870 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[OcTOBiia, 
in the middle may be a quarter or third full of sealed 
honey, some unsealed, and some empty cells, which the 
yonnq brood has just vacated. Such a state of things is 
most favorable. In guessing at the quantity, by surface of 
sealed honey, another thing should be observed. If combs 
are straight, and just one inch and a half apart, they are 
more uniform in thickness and weight., than if irregular 
in distance apart. I have seen hives fitted up with so little 
care, tlmt, six frames occupied the place of eight. In a 
space of 12 inches, some of them might be 2 or 3 inches 
thick, while an inch and a quarter would be just right for 
sealed honey. It is more difficult to judge in such a 
case.... .A visitor just relat d what he thought a curious 
fact. A new swarm of hi had built two combs on one 
frame the whole length, true and nice. I could not help 
telling him that he had not frames enough for the width 
of his hive, or that some of them were too close. I 
could not quite see how he would manage to extract, or 
how he would find the queen, if she should happen to be 
between the two combs ... Here is another point, frames 
should be just so far apart, all of one size, and all alike. 
After all, a little too much honey is better than none at 
all towards the spring, but a good deal too much is fatal. 
Unusually thick combs when filled, are more unsafe than 
those of proper thickness. When the bees build their 
own combs, and happen to make them straight, as with¬ 
out frames, they are near the right distance apart. But 
when made crooked, the crook of each comb does not 
always match with the crook of the next one to it, and 
spaces will be left if there are no long cells to fill out 
with. Sometimes there will be a space rather larger than 
they like to fill with long cells, and not quite large 
enough for another comb, resulting in a thin comb with 
cells too short for any purpose. Hence the economy of 
straight combs, and having them the right distance apart. 
The earlier bees can be put in condition for winter the 
better, and the more likely they are to get through. 
The early part »*f this month, will be the time to expect 
some of the neighbors to complain of bees destroying 
fruit. I wish that every truthful bee-keeper and orchard- 
ist. might, scrutinize a little more closely than they ever 
before did. Whenever complaint of the bees is made, 
see if the bees make the attack in the beginning. If you 
have fruit of your own, you will have all the better 
chance. Watch patiently, not to shield the bees from 
judgment if guilty, but to get at facts. If it can not be 
determined in any way by watching them attentively, 
you can make one further effort that might prove more 
satisfactory. Bees are out of the way in many places, or 
nearly so. In most sections of the Eastern States, no 
more honey is accumulated after this time, and bees may 
a? well be kept at rest as roaming about. If they were 
housed in a cool, dark cellar, the whole of this month, 
they would be better off, and the trouble would be more 
than balanced, by the good feeling promoted between 
neighbors. Carrying them in, is much better than shut¬ 
ting them np, which is often ruinous. Have every hive 
numbered, likewise the stands to correspond, and after 
fruit is all secured, return them for a few days, if thought 
necessary before winter. We may yet find there is noth¬ 
ing lost by housing for winter, as soon as all the brood 
is hatched. When the bees are set out of the way, and 
the pears and apples are found rotting as badly as before, 
the grapes punctured and spoiled for market, without the 
bees, I hope we shall trace the trouble to where it belongs. 
The profits of bees when rightly managed, ought to re¬ 
pay even this trouble. I hope to be able to give some of 
the results of improved management next month. These 
results do not come from those who think that procuring 
a dish to catch porridge is all sufficient The farmer’s 
cattle must, be cared for two or three times daily, for half 
the year. Daily care for the bees may be needed, when 
we learn how to apply it. We have learned this much, 
that whenever care of the proper kind has been given, it 
has always paid. 
Phillip’s Spiral Corn-Husker. 
The machine which is illustrated upon our first page, 
Is known ns the “Phillip’s Spiral Corn-Husker,” from 
the peculiar form of the rollers, which strip the ears from 
the stalk, and the husks from the ears. It is run by two 
or more horses, and is able to busk from 500 to 1000 
bushels of ears per day. Hand-machines, to be operated 
by two men, can busk 200 bushels per day. The Corn¬ 
stalks are fed into the machine from a table, upon which 
they are spread out, butts foremost. They are seized by 
the spirally grooved rollers, and crushed, as they are 
drawn through ; when the ear reaches the rollers, as it 
can not find room to pass between them, it is torn from 
the stalk, drops into the sloping groove, and is imme¬ 
diately seized by the spiked rollers, seen beneath the 
machine. A portion of the casing is shown in the en¬ 
graving as being cut away, so that these rollers may be 
sc-'u. The stalks pass to the front of the machine, from 
whence they are taken occasionally, and bound into 
sheaves. The crushing they receive helps greatly to¬ 
ward their rapid curing, and makes them more easily 
cut in the fodder-cutter. The husks are stripped ct anly 
from the ears, taken by the rollers, and deposited in a 
box or basket beneath the machine, where they are 
ready to be removed for final disposal. The ears are 
dropped separately from the nubbins at the rear of the 
machine, where they may be caught in boxes or baskets, 
and carried to the crib. It makes very little difference in 
time or labor, whether the husking is done in the field, 
in the barn, or in the barn-yard. It depends greatly up¬ 
on the condition of the fodder, if that is dry, the husking 
may be done in the barn, or where the corn is to be 
stacked. Some economy oflabor, of course, depends tip- 
on the arrangement of the work. We do not say that this 
machine is a perfect corn-husker, by any means. That 
is not to be expected of any machine so recently intro¬ 
duced as this is. But that it is able to facilitate greatly 
the slow and costly labor of husking corn, we are assured, 
and as it is not only the best husker we have, but the 
only one that can be operated by horse-power, its use is 
one of the absolute necessities of the corn-grower. 
Ogden Farm Papers—No. 56. 
I have recently had a visit from the younger 
member of the firm of J. I. Boies & Son, Ma¬ 
rengo, Ill., to whose dairy allusion has several 
times been made in these articles. I wish 
I could give to every reader of the Agricul¬ 
turist the exact impression that his statements 
made upon me. They contain a wealth of sug¬ 
gestion for enterprising farmers at the West. 
Mr. Boies is young, energetic, frank, and out¬ 
spoken. He and his father have had ups and 
downs in life, and have had some rough busi¬ 
ness experience. They have taken to their new 
enterprise, good natural abilities, some com¬ 
mercial training, and the discipline of some 
misfortune. Their farm contains 300 acres of 
land, which was bought a few years ago, as 
“ worn out.” It lies 60 or 70 miles north¬ 
west of Chicago. As already stated, they keep 
from 100 to 130 cows, buying all the ground 
feed they use—which is a great deal—and buy¬ 
ing milk in addition to that which they make 
themselves, supplementing their operations 
with the making of much pork, and inciden¬ 
tally of an enormous amount of rich manure. 
The first year their com crop was 35 bushels 
per acre, the next 45, the next 75, and the next 
96 bushels—not by an estimate or guess, but by 
actual weighing over their hay scales. Their 
dairy operations are simply stupendous; at 
the bight of their season they make 600 lbs. 
per day, and will probably average 400 lbs. 
They last winter shipped 25,000 lbs. to one 
dealer in Providence, R. I., and he expects to 
want more this winter. They supply several 
large hotels in Chicago, and have a shipping 
custom to other points. They receive from 35 
to 45 cents per lb. I did not ask especially, 
but conclude that their average would be rather 
over than under 40 cents per lb., at the farm. 
The milk as soon as drawn, is strained into 
deep pans, similar to the Orange County Milk 
Pans, standing in an underground room, which 
is kept at a temperature of 60° in summer, by 
the circulation of air under the adjoining ice¬ 
house. The milk is skimmed at the end of 36 
hours. The churning is done in a revolving 
four-sided box churn. The butter is washed 
in the churn only, thoroughly worked, and 
receives -J- oz. of salt per lb. Mr. Boies is his 
own butter maker, and attends to every detail 
with great care. He has found no difficulty 
in making sale for his product at the prices 
stated above—which I consider more remark¬ 
able in view of his location, and of the quan¬ 
tity to be sold, than $1 per pound near Eastern 
cities. Pork, of course, constitutes a very large 
t source of income. 
On my way to the St. Louis Fair in October, 
I hope to visit this dairy, and may write fur¬ 
ther about it. In the meantime, I am very 
much impressed with the fact, that there is a 
suggestion here for the relief of agricultural 
distress in the "West. Butter is by no means 
the only product that can be made there, and 
be shipped cheaply to Eastern cities, for sale; 
cheese-making would probably be nearly as 
successful. The great point is so to regulate 
the business of the farm, that none of its crops 
shall be sold away. Turn everything into 
butter, cheese, pork, beef, mutton—something 
that can be transported without the enormous 
cost of sending grain; and the production of 
which will supply the farm with ample manure. 
It is a number of years since I have been at 
the West, but I assume that I no longer run 
the risk of criticism, if I say that even on “ the 
exhaustless prairies of Illinois,” the manure 
question is the question, and that neither rail¬ 
roads nor middlemen can have a tithe of the 
influence in dragging down Western agricul¬ 
ture, and making poor men of Western farmers, 
than can the sale of hay and grain, and the 
neglect to collect and provide ample manure. 
Haturally nine-tenths of the farmers at the 
West will be guilty of this neglect, and will 
suffer for it, blindly refusing to see the source 
of their misfortunes, but the few enterprising 
men, among whom I hope we number our 
readers, can not fail to be stimulated by such 
examples as the one set forth, to adopt and 
faithfully pursue a course of radical reform, 
looking for their money inceme to articles of 
little bulk and good price, and retaining on 
their farms everything that can add to the fer¬ 
tility of the soil. 
At the West as well as at the East, it seems 
to me that the happiness and prosperity of 
farmers would be increased, by the return—if 
such a return were possible—to the “ good old 
ways.” I do not mean, nor do I believe, that 
it is desirable to produce everything consumed 
so far as possible upon the farm itself, for 
cloth can be woven in mills cheaper than in 
private houses, and there are better advantages 
for selling home produce, than existed before 
the era of railroads. At the same time money 
is too important a factor in the life of modem 
farmers—we have all of us been more or Jess 
corrupted by the high prices and flush money 
of the war times, and of the plentiful paper dol¬ 
lars prevailing since then, so that we have made 
our comfort depend too much on the ability to 
spend money. A farmer’s income to be sure, 
substantial, and satisfactory, must be very 
largely in other things than money. An 
improved home, richer land, more convenient 
buildings, and more carefully bred and reared 
stock—these are within his reach without the 
outlay of much ready money. Home labor 
and the capabilities of the farm, will supply 
them if properly directed, and if patiently 
waited for, without the hiring or buying of 
outside helps. The tendency to measure pros¬ 
perity by the amount of money that a farmer 
has in outside investments, or that he is able to 
spend for his pleasure, is giving a wrong ten¬ 
dency to our whole system. Farmers can not 
hope to compete in this respect with merchants 
and manufacturers, whose business is much 
more speculative and full of risks, and who 
too often give a fictitious evidence of wealth, 
by spending the money which they hope to 
earn, and which is not seldom lost by farmers 
and other producers who have trusted them. 
