1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
187 
who are in the habit of taking her produce, as the hand 
writing of their nearest acquaintance. Some hens lay 
smooth, cream-colored eggs,others rough, chalky granu¬ 
lated ones: there is the buff, the snow-white, the spheri¬ 
cal, the oval, the pear-shaped, and the emphatically 
egg-shaped egg. * * * * Now I assert that the hen 
who lays one round egg, will continue to lay all her 
eggs round; and the hen that lays one oblong, will lay 
all oblong. Consequently one hen would be the unceas¬ 
ing mother of cocks, another must remain the perpet¬ 
ual producer of pullets, which is absurd. * * * An 
old lady, whose fowls were all white, gave me a small 
globular egg, as round as a ball; it was added to a 
clutch of speckled Dorkings. The result was the due 
number of Dorkings, and one white cockerel. By the 
rule alluded to, it should of course, have been a pul¬ 
let.” 
11 Another supposed test is the position of the air¬ 
bag at the blunt end of the egg. We are told that ‘ if 
it be a little one side, it will produce a hen; if this 
vacuity be exactly in the centre, it will produce a cock.’ 
But take a basket of eggs; examine them as directed, 
by holding them between your eye and a candle, and 
you will find very few indeed in which you can say the 
air-bubble is exactly concentrical with the axis of the 
egg. A cock ought thus to be like Ovid’s black swan, 
a rare bird. But in many broods, the cockerels bear a 
proportion of at least one-third; especially in those 
hatched during winter or in unfavorable seasons; the 
immediate cause being, doubtless, that the eggs produ¬ 
cing the robuster sex, possess a stronger vitality; the 
more remote cause being the same wise law of Provi¬ 
dence, through which in the human race, more males 
are born into the world than females, to meet the wear 
and tear of labor and accident.” 
Farming on Long Island. 
Perhaps you would like to hear something about this 
place—situated on the extreme east end of Long Island 
(North Branch.) Although generally considered as 
almost out of the world, and almost unknown, we think 
it is 11 one of the places,” for farming operations, if 
nothing else. It probably contains between five and 
six thousand acres, and except a few hills and rocks on 
the Sound side, it is as level as a western prairie. The 
soil is excellent, and land is worth $100 per acre. We 
are favored in having unusual facilities for fertilizing 
our soil. Great quantities, probably thousands of loads, 
of seaweed are annually collected, and add greatly to 
the products of the barn-yard and hog-pen. Between 
three and four millions of moss-honkers, [fish.] also, 
are generally taken yearly in our harbor, the greater 
part of which are spread on our corn and potatoe fields, 
or buried in heaps to be spread on wheat and turneps. 
The farms here are small, averaging perhaps 30 or 40 
acres, but I think you would be surprised to see the 
large quantities of produce sent off yearly. The prin¬ 
cipal are wheat, corn, potatoes and turneps. 
I venture to say that there is not a village in the 
state, where there is a more equal distribution of pro¬ 
perty than here. There is scarcely one but what pos¬ 
sesses a competency. We feel the want of nothing so 
much as timber, though some own woods in the ad¬ 
joining country. 
Our fencing stuff is brought from Connecticut and 
costs from 8 to 12 dollars a hundred—good three-rail 
fence costs 60 or 80 cents per rod, exclusive of labor. 
Every farmer has this tax on his income. Now can 
you tell us of something cheaper to fence our lands? I 
have thought of hedges, but the objections made are 
that they take up too much land, and that it is too much 
trouble to start them. I should like to see something 
more explicit in regard to their cultivation—to what , 
extent they impoverish the land—how long they must be 
protected from cattle, &c.? C. N. B. Orient, L. 
April , 1848. 
Protection for Bees. 
Bees in their undomesticated state, have sufficient pro¬ 
tection against the frost of winter in the thick sides of 
the trees which they inhabit. A like protection was 
afforded by the straw hives formerly used; but the thin 
boards of which hives are now generally made, leave 
the bees so much expose'd, that multitudes in almost 
every hive perish with cold, and not a few whole 
swarms. Burying them in the ground, and carrying 
them into cellars, have been practiced with good suc¬ 
cess; but these methods are inconvenient and not often 
adopted .' 
A method which I have for several years adopted, I 
have found very convenient and successful. My bee 
house is so broad as to admit tw T o row's of hives, one 
fronting one w r ay and the other the opposite. I place 
my hives eight or ten inches apart, and fill the spaces 
between and about them with straw, leaving the mouths 
of the hives unobstructed. I leave the straw' about the 
hives late in the spring, till the old bees and the young 
brood wfill be secure from injury from late frosts. I 
have generally used pea straw lest mice should enter 
it and molest the bees; but I have used clean threshed 
wheat straw, and have never suffered any injury from 
it. E. D. Andrews. 
To Farmers. 
Why is it, that the effort and enterprize of the com¬ 
mercial and mechanical part of our population is crown- 
ed with so much success, while, with a few exceptions, 
compared with the great mass, the efforts of our far¬ 
mers but just enable them to live? Is it not for want of 
the proper direction of their energies to the object 
sought? We hear daily of merchant princes, of manu¬ 
facturers who accumulate immense wealth, of bankers 
who control large amounts of our circulating medium, 
and these several classes, with our professional men, 
are those who govern the affairs and direct the legis¬ 
lation of our country . 
Why is it, that sixty-five thousand professional, and 
one hundred and twenty thousand commercial men, and 
eight hundred thousand manufacturers and mechanics, 
making in the aggregate less than one million, exert 
so much more influence than the four millions of our 
agricultural population ? And why are we told that the 
farmers constitute so small a proportion of our several 
legislatures, when their interests are so much greater 
than that of all other classes united? 
The numerical and physical pow r er in this country is 
largely in favor of agriculturists, and were their efforts 
properly directed, there is no reason w 7 hy the influence 
they exercise should not be in proportion to this power. 
The number of farmers to be found in our legislatures 
at the present time may possibly be greaterthan formerly. 
Yet it is to be feared, that they are not always the best 
men w 7 ho could have been selected; but that in some in¬ 
stances they are those who by their ambition rather 
than their merits, have gained these places of distinc¬ 
tion, and who, if we may form an opinion by the result 
of their legislation, are controled by others, and in 
many cases, like some w 7 ho fill our county and town 
offices, are men who seek after office, rather than those 
who are sought after. But my object is not to write 
a political lecture, but to inquire into the reason why 
so great disparity exists in the intellectual powers of 
the different classes of our population. Is it not for 
want of a system of education adapted to their various 
occupations. It may be said that the children of almost 
our entire population enjoy in our common schools equal 
