392 
‘Ibe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
All Sorts 
He Believes in Bees 
I noticed recently a column in tlie in¬ 
terest of bee culture. Let the good work 
gq on, for no one needs the information 
more than the farmer. Usually most of 
them have from one to a dozen swarms, 
in any old kind of a hive or box. Some 
seasons they get a little honey but oftener 
none, but that is not the worst part of it. 
Not one in a hundred farmers understands 
the first principles of bee culture, and 
their hives are in no s’mpe at all to be 
inspected for disease; the result is a whole 
district is well loaded up with foul brood 
before the source can be discovered. 
Any kind of hives except the movable 
frame hives should be banished except to 
capture and to hold an absconding swarm 
until a good hive could be secured; out¬ 
side of this purpose anything but the best 
movable frame hive is very poor economy. 
The best is always the cheapest, and never 
too good. 
Last Spring I suggested to au ex-min¬ 
ister that bees would fit in nicely with 
the chicken business that he was just 
starting in. He said : “Yes, but I don’t 
know one thing about bees. I want to see 
you later and have a good talk about 
them.” The next time I met him he had 
gone to the best apiary in the country 
and purchased a rousing swarm of his 
best Italians, with the best queen in the 
yard, in a new and latest style hive with 
two comb honey supers; paid $17.50 for 
the outfit. He said that, seemed like a big 
price, but he wanted the best. Result, 
50 lbs. fine comb honey, that would cost 
at store not less than 45c per lb., value to 
his family $22.50, $5 more than he paid, 
and a fine swarm free. Was the best the 
cheapest? Yes, over 100 per cent. 
Ohio _ N. A. CLAY. 
Breaking Out the Roads 
Having seen several articles in The R. 
N.-Y. on different ways to make roads 
through drifted snow, I will give you my 
way. I have a log bob-sled about eight 
inches wider than an ordinary sleigh. I 
take two fence posts of fairly good size 
and seven or eight feet long, chain them 
on the inside of the runners by wrapping 
the chain around the runner post and all, 
one at each runner, and secure them tight 
so the post cannot slip out nor raise up. 
The chain will, if the snow is hard, help 
to fill the holes of the horses’ feet, making 
a smooth, wide track. Our mail carrier 
says it is the best track he finds on his 25- 
mile route. D. F. price. 
New York. 
On page 150 there appears a discussion 
of various systems of keeping the roads in 
a passable condition during the Winter. 
We have here a system of rolling and 
thus solidly packing the snow that has 
given the best of satisfaction for more 
than 80 years. We use rollers made in 
two sections, with a space of 12 to 15 
inches between, in which the tongue is 
fastened, and which leaves the core in the 
center of the road. Each roller is about 
six feet in diameter and about seven 
feet in length. This rolls a roadway about 
15 feet wide, which is amply sufficient to 
allow two teams to meet and pass at any 
point. The entire roller weight, in the 
vicinity of 3,000 lbs., is operated by two, 
four or six horses, according to the 
depth of snow. Each township is di¬ 
vided into districts, each including ap¬ 
proximately 20 miles of highway. A roller 
is stationed at a convenient point in each 
district, and a man with a sufficient team 
is engaged to roll the roads in his district 
immediately after each fall of snow. If 
the snow drifts in such a manner as to 
leave one side much higher than the other, 
a shovel is used to keep the road level. 
Otherwise the roller keeps on the top of 
the snow and packs it so hard that upon 
many of our roads automobiles run 
throughout the Winter. Along towards 
Spring, when the uneven melting of the 
snow leaves the road in a bad condition, a 
disk harrow is weighted and run over the 
road, and this puts the highway into the 
best possible shape. 
Vermont. C. O. ORMSBEE. 
The Centenary of Canning 
It is now proposed to celebrate the one 
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
canned food. A meeting was held in 
Cleveland last week to honor four men 
who are known as the pioneer canners. 
It is said that canned food was unknown 
on this continent until 100 years ago, 
when Ezra Dagget and Thomas Ivensett 
of New York, and Wm. Underwood and 
Chas. Mitchell of Boston, succeeded iu 
canning and packing fish and fruit by 
means of heat. Since that crude begin¬ 
ning an immense industry has grown up. 
Shortly after the Revolution we are told 
that large quantities of butter were 
shipped from Boston and New York to 
the West Indies. It was customary at 
that time for many shippers to pack 
oysters in this butter, both articles carry¬ 
ing properly on the ocean voyage to the 
warm climate of the tropics. The oysters 
and butter were exchanged for sugar and 
molasses, and in those days many a New 
England farmer sold his butter and used 
Cuban molasses on his 'brown bread. 
There can be no question about the vast 
benefit which has come to the American 
Xieople by application of canning processes 
to most of our fresh foods. This tremen¬ 
dous industry has enabled millions of 
people to improve their diet, and obtain 
perhaps unknowingly the necessary vita- 
mines needed in their food. Without ques¬ 
tion the business will be more fully de¬ 
veloped in the future; in fact, we have 
only begun apparently to realize some¬ 
thing of the possibilities of this method of 
preserving food. 
State Grange Session 
The Rochester meeting of the New 
York State Grange was one of the biggest 
and best in the history of the order. The 
weather was fine and a fine spirit of har¬ 
mony and progress prevailed. More than 
the usual number of visitors attended the 
session, while the delegates in atteifdance 
made a record number, as the Grange is 
making encouraging growth. The secre¬ 
tary’s report showed the number of 
Granges in the State to be Oil on Jan. 
1, with 19 organized during the year. The 
membership now numbers 128,000. 
February 21, 1920 
Several now features arose to meet tin 
demands of the day. One interesting even*, 
was the election of a new Master, to tak< 
the place of S. J. Lowell, who has beer 
elevated to the office of National Master 
There was practically no competition, the 
popular secretary, W. N. Giles, who Inn 
given of his services most generously ii 
that capacity for 20 years, being electee 
as the new Master. In the 47 years o 
the order’s existence in this State there 
have been but three secretaries—Mr 
Giles for the past 20 years. Mr. Goff fo 
the 20 years previous and Mr. Armstrong 
for the first seven years. 
Mr. Giles announces as the new policy 
of the Grange a campaign to establisl 
better relations between the city and the 
farmers. As a starter for this project 
Ira Sharp of Lowville has donated $5,000 
to start an extension fund that will bo 
made not less than $50,000 if the plans 
of the order are carried out. This fund 
will be used for organization work, and 
much good is expected to result from it. 
There was a battle over the office of 
Overseer, the candidates being Albert 
Manning, who has held the office for some 
time past and who is also secretary of the 
Dairymen’s League, and S. L. Strivings, 
lecturer of the State Grange and presi¬ 
dent of the State Federation of Farm 
Bureaus. Mr. Manning won. W. L. Bean 
of McGraw, who has long held the office 
of treasurer, was re-elected, as were most 
of the other officers. Bert C. Williams of 
Moravia was re-elected member of the 
executive committee for six years. 
One other departure was the selection 
of one resolution from a host of similar 
ones on the milk situation, and putting 
it through promptly from the floor, in¬ 
stead of reading ij to the Legislative Com¬ 
mittee, as is usually done. This was to 
emphasize the importance of the subject, 
the Grange telegraphing Senator Adon P. 
Brown, who is chairman of the Committee 
of Agriculture, and who has in his hands 
Senator Thompson’s bill recommending a 
State Milk Commission, to be named by 
Governor Smith. The telegram set forth 
the fact that the Grange, is directly 
opposed to the passage of this bill. Sen¬ 
ator Brown was asked to acquaint the 
Senate and Assembly of the action of the 
Grange. M. G. F. 
And How to Avoid Them 
Why do so many experienced 
farmers fail to make the most of their 
opportunities—fail to gather in the 
full profit their farm offers them? 
It’s because they haven’t learned the 
methods used by men who average, 
per acre, 90 bushels of corn, 2 bales /L****m 
of cotton, 50 bushels of wheat, 85 
bushels of oats, and other crops 
equally good. Most farmers make 
costly little mistakes that cut into their farm profits—mistakes that 
they would instantly know how to avoid if they took heed of the ex¬ 
perience of others. The wonderful new discoveries and results achiev¬ 
ed by experts thru new methods many farmers ignore—and one year 
plays “follow master” after the other, doing the same things, the 
same way, with the same results. 
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