1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST*. 
249 
Health of Farmers.—The Massachusetts 
Suite Board of Health, in their fourth annual report, have 
a paper upon the sanitary condition of farmers, based 
upon the reports of the country physicians throughout 
the State. Evidence collected for 28 years past shows 
that the average length of the life of a farmer, in that 
State, is 65% years. This is much longer than that of j 
any other class of citizens. The class most nearly ap¬ 
proaching farmers, viz. : out-door mechanics live only 
5014 years on an average. But the almost unanimous . 
opinion is that farmers might live ranch longer than they | 
now do by exercising more care in choosing, cooking, and 
eating their food, in avoiding overwork and exposure to 
change of weather, and the use of foul drinking water. 
Their food consists too much of pork, pies, and saleratus 
bread, and cakea. The cookery is had, and meals are 
eaten too quickly for good digestion when work hurries. 
More vegetables and fruit should be eaten, and more rest 
taken. More cleanliness as regards out-houses, sinks, 
and back-yards, should be observed, and more care taken 
to avoid leaving cess-pools, sinks, etc., nearer a well 
than 30 feet at the least. 
Sale of Shorthorns. 
The sale of the Forest Hill herd, property of J. H. 
Spears & Sons, took place at Jacksonville, Ill., May 27th, 
the forty-three animals bringing $33,000. The bull 
Cherub 2d (one year old) was sold to Gen. Charles L. 
Llppincott for $5,800, the largest price ever paid for a 
yearling bull. The cow Duchess of Sutherland was sold 
to Gen. Lippincott for $1,600, and her bull calf to S. K. 
Reigins, Petersburg, Ill., for $1,050. These were the 
highest prices paid. The purchasers were all residents 
of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, the majority of the ani¬ 
mals remaining in Illinois. 
It is stated that Mr. Geo. Robbins, who bid $14,000 for 
the Second Duke of Hillhurst at Col. King’s sale, did not 
come to time in making satisfactory “arrangements,” 
and the bull remains in Col. King’s possession. We 
understand that he has refused all offers to purchase 
it since. 
The joint sale of the shorthorn herds of Messrs. Taylor, 
Pickrell, and Elliott took place at Decatur, Ill., May 28th. 
The Lonans of the Taylor herd sold well, Lonan 6 th 
(bought by E. W. Miller, Lulla, Ill.) bringing $2,110; 
Lonan 4th $1,760 (to J. Nichols of Bloomington, Ill.) ; 
Lonan 5th $1,300, to Claude Matthews, Clinton, Ind.; 
Lonan 3d $1,100, to Emery Cobb, Kankakee, Ill.; Lonan 
8 th $1,200, to Edward F. Ills, Springfield, Ill. ; Oxford 
Duchess, $1,095, to J. Nichols, Bloomington, Ill. The 
Imported bull, British Flag, three years old. sold for only 
$530, (cause, bad temper). The cows in the Taylor herd 
brought an average of $850. The Elliott and Pickrell 
herd sold at an average of about $300. 
Notes upon other sales will be found upon page 259. 
Swindling by Mail. 
The mail trade of seedsmen, florists, and the like is 
now very large, and though from the nature of the case 
there is more or less delay and loss, yet it is on the 
whole a great convenience to dealers, and a great saving 
to purchasers. Among its disadvantages to the dealers 
is the fact that it allows of a considerable amount of 
small swindling, and there has grown up a set of knaves 
who systematically swindle them. Their inode of 
operation is generally to send an order, stating that the 
money is inclosed. The dealer finds no money, but the 
writer claims that he sent it, and it must have been lost, 
that he can ill afford to lose the sum, and appeals to the 
sympathy of the dealer, who, rather than have his cus¬ 
tomer suffer, usually sends the goods. These cases have 
happened so frequently, that the dealers have compared 
notes, and discover that the same parties play the same 
trick upon the prominent seed and plant dealers all over 
the country. The following, from a highly respectable 
seed firm in Rochester, gives an account of the opera¬ 
tions of one of these correspondents, which will serve 
as a sample of the rest: 
“ Our first experience with this class of ‘ unfortunates ’ 
was with a party who has bemoaned his misfortunes in 
losses of money by mail for several years, with the great¬ 
est steadiness and persistence, and is not yet disheart¬ 
ened ; he has repeatedly been rewarded for his style, 
which is ‘ childlike and bland,’ by confiding seedsmen 
and is not yet satisfied—Mr. Ross A. Bagley, of Big 
Creek, Forsyth Co., Ga. His first letters to us claimed a 
loss of $10.80, which, being a man far removed from 
money-order offices, and unused to mercantile pursuits, 
he had sent us in all confidence ; this also contained a 
proposition that we share his loss, as he was not able to 
bear it. We supplied promptly the full amount wo 
authorize to be sent by mail at our risk, without regis¬ 
tration, suggesting that his letter might have been regis¬ 
tered at the post-office, and we could do no more. Again 
he pleaded, and again was refused , he closed the corre¬ 
spondence with an appeal, from which we quote : ‘ fend 
the chromo any way, if yon sympathize with a poor man, 
who wished and tried hard to be a customer. I should 
have remailed you the money at the start, if I could have 
done so, but it is my misfortune to possess but few of 
this world’s goods, therefore I could not possibly afford 
it. It is not my intention to ask for more than is 
right. I do not think the fault lies with yon, and if you 
can not send the chromos willingly, wo will drop the 
subject.’ Our suspicion was increased by the studied air 
of modesty and confidence expressed in this note, and a 
gentleman connected with our house remembered the 
name as one that figured in a transaction where a neigh¬ 
bor of ours in the same trade had suffered considerably 
from an attack of Bagleyism. We found Mr. Jas. Yick 
possessing a file of papers in the familiar chirography of 
Bagley, and that he had an experience similar to our own. 
Seeking further to know the probable extent of the busi¬ 
ness as done by this particular individual, we requested 
information from other houses in the same line, and the 
responses came promptly, and of similar tenor. ‘Mr. 
Ross A. Bagley,’ say Messrs. B. K. Bliss & Sons, ‘ has 
favored ns with his patronage,’and proceed to give in 
detail a repetition of the familiar story of a loss by mail 
and a request for remuneration. Peter Henderson & Co. 
! say that ‘ in 1873 that accomplished rural rascal, Bagley, 
of Big Creek,’ had found them out, and bitten them, but 
not deeply, for which they are duly thankful. Jas. J. H. 
Gregory has a matter of a few dollars, for furnishing 
Bagley with seeds the last fall and the present month. 
We also learn from Reisig & Hcxamer that he attempted 
to victimize them. It seemed to us that such frequency 
of misfortune should not be permitted to remain in ob¬ 
scurity, or a success achieved by such effrontery and low 
cunning be allowed to continue, and we present this case 
as one fit for exposure by the Agriculturist, to which 
other specimens of this new pest may be added by our¬ 
selves and other dealers. We do this as a protection to 
the trade, by giving timely notice to those who might 
otherwise suffer, and also warn any who might hope to 
escape detection in the ‘ ways that are dark and tricks 
that are mean,’ by the pitiful littleness of the act. 
Chase Brothers & Woodward. 
“ Rochester , N. Y." 
Bee Notes—Advice to Beginners. 
BT M. QUINBY. 
Cattle, while running wild, and receiving no attention 
from man, give him but very little towards his support. 
But after studying their nature, and cultivating it, he 
has from them, in addition to the hide and tallow, many 
of our choicest luxuries — milk, butter, and cheese. 
Bees, in their wild state, furnish wax, bee-bread, and a 
little honey mixed with it. With the same attention to 
their cultivation, that we give our cattle, we cau improve 
their products equally as well. Cattle thrive and grow 
when running wild; so do bees, in their native state; 
but such thrift satisfies only those who are ignorant of 
what may be done. Such persons maintain that the 
nearer we follow nature, the more certain we are of suc¬ 
cess; but it must be admitted that this course is not 
always satisfactory. Fruit will grow without assistance 
from man. We prune, to allow light, heat, and circula¬ 
tion of air, our object is not to prolong the life of the 
tree, but to promote the production of fruit. So with 
bees; for the greatest success, attention must be given 
to a thousand little details, that have been too much 
neglected; and the person that judiciously attends to 
the greatest number of these, will succeed the best. 
Since the introduction of the Italian bees, it has been 
discovered that they drive off the moth worm, much 
more effectively than the black bee. Yet when these are 
not very strong, considerable inroads are often made 
upon them, and much time is consumed in mending un 
mutilated comb, and replacing brood that has been de¬ 
stroyed, making all the difference between a liandsoi ■ 
profit, and nothing at all. In such case, the person who 
knows nothing of bees, would complain that they 1 'i 1 
not pay, just as he would if he took no care of his cattle, 
and expected a first-rate yield of milk, butter, and 
cheese. We should understand that the moth, having a 
burthen of eggs to deposit, seeks a place for them, and 
finds it, usually in some weak hive, and that the young, 
when they hatch out, will take the sustenance near at 
hand. Wax-comb is their natural food. The moth is 
active in a temperature so cool, that bees exposed to it 
will move but little, but creep close together, for mutual 
warmth, leaving a part of the combs bare. There the 
eggs of the moth will be deposited. As soon as the 
weather Is warm enough for a few days, or the air is 
warmed by the bees, these eggs hatch. No mature moin 
lives through the winter. The egg or the worm will l.ve 
in a moderate temperature, and mature in warm weather. 
When the female has her eggs ready, they must be de¬ 
posited somewhere. If every hive is strong enou h 
with bees, to cover the combs, they will not be allowed 
inside. In such a case, the eggs are left near the en¬ 
trance of the hive, in some crevice, or where the bees, in 
passing over them, will attach some of them to the lit tie 
pellets of pollen on their legs, and being small, they are 
packed with it in the ceils. When the hive is wa.tn, 
there is where they hatch first. Some persons have 
imagined that the moth, when it can find no other place 
to deposit eggs, visits flowers covered with farina, ar.d 
leaves them, trusting to the bees to convey them to the 
hive with the pollen. I have not room to give all the. 
indications of this, but I hope closer observation will 
decide whether it be so or not. In the humid atmos¬ 
phere of the cluster in the hive, the moths’ eggs hatch. 
If there is brood enough to consume most of the pollen, 
as brought in, the worms, as they hatch, are carried o.it, 
and little harm is done. The worm, when not removed, 
commences eating the waxen comb that surrounds it, 
making a passage large enough for its body, and spin¬ 
ning a silken gallery, inside of which it travels. When 
the colony is moderately strong, and the brood of t ie 
bee has changed to chrysalis, and is sealed over, the 
head of the bee’s chrysalis does not touch the sealin 
by near an eighth of an inch. Over the heads of these 
bees the worm travels, consuming the sealing and end's 
of cells, and spinning the gallery, to defend itself fr< m 
the bees. Now is the time to assist the bees, before the 
worm has matured. Without the movable comb-hivo, 
nothing of the kind can be done. When the worm has 
its growth, and has destroyed perhaps a thousand ceils, 
and maimed or killed as many bees, it leaves the combs, 
and spins a cocoon, in which to repose for a fortnight cr 
so, to change from a crawling worm to a winged insect. 
They may be found in crevices around the bottom, or 
outside, which are often not large enough to admit their 
body, though they seem to have no difficulty in biting 
away any soft wood, till the dimensions suit them. Not 
one moth ought to be "illowed to mature, to lay eggs for 
a future progeny. Take advantage of their helplessness 
now, and destroy them. When allowed to arrive at this 
state, we have neglected one of the advantages of the 
movable comb-hive, and of the new method of applying 
smoke to keep the bees quiet. Examination should have 
been made long before this. In the middle of some wai m 
day, when most of the bees are at work, quietly take .*ft 
the top of the hive ; have the smoke ready, of course ; ti e 
day may not be so very fine, and you will find necessity 
of using it more; take off boxes, if any are in the way 
set them down, to prevent crushing the bees ■ 
now take out the combs, until you find scaled 
brood. If necessary, pt t on glasses, to be able 
to look closely, and if worms are at work, you 
will seen mark much like that shown in the 
engraving. With the point of a sharp knife 
pick this off till you come to the worm, which 
is to be dispatched. Perhaps it is not half its 
full size yet, and half the mischief it would do 
is warded off. I expect ladies to do this mor ■ 
effectually than those of the other sex, who 
are in the habit of doing what they think: 
nobler work. It is a small matter to kill a 
moth worm; so it is a small matter to save a 
kernel of wheat. An accumulation of small 
matters is important. When the hive has In r. 
little bcuey. and the moth’s eggs hatch nea • 
the bottom of the cell, the worm bites it 
way through, the center of the comb, crowc 
ing the young bees outward, which does 
not immediately destroy their life; but tbe worm, ir. 
spinning its gallery, attaches its web to legs, wings, 
etc., ot the bee, holding it so that it can not leave 
the cell when it has matured. They may be seen with 
their heads protruding, unable to emerge. As such beet 
are worthless when helped out carefully, it is well to cut 
them out, and find and destroy the worm or worms. 
TRACK OF THE MOTH-WORM. 
