10 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
the hive, and allow the bees to leave the cluster and go 
among the stores for a supply, they will starve. Take 
such hives into a dark, warm room for a short time. It is 
seldom that severe weather is sufficiently protracted to 
make it necessary to take this trouble with strong, good 
stocks. Keep air-passages unobstructed, particularly 
those at the bottom. If mice have found their way into 
the hive, the fact may be known by crumbs of comb 
scattered on the bottom-board. Exclude them by wire- 
cloth over the entrance, allowing room for only one bee 
to pass at a time, and set traps for the mice. Now is the 
time to prepare the hives for next summer. Of course 
my preference for movable-comb hives, such as I use, is 
well understood, and I would impress on all intelligent 
beekeepers the advantage of frames of some sort. We 
are just getting acquainted with bees, and without mov¬ 
able combs we shall progress no more rapidly than we 
did hundreds of years before they appeared. We cannot 
afford to do without movable combs. 
Snow. —Snow, philosophically or poetically 
considered, is very beautiful; practically, while 
it is often very useful, it is generally a nuisance. 
Especially on a December morning is it so, 
when, on turning out to do the chores, one finds 
it more than a foot deep, and the ax with 
which the day’s wood must be cut covered up 
and not to be found without much digging and 
rooting. Then roads and paths must be shoveled 
out, and the pig-troughs, which are also covered 
up, be found and dug out. Then the breast- 
chains and neck-yoke, which were thrown 
down as usual last night, can not be found, and 
much trouble is caused therein'. Then the 
shovel is under the snow, and the hoes were 
left in the field where some potatoes are yet 
undug, and the log-chain was left in a fence cor¬ 
ner somewhere, but as it is under the snow it 
takes a day to search for it, without success, 
and a new one must be purchased. And this is 
all the consequence of not having “ a place for 
everything and keeping everything in its place.” 
There is nothing like a good, deep fall of snow 
for teaching the value of this old saw. 
Ice-Houses that will Keep Ice. 
J. W. M. Creary, Cave, Ill., has trouble with 
his ice-house; the ice does not keep in it, and 
in his description of it he says it is raised off the 
ground one to two feet. Here is sufficient cause, 
without looking any further, for the loss of the 
ice. In accordance with the request of our cor¬ 
respondent, we give a plan for building an ice¬ 
house that will keep ice the year round. Choose 
a sloping piece of ground for the site, and dig 
out a space one foot deep, lowest at one corner, 
to provide for drainage. Bed the sills in the 
soil (a sandy or gravelly piece should be chosen, 
on account of its being sufficiently dry), and lay 
a plank floor immediately on the bottom, leav¬ 
ing no space for air to penetrate. Build up 
from the foundation a building not less than 
ten feet square, with double walls one foot or 
eighteen inches apart. Batten the inner walls 
with rough boards, and fill in between these 
walls with sawdust, tan-bark, charcoal dust, or 
cut straw, well tramped down. The roof is not 
of great importance, so that it is made to shed 
the rain perfectly. Close in the gable ends, and 
make a door in one of them large enough to 
allow of putting the ice in, and of getting it out 
when wanted. A ventilator should be made in 
the roof in such a manner as to prevent rain 
from entering. A drain should be dug all around 
the building deeper than the foundation, so as 
to keep that perfectly dry. If water penetrates 
the bottom, the ice will waste. Fill the house 
during cold weather. Spread a layer of saw¬ 
dust, tan-bark, or cut straw, a foot thick, on the 
bottom. On this place the blocks of ice, cut all 
of equal size, so as to fit compactly together; 
build up the blocks, and keep a space of one 
foot at least between the ice and inside wall, 
which must be packed well with whatever 
material you are using. Thus go on until the 
house is filled, when two feet of the packing 
may be placed on the top. As ice is taken out, 
no part should be disturbed but the top, and 
the loose packing should always be replaced be¬ 
fore the ice is left. If there is a knoll conve¬ 
nient to the house, and the ice-house can be 
located there, the foundation may be dug six 
feet or more beneath the surface (always being 
careful to have perfect drainage). It will be 
more convenient to fill, and also to take out ice. 
A shade of climbing plants, such as beans, 
morning-glory, hops, etc., planted around the 
house, would help to keep it cool, and ornament 
the otherwise bare walls. 
The Causes of Disease in Sheep. 
The report of the Agricultural Department 
for 1870 states that “ there was during that year 
no loss amongst flocks that had been well fed 
and properly treated; and that nearly all the 
losses reported were traceable to cruel neglect 
and reckless disregard of the health and com¬ 
fort of the sheep affected.” We can not hut 
indorse the truth of all this. Not that we 
would be understood to say that either the 
“ cruel neglect or reckless disregard ” was in¬ 
tentional, but it was not the less to be depre¬ 
cated that it was the result of a want of knowl¬ 
edge of the proper mode of treatment. It is 
widely believed that sheep do not need water 
in winter. This is a great mistake, and leads 
to cruel neglect. If sheep are permitted access 
to water it will be seen that not only do they 
drink often but that they are very choice about 
the quality of what they drink. In a pasture 
there may be a spring brook and a pure, bub¬ 
bling spring. The sheep will pass twenty rods 
down the bank of the brook to drink from the 
spring. And yet we have seen sheep shut up 
in a filthy yard, and compelled to drink the 
liquid manure that filled the holes trodden in 
the snow and dung. Is not the severity of the 
above-quoted remark justified in such cases? 
Then, again, sheep suffer from irregularity in 
feeding; from close, damp atmosphere; from 
sudden changes in temperature; and of all 
stock kept on a farm, the sheep generally fare 
the worst, are subject to most neglect in feed¬ 
ing, have the poorest lodging, and are not seldom 
left to lie out in the storm, supposing that they 
can stand all this on account of the warm coat 
nature has provided for them; forgetting all the 
while that this coat depends for its quality 
and warmth on the care and treatment they 
receive. The fact is, many farmers pick up a 
few sheep for the reason that they can “ browse 
around,” and cost nothing for their keep. The 
result generally is discovered to be that what 
costs nothing is worth just what it costs and 
no more.- Now all this leads to disease, loss, 
and unfavorable ideas of the value of sheep as 
stock, when with proper care and well-judged 
treatment they may be made to pay as well, or 
better, than any investment a farmer can make. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 24. 
I have just been making a calculation of my 
sales of Jersey cattle, and the result is not dis¬ 
couraging. The first sale was made in Septem¬ 
ber, 1869 (a yearling heifer for $300). In the 
twenty-six months since that time there have 
been sold from the herd of thorough-bred ani¬ 
mals, fourteen females of all ages, at prices 
varying from $100 to $750, and averaging 
$344.64, and males (mostly calves), at juices 
varying from $25 to $200, and averaging $84.50. 
The average for all animals sold, all ages and 
both sexes, is $236.25. Eight of these were full- 
grown cows, whose average price was $453.12, 
Six were heifers averaging eleven months old, 
whose average price was $200. Four of the 
bulls were between one and two years old, and 
their average price was $137.50. Six were calves 
averaging less than six months old, and then- 
average price was $49.16. I have made these 
computations to show that ju every class the 
animals have been sold at prices that pay a 
handsome profit on the cost of production. I 
am glad, too, to feel sure that every animal sold 
will he a source of satisfactory profit to its pur¬ 
chaser, if only lie will attend to the purity and 
quality of the blood with which he crosses. 
Especial!}' so as the belief is daily extending that 
the Jersey is the great butter-blood of the 
country. The late D. B. Fearing, of Newport, 
who owned some very fine specimens of the 
breed, was for many years in the habit of giving 
away his bull-calves to the farmers in the 
neighborhood. The result is that even with 
the most careless neglect in the matter of breed¬ 
ing, high-grade Jerseys are quite common all 
about us, and the superiority of the blood for 
butter-making is as fully demonstrated in the 
minds of our farmers as is the superiority of 
the Ayrshire blood for milk. Mr. C. S. Sargent, 
of Brookline, Mass., to whom I have before re¬ 
ferred, writes me that the cows from which lie 
has made butter during the past year have 
averaged him nearly $300, in butter alone. His 
animals are nearly all of the choicest, and have 
been fed better than most farmers would be able 
to feed the whole year around. He gets, too, the 
enormous price of $1.15 per pound for his butter, 
at wholesale, which is nearly twice as much as 
most farmers could hope to get for an equally 
good article. I have recently had evidence in 
my own herd of the persistency with which 
this breed gives a large yield of butter under 
even the most unfavorable circumstances. My 
cows, during the month of October, had the ldue- 
pox, nearly the whole herd having it at the same 
time. This reduced their flow of milk fully 
fifty per cent, yet the greatest reduction of butter 
was less than twenty per cent. 
They have now (end of November) nearly all 
recovered, and the flow of milk has increased 
f 
in the case of the cows that are not too near 
their calving time, without any material increase 
of butter. This seems to indicate that the ten¬ 
dency of a Jersey cow to convert her food into 
butter may continue independently of a disturb¬ 
ance of the milk-producing faculty. It helps, 
too, to confirm an opinion that is quite common 
among the older breeders of the race, that it is 
not the largest milking Jerseys that are the most 
desirable, for the reason that these are not the 
ones that produce the most butter from one end 
of the year to the other. They prefer rather an 
animal that gives say twelve quarts (at her 
flush) of very rich milk, and holds out well, 
giving almost as much cream when she has run 
down to seven or eight quarts as she did with 
her full flow. My personal observation has not 
been sufficient for me to give an opinion on this 
point. But I am convinced that, in my own 
herd, it is not the largest milkers that give the 
most butter, twelve months together. But this 
may be due to some other quality in the cow 
than merely her milking capacity. 
I am glad to see evidences of a weakening of 
the passion for “ solid color and full black points,” 
