us rolundus ) of the Southern States. The Chu- 
fas is the Cyperus esculentus of the Mediterra¬ 
nean region, and although wonderfully prolific, 
it is quickly killed byfroBts; consequently, the 
tubers must Ins gathered before cold weather, or 
at least whatever quantity is required for seed 
the following season. 
The nuts or tubers are about a half inch in 
diameter and about one inch long, and of mod¬ 
erately firm texture, hut not hard enough to 
suggest the name of “ nut," althongh the Bweet 
chostnut-Iike llavor might do so. The little 
tubers should be planted in the spring so soon 
as the weather is warm enough to insure growth, 
and in drills two feet apar t, aud the nuts a foot 
apart in the drill. If the soil is rich and mod¬ 
erately light and dry, the Chufas will take entire 
possession before the end of the season. Sheep 
or hogs may then be turned in to dig the crop 
and fatten on tho sweet and nutritious tubers. 
liens would, no doubt, scratch out and eat 
some of the Chnfas, or, if they wore cut up, 
they might answer as excellent food for fowls in 
winter. 
apprehensive that the old queen would not live 
through the winter I did not destroy it. On ex¬ 
amining the hive a week later I found a fine 
young queen, and the old one was still there and 
apparently laying. I continued to examine the 
hive occasionally, and for at least three weeks 
continued to find both queens, and sometimes 
not only on tho same comb, but on the same 
side of it. 
The other case was more peculiar than this. I 
had procured a queen of a friend, and removed 
one to make room for her. At the usual time 
for liberating her the bees seemed hostile to her. 
I thought their hostility grew out of the fact 
that the cage contained a considerable number 
of bees which I hail brought home with the 
queen. So I turned them out, and put the cage 
containing the queen alone back into the hive, 
and the next day liberated her. A week after¬ 
wards I examined the hive and found matured 
queen cells, but Baw neither queen nor eggs, and 
took it for granted that the queen had been de¬ 
stroyed, and so wrote to the gentleman of whom 
I had obtained her. Four weoks after I intro¬ 
duced her. I was looking through the hive and 
was very much surprised to find my old queen 
alive and well, and seeming to feel quite at home, I 
and as I proceeded with my examination 1 found 
a fine young queen which I removed. Ju this 
case tho two queens, which were no mother and 
daughter, had been joint occupants of the hive 
for at least two weeks. I suppose that queen 
cells had been started before the queen was un- 
way of doing it. Now there are too many vary¬ 
ing crotchets. The Essex reclamation scheme (a 
very good one; has been bung for eight years 
for want of capital, and so the Metropolitan 
Board of Works hold fast the company's £25,000, 
which was deposited as security for a completion 
of the job within a period now expired. The 
fact is the public don't believe in sewage com¬ 
panies, any more than they did in East India 
Railways. The latter have been made, and the 
former will have to be done, under Government 
or corporate guarantee of dividends, and then 
any amount of money could be obtained. 
The waste of town sewage is a gigantic mis¬ 
take, almost a crime, for the production of our 
food is (as it used to be on the old cesspool 
system) greatly dependent on the return of our 
consumption to the soil. Just propose to the 
farmers of England to put into rivers instead of 
ori the land the voidances from 16,000,000 of their 
sheep, and they would miat&ke you at once for a 
lunatic. A human being to a sheep, in weight 
aud in voidances, compares equally in respect to 
mammal power. A Chinaman who could see 
the contents of our sewers flowing to waste would 
at once pronounce ns to be unwise and incapable 
in the matters of profit and economy. 
SEWAGE SYSTEM OF FARMING 
Chufas are usually offered, during the 
Bpring months, by parties who make their cul¬ 
ture a specialty, and we presume almost any 
of our seedsmen could supply you with the 
quantity desired.—En. Rural. 
wen extensively employed to increase 
tho fertility of the farming land adjacent, and it 
has proved so beneficial and profitable in many 
instances, that farmers are to some extent 
adopting a similar system in the use of the 
manure made in their stables and yards. Of 
conrse there is more or less opposition to all in¬ 
novation upon old-time practices and men like the 
well known English Agriculturist, J J. Mechi, 
have been comjjollud to meet their opponents 
with facts and practical demonstration of the 
value of the sewage system in order to keep 
alive an interest in it among agriculturists. In 
one of his late letters upon the subject to the 
Maik Lane Express, ho gives his own experience 
as well as regrets anil his reasons for not pressing 
the system more extensively at the present time I 
than formerly. In speaking of what he once did 
upon liis farm, he says: 
At one time I kept 350 pigs, CO to 90 cattle 
(young and old), anil 200 sheep and lambs, and 
on a farm of 170 acres, with only G acres of per¬ 
manent pasture, and 100 acres of it in cereals 
and pnlHe crops. But the fact is an onormoua 
amount of produce per acre in the shape of 
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 
Large quantities of commercial fertilizers are 
sold becauso many farmers and gardeners, in 
some of the States, are unable to obtain enough 
stable manure for their crops. In seasons of 
frequent rains these fertilizers produce, in many 
instances, good results, but they are not as re¬ 
liable as barnyard dung. All that we should 
seek for iu commercial fertilizers are potash, 
nitrogen (ammonia), phosphoric arid and lime, 
tho first three constituents being the most im¬ 
portant, and in buying commercial fertilizers we 
should select those that contain potash as the 
best; second, nitrogen; third, phosphoric acid. 
The following is the list of some of the best fer¬ 
tilizers and tho prices per 100 pounds in New 
York: 
Sulphate of ammonia, 25perct. nm. *5 50 
Nitratenf Soda, is.. . 4 Mi 
German potash salts, 16 •’ “ pot. l 25 
Hulplmtc of potash 46 " *• •* . 4 m 
Nitratuof do., 44.. 9 50 
Muriate of do.. 50 “ •• 350 
The last four articles also contain a certain 
quantity of ammonia, which governs tho prices. 
Bone flour and Superphosphate of lime are worth 
$2 per one hundred pounds; or if dissolved 
with sulphuric acid the prices are a trifle 
higher. I consider muriato of potash the safest 
article for farmers to buy, as the potash is good 
for any crop. The way of applying all the above, 
except tho bone flour and superphosphate, is to 
mix them with four times their bulk of soil, and 
apply a small quantity in the lulls of coni, pota¬ 
toes. Ac., with the seed, spreading it somewhat. 
Some of these fertilizers may require dissolving 
in water, and that the soil should be saturated 
in layers from a water-pot. My advice to farmers 
is to obtain some of these fertilizers to experi¬ 
ment with, if it be only a few pounds from your 
village druggist, if he cau supply them. lie 
will ask about double the above prices, but for 
a small experiment the difference will not be 
much. 
Linden, N. J. T. B. Miner. 
PROFITABLE POULTRY 
Mu. Editok:— In looking over your valuable 
paper, I am always more or less interested in the 
articles that appear from time to time in regard 
to tho keeping aud management of Poultry, as 
no farmer's home seems to be complete without 
some nice fowls about the barn-yard. 
The question invariably asked by our Yankee 
farmers in regard to any new thing is, “ Will it 
pay ?" I think this can be answered iu the af¬ 
firmative in regard to poultry, if proper dili¬ 
gence and care are bestowed upon them, and 
there is no reason why they should not always be 
a source of profit aud pleasure. 
There are many bmeds that are competing for 
the best places iu the opinions of the American 
people. Of the larger breeds, tho Plymouth 
Rocks are making a very favorable impression as 
layers. The Light Brahmas are very nice fowls 
for laying, and, like the former, are excellent 
for the table. In my experience with layers, I 
have found that the Leghorn or Black Spanish, 
either pure or mixed, produces the most eggs in 
a givou time, or for the year. The Plymouth 
Rocks are sitters, and it requires some little 
effort to break them up at the end of each litter, 
ns they cling to then- nests with a good deal of 
tenacity. 
I think the boat and easiest way to break liens 
up from sitting is to have an extra coop without 
nests aud keep a rooster in it apart from the 
others, aud all there is to be done is to quietly 
take your hen from her nest and put her in what 
I term a “ hospital ” coop. Iu throe or four 
days she may be taken out and put back with the 
laying bona. 
Facts aud figures on matters of this kind are 
always acceptable, and I think the experience of 
persona keeping fowls would be interesting to 
the readers of the Rural New-Yorker. I com¬ 
menced to keep an account with my beus on 
she passed round to the other side, and in both 
these cases tho bees imprisoned them for a time 
but released them uninjured. In the three 
other cases they did not seem to know that their 
own queen had been removed, and a stranger 
introduced. 
This was done at n time when there was no 
brood in the hives. I would not advise anybody 
to introduce a valuable queen in this way as I 
would not be willing to do it myself. It may bo 
that with eggs and brood in tho hive tho plan 
would not succeed. 
My Lees Lave had a good fly to-day. Wo have 
just had an unusually severe spell of weather, 
anil it has made some impression on tho hee6.' 
Some of the hives had nearly half a pint of dead 
bees iu them, aud the snow and the hives are 
stained by tho drippings of the bees to an un¬ 
usual degree for this time in the year. Should 
the winter continue cold there will be some loss 
of stocks. 
BEE-KEEPING IN SOUTHERN CALIF0R- 
NIA, 
Californians are very enthusiastic over their 
success with the lionoy-bee, and we can only 
I wish them continued good success. In the 
Southern part of the State there is little cold 
weather and not much danger of bees being 
frozen out, or starved for the waut of a good 
store of honey, hence we can understand why a 
late correspondent to the California Agriculturist 
should write in so coufident a strain about Lis 
stocks as he does iu the following ■ 
There is little to write about in regard to the 
busy bee, at this time. Nearly all apiarists have 
cleaned up, and wiU have but little care or 
trouble with the apiary till the swarming season 
comes again. But tho apiarist will not allow a 
day to pass that he does not walk through the 
apiary. A glance will tell him if all Is right 
How different this from the Eastern States 
where now tho care and anxiety really com¬ 
menced. To winter safely, requires more labor 
and more devices than we need to run an apiary 
the year round, notwithstanding the fact that 
tho moth has twelve months in the year in which 
to depredate. The best remedy for the above 
mentioned pests that I have found is to keep the 
colonies of bees Btrong. 
Wc have a Bee-keepers’ Association, from 
which great things are expected in the future, it 
having organized so late in the season that little 
can he expected of it this year. And here I wish 
to say I think they have made a serious mistake 
in organizing as they have; not that they have 
not good ofiicers, hut they had it in their power 
to elect a gentleman as JVesident who, from a 
lifelong experience in the apiary, and in the sale 
of the product of the same, is pre-eminently 
fitted for the situation, and the Association would 
have derived great strength and prestige from 
putting him ju that place, and would have hon¬ 
ored itself more than him, and justly recognized 
their obligations to the originator of the industry 
on this coast, and would have as their leader the 
largest owner of bees on this continent. 
WHEN TO PRUNE FRUIT TREES. 
Long experience shows that when it is desir¬ 
able to produce a free growth of 6hoots and 
leaves, pruning should be done when the trees 
are dormant, as in the winter season, or early in 
the spring, before the sap begins to flow. When 
fruit trees appear to grow too rapidly, and to 
produce too much wood, they ruay be pruned 
moderately in the summer season, cutting away 
a portion ol' the wood by degrees ; but a shoot 
growing in an improper place, may be cut away 
at any time. An experiment made by prun¬ 
ing apple trees every month in the year, for 
two seasons, showed that tho wounds of the 
branches cut iu February and March, at the end 
of five years, when all had healed over, were 
found to be the least decayed under the healed 
surface. When trees are pruned in winter, or I 
may say at any time, it is Lest to cover the 
wounds with a hot mixture of tar, and pulver¬ 
ized brick dust, or fine sund 
Thoy produced eggs as follows: 
Dozen. Dozen. 
January..is 6-l2jnly. 19 
February.16 11M2 Auvust.I5W 
March.13 6-12 Septemebcr. ..15 
April.October. 8)4 
May .2lSf November.... 6!4 
June.19)< December.5)4 
199)4 dozen.... 
Amount of fowls sold. 
Jtiu. 1,1877, 56 fowls ou liana... 
Profits... *31 37 
It will bo borne iu mind that this was not on a 
farm or in tho country, but in a village, whore 
the fowls were not allowed to run at large 
through tho warm season. L. Kenyon. 
Washington Co., R. I. 
A solution of 
shellac in alcohol, as thick as can easily be ap¬ 
plied with a brash, is considered by many as the 
best preparation that can bo applied. 
During the mild days of winter, orchards may 
be pruned—while little else cau be done; but 
good judgment should be exercised in regard to 
selecting the branches to be cut away. It is 
ruinous to an orchard to cut aud slash away one- 
third to one-half the limbs. All that should be 
done is to give the trees a good shape, and only 
cut away 6uch limbs as are plainly iu excess of 
the natural requirements of the tree, to conform 
to the extent of its roots. If we take away too 
much of the top of a tree, it is like taking blood 
from a man—the more that is taken, the less 
vitality remains iu him, therefore in pruning, 
only the few unsightly branches, and those im¬ 
properly situated, should bo cut away. 
Linden, N. J. T. B. Miner. 
TWO QUEENS IN ONE HIVE, 
It has been asserted among apiarians that two 
queens would not live peaceably in one hive, hut 
the Rev. M. Marin, in a communication to tho 
Bee World, notes some instances in Lis own ex¬ 
perience which seem to show that there are at 
least exceptions to this rale. He says : 
Last fall I observed two instances of two 
queens in one hive. One case was that of a 
queen in her fourth year, and a young one by 
which she was superseded. I noticed, iu looking 
through the hive, a single queen cell; aud being 
