpose—fence 
posts even. The writer has in his possession 
specimens of wood with regard to whose use and 
exposure he has had personal knowledge for 
twelve years. For seven years it was used as 
a fence rail; for five it lay in the grass and 
weeds along the fence row'; yet it is now as 
sound and well preserved ns cedar M ould have 
liceu under like conditions. Old settlers in 
Missouri bottoms say they have used it for 
many years as fence posts, and find it equal to 
anything they have tried. 
I M'ill not attempt a minute botanical des¬ 
cription other than to say that in all respects 
it very much resembles the Black Willow— 
Salix nigra. It is not abundant anywhere I 
knoM'. It is, so to speak, clauish, or gregari¬ 
ous, growing in patches or groups by itself. It 
is not of rapid or rampant growth, like other 
willows. The wood is straight, close-grained, 
and splits as smoothly ami nicely as cedar. It 
grows to the hight of a good-sized tree, 
eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, and 
the wood finishes beautifully under the plane 
and turning-lathe. 
Wo hear of it more in the mountains North 
and West, M'arranting the inference that, 
M’liile seemingly indigenous along the Missouri 
River, its real home, or habitat, is in the higher 
altitudes. I know of no specimens growing 
off the Missouri, on any of its tributa¬ 
ries below Fort Benton or thereabouts. 
I have specimens groM'ing from cuttings on 
the high, upland prairie, shoM'iug a stand and 
JERSEY QUEEN. FROM LIFE. FIG. 427. 
bees will fill the empty cells with honey and 
all is well. 
Michigan Agr’l Col. 
B. Piekman Mann, of Cambridge, Mass., 
says : For years I have taken the leading ag¬ 
ricultural journals, and they all seem tame 
when compared with the Rural New-Yorker, 
growth better than those of any other cut 
tings of tho sumo soasou on my grounds. 
Specimens have been sent both to Prof. Sar¬ 
gent, of the Arnold Arboretum, Cambridge, 
Mass., and to Dr. J. A. Warder, President of tho 
American Forestry Association, North Bond, 
Ohio, but neither of them, as yet, has given 
it a botanical name or habitat. Prof. Sargent 
says: “It is foreign, and closely allied to 
Salix alba. It is very interesting and import¬ 
ant, from the fact of its being durable under 
ground.” With Prof. Sargent, I regard this 
Mallow as “ interesting and important,” and 
will M-atch its future with interest. 
To experimental grounds or individuals M ho 
will test it, 1 M ill be pleased to furnish a few 
cuttings in season, gratis. There is no patent 
on it. It is Nature’s gift. If valuable and 
worthy, let the public have the benefit of it. 
Brownvflle, Nebraska. 
[Gov. Furnas sends a specimen of the M'illow 
referred to, ten inches long by nearly two in 
diameter. The outside is white and close- 
grained, while, lj-^ inch of the diameter is of 
the color of the red M ood of the Red Cedar. 
—Eds.] 
Poinolojjiccil. 
IOWA EXPERIENCE WITH ORIENTAL 
PEARS. 
PROFESSOR j. l. budd. 
During the past two years I have been 
experimenting in a small M ay with quite a 
large number of Oriental pears. Many of 
these have been obtained from the grounds of 
the Agricultural College near Moscow and 
from the Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburg, 
Russia, yet I place them under the above head 
for the reason that recent researches have 
traced their original home to Northwestern 
China. Some of them, 1 am assured, are re¬ 
cent importations from the Province of Shensi, 
China. My experience is yet limited, but it so 
happens that our past Winter was oue of al¬ 
most unexampled severity, and it Mas fol¬ 
lowed by a Summer exceptionally trying to 
tho foliage of all trees. As an instance, we 
had in this section a rainfall, in fire days, of 
173'a inches, about three weeks since, which 
was followed for three weeks by liigh temper¬ 
ature and aridity of air such as are never 
known in the Eastern States. Under such cir¬ 
cumstances my observations of two years may 
have some value. Reserving the privilege of 
modifying any opinion expressed, us I gain 
new experience, I will offer a few notes on 
Chinese pears from my present stand-point. 
Leaving out the many confusing names 
which botanists have given to the 
Asiatic forms of the pear, I will speak of 
the races under the names by M'hich 
they are known in China: 
Sha-li, ur Sand Pear.— This seems a 
semi-tropical race. Its ability to en¬ 
dure tropical heat has caused its name— 
Sand Pear—to follow it from its home 
in Southern China through India, and 
to the hot, dry plains of Australia, where 
Sir Walter Hill states it thrives and 
fraits where no other known pear eon 
live. In our country the Le Conte aiul 
other varieties of the Sami Pear succeed 
better in Florida than any other sorts 
yet tried. Our thirty or forty varie¬ 
ties of the-Sand Pear, and crosses M’ith 
the common pear, were models of health 
during our hot, dry Summer, but the 
October freeze , of the Fall of 1SN1 
caught them napping. At present I do 
not think that One of them Mill endure 
our ordinary Winters with sufficient 
vigor retained to produce a crop of 
fruit. 
Pei-li, or Snow Pear.— The Hon. S. 
Wells Williams, of Salem, Mass., and 
others who have spent several years 
in Northwestern China, assure us that 
the varieties of the Snow Pear are glob¬ 
ular, white, juicy, and generally re¬ 
garded as the best fruits of the coun¬ 
try. The varieties we have are very 
upright in growth, and their leaves 
are nearly as large and thick as those of 
the Sand Pear, but, unlike the latter’s, 
they are nearly entire, some of them hav¬ 
ing only a slightly wavy edge covered, 
in their early stages of growth, with pe¬ 
culiar silky hairs. The surfaces of the 
young leaves, buds and branches are 
tomentose, and show traces of the same 
silken threads or hairs. It has been 
claimed that William R. Prince grew 
seedlings of the Snow Pear and dissem¬ 
inated them fifty or more years ago. 
This may be true, but no specimens I 
have seen have any resemblance to the 
true Snow Pear, such as we havo from 
Moscow, and the leaves of which wo 
have received from Peking. I have 
much faith in this race of the pear, 
which is common in nearly all parts of North¬ 
ern Europe and Asia. The plants stand our 
Summers and Winters about as well as do the 
Russian apples. 
Kuanc-li, or Strawberry Pear.— This 
gets its name from its peculiar flavor, of which 
Karl Koch says: “ The story was told me in 
the East that its peculiar flavor came from a 
