382 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
country, we are not likely to be ever troubled 
for the raw material. It often grows to a bight 
of 15 to 20 feet, haviug a tuft of leaves only 
at the top. When properly matured, it is cut 
at the root, and tbe leaves are peeled off down 
to the very bottom of the stalk; these strips 
are then beaten on smooth wooden blocks 
with clubs or mallets until the pulp, or body, is 
broken up, when they are scraped with knives 
something like a box scraper, which readily 
cleanses the fibers from all foreign substance, 
leaving them often 10 to 15 feet long. After 
being thoroughly dried, the product is put in 
bales and sold for export, and being nearly all 
exported from the port of Manilla, it takes 
that name. Formerly, it was principally 
used for the manufacture of rope and cordage, 
but since its use for binding twine, the de¬ 
mand has so greatly increased, that it would 
be very high in price and hard to obtain in 
sufficient quantity were it not that it has been 
found that an admixture of an equal quantity 
of Sisal makes the twine of sufficient strength, 
while much reducing its cost. 
Sisal resembles mauilla, only the fiber is 
not so long,being about three or four feet,and 
it is obtained in Yucatan aud Central Amer¬ 
ica. It comes from a plant of the Agave 
(Century Plant) family, and is obtained 
from the fiber of the leaves, much as is 
the maniUa fiber, by beating aud scraping. 
It can be obtained in almost unlimited quan¬ 
tities and at much less price than the mauilla. 
Few are aware how much the successful 
harvesting of our magnificent grain crops is 
dependent upon these two productions of trop¬ 
ical countries, or of the extent to which they 
are required. There are several firms in this 
country having immense factories running 
almost entirely on harvester twine ; one of 
these firms is turning out the enormous quan¬ 
tity of 46,000,000 pounds of this twine. This 
would load 230 trains of 10 cars each, or 2,300 
cars, making 23,000 tons. From this may he 
formed a little idea of how much is used in 
this country and how much we are indebted 
to two insignificant plants of tropical coun¬ 
tries. For many of the above facts we are 
indebted to L. Waterbury & Co., 139 Front 
Street, this city. 
%cc\)iitcXyxxt 
NEAT AND CHEAP BARN AND CAR¬ 
RIAGE HOUSE. 
The main part of the barn, shown at Fig. 
Barn and Carriage House. Fig. 200. 
206, is 16x20 feet, with 14-foot posts The lean- 
to is 8x20 feet; the outside posts, eight feet. 
The building is sided with ship lap. Barn 
aiding will answer the purpose as well, and is 
a little cheaper. The cracks are covered with 
O. G. battens. The roof is shingled. The 
windows are four-paned, 10x14 inches, and 
are framed to open by sliding aside. The 
floors are concrete, laid to incline gently from 
the ends toward the center, where there is a 
narrow gutter to carry off the liquids. Tbe 
floors of the grain bins are raised 12 inches 
above the concrete floor. Tbe grain is passed 
into the bins, C and D, Fig. 208, either through 
Plan of Barn Floor and Carriage House. 
Fig. 208. 
the windows from the outside, or through the 
doors inside. The cow is placed at B in tbe 
same illustration, as far as possible from the 
horses, A A, and is in no danger of being an¬ 
noyed by them, either while in the stall for 
passing out. See sectional view of her stall, 
Fig. 207. A sliding shutter just above the 
Section of Cow Stall. Fig. 207. 
cow’s head, opens into the carriage house. 
This is a valuable feature, for through it 
plenty of fresh air is admitted in all kinds of 
weather, while rain aud snow are excluded. 
Food is passed into the manger through the 
opening in the partition at tbe end of the 
manger. Much annoyance to both cow and 
feeder is thus avoided. The stall partition is 
only five and-one-balf feet long—just long 
enough to prevent her from turning about; 
the milker is thus given plenty of room, the 
partition being entirely out of his way. Be¬ 
tween the cow stall and grain bins, there is 
space for boxes or barrels of bran aud other 
feed, also for a calf if necessary. A ladder 
leading to the bay mow stands well from the 
wall, to which it is fastened, close beside the 
front door. The opening into the mow is 
large enough to admit of hay being thrown 
dowu to the cow. The horses are fed through 
chutes. Harness hooks are put up on the first 
partition of the horse stall, which is built 
from floor to ceiling. The manure is thrown 
out at tbe side door. Plenty of light is ad¬ 
mitted to all parts of tbe barn, as w ill be seen 
by the arrangement of the windows. A win¬ 
dow is placed in the end of the loft opposite 
the door. The carriage house is sided with 
the same material as the bam, aud roofed 
with shingles. A window is placed in the end 
opposite the door. A track is laid for wheels 
of vehicles. See section of it enlarged at H 
in Fig. 207. It is made of two-inch plank, 12 
inches wide. The guards on each side are 2x2 
inches, spiked securely ou. The track keeps 
the wheels off the ground, and makes it easy 
to run vehicles into the carriage house. The 
whole will be found a neat, convenient and 
cheap arrangement. Any lumber dealer or 
carpenter can, from the sketches, give an es¬ 
timate of its cost in his locality. 
Christian Co., Ills. kbed. grundy. 
fxvrm 0£0itfnmj. 
A PORTABLE FENCE. 
A fence requiring no posts is convenient 
for many purposes, and such a fence is shown 
at Fig. 209. We are indebted to Mr. ,T. M. 
—----—-_— - -~ ——-~-N 
111! 
n — i 
i 
■ 
1 
?! it ' SB- --- i 
I 
Fence. Fig. 209. 
Drew, of Winona Co., Minn., for the sketches 
from which our illustration is made. A single 
panel Is shown, and the manner of joining the 
panels. These can be made under shelter on 
a rainy day; and can be piled up aud shelter¬ 
ed when not in use. The boards may be 12 or 
14 feet long and tbe upright pieces four feet 
long, one inch thick, aud three or four iuches 
wide. The panels should be put together with 
wrought nails well clinched. This fence takes 
up almost as much room as a “worm” rail 
fence, and is not suitable for a line fence, but 
is to bo used for fencing around stacks, making 
sheep pens, etc., aud for these purposes it will 
be found to be just what a farmer need*. 
£ljc 
CLIPPING QUEEN’S WINGS. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
It is hard to understand how auy one who 
has practiced clipping queen’s wings can think 
of getting ulong without doing so. Many of 
the very best bee-keepers in the country, like 
J. M. Doolittle, of New York, and Dr. U. C. 
Miller, of Illinois, whose successful experience 
is wide aud long, are most hearty in praise of 
such clipping. Others of equal reputation 
object to the practice. After many years’ ex¬ 
perience I side, most emphatically, with the 
ormer class. Long experience, anatomy, 
physiology, and the fact that other hymenop- 
terous insects—the ants — practice the same 
thing in nature, the workers biting off the 
queens’ wings, all shows that the act does no 
harm to the queen. In fact, the wing is func¬ 
tionally useless except when the queen goes 
with the swarm to a new home, yet as a little 
nourishment must go to these organs, it would 
seem that amputation would be a help since it 
would give to useful parts the nourishment 
previously appropriated to useless oues. 
A man who was never to use an arm would 
be better off with the organ removed. The 
parable of the talent and napkin had signifi¬ 
cance in a physiological as well as in an 
ethical seuse. Some say the clipped queen 
does not look so well. On the principle thalf 
handsome is that handsome does, she looks 
better. It certainly must lie a very nice eye 
that sees auy serious blemish in a queen with 
one or two wings slightly shortened. 1 am 
never ashamed to exhibit our queens, although 
each one has this so-called mutilation. 
The advautages derived from this practice 
are easy to see: First, the beeB can never be 
lost in swarming time. When they swarm 
out the queen essays to go along and rushes 
out of the hive with the swarm; but as she 
cannot fly, she either wanders off and is lost, 
which is rare, or else passes baek into the 
hive. If caught aud put back she is surely 
safe; so at the worst we can only loseaqueeu, 
and that happens only very rarely. Tbe bees, 
when they find the queen is not with them, 
always return to the hive, sometimes, though 
rarely, going back without clustering, and at 
others clustering a little time before return¬ 
ing to the hive. Now, if we do not wish to 
increase our number of colonies, we can go to 
the colony that is swarming, pick up and 
cage the queen, remove all queen cells in the 
hive, which, in the absence of nearly all the 
bees, is quickly and surely douo. By replac¬ 
ing much of the brood with foundation, usiug 
the brood to build up nuclei, and removing 
the hive to new quarters as soon as the bees 
enter, we, quite likely, will break up the 
swarming impulse for the season, aud set the 
bees hard at work in the sections. 
If it is desired to increase the number of 
colonies, we have only to remove the old hive 
a little back, cover it with a sheet, and set in 
its place the new hive in which the caged 
queen is placed. Aa soon as the bees all re¬ 
turn, carry the hive to a new place, and all is 
done, and much more easily than to hive the 
bees, which often go to the most inaccessible 
places, ir we happen to be away, we can only 
lose the queen, (which will not be often),while 
in tbe old way we would lose queen, bees and 
all. Thus safety and ease both pronounce in 
favor of clipping the wings of our queens. 
Borne say the bees will not return to their owu 
hives, but will go to others. I have not found 
this true. In a dozen years’ experience with 
some or all of our queens clipped,! have never 
bad a single case of such difficulty. If some 
of the bees do go into other hives, as such bees 
are full of honey, they will be well received, 
and where is the harm! It seems to me that 
all the arguments are in favor of this practice. 
Agricultural College, Lansing, Micb. 
Pomolcrgicffl 
“RUSSIAN APPLES.” 
PROFESSOR J. L. BUDD, 
Mr. C. M. Hovky, the well known editor of 
Hovey’a “Magazine of Horticulture” and the 
able author of “Fruits of America,” talks of 
the relative merits of the apples of the cast 
plain of Europe, in the Rural of April 11. as 
follows: “The Loudon Horticultural Society 
left no stone unturned to introduce the best 
Russian apples; we long ago had all the best, the 
rest are only rubbish except in arctic regions 
where, I suppose, a miserable apple Is better 
than none. * * * It is completely impossible 
to grow a fruit in an arctic region that should 
be as valuable as those raised in a temperate 
zone. * * * Nature never intended to produce 
the most delieiouB fruits in a Summer of trix 
weeks’ duration.” 
lr these sweeping and misleading remarks 
were confined to the fruits grown at Dorpat, 
St. Petersburg, and thoTauridu Gardens, from 
which Bource the London Society obtained 
its varieties, they would have some weight. 
But Mr. Hovey seems to forget that, iu addi¬ 
tion to its high northern latitude, this part of 
Russia is near the Baltic and Gulf of Finland, 
Here the soil, for 300 miles inland, is low and 
swampy, and the Summers are short aud de¬ 
cidedly cool. Even on this far northern 
parallel 600 to 800 miles inland, at VLachdimir 
uud Kazan, can be found great orchards of 
cherries far better in quality than the Early 
Richmond, and apples fully equal to our 
Winesap in quality. 
Of the An is apples of this far interior and 
JUNE 6 
far northern section, Mr. Charles Gibb truth¬ 
fully says: “The grain is fine, and the flesh 
white and firm. It is really a dessert apple 
of line quality.” The winter apples of this 
far northern section (57th parallel) would 
have no special value in Iowa or iu Massachu¬ 
setts. Yet they show that a ilry interior air 
can develop fine quality in the regions of 
short Summers. 
But the real apple-growing regions of Russia 
are iu the black-soil provinces extending, say, 
from Koursk to Sarepta and Saratov on the 
Volga. Here the seasons are long enough to 
ripen dent corn and the best of melons and 
tomatoes. In the large commercial orchards 
at Saratov it is not difficult to find winter 
varieties equal to the Baldwin in quality, and 
near Koursk and Kiev we su w many varieties 
that compared favorably in size, appearance, 
aud quality with the best market sorts of New 
England or Michigan. While the Summers 
iu this part of Russia are peculiarly dry aud 
hot, the winter temperature—ofteu without 
snow—runs quite as low as at St. Petersburg. 
If Mr. Hovey could spend one year in Cen¬ 
tral Iowa, he would learn the true meaning of 
the word “intercontinental” as applied to 
climate. Our dry air and semi-tropical heat 
of Summer cau ripen such specimens of dent 
corn, melous, tomatoes, and Concord and 
Worden Grapes, as are never produced iu 
New England. But this same dry air and 
Italian heat, followed by our warm and ofteu 
ramy Falls and semi-arctic Winters, will play 
such havoc with the Baldwins, Greenings, and 
Pippins, which thrive near Boston, as would 
surprise tbe new-comer. Tne Duchess, Weal¬ 
thy, Fameuse, Plumb’s Cider, Roniau Stem, 
etc., can stand this rough usage, because they 
or their parents were native to this great east 
plain of Europe, where the conditions are 
very nearly the same as to soil and air. 
If the few favored sections near the ocean, 
or large bodies of water, can grow the varie¬ 
ties or Southwest Europe, or their seedling*, 
it is all right. But the large areas iu the East¬ 
ern, Central, and Western States, where the 
conditions are less favorable, must follow the 
best light they have, which at present seems to 
be in the far Bastiu Europe and Central Asia. 
1 will only add, at this time, that we need not 
go to Russia to find varieties of the apple 
us hardy as our Fameuse. The “ King's 
Pomological Institute” of Silesia is less than 
200 miles from Vienna, but it is on the steppe 
side of the Carpathian Mountains. Iu wan¬ 
dering through the experimental orchards at 
this point, Mr. Hovey will find many vurioties 
worthy of trial in parts of the New England 
States. The Boikeu, Battulin, Stetliuer, Win¬ 
ter Citron, Boss arts ualivia, Golden lteinette, 
etc., are not described in our fruit books, but I 
suspect they will be within the next 10 years. 
Ames, Iowa. 
“TIGHT LACING” OF TOP WORKED 
STOCK. 
PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
On account of trouble at the West with the 
stems of cherry trees, the Minor Plum has 
been recommended as a stock ou which to top- 
work the Richmond Cherry aud other varie¬ 
ties doing well with us. The cherry takes 
well ou the Miuer stock. A nice top is formed 
early in tbe season, but the stock tails to 
increase in size and soon dies—root and all 
from sheer starvation. At first I suspected 
want of affinity, and perfect union of stock 
aud cion, but closer inspection revealed the 
fact that the heading back of stock, and the 
dormant condition of the cambium layer aud 
bark during the first stages of the growth of 
the cion, so hardened the naturally elastic 
epidermis ns to totally prevent expansion and 
growth when the time came for a now wood 
deposit. 
To prove the correctness of this belief, we 
planted six one year-old Miner Plums in our 
experimental orchard, uud top-worked them, 
the next March, with cions of a fine cherry 
from the east plain of Europe, known as 
“Bessarabian. ” All the cions grew rapidly. 
In June the tough outer bark of one of the 
stocks was slit on the north side, to permit 
expansion. This is now a fine tree with a 
clean, healthy stem and a fine, round top 
loaded with blossoms. The tivo trees un¬ 
treated had nice tops in the Fall, which had 
outgrown the dry, dead-lookiug stocks, aud 
by the middle of the next Summer they were 
all dead without apparent increase of diamo 
ter of stock. 
In like maimer I find that plum grafted on 
plum, and cherry on cherry—where tbe top 
is entirely cut back in putting in cions show 
a tendency to a hardening of the tough epider¬ 
mis and to constriction and disease of stem. 
In some cases we have entirely removed the 
outer bark; in others merely slitting it to per¬ 
mit expansion has unswered. 
I should add that iu top-grafting young 
apple aud pear trees, we notice in our climate 
i the same tendency to a hardening of the bark 
