1S46. THE CULTIVATOR. 305 
will not attempt to scale the sides, and the walls form 
a perfectly safe fence against them. 
Bees. —Considerable numbers of bees are kept in this 
section. The most successful cultivator of this descrip¬ 
tion of stock which we met with, was Mr. Nathan 
Howard of Stephentown. He has long studied the ha¬ 
bits of these insects with close observation, and has no 
doubt obtained a very correct knowledge of their eco¬ 
nomy. He has a house of somewhat peculiar construc¬ 
tion in which his bees are kept. It is so contrived that 
it may be readily closed, the light totally.excluded, and 
yet be ventilated. The walls are double, and when it 
is closed, the bees are not much affected by changes in 
the temperature of the weather, so that they remain in 
a quiet or half dormant state, requiring comparatively 
but little food throughout the winter season. In summer 
it is opened, but the rays of the sun do not strike the 
hives. It appears to us altogether the best plan for 
wintering bees that we have ever seen. But we have 
not attempted a particular description of the house or 
Mr. H.’s mode of management, as we expect some de¬ 
tails on these points from him. 
New-Lebanon Springs. —We made a short call at 
these springs, which seem to become every year more 
popular. We believe the number of visitors at the se¬ 
veral hotels, including the patients at the Hydropathic 
Institution here, has averaged nearly 300 for a conside¬ 
rable portion of the present season. A considerable 
market is thus afforded for the fruits, vegetables, &c. 
produced in the neighborhood. By the politeness of 
Mr. Hall, the proprietor of the Columbian Hotel, we 
took a look at the baths, the fountain, &c. The water 
is the most perfectly pure and limpid that can be ima¬ 
gined. It issues from the rock at the rate of from twelve 
to fifteen barrels per minute, and of a temperature of 
about 72 degrees. A bottle of this water, which we i 
took from the fountain, is now undergoing a chemical 
examination by Prof. Emmons of this city. The re¬ 
sults of this investigation may show to what principle 
the beneficial effects of bathing in this water are spe¬ 
cially attributable. 
VISIT TO THE SHAKERS. 
The present settlement of Shakers, or United Breth¬ 
ren, at New-Lebanon, was the first spot on which this 
sect ever located. They commenced here about forty 
years ago. The society consists at present of about 600 
persons, more than half of which are females. From 
small beginnings, they have acquired large possessions, 
holding at this time not less than seven thousand acres j 
of land, mostly lying contiguously. We spent a few | 
hours examining various objects connected with this 
community. 
Their buildings are all built in the most substantial ' 
manner, and are constructed with particular regard to 
convenience. One of their barns is, considered in all 
respects, the best contrived and most perfect of any we 
have seen. It is one hundred and forty-one feet long, 
fifty feet wide, and twenty-five feet high in the walls. 
It consists of three stories. The basement is devoted to 
the stock and the storage of vegetables in winter; the se¬ 
cond and third to hay and grain. The main entrance 
for produce is in the third story, which, from the barn 
being on the side of a hill, is nearly level with the 
ground. A floor runs lengthwise through the barn, on 
this story, and the hay and other articles are pitched 
downward into the bays on each side. The barn is ca¬ 
pable of containing two hundred tons of hay, and it is 
so disposed that scarcely any of it has to be raised high¬ 
er than the w r agon from which i-t is thrown. Only two 
hands are necessary to unload—one to pitch off, and one 
to keep the mow level, thus saving a great amount of 
labor compared with what is required in barns of com¬ 
mon construction. 
The apartments for the cattle are complete. The 
walls which are of very solid stone-work, are plastered, 
and though cool in summer, we should suppose they 
would be so warm in winter that no frost would be found 
there; windows in each side permit free ventilation. 
The foduer is thrown into racks for the stock, from the 
“ feeding floor” in the second story. In front of the 
racks are mangers to catch any straws that drop from 
the racks, as the fodder is pulled out by the animals. 
An open space is left between the racks and mangers, 
which allows the animals ready access to fresh air, pre¬ 
vents the hay in the racks from being made unpalatable 
by their breath, and gives room also to slip in boxes 
when it is wished to feed with slops or roots. The man. 
who had charge of the stock, said he could feed and take 
care of a hundred animals in this barn with less labor 
than he could manage twenty in any other barn he ever 
saw. The cattle stand on a platform with a gentle slope, 
which renders it easier to keep them clean and dry. 
The cows are tied by chains around the neck, and are 
always milked in their stalls summer and winter. They 
are milked exactly at fixed times. So punctual are the 
attendants to this, that a clock is kept in the apartment, 
and the herdsman told us at what moment the cows 
would be in their places. 
The barnyard is so contrived that none of the manure 
is wasted. It is kept littered with straw and such waste 
matters as can be procured, and the manure from the 
stalls is made into compost with that in the yard, mixed 
with muck, and is not used till it has become fine by 
decomposition. 
Neat Siock! —The cattle kept here are nearly all 
crossed with Short-Horn blood, and some are purely of 
this variety. Some years since a bull and three cows 
were procured by this community from their brethren 
near Lebanon, Ohio. They were of the Short-Horn 
stock imported into Kentucky by Lewis Sanders and 
others, commonly known as the importation of 1817. 
The descendants of the animals procured from Ohio are 
still kept. About twenty j^ears ago, the society hired 
for one season Gorham Parsons’ imported bull Fortu- 
natus or Holderness.* This bull was no doubt of the same 
breed as the animals of the Kentucky importation of 1817, 
they having been all procured from the same section, the 
banks of the Tees in England. The two branches of 
this stock, that derived from Kentucky and the bull 
Holderness, have here been bred together, and the stock 
thus produced exhibits quite an uniform character. 
They are generally large, tolerably well shaped animals, 
but rather heavy in bone, and somewhat coarse-fleshed. 
Some of them have the appearance of great milkers. 
We were told that the progeny of Holderness were ge¬ 
nerally superior for the dairy. We believe this to have 
been true of his stock generally, and he was used for 3 
long time and in many neighborhoods, in different parts 
of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and finally in Western 
New-York. The society here have many of the second 
generation, which show strongly the characteristics of 
the old bull, and it is only a year or two since they sent 
a cow to Virginia, which was one of his immediate off¬ 
spring. Several members stated that Holderness was of 
more value to them than any other bull they had ever 
used, and that they would gladly give a large price for 
another of the same stock or similar character. Some 
crosses with the Ayrshire breed have lately been intro¬ 
duced. They are considerably smaller than the other 
stock, but it does not yet appear that they have any par¬ 
ticular superiority for any purpose. A longer trial may, 
however, more fully develope their qualities, and induce 
a more favorable opinion of them. The cattle are all 
in fine order and show that they are properly cared for. 
Dairying. —The manufacture of butter and cheese is 
only carried on to the extent demanded by home con¬ 
sumption. Cheese was formerly produced for sale, and 
of such quality, that it commanded (when old) from 
twenty to twenty-five cents per pound. The same sys¬ 
tem of manufacture is still pursued. The different dairy 
apartments were shown to us, and all information in re- 
£ ard to the various processes and management cheerful 
ly given. The buildings appropriated to this branch of 
business are rather small. They were erected soon after 
the commencement of the society, and are less conve- 
vient than most of their modern structures are; it is, 
therefore, designed to supply their place by a new edi¬ 
fice, to be constructed on the most approved plan. The 
* For a history of this animal, see Cultivator, for 1845, p. 349. 
