THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
term “nucleus” signifies a 6mall number of 
bees put into a hive with a view to make them 
the beginners, or first settlers of a new colony, 
or simply for the purpose of reariug a queen. 
Practical bcc-kcepers are at variance as to the 
best style of hives for nuclei. Some advocate 
to make small boxes six or eight inches high, 
wide and long with frames to suit; others pre¬ 
fer small hives, but so adjusted that the frames 
used in the apiary will fit into them; and still 
others hold that the common-sized hive is the 
QUEEN CELLS. 
best, if the space is so contracted by division 
boards that it will suit the small number of 
bees. As there should always be some empty 
hives on hand, and the trouble of making 
smaller ones, as well of transferring the bees, 
can thus be avoided, the use of the ordinary 
hive employed In he apiary is perhaps the beat 
plan. The. present busy honey season Is the 
best time for the formation of nuclei and the 
rearing of queens. Mow is the time t hat queens 
are wanted; later in the season the demand 
for them will he limited, besides, those reared 
in the fall may fail to be fertilized, and if they 
remain virgins till next spriug they will be 
worthless. A quart of bees and three or four 
frames containing some brood are sufficient 
for a nucleus. These may be taken from sev¬ 
eral hives wherever they eau be spared. If 
there are eggs or lame not over three days 
old, among the brood, the bees will soon con¬ 
struct queen cells around one or more of these, 
and raise a ruler. But this method is not to 
be commended when queens are reared on a 
large scale, though it will do very well when 
only a few are wanted. In the latter case, to 
insure that the queens are reared from eggs, 
which are better for the purpose than young 
larvae, and also to get the eggs from a pure 
and prolific queen, place three or four frames 
of empty worker-comb in the middle of a hive 
having a queen worthy to propagate from; 
these will soon be filled with eggs, when they 
should be given to the nuclei, one to each, and 
marked so they can easily be recognized. On 
each side should be placed a frame having no 
eggs, and whose larva 1 are too old to be trans¬ 
formed into queens, which they are generally 
acknowledged to he when more than three 
days old. This precaution will insure that the 
young queens are hatched from eggs laid by a 
pure and prolific mother. Under normal con¬ 
ditions an egg in a queen cell will hatch in 
three days; in five more the cell will be capped, 
and in about 1(1 days later her majesty will 
come forth fully developed, making altogether 
about twenty-four days. 
When queens are reared on a large scale It 
is desirable to have them develop from the nu¬ 
clei more rapidly. To this end the colony 
having the best queen in the apiary is selected 
from which to breed. Remove the queen to 
another hive and in three or four days queen 
cells to the number of fifteen or twenty will be 
started. Go through the hive carefully every 
day and as Boon us they are capped cut them 
out with a triangular piece of comb adhering. 
In another frame haviug sonic brood a simi¬ 
lar piece of comb should be cut out and a 
queen cell inserted as represented in the en¬ 
graving. The cells should be handled with the 
utmost possible care, as the least, indentation of 
the wall may deform the larva within ; and it 
should not project to either side but hang down¬ 
wards in the frame, so it cannot be touched by 
the adjacent comb. 
Another necessary requisite to successful 
queen-rearing is an adequate number of pure 
drones. These the thoughtful apiarist can 
easily procure by destroying all drone comb 
from the beginning of the season, except that 
appearing in colonies having pure and pro¬ 
lific queens. The queen mates on the wing; 
and five days after she is hatched, if the weather 
i« pleasant, she will take her wedding trip, 
otherwise on the first pleasant day thereafter. 
Having mated, she returns again to her nucleus 
and in a couple ol days will begin to deposit 
her eggs. It is only when bees from these 
first eggs appear that one can pronounce with 
certainty on the purity of a queen. Every bee 
must have the three distiuet yellow bands in 
order that the mother can be entitled to be 
called “pure Italian.” 
If queens thus tested are raised for the mar¬ 
ket, they are now ready to be sold, and the 
bees and frames of each nucleus should he re¬ 
turned to some hive as soon as their ruler la 
sent off. But if the bee-keeper has reared 
them for his own apiary, they may be used for 
what is known as 
Nucleus Swarming. 
This consists simply in letting the young 
queens remain in the nucleus and reinforcing 
them with bees and comb from hives that have 
become so populous that a division is necessary 
if they are to be prevented from swarming. 
This is done as described above, and will be 
much more rapidly performed when full-sized 
hives are used for nuclei instead of small 
boxes. One who raises his own queens and 
takes all precautions to get them pure, ueed 
not wait (ill they are tested before he increases 
the nuclei to full colonies. Additions may 
be made as soon as the queens are fertilized, 
or even before. 
.farm (fonomp. 
A HOME-MADE HORSE-POWER. 
Thf. convenience and value of a simple horse 
power on the farm are felt by the average far¬ 
mer far oftener than the convenience itself is 
enjoyed. With the majority of men the item of 
first cost is the great obstacle to the possession 
of such a device. Herewith I present an illus- 
'ration of what I am confident will he found a 
valuable home-made power, the cost of which 
will be but a trifling drawback to its possession. 
The sketches show its construction very 
clearly, and the short description will enable 
any farmer to erect a good and serviceable ma¬ 
chine. One day's work by an intelligent car¬ 
penter would, however, be of assistance to 
some. 
It consists of a square upright shaft, A, 
which may be eight feet high and six inches 
square, of any well seasoned wood. Bolted to 
this shaft is a sweep. B, to which the horse Is 
to be attached. A light, round pole should 
also be fastened to the upright shaft projecting 
in front of the horse, to lead him round in his 
circular walk. In the top and bottom of the 
shaft A, are iron journals or H inch diam¬ 
eter, taken from some old mowing machine, 
for iustance, or they may be obtained at the 
village blacksmith’s. These arc driven firmly 
into the shaft and they turn with it in hearings 
overhead, and in the step C below. The whole 
arrangement is supposed to lie erected iu the 
barn or shed ; D, representing a beam, and E 
the floor. Fastened to the upright shaft is a 
wooden pulley F, at least six feet above the 
floor and seven or more feet in diameter. The 
thickness of Ibis wheel should he four or five 
inches, with a flange on the bottom one inch 
thick. 
The wheel may be constructed by nailing to¬ 
gether segments of plank, the arms aho being 
built as the segments are nailed together. De¬ 
pending from the beam, D, is a strongly-braced 
frame G, carrying two loose pulleys H, one 
only is shown) over which the belt I, passes 
thence downward to the pulley on the machine 
to he driven. In this case a eorn-sheller is 
represented. The loose pulleys should be on a 
level with tlie center of the driving wheel, and 
just outside the circle described by the sweep 
B. It will be seen that gearing is entirely dis¬ 
pensed with, and the motion will be smootli 
and noiseless. Should a higher motion be 
wauted than could lie got by attaching directly 
to the machine, an auxilary shaft or "jack" 
could be easily interposed. For shelling corn, 
cutting food, eleaniug grain, pum, mg water, 
sawing wood, churning and numerous other 
dutieB, this simple device will be found au in¬ 
valuable additiou to the farm conveniences. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. William Rout. Bkooks. 
RAISING TURNIPS. 
We arc going to cut the clover on a part of 
a field and then plow under a good coat of 
manure for a crop of Swedish turnips. We 
shall sow broadcast over the patch blood 
guano at. the rate of 300 pounds per acre, and 
put the. seed iu drills made by hand, with a 
hoe, an inch deep, and cover the seed with a 
Ime at this uniform depth. Three-quarters of 
a pound of seed is enough for au acre. The 
first week iu July Is the ti mu set to put in the 
swedes, but it would do to put in a crop as 
late as the middle. We have old turuips now 
on hand bard and good, for table nse. This 
crop will require but one hoeing, and can be 
utilized to feed pigs, sheep and cattle. The 
tops are worth a great deal to keep up the 
liow of milk in the late fall. The grouud must 
be plowed deep and made mellow. We shall 
soak the seed at least three days before plant¬ 
ing, and then roll them In plaster and cover 
them as fast as dropped. This will make a 
gain in the time of coining up, and get the 
turuips just so much ahead of the weeds, 
which will help in the care of them. The 
drills will he on a ridge made by turning two 
shallow furrows together. f. i>. c. 
®ljt |oultt}i jjarfr, 
SUMMER FEEDING OF POULTRY ON 
FARMS. 
Poulthy will find a great part of their food 
when at large about the farm during summer. 
Scarcely anything comes amiss to them. They 
eat not only ali the insects they can find, but 
they will eat all the cabbage and fruits they 
cau reach, as well as turnip tops when first up, 
tomatoes aud even pumpkins and cncumberB. 
The question arises, how many hens may a 
farmer let run without damage to his crops? 
Few people who have not tried the experiment 
can believe how much this depends on judg¬ 
ment in planting and on the manner of feeding 
the birds. Some farmers will have more 
trouble with twenty-five fowls than others 
with a hundred running loose. 
iu the first place, such things as poultry are 
most loud of should be planted furthest from 
the hen-house or barn. This is especially true 
of tomatoes. When a piece of land is newly 
sown, turn over with the plow a piece of 
ground nearer to the hen-house; this attracts 
the attention of the fowls from the newly-sown 
ground, and gives the latter a better chance. 
A hundred fowls will find most of theii food 
about a farm, and one light feediug a day is 
all that many get; but the question comes, 
how docs it pay to let them find nearly all 
their food? If the house is surrounded with 
woods or meadows, it will* pay to feed fowls 
lightly; but if the farm is mostly laid out iu 
fruit or market truck, then it will pay to feed 
your poultry with all the grain they will eat, 
rather then confine them in a small yard. 
Aud if grain is left all the time before them, 
they will eat hut little more than if it were fed 
regularly to them, while they will so far satisfy 
their hunger that they will do little injury to 
the growing crops. 
However singular it may appear, their peck¬ 
ing at everything they see is, to a great extent, 
habit with fowls, a fact I proved by experi¬ 
ment. I had a great many fowls running 
loose, and they seldom did much mischief to 
the crops except by scratching, but I always 
had corn or wheat accessible to them. One 
day a neighbor remarked that it was not ucces- 
sary to feed them oftener than once a day, and 
then only lightly. I thought 1 would try the 
experiment, but it was a sad mistake. My 
hens pecked everything within reach, even 
unripe melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, turnips, 
etc. The damage done soon amounted to ten 
times us much as the cost of feeding them as 
I tiad done for years. So 1 again returned to 
feeding them all they wanted with grain, leav¬ 
ing it always before then); but the mischief 
was done—the habit of pecking at everything, 
once contracted, could not be cured that season. 
Irregular feed will also produce this effect on 
fowls; for when they get hungry they will 
attack the crops, and soon contract the habit. 
Henky Hai.es. 
OUR NEXT FREE SEED DISTRIBUTION. 
So far as we can now judge, most of our 
readers have been greatly pleased with our Seed 
Distribution of this year.* But some of them 
have not, aud the fault Is ours; or rather it is 
the fault of inexperience iu an undertaking 
which proved greater than we had counted 
upon. We shall never again offer our sub¬ 
scribers a choice of seeds, but send to each our 
entire list of such varieties as we may select. 
It was this choice of ten varieties out of the 
twenty, which caused the disappointment ex¬ 
pressed by some of our readers who did not 
receive the varieties which they had selected. 
We knew when the first announcement was 
made, that we did not have a sufficient supply 
of several of the varieties to fill all orders, for 
which reason it was Btatcd that when any of 
the kinds of seeds mentioned became exhaust¬ 
ed, we should select varieties in their place 
from our reserve stock. Had it been possible 
to purchase the seeds of which we fell short f 
we should have done so. But they could not 
be purchased of the chief seedsmen either in 
this country or in Europe. Besides, three of 
the sorts offered originated in the Rural 
Grounds, viz., the Bronze Hi emus, Golden To¬ 
mato and Voorhis Watermelon. 
The announcement of our next Free Seed 
Distribution will be made as soon as we can 
settle upon what seeds to offer and secure the 
necessary amount, and this time —life spared— 
there shall he no cause for disappointment, 
while we shall strive to make it even more 
valuable than our last. Meantime, we hope to 
hear from all as to their success or failure, etc. 
From such communications we may he guided 
as to future selections. 
■ We do not refer to, or include, the distribution of 
niunt’B Corn. 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION. 
Bulletin 27.— May 27, 187b. 
Fertilizer Analyses. 
259. Mapes’ Onion Fertilizer. Sampled and 
sent by T. B. Wakemnu, Greens Farms, Ct. 
271. Ammoniated {Superphosphate. Made by 
New Haveu ChetnioaJ (Jo. .Sampled from stock 
of E. W. Fierce, dealer, Plaiuvllle, by T. N. 
Bishop. Sent May 7th. 
ANALYSES. 
25J) 271 
Nitrogen... &.70" 3.01 
sol. Pllos. Acid... 2.00 0.32 
Reverted Phos. Acid. 4.35 1.37 
lusol. " “ ...2.63 1.67 
Potash. 7.47 3.18 
Chlorine. 8.44 4.07 
• 8. 2 p. c. as Ammonia Salts, 4. 5 p. c. Organic matter. 
Estimated value. $47.20 35.37 
Cost, . .. 50.00 38.00 
270. Charter Oak Fertilizer. Manufactured 
by Charter Oak Paper Co., Parkville, Ct. 
Sampled aud sent by Paul 
Thomson 
, West 
Hartford. 
ANALYSIS. 
Moisture. 
Carbonic acid comb'd 
water aud organic 
matters* 
Per cent. 
....24.34 
| 26.16 
Value 
per lb. 
Value 
per ton. 
Chlorine. 
Phosphoric acid. 
Sulphuric acid. 
Lime.^. 
MagneHla. ~ . 
Potash. 
Soda. 
.13 
.... 1.02 
... .96 1 
..so.yi / 4-10 
...11.76 ) 
.. .30 
.. .24 
9c. 
4Xc. 
$1.84 
3.49 
.27 
Sand.*. 
... 3.49 
'Containing Nit'u. 
100.00 
.. 0.47 
20c. 
1.88 
Value est'd per ton.... 
Cost per ton. 
7.68 
15.00 
This material is mainly a refuse magnesian 
lime, such a lime as is burned from the rock of 
the quarries in Canaan and elsewhere, in North¬ 
ern Connecticut. In making a valuation, the 
lime, magnesia aud sulphuric acid are reck¬ 
oned together at 4-10 cents per pound; because 
burnt lime containing magnesia, and gypsum 
containing lime and sulphuric acid, cau be got 
at that rate or for $8 per ton. 
8. W. JoHxaoN, Director, 
