BE€ 25 
the production'of milk containing 87percent, 
of water. If the water is not warmed arti¬ 
ficially, then its temperature must be raised 
in the^cow’s system, and.au additional amount 
of food for this purpose will be required. 
PROVIDE SUITABLE FOOD. 
As something cannot be produced from 
nothing, it is not reasonable to suppose that a 
cow can lay on flesh and fat, or give a large 
amount of rich milk on a small supply of poor 
food. Then it is the part of wisdom to pro¬ 
vide a full supply of suitable food for milk 
production,and to give it to her regularly. Do 
not keep her on nothing but corn-stalks, or 
nothing but hay, but mix or alternate these, 
and supplement them with a mixture of corn 
meal and wheat bran. Variety and a due bal¬ 
ance of the nitrogenous and carbonaceous 
foods are essential. 
<T!)C 
BEE NOTES. 
Seal extracted honey at once; bee stings; 
best bees; comb foundations; winter feed; 
bees and grapes; marketing honey; pre¬ 
cautions in wintering. 
Honey, like maple sirup, loses its flavor and 
becomes stale by exposure to the air. It must 
remain in the hive until it is thoroughly rip¬ 
ened, and, when extracted, should be sealed 
up at once in order to preserve the fine flavor 
and aroma that make it the luxury that it is. 
In walking among the hives there is little 
danger of stings unless the bees are disturbed. 
Quick motions irritate the bees. Smoke 
frightens bees so that they do not dare to 
sting. Lack of confidence on the part of the 
operator is a fruitful source of stings, as is, 
also, the leaving of honey where robber bees 
can find it. Trees set thickly between the 
apiary and highway protect passers-by from 
attacks, as the bees fly over the trees. 
No oue variety of bees possesses all the good 
qualities. The common black bees will store 
the most honey when the flow is abundant, but 
the Italians will surpass them working on 
weeds. The blacks are the best comb builders 
and their combs are also the whitest. The 
best varieties of bees should be crossed, aud 
bad qualities bred out. 
It pays to use comb foundation in section 
boxes, but it is doubtful if it is profitable to 
use it iu the brood apartment when hiving 
swarins. 
Cane sugar is the best food possible for win¬ 
tering bees, and it is advisable to serve all the 
white honey possible in sections aud, if the 
bees are lacking in stores, feed them a sirup 
made of cane sugar. In buying honey to feed 
bees there is danger of introducing foul brood 
iuto the apiary. 
Bees do not iu jure sound grapes, but when 
the grapes are open the bees cause trouble by 
sucking the juice. It is impossible to shut the 
bees in, as the time of the grape harvest is too 
long. Bagging the grapes will prevent all 
trouble, but, considering the low prices at 
which grapes are sold, this is too expensive in 
many instances. Grape growers must re¬ 
member, however, that grapes cannot be suc¬ 
cessfully grown without the aid of the bees 
in fertilizing the blossoms,hence the bees must 
remain if people expect to grow grapes. (.'Ed.) 
When sending honey to market each bee¬ 
keeper should put his name and address up¬ 
on each section, using a rubber stamp. Each 
crate should also be stenciled with the grow¬ 
er’s name and address. Some bee-keepers 
place inside each crate a fine, large card upon 
which is printed “ Fine Comb Honey from the 
Apiary of-” then follow the name aud ad¬ 
dress. The grocer can hang this card “in some 
conspicuous place.” Very much may be done 
to advertise honey and create a market, by 
exhibiting it at fairs and selling small pack¬ 
ages. 
In wintering bees it is an excellent plan to 
put a shallow rim, two inches wide, under the 
hive. It allows dead bees and rubbish to drop 
out of the way, keeps the combs dry and clean 
and prevents any clogging of the entrance.. 
Genesee Co. Mich. w. z. hutchinson, 
very tall, rank-growing stalk with abundant 
foliage and ears often six and seven feet from 
the ground. With decent culture there are 
almost invariably two ears to a stalk. Color 
white, with occasionally a flush of the red— 
no red kernels. Ears large. 
Beans. —I have among several hundred 
crosses not less than 50 of the white wax pods, 
of all shades from pink white to silver white. 
Among them are several with beans also 
white. Some are pole, others bush. Many 
of them carry eight or nine beans to the pod. 
The Golden Wax has rotted so badly of late 
that these new varieties will doubtless bo of 
value. I have crossed the Lima, but so far 
have ouly two or three results of any value; all 
of these are smaller and more prolific. I have 
also secured a W bite Cranberry, the pod re¬ 
maining red. A cross of Refugee, alone, in 
all the collection, matures very late; so late 
that it furnishes shell beans until mid-Oetc ber. 
These beans arc very curious in many ways, 
and probably out of the whole there arc 100 
varieties equal to the best in cultivation. But 
I am not satisfied, because, so far, lam unable 
to secure a Lima cross that will replace the 
Lima to ad vantage. The wax beans I have 
decidedly improved. 
Gladioli.—I have several hundred seed¬ 
lings from crossing the choicest old stock. 
These took the first premium as seedlings at 
the State Fail- and have been reported on iu 
the Rural by Mr. Woodward. I had, in 
fact, only about 25 varieties iu blossom at 
that time, and only one or two of those would 
rank among my finest. 
With Gladioli I shall begin another large 
sowing. It needs patience, as the best seed¬ 
lings do not blossom under four years. 
[They sometimes bloom with us the third 
year.—E ds.] 
Grape Seedlings. —I have now begun a 
series of experiments with grape seed from 
Iona, Herbert, Lindlev, Massasoit, etc. I have 
a conviction that we may look for flue results 
in what, may bo called the second cross of Rog¬ 
er’s Seedlings. He has already secured a 
blendiug of foreign and native blood; and his 
seedlings give us the first generation from the 
cross LMiuuehaha is such a gra[ie Eds.] Bet¬ 
ter results may be looked for iu the second or 
third generation from seed without farther 
crossing. The possible permutations from a 
cross do not spend themselves for many gener¬ 
ations, any more than a cross of French and 
IrLb parents will show r all results in the chil¬ 
dren of the first generation. Indeed it is very 
difficult to settle any cross. Break up a varie¬ 
ty of beans and corn, and you will find it a 
very serious affair to get the results fixed or 
established. One pod of beans from such a 
cross, apparently established, will, if planted 
iu one hill, give you a hall’ dozen quite distinct 
kinds, some bringing out a tendency to climb, 
derived from some ancestor far back perhaps: 
others going to the bush form; some turning 
back to yellow, others to red or white. In the 
same way we can be sure that grapes crossed 
and once brought to fruitage have not come to 
an equilibrium. Iu Bogers’s Seedlings we have 
some of the best results of'hybridizing, and 
some of the best possibilities for other results. 
CURRANTS. —Besides my grape experiments, 
I shall experiment with currants. We still 
lack the idea) currant—a red currant as good 
as the White Dutch at its best, and as large 
as Fay’s, and even better in the stem. We 
have no really fine red currant. The White 
Dutch and White Grape in quality surpass all 
the reds, E. p. powell. 
My Jewell Strawberry Plants threw 
out very few runners; while Belrnont, set iu the 
same row, sent them out iu abundance. Both 
sorts had just the same treatment. A straw¬ 
berry grower in a neighboring town had pre¬ 
cisely the same experience with his Jewells, 
while a dozen Belmonts, set at the same time, 
would give nearly 1,000 plants. Have others 
noticed the same thing, or is it peculiar with 
us? It may be due to the season, as one or two 
other sorts which generally keep me busy 
cutting runners, have this year acted about 
like the Jewells. e. c. w. 
Thetford, Vermont. 
Burnt Copies. 
Notes from the Western New York Farm. 
Poinj 
DAIRY NOTES. 
T. D. CURTIS. 
CHICAGO SWILL MILK. 
The foulness of the distillery stables of Chi¬ 
cago, as described by the Chicago press, and 
the manner of keepiug the cows in their filthy 
stalls, getting no food or drink but the distil¬ 
lery slops run to them through foul channels, 
is very suggestive and very disgusting to milk 
consumers. Add to this the prevalence of dis¬ 
ease among the cows, as the natural conse¬ 
quence of the way in which they are kept, aud 
the picture of nastiness is complete. It would 
seem that nothing could more forcibly illus¬ 
trate the low moral status of those who deal 
out the deadly fluid of corruption and disease, 
and the degeneracy of the business plans on 
which men are struggling for the means of 
subsistence. Not only is the milk diseased 
when drawn from the cows, but.it grows more 
and more filthy every moment it remains ex¬ 
posed to the foul atmosphere of the stables 
and their surroundings. The wonder is that 
it ever reaches the consumer iu a condition 
not to so offend the nostrils and palate as to 
cause its peremptory rejection. And then to 
think of its being used for food for infants! 
How is it that the health authorities of auy 
city can permit the existence of such abomi- 
natious? Swill milk from diseased cows, and 
bogus butter made from the fat of animals 
dying of disease^ appear to be among the nor¬ 
mal products of Chicago, as they meet with 
no open public protest aud are not seriously 
interfered with by the authorities! The trav¬ 
eler who is at all squeamish about the food he 
eats will be iuelined to give that city a wide 
berth. 
centrifuge butter. 
There has been, and we suppose will con¬ 
tinue to lie, for some time to come, a good 
deal of discussion about the keeping qualities 
of butter made from cream taken from milk 
by the use of the centrifugal separator. 
The testimony is contradictory; but in 
this case I consider the unfavorable evidence 
in the same light as any other negative testi¬ 
mony. If only oue man has succeeded in 
making butter of good grain, good flavor, and 
good keeping quality, by the use of the centri¬ 
fuge, it shows that the thing can be done, 
under favorable conditions aud by good 
management It appears that a great many 
have done this. The failures, therefore, must 
be in the operators and not in the machines. 
But as the machine throws all the heavier 
materials to the circumference, aud thus 
effects a general purification, may it not thus 
deprive the cream of some of its valuable 
ingredients, ns well as of its impurities? Are 
the minerals—the phosphates—all held in such 
perfect solution that no loss occurs to either 
the cream or the skim-milk? 
WARM STABLES. 
Are your stables for your cows warm and 
well ventilated, so as to be both comfortable 
and sweet? If not, set to work at once to 
make them so, for in this you will find true 
economy—both a saving of food and an in¬ 
creased product, if you are making butter or 
cheese, or simply peddling milk. But do not 
seek to secure warmth by the close confine¬ 
ment of your cows. There must be a free 
circulation of air in order to secure the good 
health of the cows aud a sweet-flavored product. 
If with good ventilation,letting the air in at the 
head of the cows and out at the rear, you can 
not keep np the required temperature, then 
resort to artificial heating. It will pay. Once 
the arrangements are made for heating, the 
expense will be comparatively small, as a high 
temperature will not be required. The range 
of temperature for health aud comfort is 
about 15 degrees—that is, from 45 to 60 de¬ 
grees Fahr. Below this, cows standing in the 
stall will begin to shiver and feel uncomfort¬ 
able; above, discomfort follows and they will 
begin to pant. It is much cheaper to burn 
fuel in a heater than food in the cow to keep 
up the animal heat. 
AVOID CHILLING YOUR COWS. 
Remember that the least chill of the cow 
shrinks her mess of milk and affects her gen¬ 
eral health. Even exposure to the chilling 
blast of a cold day long enough to drink at a 
trough in a barnyard has been found to pro¬ 
duce a considerable shrinkage of milk. It is 
wise economy, therefore, to provide for water¬ 
ing cows without such exposure. Some dairy¬ 
men even resort to warming the water to 
GO or 70 degrees before setting it be¬ 
fore the cow, and find it pays for the ex¬ 
pense and trouble in the increased flow of 
milk. Stirring ltea handful or two of meal 
to each pailful gives a relish to the drink and 
adds to its consumption. This is an advan¬ 
tage in the way of nourishment, and it is self- 
evident that considerable vrater is required for 
VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS. 
Every horticulturist and every farmer 
should have on baud each year one or more 
experiments in the way of cross-breeding 
plants or animals. I have the following to 
report: 
Sweet Corn —I have received two valu¬ 
able sweet corns, only one of which is, I 
think, of superior worth. This iR a cross of 
Moore’s Concord and the Red Sweet with 
Blount’s (Tennessee. Eds.) Prolific, giving me a 
In putting in pipes for supplying water, 
whether from a tank and windmill or from a 
spring, it does not pay to use those that are 
too small. The time wasted in waiting for 
the water to run would soon pay for the larger 
ones and leave a good margin for profit. Those 
which were in our old born have been iu use 
now about, uiuo years, and when taking them 
down recently to put in larger ones we found 
them so filled with rust that in many places 
the bore was not over three-eighths of an inch. 
In putting in the new ones IX Inch were 
used for mains, and one inch for service pipes, 
and the Wells Rustless Iron Co.’s pipe was 
used in place of the common. From the ap¬ 
pearance I am much pleased with it aud be¬ 
lieve it will prove practically rust-proof. If 
so, no one would begrudge the small differ¬ 
ence iu price, which for inch pipe is less than 
1 1 4 cent per foot. 
* * * 
We harvested this year the best crop of 
mangels we havu ever grown. The varieties 
were Mammoth Long Red, Orange Globe and 
Golden, Taukard. The average yield was at 
the rate of over 30 tons per acre, and the best 
ones went over 34 tons. The Golden Tankards 
were immense, and are of tine shape. My new 
way of raising them in hills gives an immense 
yield of medium-sized roots and these please 
me better than the very large ones. I can’t 
see how any farmer can afford to winter his 
stock without plenty of this very healthful 
food. 
* * * 
One of my neighbors has been trying to 
burn his old straw, and when he was not suc¬ 
cessful in this, he gave it to anyone who would 
draw it away. Ho claims that he can use 
commercial fertilizers cheaper and to better 
profit tbau to draw out and scatter his straw. 
I call this man a crank, for while it rnay be 
true that, there is but very little plant food iu 
the straw, its use upon the land with me has 
a mechanical effect which would pay for its 
application even if it contained no plant food. 
But then the true way to use straw is as part 
of the ration for fatting stock and as an ab¬ 
sorbent for the liquid voidings of the same. I 
can find no fault with anyone who buys and 
uses commercial fertilizers if he can do so 
making crops pay for them besides labor of 
production, but any man who cannot use his 
straw and coarse fodder to better advantage 
than to give it away must be lacking in the 
knowledge of the farm aud of stock growing. 
1 have a use for much more straw than 1 can 
grow, and it pays me to buy it. 
J. 8. WOODWARD. 
tarn: Ccrpk#* 
REMINISCENCES OF THE « GOOD OLD 
TIMES.” 
In the Rural for November 14th, page 753, 
is a letter headed “The Good Old Times,” In 
which a veteran Orange County farmer at Go¬ 
shen, New York, is reported os saying: “I 
guess that all those farmers wbo are groaning 
so about low prices aud high taxes and who 
are longing for the‘good old times’ don’t re¬ 
member much about these same ‘g< od old 
times.” He also says: “ l can remember when 
we were compelled to haul our grain, butter, 
pork and eggs all the way to Newburg. getting 
generally 15 cents a bushel for oats, and 10 
cents a pound for butter; 75 cents a bushel for 
wheat were fancy prices: nice corn-fed pork 
dressed for $2 a hundred.” Also that he paid 
for taxes $100 ou 100 acres of land when he 
was getting only 10 cents a pound for his but¬ 
ter, while now on the same farm the taxes are 
$42.50, and his dairy briugs, the year round, 
nearly three times 10 cents for butter; so that 
such butter as he sold for 10 cents a pound 
would now bring him 75 cents easily if bo 
had such to sell. 
It is always interesting to hear and know of 
the “good old times,” but iu this case it seems 
to me that this same veteran farmer is liable 
to the imputation that others don’t remember 
the good old times, from the fact that he has 
not given any dates to show when he paid his 
$100; whether that was of yearly occurrence 
or only a special tax that did not occur again. 
Had he given the year or years when he paid 
such taxes, the readers could have some data 
for comparing the past with the present. 
Now, 1 have some means of knowing of past 
times, aud will give some statements from 
sales and account books kept by me and my 
ancestors, not from guesswork as t-lie veteran 
farmer of Goshen seems to have done. It is 
53 years Rince 1 paid my first taxes on my 
farm, which were then $7.40. From that time 
to 1846—a period of 13 years—the taxes had 
increased to $10.68—the amount paid that 
year. In 1843 25 acres of land were puit based 
5 acres of which have since been sold. Al¬ 
though the purchase had been made three' 
years, the taxes hail increased in those 18 
yea rs of old times but $3.19. Iu 1*00 my taxes 
were $42.10; in 1861,$58.70 were paid; $108.50 
in 1863; $201.02 in 1*04: $492.58 were paid in 
1805, which was th*- highest amount paid. In 
18(H) $142,83 were paid, where the taxes have 
remained very steadily from that time to the 
present on 190 acres of farming laud. When 
we paid high taxes during the war, farm proe 
duee was high; now farmers find produc- 
genorully low compared with farm labor aud 
taxes. 
In regard to prices I have received better 
