One would suppose that the bee-keepers of i 
United States had had sufficient experience 
One thiqg can be said in itB favor : it is never a 
failure on suitable ground, and it always pays i 
Its way on high-priced, Eastern landB by the 1 
value of the coarse fodder which it yields. An i 
acre of corn stover is worth, on an average, i 
nearly as much as feed for cattle as an average 
acre of hay. For milch cows it iB worth even 
more than hay. At the West when cheap corn 
1 b grown, the fodder iB reckoned of little value. 
After all, I believe that acre for acre Eastern 
farmers make much more from their corn than 
Western farmers do. The advantage the latter 
have is in cheap land, enabling them to plant 
and cultivate a hundred acres of corn wbere the 
Eastern farmers can only grow ten or twelve. 
Were we to grow corn by the wholesale, as do 
the farmers of the West 1 Bee no reason why 
it should not be a profitable crop. Thirty to 
forty dollars per acre, besidcB the corn fodder 
is not a bad return for land and labor, and not 
infrequently the corn alone is worth fifty 
dollars per acre. The reason why Eastern 
farmers do not grow corn more largely, is be¬ 
cause it requires too much work. No such 
reason hinders the Western farmer, though lor 
the same work he gets much less pay. This ex¬ 
planation throws a Hood of light on the com¬ 
parative advantages of W68torn and Eastern 
farmers. Though the latter are apt to complain 
bitterly of low prices and hard times, it is pretty 
evident that they have the choice of easier ways 
to get money than farmers in the groat corn- 
producing sections of the West, lienee they 
are really not much to be pitied after all. 
.- ■++■*■ - -*■ - 
WHEAT. 
B. RUKU8 MASON. 
In Prof. Rhki.ton’h article of Nov, 24th, he 
expresses the opinion that “ any attempt to pnt 
in practice, in the West, the elaborate system of 
Old and New England would result in an expen¬ 
sive failure," aud the general tone of the rest of 
the remarks seemB adverse to the idea of pro¬ 
gress in onr modes Of cultivation which he re¬ 
fers to as a “ madness." Now, from the fact 
that our western College professors are writing 
for the Rural, 1 infer that you have a number 
of readers in this region, and consequently my 
remarks will not seem to be of a too local char¬ 
acter. I presume Prof. S. speaks particularly of 
Kansas, and as I find by reference to Agricultu¬ 
ral Report of 1876, that Nebraska is about on a 
par with that State in bushels per acre, I judge 
that our capabilities are similar. I notice that 
the Professor does not confine himself to the 
walls of the college, and that therefore ho is 
practical as we# as merely theoretical. Now, 
upon these grounds I have a few remarks to 
make which 1 know will represent the ideas of 
a majority of our farmers. 
Wheat, our staple crop for export out of the 
State, has yielded for oight or nine years past 
but 13.8 bushels per acre, at an average price 
of seventy-live cents—510 25 per acre. The re¬ 
sult is, the whole country is under mortgage for 
borrowed cash, store, machine, and other debts 
aud taxes. There must ho some way out of this, 
aud, as we have an industrious, economical class, 
who are willing to learn how to farm our “rich 
prairies,’’ I put the question to Prof, Shelton. 
To give him an opportunity to judge of our ca¬ 
pabilities, I will describe our soil. 
We have prairie bottoms and upland, or bluft- 
land as it is here called. The first is a medium 
heavy, black, slightly sandy loam, three to four 
feet deep, resting on a sandy porous subsoil of 
unknown depth, with a stratum of water about 
six feet below the surface. It is subject, to 
gr^at extremes of moisture; in spring, apt to 
be very wet, and changing as tho season ad¬ 
vances to about the consistency of a brick yard. 
During a fair season this soil produces well. 
The bluff laud is (in Dodge County) of the same 
general charactt'u, but w ith a greater proportion 
of sand, not quite so full of plant-food, but 
more reliable through all seasons than the bot¬ 
tom. Water is reached at from 90 to 125 feet j 
soil about four feet deep; sub-soil clear sand; 
season for sowing wheat about March 15th. 
harvest, July 10th; threshing from September 
1st. 
I judge Prof. S, to he a scientific man, who 
can give practical advice. Will he please tell us 
how to bring our wheat fields up to a paying con¬ 
dition ? May we use commercial fertilizers, 
with a reasonable prospect of profit over cost, 
or must wo let our .land go down to the condi¬ 
tion of the East, and then recuperate? While 
our land has stamina, can we not retain that 
aud gradually improve it up to twenty-fi ve bush¬ 
els per acre. 
Dodge Co., Neb. 
f jjr Italian, 
FALLACIES IN BEE-KEEPING. 
BY T. B. MINES. 
n 
ettle down on established rules for the man¬ 
agement of bees ; but instead of this, we contin¬ 
ually find in the correspondence of the bee mag¬ 
azines contradictory theories and sta tementB, to 
such an extent that a beginner in the business 
would be led to suppose that the management of 
bees waa In its infancy, and that scarcely any¬ 
thing pertaining thereto had became established 
beyond all doubt. The following are a few ex¬ 
amples of the fallacies that are extant in regard 
to apiculture. 
“The Italian bees are now universally admit¬ 
ted to ha far lupeipor to our native blacks.’’ 
This is not true, as the testimony of bee-keepers 
generally is about equally divided on the sub¬ 
ject : and some skilled bee-keepers claim our 
native bees to be best. 
“ The Langstroth frame has come almost into 
universal use." The facts are, that not one- 
tenth of the bee-keepers of this country use 
them, because they find other shapes and Bizes 
more profitable. 
“It Is expected that all apiarists will clip all 
queens’ wings as soon as they get to laying, 
thereby saving all loss of swarms by flight to the 
woods.” Bad advice; better not “tinker” too 
much with bees, llow many swarms go to the 
woods when the queens’ wings are not cut. Not 
one in twenty-five, if one provides good cluster¬ 
ing husheB, the best being cedar, or hemlock 
branches tied to stakes sot around the apiary. 
Then, no natural swarms can be obtained with 
the queens crippled. 
“ All queens should ho changed in the month 
of June to prevent inorease of swarms.” All 
bosh. Mr, Doolittle cites a case in which a 
“noted bee-keeper made this experiment at the 
cost of nearly his whole honey crop.” “It is 
but little labor to keep bees.” If one lets them 
take care of themselves, it does not require 
much labor to at tend to them; hut as a business to 
support a family, a man will find that he has got 
to work, and keep his eyes wide open, as regards 
the condition of his bees. 
“ I killed twenty-seven fertile workers in a nu¬ 
cleus of 1.000 bees.” So says ft bee-keeper. A 
fertile worker bee is one that is supposed to have 
been fed on a portion of the “ royal jelly” that 
makes queens. Whether they are thus fed in 
the embryo state by accident, mistake, or other¬ 
wise. is not known ; yet our most scientific bee¬ 
keepers, after a life-time *i>ent in apiarian re¬ 
searches, have failed to see a fertile worker, but 
the above party “killed twenty-seven” in a little 
“nucleus of 1,000 bees!” Mr. Moses Quinby, 
a short time before his death, in a published ar¬ 
ticle said in regard to this class of bees, “ J never 
saw one," the great dillieulty being in discover¬ 
ing them, that they are exactly like the common 
workers. Now, the idea that a man could single 
out twenty-seven fertile workers in a few minutes 
and kill them, is tho grossest kind of bumbug- 
gery. 
“The honey must be extracted from the cen¬ 
tral brood combs in the fall, or the bees will not 
winter well.” This fallacy is also being pub¬ 
lished “in tho papers,” it being claimed that 
empty combs are warmer than those filled with 
honey aud capped over. But taking away the 
honey from the immediate vicinity of the cluster 
is tho worst tiling that can he done, because in 
very cold weather the bees must have honey 
where they are clustered, or they will perish if 
the weather continue cold several weeks. 
“As early in Die season as we are able to ob¬ 
tain queens, we must re-queon all our stocks,’ 
The sapient bee-keeper who wrote this, Baid it 
must be done because “no queen will he as fer¬ 
tile the second as the first year." How has 
lie proved this ? It never has been so proved by 
any evidence worth a straw. I deny tho asser¬ 
tion, aud call for the proof that I am wrong. 
Probably the man who claims that nil stocks 
must be re-queened, mine* queens to sell. 
“Fifteen years ago, some one made the dis¬ 
covery that the fertilization of the queen could 
be confined to three or four selected drones!' 
Nobody ever made any such “discovery," and 
never will, as the nature of the honey bee, as 
regards the fertilization of queens by drones on 
the wing, high iu the air, will forever be a bar to 
any such thing. I do not say that the writer of 
1 the above intended to deceive people, but 
1 merely that he is mistaken. 
“ We cau work our bees to good advantage by 
putting their extracted honey into combs. 
That is. at a certain season of the year, Dike the 
honey that has previously been extracted (a few 
: weeks before) and feed to the bees to make comb 
1 honey! What next? The bee-keepers of this 
country, after extracting the honey stored in the 
brood combs, will probably think that feeding it 
. hack to the bees is not advisable ; and that such 
an operation will not pay. 
“ Queens after the third year lay drone eggs 
only.” I deny the truth of this assertion, and 
call for the proof that it is true, if anybody can 
adduce it. If it were true, a great many families 
of bees would consist wholly of drones; and in 
forty years of bee-keeping I never saw such a 
3 family. 
) “I think it would he a good plan to pedigree 
our queens." So said a man who is probably 
non compos mentis, and his friends had better 
look after him. 
There are many men, who have kept bees two 
or three years, wbo think they know all there is 
to be learned about them. Another class, who 
have kept them eight or ten years, begin to see 
that they don't know as much as they thought 
they did; and another clasB, who have studied 
the nature and habits of bees twenty years, 
freely admit that there are many things pertain- 
ing to them that no man can fathom. 
THE PREMIUM APPLE ORCHARD OF 
MICHIGAN. 
FKOF. W. J. BEAL. 
ing, after twenty years, all the ground, and still 
demanding more in 9ome directions. 
There are no secrets In regard to the manage¬ 
ment of theso two orchards. If we were to tell 
how it happens that Mr. Bailey has such “ good 
luck ” with his orchard, we should attribute it 
chiefly to two or three causes. The soil is not very 
dark or loamy. It is gravel down for ten feet, thus 
giving perfect natural drainage. The roots of the 
trees have never been damaged by water. Not 
being very loamy, the laud bears a liberal dress¬ 
ing of manure, and plowing without running 
too much to wood. The best twigs of the old 
trees grow six inches or a foot iu a year. With 
more loam in tho soil, he would have a greater 
growth of timber aud less fruit; he might have 
larger apples, but they would not keep so well 
or he of bo good a quality. In Michigan, there 
are many orchards which would stand abuse, 
poor culture or no culture, much better than 
that of Mr. Bailey. 
The following account is taken from ray re¬ 
port, prepared for the next meeting of the State 
Pomological Society: 
The older part of the orchard was set about 
twenty years ago. About half of the trees were 
root-grafts, and the other half natural fruit, 
which has since been top-grafted. In thebe- 
ginning, Mr. L H. Bailey of South Haven, the 
owner, was strongly impressed in favor of top¬ 
grafting troeB of natural fruit, hut he now con¬ 
fesses that ho sees no difference in Die bearing, 
growth or hardiness of tho trees propagated iu 
these (wo different inodes. The troos are set 
forty feet apart, in squares, which is seven to 
ten feet more than is commonly practiced. They 
now evidently need all the room they have. 
From former experiments, I know the roots 
reach across each other, from tree to tree, all 
over the orchard. TheRe trees generally bear 
full every other year, though some hear mod¬ 
erately every year, and a fow bear heavily 
every year. This year there is about a fifth of 
a crop of fruit—more than can be said of any 
other large orchard in the State. 
For some years, Mr. Bailey has manured the 
ground all over heavily once in three years. He 
also mulches a part of the time with brush, 
straw, etc. He plows about once in three years, 
and prefers at that time a heavy dressing of 
horse manure and sawdust; the greater the pro¬ 
portion of manure to the sawdust, the better it 
suits him. 
For some years the owner has not been able 
to fill his orders for apples. As he remarked, iu 
September, to tho Committee, he had then lost 
51.600 within four weeks, by not having apples 
enough to fill his orders. One of the chief 
reasons is that he raises a good deal of fine 
fruit, and never ships any but first-class, extra 
apples. 
Tho branches are started five feet from the 
ground and when bearing, bend to tho grouud. 
The codling moth, as in all his neighborhood, is 
checked by clothes in the crotches of the treeB. 
and by Ik g* aud sheep. He is also making some 
promising experiments, which ho is not yet ready 
to publish. 
In our travels we saw nothing more worthy of 
notice than the contrast about to be mentioned. 
It is one every ©rchardist would do well to think 
about. Adjoining the famous orchard of Mr. 
Bailey is another, separated only hv a lino 
fence. The soil is the Bame ; the trees are the 
same varieties, and were set at the same time, 
aud all in both orchards treated alike fur the 
first fow years. We have seen how the Bailey 
orchard was treated. The owner of the other 
orchard has used no manure about the troeB. 
He has not cultivated the land. The trees have 
stood in the grass. They are mossy, with yel¬ 
low loaves, troubled with borers, and make a 
slow growth. Last year, when nearly everybody 
had plenty of fruit aud to spare, this orchard 
bore hut few apples, and they were hardly worth 
gathering, while this year it is hardly necessary 
to say that there was scarcely a decent apple to 
he seen. In the neglected orchard we measured 
an average tree of Northern Spy. The diameter 
of the top was about fourteen feet; the circum¬ 
ference of the trunk nineteen inches; while in 
Mr. Bailky’8 orchard a Spy tree, of the same 
age, had a top twenty-two feet in diameter, and 
a trunk twenty-seven inches in circumference. 
Both of the trees had been set seventeen years. 
We were uuable to learn how many apples the 
well-cared-for tree produced, but last year it 
hung loaded with fine fruit. Another Spy tree, 
near by, had been well treated and bad been 
standing twenty years. The circumference of 
the trunk was thirty-eight inches ; the diameter 
of the top thirty-five feet. Two years ago it 
bore twenty-eight bushels of number one apples, 
and this year it contained all the Dee was able 
to hold. Close to this was a Rhode Island 
Greening of the same age, which bore, two years 
ago, thirty bushels of choice fruit. The circum¬ 
ference of the latter’s trunk was forty-five mokes 
and the diameter of the top forty feet. One 
branch spread out twenty-two feet, thus occupy- 
LAWN TOPICS. 
SAMUEL PAKSONS. 
It must have happened to many of our read¬ 
ers, to find themselves dwelling on some partic¬ 
ular object without apparent cause for thus di¬ 
recting the attention; to unconsciously have 
their interest aroused in quarters where little 
was expected. This is, of course, especially 
true of familiar objects in unfamiliar guise. 
The exquisite coloring of a Maple in fall stirs us 
strongly, but not to the extent that a well known 
plant, clad in new and unexpected beauty would 
have done. We noticed, to day, two instances of 
Spirtf.as Thnnbergii, illustrative of Ibis point. 
In May and June it is perhaps tho prettiest of 
Spiraeas both for leaves and flowers, hut it is not 
thought of generally as possessing the finest 
autumnal coloring. The leaves are always 
delicate and graceful, hut these particular plants, 
as well as other less prominent specimens, had 
colored their fine sprays of foliage in the most 
exquisite manner, and even at Thanksgiving, 
presented, this year, an appearance as fair as, and 
richer than at midsummer. We do not attempt 
to analyze this power of the unexpected to in¬ 
tensify emotions inspired by an agreeable object. 
It is a factor, however, iu creating enjoyment 
that should receive careful attention from the 
landscape gardener. Does familiarity breed 
contempt ? Sometimes; not always, surely. 
We can all prize certain objects as ideals of ex¬ 
cellence, as agrooable parts of ourselves almost, 
hut pleasant change, nevertheless, invariably 
gives corresponding delight. 
May we not here, and on this ground, very prop¬ 
erly enter a plea for the employment of a great¬ 
er variety of trees and shrubs about our homes. 
SprnceB, Hemlocks and Maples are almost indi¬ 
spensable. hut the eye returns to these with even 
greater pleasure, if it has been led to dwell for 
a period on other plants of unquestionable beau¬ 
ty, but of a different type, Would not the effect 
of mass aud grandeur be enhanced by the 
softer grace and more refined coloriug of plants 
that may he counted as filling the minor, hut 
not Jess affecting parts of the landscape ? There 
are two kinds of enjoyment to bo derived from 
plants, the one scientific aud botanic, the other 
the simple pleasure afforded by any liviug, grow¬ 
ing thing of beauty. We, the uninitiated, the 
“ Oi Polloi,” miss much by not seeking for our¬ 
selves a greater variety of beautiful plants. 
Every season has ways peculiar to itself of im¬ 
proving the appearance of trees and shrubs. 
For instance, whether it is the absence of leaves 
and the prevailing somber hues, or something 
else, there is certainly no time of the year when 
the gold of the Retiuospora plumosa aurea, or 
of the new golden piue P MasBoniana variegata 
is so intense as iu late fall. It seems now, 
indeed, peculiarly brilliant and conspicuous, and 
is therefore well*suited for filling vases on tho 
lawn in winter, an employment which should be 
accorded to such decided and permanent golden 
kueB more frequently than it is. Similar reasons 
render the occasional rosebuds and pretty blos¬ 
soms of Daphne Cneomm, that this year linger 
on uutil Thanksgiving, specially delightful. One 
of the valuable attractions of the Japanese 
Maples may be found in a quality they possess, 
scarcely heretofore noted, tbatol retaining their 
wonderful autumnal tints until the very latest 
exhibition of leaf beauty—but summer lingers 
over this year so late as to quite confuse oui 
notions of proper fall effects. 
-- • -- 
SURE CURES IN THE GARDEN. 
GEN. WM. H. NOBLE. 
Well! It’s wonderful how fast sure cures 
come above the horizon and go out of sight. 
First this thing and then that have a brag and 
rage aud trial and leave us. Awhile—perhaps 
402 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 22 
