4886 
THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
n the shade, but in the sun’s rays, where the 
wax will remain in a liquid state which al¬ 
lows the impurities to settle, when the pure 
wax can be dipped off tho top. From r>00 old 
combs, each one foot square, he had secured 
100 pounds of wax. A. I. Root, Ohio, said 
that those who had small quantities of wax to 
render could put the combs into a sieve, set 
the sieve and contents in a dish pan, and place 
all in a stove oven, when tho wax would melt 
and run through'into the pan. 
Mr. N. N. Betsitiger, of New York, gave a 
history of “separators;" that is, sheets of wood, 
tin or some other substance placed between 
the sections for tho purpose of compelling the 
bees to build straight combs. Glass was first 
used, but the breakage was great, and the bees 
attached many combs to the glass. They also 
attached combs to wood, and, strange though 
it may appear, tho smoother tho wood the 
greater the trouble. This same objection ap¬ 
plied to the use of tin. Mr. Betsinger believes 
that the use of any unperforated substance 
for separators lessens tho crop of honey, hence 
he has, for the past four years, been using 
wire cloth for this purpose. The meshes are 
four to the inch, which allows tho bees to 
freely pass through. After the wire is woven 
it is dipped in molten metal, which fixes the 
wires so that tho meshes will remain of the 
same size. Mr. B. has a patent upon his in¬ 
vention. 
A paper written by A. J. King,'New Jersey, 
entitled “Foul Brood,” was next read. Mr. 
K. has spent a year in Cuba managing an 
apiary of nearly 400 colonies, and when he 
first took it in charge ho found nearly 100 
colonies affected with that dread disease called 
foul brood. He thought it was first intro¬ 
duced into the apiary by purchasing queens 
from infected districts. He cured it bv using 
what is known as the “phenol” cure. 
The method he employed is as follows: 
some phenol crystals are dissolved by 
placing them in a bottle in hot water. 
To one part of the dissolved phenol is added 
409 parts of a mixture composed of one-third 
pure honey and two-thirds water.This is heated 
to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and then fed to tho 
bees. At the close of the reading of 
the essay, Mr. R. L. Taylor, Mich., said that 
he thought that the descriptions of foul brood 
were not always interpreted correctly; many 
think that before the bees have foul brood the 
combs must be full of dead brood, and the 
odor is so great that it can be detected by sim¬ 
ply walking in the vicinity of the hive. This 
description may be applicable to the advanced 
stages of the disease; hut when it first appears 
only a few cells will be affected, aud the odor 
is not noticeable unless the nose is hrought 
close to the diseased brood. Tho brood, when 
dead, is of the color of eoffeo with milk in it. 
If a pin is thrust into the dead larva and an 
attempt is made to effect its removal, it will 
draw out “stringy” to the length ofau inch. 
It fiually shrivels and dries up, and looks like 
a speck of tar upon tho lower side of the cell. 
He is curing it in his apiary (where it was 
spread by feeding honey talceu from infected 
colonies), by what is known as the starvation 
plan. The bees are shaken from the combs in¬ 
to an empty hive, and shut up until they have 
consumed ail the honey in their sacks, when 
they are given their liberty and fed. 
Upon the subject of “Honey Plants" Mr. A. 
I. Root, Ohio, said that it is desirable that, a 
plant should lie cultivated for something aside 
from the furnishing of honey. For this pur¬ 
pose Alsike Clover stands at the head; buck¬ 
wheat comes next, then rape and raspberries. 
He was not certain that there are any plants 
that it would be profitable to raise for honey 
alone; possibly there aro a few. Sweet clover, 
figwort,spider-plant and the so-called Chapman 
honey plant, are the most promising of any 
plants that yield honey alone. The latter 
yields honey during a drought better than any 
plant with which he was acquainted. It is a 
biennial resembling a thistle, blossoms just 
after basswood aud continues in bloom about 
three weeks. It is self-seeding and requires 
no attention after it is once started. The 
seed should be sown in early Soring. Mr. 
Root had visited Mr. Chapman, of N. Y., last 
Summer, for the purpose of learning more in 
regard to the plant. Mi-. Chapman had two 
acres of the plant in bloom, and his 130 colo¬ 
nies of bees were gathering honey from it in 
such quantities that they were building comb 
in the sections aud storing it with honey. 
The honey is white, and of a nearly pure 
sweet taste. Mr. T. F. Biugham, Mich., 
mentioned that tho stalk is of a very fibrous 
nature aud perhaps the fiber might be utilized 
iu tho manufacture of straw paper. Mr. fl. 
Chapman, N. Y., had grouud pounds of 
the seed, and pressed from it nine ounces of 
fine, clear oil. 
R. S. Taylor, Mich., read a paper upon “The 
Coming Bee,” in which ho took the grouud 
that nature had, for centuries been turning the 
bee in exactly the direction most desirable, 
which has not been the case with some of our 
domestic animals, and, until the mating of 
the queens and drones can be controlled, there 
is little that can be done for the improvement 
of our bees; but if this is ever accomplished, 
we can do with bees in 10 years what would 
require 100 years in breeding cattle. If ever an 
improvement is made in our bees, Mr. Taylor 
thought it would be done by a crossing of va¬ 
rieties. 
C, P. Dadant, HI., thought prolifleness is a 
very desirable trait. A. B. Mason, O. dis¬ 
agreed; the most prolific queen he ever had 
was the least profitable. Large quantities of 
bees were reared, but they stored no great 
quantities of honey. w. z. hutchinson. 
Genesee Co., Mich. 
Pitting Potatoes. —A writer in the'Phila- 
delpliia "Weekly Press remarks that if many 
potatoes are to be kept over Winter, pitting 
them is much preferable to putting into the 
cellar. Onlv enough should be put into the 
house for use during severe cold weather when 
the pits cannot be got at. Much sickness in 
farmers’ families in Winter is due to keeping 
large quantities of potatoes and other vogetn 
hies stored under sleeping rooms. Besides, in 
tho pit potatoes can easily be kept at a uni¬ 
form low temperature without freezing. 
Most cellars are too warm the greater part "of 
the time, and yet are liable to freeze in sudden 
cold spells. In pits the temperature varies 
only slightly. Potatoes for pitting should be 
dry and covered, first., with six or eight inches 
of straw. Then cover with four to six inches 
of dirt, leaving a hollow around the heap with 
an outlet on one side to carry off water that 
may settle there. Just before cold weather 
add a second light covering of straw and a 
heavy coating of dirt. If the ground is frozen 
so that dirt cannot he got. use manure from 
the horse stables. At the first covering a wisp 
of straw should be left sticking up through 
the center for ventilation. At the second this 
may be covered up with soil or manure. Po¬ 
tatoes thus kept will not freeze and will come 
out in Spring hard and sound, with only tri¬ 
fling loss of weight. In warm cellars there is 
often a loss of one-sixth or more£by evapora¬ 
tion, shrinking and rotting. 
Victoria. —After all we have said in favor 
of Miner’s Victoria Grape, we are glad at 
length to have a little support from other 
grape authorities. Mr. J. T. Lovett, of 
Little Silver, N. J., prints the following in 
his fall catalogue: “The Victoria is the best 
white grape vet introduced. I have earefullv 
and thoroughlv tested the entire collection of 
Concord seedling grapes raised by' the late T. 
B. Miner, and I find that Victoria far exceeds 
iu value all others, and isof remarkable merit. 
I have now fruited it for several years, aud 
find it without a fault, both in vine and fruit. 
The clusters are large and handsome, berries 
medium to large, most attractive, 'greenish- 
white with light bloom; pulp tender, rich and 
sweet, quality good to best. Vine exception¬ 
ally free from mildew.'a strong grower, en¬ 
tirely hardy and very prolific. One of the 
few grapes that have not as yet been affected 
by rot. This invaluable grape has been fig¬ 
ured and frequently commented upon editori¬ 
ally by that liest. of agricultural papers, the 
Rural, New-Yorker, and I can fully 'iudorse 
all that has lieen said iu its favor." 
Colorado Tobacco.— Among the exhibits 
made by the State Agricultural College at the 
Exposition, Pres. Ingersoll writes us that 
there were eight “hands” of tobacco, repre¬ 
senting seven different varieties, grown bv 
Professor Cassidy in the Agricultural College 
grounds from seeds furnished him by Mr, 
Column, the Commissioner of Agriculture. 
In the opinion of Professor Cassidy the show¬ 
ing made by Colorado is a very favorable one. 
The climate and the soil are both suited to the 
growth of tobacco, and the question as to 
whether it would be a profitable industry de¬ 
pends for its answer upon the quality of the 
tobacco raised. Owing to the fact that the 
conditions of the soil and climate in Colorado 
are different from what they are in the East, 
it is possible that a peculiar and very excellent 
kind of tobacco may lie grown. 
Cats as Rabbit Exterminators. — Some 
portions of Australia have become literally 
covered with rabbits. They eat crops and 
gnaw the trees in a most disastrous manner, 
Tho idea of exterminating them with cats 
was conceived. Large numbers of cats were 
bred for the purpose. These are kept for a 
time in wire cages aud fed upon rabbit meat 
entirely. When they are released they are 
left to support themselves. The Agricultural 
Gazette says that the plan has worked admir¬ 
ably. The cats multiply and the rabbits are 
killed in vast numbers. It will be as hard to 
get rid of the cats, eventually, we fear. 
Several cases have occurred in England 
of late where people have been prosecuted for 
keeping poultry because the roosters made 
such a noise in the morning that late risers 
could not sleep. Of course.such trouble arose 
iu towns where the houses are close together. 
A screaming rooster is as bad as a howl¬ 
ing dog—so think the people who like to 
turn day into night. Poultry lovers in such 
cases will be forced to let the roosters go and 
keep hens alone. A rooster that will not crow 
is worse.than a hen that will. 
WIDE AWAKE ITEMS. 
In an old book on horse breeding, published 
in 1721, we are informed that no stallion 
should ever be used before he is six years old; 
that 20 mares in a'season Is an extreme limit 
of service, and that a foal should suck until it 
is 12 months old. Did they have better horses 
jn those days, or has not improvement in 
horses kept pace with progress in other sorts 
of breeding!... 
Permanent pastures are looked upon by 
Prof. Arnold as a stumbling block in the way 
ot progressive dairying and a thing to be 
avoided, except under peculiar circumstances. 
He tells the Farmers’ Advocate that perma¬ 
nent pastures and meadows are great institu¬ 
tions in the eyes of lazy and dull men, and 
perhaps are as well suited to their capacity as 
anything ... 
Pasture land in its best state generally 
pays the poorest of any of the arable part of 
the farm, and permanent pasture poorest of 
all. There are several reasons why this 
should be so. First, the grass in a pasture is 
necessarily unthrifty, because it is so frequent¬ 
ly cropped. No plant can flourish and be vig¬ 
orous which is denuded of its green herbage. 
Every time it is wounded by cropping its 
growth is put back. It stands still, or grows but 
feebly, till it recovers from the shock and has 
time to gather renewed energy sufficient to 
throw out new shoots, only again to be 
stunted, and to repeat the same thing over 
and over again through the season, or until 
frost silences any attempt at growth. The 
present season has furnished a sorrowful 
demonstration of the short-sighted policy of 
subjecting cows solely to the uncertain supply 
of food furnished by pasture only, even if of 
the best aud freshest sort. Almost all sec¬ 
tions have suffered more or less. And this is 
repeated to some extent ever}' year. Cheese 
factories and creameries have been closed for 
lack of milk, and the returns from private 
dairies have dwindled to a ruinous pittance 
almost everywhere, and loss is common. 
Prof. Arnold takes the view that all this is 
avoidable—not a necessity. Such men os 
Hiram Smith, of Wisconsin; John Gould of 
Ohio; Harris Lewis, of New York, and Ed- 
wnnl Buruett, of Massachusetts, and many 
others of the same sort, go through such 
crises without wincing at all. and make 
money while others are losing. These men 
have learned that it is unwise to put their 
sole trust in pastures, especially old ones, and 
that tillage ami rotation of crops are better, 
and by their steady success, whether drought 
prevails or not, they are public examples of 
the fact that, be the seasons what they may, 
het. or cold, wet or dry, dairying is one of the 
most profitable and eertaiu of all agricultural 
industries when a fair share of common sense 
is employed in its management. 
A writer in our London contemporary, the 
Fanciers’ Gazette, is of the opinion that it 
does not make os much difference as people 
think, whether hens are allowed to sit or not, 
oxcept in often-sitting breeds. In others, if 
they are debarred they lay rather sooner than 
if allowed; but to set agaiust this, they us¬ 
ually get broody again very much earlier, so 
that iu a year’s account there is not much 
difference .... 
Near Stockholm (Sweden) a farmer and 
his father before him have successfully culti¬ 
vated tobacco upon the same few acres of 
laud for nearly 50 years. 
The Agricultural Gazette (England), snvs 
that silage to subserve the best ends must be 
made with judgment and used with judg¬ 
ment. . 
The same journal says that fat calves and 
fat heifers rarely develop into good dairy 
cows. Moderation is the golden rule. The 
calf, for a milch cow should never be allowed 
to lose ground, but it should not be allowed to 
become fat. 
The American Garden knows of a man in 
a New York town who makes a handsome 
income by buying rough and unattractive 
house-lots, staking out the outline of a house, 
aud then making a neat lawn of the rest of the 
lot, with shrubbery and flower beds in proper 
order. Then the lot is ready for sale at a 
large advance'on its first cost, the lawn being 
the sole cause of the increased value, aud its 
own advertisement.... 
Mr. J. T. Lovett finds the Springfield (cap 
raspberry practically the same as, if not 
indentical with the old Davidson’s Thornless.. 
There is a class of people, Mr. Hersey says 
in the Ploughman, who make farming a side 
issue, getting their bread and butter from 
some other occupation, who make themselves 
ridiculous in the eyes of those who are 
thoughtful tillers of the soil by trying to con¬ 
vince the public of'the'great profits of farm- 
ming and by extravagant statements gener¬ 
ally. 4Yel], to show how ridiculous this ap¬ 
pears to'the'farmer. let us suppose that a few 
hundred well educated farmers, who for rec¬ 
reation, dabble a little in medicine, and 
doctor their sick neighbors, should also take 
up the ]ien to write for medical journals, in¬ 
structing physicians howto treat diseases, and 
showing in 'columns of figures the great 
profits of the business, giving the exact details 
as to how many visits, at two dollars each, a 
good smart physician can make in a day, 
how many in a year, and what would be the 
profits at the "end of'five years. Would any 
real practicing physician thank such men? 
Would they feel that their condition was 
being unproved by such writers?. 
The man who thinks he can run success¬ 
fully some professional business, and at the 
same'time run a farm so much better than 
others as to enable him to become a public 
teacher, deceives himself, for if he gives his 
atteution to the farm sufficiently to keep in the 
front ranks of progress, his professional busi¬ 
ness must suffer, just the same as a farmer’s 
business would suffer if he should devote a 
considerable portion of his time to the practice 
of medicine, law, or mechanics. 
Major Alvord mentions that a cow years 
ago was considered good that gave 6,000 
pounds of milk in a year. Nowadays cows 
giving 10,000 pounds a year are not uncom¬ 
mon. He has lately been watching a cow 
whose milk record was 26, WO pounds of milk 
in a year..... 
“ Potatoes will be raised, in the future, in 
large tracts more and more," says T. B. Terry 
in the Ohio Farmer. “ There are men this 
year who have hundreds of acres. With the 
smoothing harrow and planter and digger, 
and other tools, they can handle such large 
fields without any trouble. Particularly is 
this true on the mellow soil of the West. Now 
whether this is wise or not, it will be done, 
and the railroads will move the potatoes to 
city markets at low figures. Machinery has 
enabled, the big farmers of the West to make 
wheat, almost a drug. If it wasn’t' for the 
twine-binder wheat would bring 81 to-day, Mr* 
Terry thinks. Look at the low price of Tim¬ 
othy seed. It is raised by the thousands of acres 
on some farms, and harvested with binder and 
thrashed with huge steam thrashers. So tools 
will work a revolution iu potato raising. Un¬ 
less a farmer can raise enough to afford the 
tools, his profit will soon be about the same 
that it is on 75-cent wheat.”... 
Keep seed-corn, squashes, tube-rose bulbs, 
eanua roots in warm, dry places. 
Puck thinks that the city out-countries the 
country. The countryman sends to the city 
to buy his trees and feeds his squirrel ou nuts 
bought in the city. If you want fresh eggs or 
fresh vegetables the city' is the place to get 
them. You can get a stronger dose of malaria 
in Central Park in a week’than you can get 
iu the country in a year. You can get sweeter 
and lovelier roses in any' florist’s shop in the 
city than ever grew iu the country. No one 
thinks of buying meat in the country' because 
country meat is not good. Even country sau¬ 
sages are made iu the city. 
Editot Cheevkr says, in the N. E. Farmer, 
that a market garden makes a most excellent 
school for a family of growing children. They 
can all help earn their living and at the same 
time acquire ideas of manly and womanly in¬ 
dependence, that will aid them in after life 
whatever occupation or profession they may 
follow.... 
Mr. O. S, Bliss says, iu the N. Y. Tribune, 
that he keeps but one Leghorn cock to 36 or 
even 40 hens. In May last he set; '6o.eggs and 
57 hatched... 
When the^editor of the Garden, Mr/E. H- 
Libby,'visitedJDr. Jabez Fisher s vineyard, re¬ 
cently, he' specially. noticed.,the thrift of the 
vines, their freedom from disease and the high 
quality of the fruit. Dr. Fisher attributes 
this'result largely to the fact that he now uses 
only chemical fertilizers, which supply all the 
food of every sort that the vines_need for the 
varied wants of stem, leaf aud fruit. In the 
former tise \if stable manures. Dr. Fisher 
ound that they produced strong.vines, with 
but little fruit, aud that rust and mildew 
were common.... . 
At the London Dairy Show a class was 
