TJIE CULTIVATOR 
Osage Hedges. 
In a recent ride through a very fine and fertile por¬ 
tion of the country, we saw many attempted Osage 
Orange hedges. Some had been recently planted, and 
others had evidently had an existence of some years. 
Not one of them was of any value whatever, as a 
hedge. The cause of this failure was most obvious. 
None received the slightest culture of any value. 
Some indeed, had had the soil spaded once, in a strip 
about six inches wide on each side ; the rest none at 
all. In many cases, more than half the original plants 
had died out, leaving gaps of various degrees of 
width ; and in one instance an attempt was made to 
patch up the gaps by a sort of plashing. A farmer 
might as well undertake to remedy the “skips’ 7 in his 
cornfield, by plashing together the tassels, instead of 
beginning at the bottom, making an even and sure 
planting, and then giving a broad surface of ground, 
clean, mellow, constant cultivation. In order to pro¬ 
duce the best effect, the strip of cultivated land on each 
side of the hedge, should not be less than five feet 
wide, as we have stated on former occasions—making 
the whole strip ten feet wide. Three feet each side 
might possibly do the first year, four would be better. 
Cultivation however, is but a part of the process of 
hedge-making—cutting back freely and heavily, after 
the first two years, to thicken the bottom, and so rising 
successively at each semi-annual shearing, is all-essen¬ 
tial. Those who will not cultivate their hedges, nor 
take any care of them, do not deserve success—they 
certainly will not get it. 
Some one may exclaim, “ Oh, this is too much care 
and labor!” To such we are not writing—those who 
prefer idleness to industry, indolence to thought, weeds 
to clean culture, stunted crops to heavy products, and 
sham fences torn down by cattle and hogs, to neat, 
finished, and complete barriers, will naturally seek the 
condition of the savage. The western Indian, when 
asked what work he liked best, answered, “Me like to 
sit under shade of tree and see white man work !” 
Doubtless he would prefer the more simple and easy 
mode of never cultivating either crops or hedges. 
Labor is one of the blessings of life, and happiness 
consists in overcoming difficulties; and when a good 
hedge is superadded to these, one would think the in¬ 
ducement sufficient to take hold and manage the busi¬ 
ness in a proper manner. The cost of the plants for 
thirty rods, is five dollars; handsomely preparing the 
strip of land one dollar more ; planting, one fifty; in 
all seven dollars and fifty cents, or twenty-five cents a 
rod. The subsequent cultivation, by means of ahorse. 
ten times in a season, or once a fortnight for five 
months, would not be more than at the rate of a dollar 
a year—that is, the whole task of cultivating, for the 
four first years, or until the hedge becomes a perfect 
harrier, would be but little more than half the setting 
out, or 13 cents a rod. The whole cost of the com¬ 
pleted hedge, would be only about fifty cents a rod; 
yet because of the “trouble” of cultivating it, many 
plant out at a cost of twenty-five cents a rod, and after 
it has perished from neglect, make another fence of 
rails, boards, or pickets, costing variously from fifty 
cents to two dollars a rod more. Such is the wisdom of 
indolence ! 
The first conclusion is, “The Osage Orange is good 
for nothing for hedges !” and the remark is as true as 
can be, as applicable to the management it usually 
receives. 
A Cheap Ice-House 
In a late number of the Country Gentleman, inquiry 
is made as to the construction of an ice-house. I have 
never seen one like my own, and give you a descrip¬ 
tion of it. Although standing on a steep hill-side, 
facing the south, and entirely unprotected by any 
shade, our ice keeps until we wish to clean it out to fill 
the house next year. The east and south sides are 
entirely above ground; the other sides mostly below 
ground. In digging the place for it to stand, we made 
a sufficient slope to the east to drain the water off. 
The sills and joists, ten inches deep, were laid on this 
bed, east and west, and the spaces filled with saw-dust. 
The floor laid flush to the outside of the sills; then 
two-inch plank 18 inches wide, placed on end upon this 
floor, the edge of the plank flush with the outside of 
the sills, so as to take the place of studs, two feet 
apgrt; the outside and inside edges of these plank are 
boarded up tightly, and the spaces filled with sawdust 
to the top ; then two strips of 2 by 4 inch plank nailed 
one on the inside and the other on the outside of the 
top ends of these plank, to support the rafters for a 
double roof; the rafters from the inside tightly boarded 
over, and sawdust covered to the top of the outside 
rafters, and then the roof put on. A small box or flue 
six inches square is inserted in the ridge of the roof 
for the escape of heated air. The ice I cover with 
sawdust about a foot deep, and when the ice melts away 
from the outside so as to leave a space of five or six 
inches between the ice and the building, fill that with 
sawdust. I have no doubt that a house twelve feet 
square on the inside, and twelye feet deep, filled with 
good ice and treated in the above manner, will keep 
two years. Sawdust is an excellent non-conductor. 
Wm. P. Mellen. Lawrence Co, Ky. 
Profits of Bees. 
Messrs. Editors —I will give you the profits of my 
bees this year. Erom my 18 stands of bees I sold 
about, as near as I can now calculate, $14.09 worth of 
honey in July ; and in August I took from caps of 
these bees 150 lbs. of the first quality of honey, which 
I sold at 25 cents per. lb., and to-morrow I will start 
with 207 lbs. more of the same kind, and taken from 
the same 18 stands of bees, which will make 357 lbs. 
of first quality honey, (besides the $14 worth,) made 16 
stands of bees since harvest^ two being very small 
swarms which had none to spare this fall, but are good 
now to keep over. The best stand filled since harvest 
sir caps full, which weighed in clear honey, 86 pounds, 
and are now busy to fill the seventh cap, which is 
nearly half full at this date. All the main hives are 
yet full enough to winter over. 
Last spring I took off all the spare honey from these 
stands, and rather too close for so rainy a s ason as we 
had till June, so that some of my hives were lighter 
in June than in spring after I had taken the spare 
honey. I got but two swarms about the middle of 
August this season, but they are good enough to win¬ 
ter over with the right care, and one swarm came to 
me in the yard, which I saw come, and stopped it. It 
is good for a small swarm—and one I found in a tree 
in the woods, whereof I saved the bees but not the 
queen ; but I gave them the comb with young and 
eggs that was not broken by the falling of the tree, 
and they soon had a queen, and are doing well. As 
for millers and worms, I have no fears, and never ex¬ 
pect to have while I Can tend my bees. I give no kind 
of feed to my bees in summer. George Gebhart. 
Union City, Lid., Sept. 27. 
