1883.] 
AMEKIC®| AGRICULTURIST. 
407 
animals. Most of the trading is half barter and half 
money. The visit of the trader is a great occasion. 
Then the old iron scales are brought out and huug 
on the bull’s horn at the door, and the year’s harvest 
raked down from the loft of the house, where it 
Fig. 4.— SELLING THE CROP. 
has been stored. It is a curious fact that the Al¬ 
paca farmer will never let a trader use any other 
scales. He is afraid of being cheated. But he lets 
the trader weigh the wool with his own weights, 
and I fancy the trader is satisfied with the bargain. 
During the solitary portion of the year the women 
of the Alpaca farm card and spin the wool, and 
weave it into blankets and ponchos, or cloaks, 
which latter are simply blankets with a hole in the 
middle for the head to pass through. The wool 
trader in figure 4 wears a poncho. These ponchos 
are sometimes ornamented with grotesque but effec¬ 
tive patterns in dyed wool. They are sold, like 
the wool, to traders who carry them to the coast. 
The region of the Alpaca farmers is the most 
dreary and inhospitable on the continent. The 
Fig. 5.—AN ALPACA FARMER. 
nights at these high levels are always bitter cold, 
and the air is so thin that bullocks brought up to 
the plateaus soon die, apparently of consumption. 
The lapd produces only potatoes, tiny, fyard as 
bullets, and bitter as quinine. These can only be 
eaten after the bitterness has been roasted out of 
them. The houses are built as regular fortresses 
against the weather. They only have a couple of 
small loopholes for ventilation, and the stench at 
night, when the doors are closed, and the oily reek 
of the wool overhead pervades and mingles with 
that of unwashed humanity, is simply abominable. 
The Alpaca farmer is a creature of the earth, 
ignorant and superstitious, but he is a mild-natured 
fellow, aud is nominally a Christian. His life is a 
miserable one, but he alone is fitted to live it. It 
is as impossible for a denizen of the coast country 
or a European to exist among the mountains, as 
it has been found to acclimatize the Alpaca in civ¬ 
ilized countries. In my ride across from Lima into 
Bolivia, I suffered almost as great inconveniences 
and miseries in breathing and in rushes of blood to 
my head, as I experienced a year ago in a descent 
into the compressed air inside the lock of the 
Hudson River tunnel. 
About the only thing that will stir an Alpaca 
farmer up to rage, is the wanton killing of one of 
his sheep. Travellers sometimes make free with 
their revolvers among the flocks, and several mur¬ 
ders have occurred in consequence. In every case 
the murderer was an Alpaca farmer, who thus 
avenged himself for the injury done his property. 
Unlike the Llama, the Alpaca cannot be used as 
a bearer of burdens. It makes its only concession 
to man when it permits him to deprive it of its 
fleece. The Llama produces a fleece also, but it is 
coarser and less beautiful than the Alpaca’s, be¬ 
sides being different in texture. Of late years, 
Alpaca wool has been considerably adulterated 
with that of the Llama, but this is the work of the 
traders. The sharp practises of our acute modern 
business systems have not yet infected the simple 
denizen of the mountains. As civilization is 
rapidly invading even the Andes, it will not be 
safe to calculate too far on the Alpaca farmer re¬ 
maining innocent of the tricks of trade. 
The New York Cattle Quarantine. 
The United States Cattle Quarantine Station for 
the port of New York is located at Garfield, N. J., 
twelve miles from New York City. It comprises 
forty acres of ground, devoted to stables, and ad¬ 
joining yards. About a dozen of these stables are 
erected, and others are building. They vary in 
size, from those holding a small importation of 
four or five head, to those with a double line of 
stalls, accommodating thirty or more cattle. 
All cattle arriving at New York from Europe, 
Asia, Africa, Australia, or New Zealand, must be 
quarantined at these grounds for ninety days, 
dating from the time of shipment. The import¬ 
ed animals are all examined by the Government 
Inspector before they leave the wharves. If suf¬ 
fering from lung plague, rinderpest, or other dan¬ 
gerous contagious disease, they are not removed to 
the regular quarantine, but dealt with as the Gov¬ 
ernment authorities may determine. While cattle 
are arriving at or departing from quarantine, all 
other animals are rigidly confined to their sheds. 
Only those arriving by the same ship can occupy 
stables together. The food and attendance are pro¬ 
vided by the owner of the stock quarantined, and 
the employes of such owners keep the stables and 
yards clean, under directions of the superintendent. 
The Station has only been open for cattle for a 
few weeks, and we found only one hundred and 
three animals passing through quarantine. Among 
these was a small herd of four Swiss cattle in fine 
condition, a lot of young stock from the Island 
of Guernsey, and a herd of Dutch Friesian cows, 
yearlings and calves from Holland. The stables 
are commodious and well ventilated. There is a 
store-room for feed, and a pen for the manure. 
The dung is held in quarantine for three months 
after the animals voiding it have gone, and is sub¬ 
sequently removed from the grounds. 
There are three other Quarantine Stations in the 
United States, namely, at Portland, Me., Boston, 
Mass., and Baltimore, Md. The inspector makes a 
daily round, and notes the condition of the ani¬ 
mals. In case of the appearance of any dangerous 
disease of a contagious nature, the inspector noti¬ 
fies the chairman of the Treasury Cattle Commis¬ 
sion, and after a thorough inspection, the affected 
herd is disposed of according to the gravity of the 
disease. Dr. A. M. Farrington is the veterinary 
inspector and superintendent at Garfield, N. J. 
In many parts of the United States, the autumn 
honey harvest is little inferior to that of June and 
July. The honey of the aster and golden rod is 
golden rather than light-colored, but in flavor it is 
not surpassed by that from any other source. By 
a little care, we have found no difficulty in secur¬ 
ing honey from autumn flowers that was pro¬ 
nounced by judges as of the best quality. Care, 
then, should be taken to give the bees opportunity 
to secure this autumn harvest in “sections.” Suffi¬ 
cient extracting should be done to keep the queen 
laying to the full extent of her capacity. If there 
is a good market for the extracted honey at half 
the price secured for comb honey, we may well ex¬ 
tract as rapidly as the bees gather, commencing 
the work just as the bees begin to cap the honey. 
PREPARATION FOR WINTER. 
The apiarist should prepare his bees for winter 
as soon as the frost makes all farther gathering of 
honey impossible. Examination will show whether 
there is sufficient honey stored to winter the bees- 
If the frames, just as they are taken from the hives, 
containing bees, honey and comb, weigh thirty 
pounds in the aggregate, then there is enough 
honey. If not, good thick honey, or thick syrup, 
made by dissolving granulated sugar, should be 
fed at once, so that all cells may be capped over 
before the cold days of October check the labors 
of the hive. It is best that the honey be so abun¬ 
dant in the frames that we need not give the bees 
all the frames used in summer. It is better to use 
not more than seven or eight Gallup or American 
frames, and not more than five or six Langstrotli 
frames. These are confined by division boards. 
It is best to carefully exclude pollen. Frames of 
pollen are set aside, to be returned when breeding 
is resumed the succeeding spring. The bees may 
easily change the position of the cluster in the 
cold days of winter, and it is desirable to cut 
small holes the size of a thimble through the 
combs, an inch or two above the center. Cover 
above the bees with sacks of dry saw-dust, which, 
should be long enough to reach over the division 
boards and to the bottom of the hive. These pro¬ 
tect the bees from the extremes of heat and cold, 
and promote healthfulness. Thus prepared, the 
bees to be wintered in chaff hives on their summer 
stands, will need no farther care until the succeed¬ 
ing April. If the bees are placed in the cellar, 
they need not be touched again until just before 
winter comes, when they are to be taken in.. 
THE BEE TENT. 
As is well known, bees becom.e irritable if han¬ 
dled after gathering ceases in the autumn. To 
take out extra combs, extract the uncapped honey, 
and prepare for winter as directed above, is often 
the most dreaded work of the season. The bees 
seem cross at the failure to obtain labor, and can 
not endure disturbance. By using a bee tent, made 
of wire gauze or mosquito netting, and large 
enough to set over the hive and operator, all this 
danger and trouble is avoided. The bees are appar¬ 
ently frightened into good behavior, and are as 
amiable as though in the midst of the honey har¬ 
vest. The bee tent also prevents robbing, which is 
quite likely to be induced if we work with the bees 
when they are irritable from enforced idleness. 
The early part of this season, in most sections 
of the country, has been cold, and more lately, ex¬ 
ceedingly wet. From previous experience, we 
should not expect much honey, but, to our sur¬ 
prise, we are securing a good harvest. The white 
clover and basswood bloom have been very abun¬ 
dant, and the warm, moist interims between the 
abundant showers has seemed to furnish the bees 
a fine opportunity, which they have improved. 
