827 
for the advice which I have repeatedly given, 
“Keep only young, vigorous queens.” To be 
sure, some queens show a remarkable prolific¬ 
ness the second and even the third year, and 
such queens should not only be kept, but I 
would breed from them; but us a rule we gain 
by keeping only the young queens in our api¬ 
aries. 
WHEN TO EXTRACT, 
I proved long ago that the waiting for the 
bees to cap the honey before we extract, is 
not only expensive, as it involves much use¬ 
less labor in uncapping, but is entirely un¬ 
necessary. Mr. Jones, who has as wide an ex¬ 
perience as any oue in the country, fully 
agrees with me in this opinion. Messrs. 
Muth, certainly, and I think Messrs. Hill and 
Doolittle are of the same opinion. The ex¬ 
tracted honey, of course, must not be put into 
a damp or a cold room as then very likely it 
will ferment; nor must it be kept in a tight 
vessel, for in such cases it has no chance to 
“ripen’’and in the latter case it will ferment 
and the vessel will, very likely, be burst. But 
if we put thO honey in a warm, dry room, in 
an open-mouthed can or barrel, which, to pro¬ 
tect the honey from the dust, should be cov¬ 
ered with a piece of factory, we may save 
the immense labor of uncapping, get far more 
honey, as the bees will do more, and may be 
sure of honey of the first excellence. True, 
Mr. Bingham aud others whose judgment is 
justly respected, urge that unless the honey is 
“ ripened” in the hive, it has lost some of its 
flavor and so is inferior. I have honey now 
in our College apiary that is several years 
old, aud though very thin when it was ex¬ 
tracted, it is now thick and heavy, and all 
who have tasted of it pronounce it of the best 
quality. 
It may generally be best to wait till just as 
the bees commence to cap the honey, as then 
very little pains are required to keep houey in 
good condition, while all of the labor of un¬ 
capping is saved. But to secure the most 
honey and so the best results, we must ex¬ 
tract every second or third day, as then the 
bees will gather far more. But then, we 
must be sure that the honey is kept for some 
weeks in an open vessel in a room where the 
temperature is constantly up to near 100 ° 
Fahr. This course is safe, economical and 
very profitable. But if it is adopted, we must 
never put the honey iu tight vessels till it is 
thick, and never put it in a damp, cool room, 
which is a totally unfit place for any honey 
at any time. Even comb houey, all capped 
over, will sour iu a cool, damp cellar. 
PERFORATED ZINC. 
Mr. Jones has found great advantage in the 
use of perforated zinc in his apiary. This 
zinc is pierced with rectangular holes which 
are 3-10x9-16 of an inch in size. These will 
permit a worker bee to pass, but not a queen 
or a drone. By using this at the entrance, 
the queen can be kept in, and so the apiarist 
may leave the apiary with uo danger of loss 
from the bees swarming out, and, further, he 
can keep all drones in, or, if he wishes, weed 
them out and kill them off, aud by doing this 
to all his undesirable colonies, aud those of his 
near neighbors, he can select his drones as 
well as his queens, unless there are drones iu 
the forests near-by. These strips are so made 
that the banking up of the drones does not 
keep the workers out. By putting them at 
a hive a little after noon, all the drones that 
ure out will be kept out at night aud may he 
killed. This is the best way, as drones eat a 
great deal and are expensive hangers-on in 
any apiary. By keeping the strips before 
such hives as we do not wish to breed from, 
we may keep the drones in aud so select our 
drones as to males as well as females. 
Iu a future article I will explain how Mr. 
Jones uses the zinc as a division-board, and 
gets all the honey stored in the body of the 
hive at a great profit. 
fielfr Crops. 
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY 
THE EXPERIMENTER. 
PROFESSOR W. J. BEAL. 
In the Rural for November 19, you quote 
from the report of the Illinois Industrial Uni¬ 
versity the results of cultivating corn three 
times and six times in the row, and give the 
summary showing an increase of eight per 
cent, for the extra cultivation. Iu four 
cases the figures show something in favor of 
cultivating three times over cultivating six 
times. In one of these the difference is nearly 
40 per cent. In four cases the figures show 
something in favor of cultivating six times in 
the row. 
“ Incog,” iu the Rural for November 3(5, 
speaks of an experiment in potato planting. 
He plants one row of 70 hills through a piece 
and cuts the seed in a certain way different 
from that for the rest of the field. It was 
compared with a row next to it, and showed 
a surplus of over 50 per cent. 
The above reminds me of an experiment 
made the past Summer. In the College veg¬ 
etable garden, we have a piece of flat, rich 
ground which almost every one would call 
quite even for productiveness. It has been 
planted to onions for several years past. In 
September of this year I asked my assistant 
in experiments to select a number of rows 
which were as nearly alike as he could find iu 
the piece. He should avoid ridge-furrows and 
bed furrows and rows which might contain 
vacancies. The rows 
were 14 inches apart, 
and, so far as any of us 
know, were treated 
alike. The five rows 
were next to each other. 
Beginning at one side 
the first yielded 6% 
bushels; second, 5% 
bushels; third,6^ bush¬ 
els; fourth, bushels; 
fifth, five bushels. If 
wo take any two con¬ 
tiguous rows alone, or 
if we alternate the 
whole number, we find 
a great difference in 
the yield. This only 
shows one of the diffi¬ 
culties in making ex¬ 
periments in agricul¬ 
ture. I will not say 
more. Let any one fig¬ 
ure on the onions as he 
may choose. 
Mich. Ag. College. 
BLOUNT’S NO. 10 
SPRING WHEAT. 
This is a cross of the 
Diehl, a New York 
Winter wheat, upon 
the Golden Straw, a 
Virginia Winter wheat, 
produced by Professor 
A. E. Blount, of the 
Colorado State College. 
It is now but three 
years old, and is a 
Spring wheat of great 
value, having very 
large, closely - formed 
heads, stiff straw aud 
beautiful grain. It 
does not shell easily, 
nor does the straw fall, 
nor is it subject to rust 
in Colorado. The anal¬ 
ysis of the grain shows 
it to be a strong wheat, 
having nearly 14 per 
cent, gluten. It is an 
enormous yielder. By 
cultivation the past 
year, and without any 
fertilizer, it produced 
over 1,800-fold. Sev¬ 
enty-six kernels, weighing 49 grains Troy, 
produced 10>* pounds. The 76 kernels were 
planted one foot apart each way. 
No. 10 has, as yet, received no name, net 
being fully standardized. Sown as a Winter 
wheat at the Rural Farm, we made the fol¬ 
lowing notes:—“ Straw heavy; heads average 
over four inches; eight breasts and three ker¬ 
nels to a breast. Cut July 16. Kernels shriv¬ 
eled. The heads vary in form, some more re¬ 
sembling the Diehl iu being larger at the top, 
others being pointed. Promising as a Winter 
wheat." The portrait is from nature. 
FlO. 549. 
TOBACCO-GROWING NOTES. 
At the present rate of consumption there is 
little danger of an overstocked market of the 
better grades of seed-leaf tobacco. The in¬ 
crease in production has been very rapid, but 
it does not seem to be greater than the 
consumption. In 1845, when the variety of 
tobacco knowm as seed leaf was first grown 
as a marketable commodity, there were but 
3,000 cases of 400 pounds each produced in 
all the United States. Since that time the 
production has increased; until in 1880, the 
product was 280,000 cases—an increase of 
from 12,000,000 to 112,000,000 pounds in 35 
years. 
Assorting tobacco is now in order and it 
would be well if growers of seed leaf tobacco 
everywhere could fully understand the im¬ 
portance of performing the work well. The 
tobacco growers of Lancaster County, Pa., 
have gained a w'orld-wide celebrity for the 
tobacco which they produce, which is due 
largely to the systematic and painstaking 
manner iu which they put up their crops. 
Seed leaf tobacco to suit the trade, should be 
assorted into from four to seven qualities, 
the latter number being much preferable to 
the former. The leaves should be selected as 
regards size, soundness and general quality. 
It is not only important that the assorting 
be done properly and each quality kept 
strictly by itself, but the “hands” or “hanks” 
should be made to present a neat appearance. 
Hands of wrappers should contain from 
twelve to fourteen leaves each and the tying 
should be done in a neat and careful manner, 
for there is no one thing which causes a crop 
of tobacco to appear so well as to have the 
“hands” of uniform size and tied in a neat, 
workmanlike manner. 
When a number of qualities are being 
made in assorting tobacco I have found it an 
excellent plan to divide up the table in which 
the work is done into apartments, one for each 
quality. This may be done by placing nar¬ 
row strips of boards crosswise of the table and 
from eight to ten inches apart, or by placing 
pins of wood between the places allotted to 
the various qualities. This simple precaution 
prevents the assortments from becoming 
mixed on the table and also keeps the leaves 
in a neat, compact shape until tied into 
“ hands.” g. a. g. jr. 
farm (Topics. 
HOG HOUSES. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
W hether few' or many hogs are kept on 
the farm, one or more good hog houses are 
needed. We want them for the sows at far¬ 
rowing time, to winter Fall pigs in, to con¬ 
fine our male hogs, to fatten small lots of hogs, 
as sleeping places for the store hogs in Winter 
and as fertilizer factories in which to make 
the hogs earn their board. A suitably built 
hog house will be found useful for all these 
purposes, and on any farm where hogs are 
kept at all it will soon pay its cost. I have 
made hog houses a study for more than 20 
years, in which time I have examined many 
and have built six for myself. I believe that 
for economy and convenience I have a plan 
as nearly perfect as can bo found and which 
combines cheapness and convenience. After 
trying different forms and sizes I have 
adopted the plan of a house eight feet wide 
with the roof sloping only one w'ay, and I 
build it of a length to suit the number of hogs 
to be accommodated. If I make it more than 
16 feet long I put in a permanent partition for 
every 16 feet, and I have movable partitions 
to divide it into sections of six, seven or eight 
feet in width. 
If in building one of these pens you need a 
place to store corn, or loft room for any pur¬ 
pose, you can use longer posts and lay a floor 
overhead. The smallest of my hog houses is 
eight by twelve feet and the loft floor is five 
feet above the lower oue, aud I have put 100 
bushels of corn in this loft at one time. I gen¬ 
erally use it, however, to store seed corn, and 
as a kind of convenient “ catch-all ” to put 
away garden plows, seed drills, flower pots 
and the numberless things needed in the gar¬ 
den and on the farm. 
The cut, Fig. 550, shows one of these pens made 
without a loft, but the roof should be made 
steeper than shown. My plan of building one 
of these houses is this: First prepare the foun¬ 
dation for the corners, which may be posts, 
boulders or pillars of masonry. A good- 
sized boulder that will come six or eight 
inches above ground when settled, so as to 
rest on the subsoil, is as good as any. Next 
place your sills, eight feet loug, across the 
ends, and five joists the length of your pen 
from sill to sill. A sill six inches, if of oak or 
some other good wood, is heavy enough. If 
your pen is 16 feet long I would advise that 
you use joists two inches thick and twelve 
wide; but if uot more than 12 feet long a 
width of ten or possibly eight inches will do 
for them. The joists should be bridged in the 
center. When they are in place lay the floor, 
and I find it cheaper and better to lay a dou¬ 
ble floor of inch boards than to use two-inch 
lumber. 
PEN FOR HOGS. — FIG. 550. 
In laying the floor the lining need not be 
laid close; in fact, I prefer to have cracks 
three or four inches wide, but take pains to 
lay it so tbaf there will be good boards under 
the cracks of the upper boards. After the 
floor is laid, cut posts four inches square for 
the cornel’s anl set them on the floor, and for 
a pen such as is shown iu the cut, without a 
loft, make the rear posts four feet long and the 
front ones seven. Spike a two-by-four stud¬ 
ding flat on the top from one post to the 
other the length of the building. These are 
for plates. Put up your end rafters. Ship- 
lap a nail tie across at each end and between 
the sills and end rafters put a two-by-four nail 
tie across in front, having the top of it at the 
hight you want the bottom windows—and you 
are ready to begin weather-boarding. You 
will make the end rafters stand flush with the 
sills, so that in boarding up and down, the 
bottom of the boards will be nailed to the 
sills, the top to the rafter and the middle to 
the tie. The front and rear boards will be 
nailed to the plate above and to the joist be¬ 
low. The rafters will be nailed down to the 
plates to prevent the building spreading. 
When completed, this building, although it has 
not a mortise or tenon, will lie firm and sub¬ 
stantial, and if hard wood is used for the 
frame, could be rolled down a hill without in¬ 
jury, for every board in it acts as a brace. In 
boarding a building of this size a board 14 feet 
long will make one cut for the front and one 
for the rear. Anyone that can use a square, 
hatchet and saw can make such a house and 
it will take two hands less than two days to 
complete one of them. The cost will vary 
with the cost of lumber, but it will be cheap. 
I have often seen a farmer get out a heavy 
frame of hewed timbers for a hog house and 
frame it together strong enough for an 80-foot 
barn, and his frame alone would cost as much 
or more than this house will complete. The 
following is the bill of lumber for a house 
eight by sixteen feet. 
2 sills G inches square, 8 feet long . 72 ft. 
5 Joists 2x12 in. and 6 feet, long. 160 
10 raft ora 2x4 in. and lo feet long. 70 
Siding... $36 
Floor. 25$ 
Costs, plates and uall ties. SO 
Sheathiug. 150 
Total. 1,124 ft. 
It would take about 1,000 shingles and not 
far from one dollar’s worth of nails. No hog 
house is complete, neither can hogs be kept 
clean and comfortable in it without a floored 
yard attached to it, and this floor should be 
12 to 18 inches lower than the other. If you 
let them out on the ground they will, in wet 
weather, make a slough hole which will emit 
foul odors aud become a standing abomination 
but if your yard is floored so that they cannot 
get at the ground and you will supply them 
with straw, corn stalks, sawdust, sorgo ba¬ 
gasse, or any good absorbent, they will make 
a large amount of excellent manure and the 
pen will never become offensive. The floor 
on which you feed should be cleansed every 
day or two. and it is well to give the hogs 
each day a bundle of fodder, oats or clover 
hay for bulky food and to keep them em¬ 
ployed. I think that where there is material 
to be had to keep the hogs employed they will 
make manure enough to pay for such a house 
in a few years. As these houses are used most 
in Winter, I prefer to make them front the 
south so that the sun will shine in and warm 
them. I think 1 have described this house so 
plainly that an 3 'one can build it. If more 
than one is wanted they can be built con¬ 
nected in a line, with t loo re communicating one 
with another. At oue end of the pen there 
should be an arrangement for loading the hogs 
into a wagou, a door so arranged that the wag 
on can be backed up to it and a chute with 
railing at the sides so that the hogs can be 
driven into the wagon-bed. 
Butler Co„ Ohio. 
s. B. PECK. 
Probably no grape was ever disseminated 
with more eclat than this, nor has any one 
with the history of which I have been con¬ 
versant, created more disappointment. Some 
of the reasons for this disappointment I shall 
attempt herein to give—and, first, the claims 
set up for it were extravagant as well as the 
prices asked for it. It was never well adapted 
to general field culture, being too tender and 
too uncertain about bearing. It only bears fair 
crops in special local climates, special soils, 
and under special treatment. It partakes too 
much of the fitfulness of its immediate pro¬ 
genitor, the Diana, and does not possess the 
hardiness of its grandparent the Catawba. 
It is true that occasionally under ordinary' 
treatment it will bear a tremendous crop, but 
then it will be sure not to ripen perfectly. 
This shortcoming it takes honestly from the 
Diana. The advice an experimenter gave to 
his neighbor was appropriate, “If you are 
not a good nurse you had better let it alone.” 
When all things are right with it, it will yield a 
fruit in no w ay inferior to the claims set up 
for it by its originator and his coadjutors, and 
any man who does not admire its appear¬ 
ance and its flavor, may be set down as 
possessing no taste for beauty, or as having 
a depraved palate. 
The causes of failure have generally been 
