18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
the well every morning so heartily that the idea 
of hot and cold water flowing in unlimited abund¬ 
ance in their bedrooms seems like the hight of 
effeminate luxury. But affording as it does the 
opportunity of frequent and thorough ablutions, 
we esteem it as a most desirable feature in any 
dwelling. At any rate, we would have water, hot 
and cold, at some point on the second floor, and 
the bath-room is the most appropriate place. 
The second floor may be a full story, say 8 
feet in hight from floor to ceiling, or the roof 
may be low, and part of the ceiling close to the 
roof be made sloping. This depends upon the 
style of the building, whether it be two full 
stories, or what is called a story and a half in 
hight. The plan answers equally well for 
both. In either case there should be a good 
loft or garret.' This is not inconsistent with 
a house in the cottage style, especially if the 
gambrel roof be employed. This is coming 
of late into fashion, as it was 50 to 100 years ago, 
and has at least the advantages of giving high, 
roomy garrets, and a picturesque appearance. 
Dispense with the “Big Beam” in Barns. 
The framing of old-fashioned barns was not 
done with especial reference to convenience in 
unloading hay by horse-power. Common me¬ 
chanics now possess superior knowledge of 
bracing and strength of materials to that of our 
fathers, and architects of ability have applied 
SECTION OP BARN FRAME. 
themselves to finding out cheap and strong 
ways of putting up- wooden structures. The 
result is that our -wooden buildings are not only 
better framed, but stronger than the heavily 
timbered ones of 50 to 100 years ago. The old 
barns, however, still stand, and, for aught we 
see, their period of usefulness may not cease for 
100 years more. Where timber is abundant the 
old plan of framing is still followed quite exten¬ 
sively. There are several ways of doing away 
with the “great beam” in new barns; it is, 
however, more difficult to take the beams out 
of barns in which they were originally placed. 
In using the simple horse hay-fork each “grip” 
must be dragged over these beams, while other¬ 
wise the hay might be simply pitched off, or 
swung directly from the load to the mow. 
Mr. Walter Moore, of Orange Co., sends us 
the description of a plan which he saw carried 
out in a barn of John Larkin, in Livingston Co., 
Mich., which is shown in the accompanying 
sketch. This represents a single “bent,” or 
piece of cross framing, with the big beam out, 
and the purlin posts extended to the sill. In 
the cut, A represents the sill; B, the posts ; C\ the 
purlin posts; Z>, the tie beam between the purlin 
plates; F, dotted lines showing where the big- 
beam would be; c, e, beams and braces in place 
of the big beam, to stay the purlin posts; F, 
the centre post; His the breast girt on each 
side of the thrashing floor. The plan strikes 
us as likely to be useful in njauy cases, and not 
of necessity weakening the structure, which 
it would do were the work carelessly done. 
Apiarian Progress. 
A member of that enterprising firm of apia¬ 
rians, Bidwell Bros., St. Paul, Minn., in making 
an extensive tour among the bee-keepers of the 
United States, arrived at some very interesting 
practical and theoretical results which he com¬ 
municates to the readers of the Agriculturist. 
“ During July, Aug., and Sept, last, we visited 
12 Apiaries in 
Minnesota, containing 
1,098 Colonies. 
S “ 
Iowa, “ 
501 “ 
5 “ 
Missouri, “ 
632 
6 ' “ “ 
Illinois, “ 
307 “ 
4 “ “ 
Indiana, “ 
49 
12 “ 
Ohio, “ 
S41 “ 
3 “ “ 
Kentucky, “ 
10 
6 “ “ 
Tennessee, “ 
172 
6 “ “ 
Georgia, “ 
31 “ 
2 “ “ 
Florida, “ 
14 “ 
1 “ “ 
Rhode Island, “ 
6 “ 
5 “ “ 
Connecticut, “ 
37 
3 “ 
Massachusetts, “ 
73 
14 
New York, “ 
1,004 
2 u u 
Canada, “ 
12 
6 
Michigan, “ 
74 
8 “ “ 
Wisconsin, “ 
507 “ 
In all. 
.5,373 
103 “ “ 16 States and Canada. 
(This shows an average of over 52 stocks to each apiary.) 
We found movable comb frame hives exclu¬ 
sively in 22 apiaries; used in part in 64; other 
patent hives in 11; common board hives alone in 
6 apiaries. We found 4,241 frame hives to 098 
box, and 120 worthless patent hives. This sub¬ 
stitution of movable comb hives for the old- 
fashioned box hives during the last several 
years, we consider the most important step in 
the advancement of profitable bee culture. We 
found fourteen different kinds of frame hives in 
use, seven of them of different patents. 
The next most important step has been the 
cultivation of flowers for bee pasturage. We 
found only six apiaries where natural forage 
was abundant throughout the season, and this 
was in small apiaries in isolated districts. Ad¬ 
jacent to 32 apiaries flowers were sown to cover 
deficiencies, and these were by far the most suc¬ 
cessful apiaries we visited, making nearly double 
the surplus honey compared with the others 
taken as a whole. Some serious mistakes were 
made by a few bee-keepers in the kind of flow¬ 
ers and manner of cultivating them. In two 
apiaries the honey resources were so deficient 
that feeding was resorted to annually. In four¬ 
teen apiaries flowers were so few that the own¬ 
ers declared their bees were neither prosperous 
nor profitable. Were this branch of bee culture 
properly understood the yield'of surplus honey 
might be increased several hundred fold. 
In 63 apiaries forced swarming was resorted 
to, and in only tn.ree of these were natural 
queens used, the remaining 40 relying on natural 
swarming. Natural queens with forced swarms 
have been the most reliable. Nowhere did we 
find the miller worm of any serious inconven¬ 
ience except in the two apiaries where feeding 
was necessary; six bee-keepers had never seen 
one. In three apiaries we found foul brood in 
a mild form and easily controlled. 
In 78 apiaries so-called Italian bees had been 
introduced. In no apiary did we find Italian 
bees exclusively. In no two apiaries did we 
find Italian bees alike; neither in any two 
stocks in the same apiary, nor in any one hive 
wore the bees all alike, allowing for the differ¬ 
ence in color, size, and shape, in bees of different 
ages. Ninety-four queens, better than the aver¬ 
age, were shown us in ten different apiaries, in 
six different States, no two of which, as we 
judge, were alike. Twenty-six of these had the 
visible stripes of a recent ■ mixture of black 
blood, and only two queens that we saw were 
of a bright yellow color, and one of these had 
evidently mated a black drone. In no apiary 
did we see or hear of a well marked drone, nor 
any one where the queens were known to have 
been mated even to their best drones. Api¬ 
arians are most deficient in careful breeding. 
We saw ten imported queens, all unlike. If 
such a confusion in size, shape, and color, is 
consistent with purity, as claimed by many, it 
is no such purity as we recognize. We have 
spent three seasons in efforts to perfect Italian 
bees and have succeeded in rearing workers, 
drones, and queens, all alike, and handsome, by 
carefully selecting and mating the best, but we 
had to breed all the brown off from the abdo¬ 
men of the queen, and bring three entire yellow 
bands on the drones. Unfortunately a long cold 
spell last winter took the color off from our 
bees and left us worse than where we com¬ 
menced, compelling us to adopt these conclu¬ 
sions : 1st, that Italian bees are a cross between 
(probably) two varieties of bees; and 2d, that 
they are liable to deteriorate in our climate.” 
■--*<*•-- 
Little Things in Farming. 
The whole success of a farmer hinges upon 
timely attention to little things. This, mainly, 
makes the difference between thrift and poverty. 
The philosophy of success is expressed in that 
old adage, “ For want of a nail a shoe was lost, 
for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of 
a horse a man was lost.” It is a little thing to 
keep accounts of the pecuniary transactions 
upon the farm. A half hour Saturday evening 
would enable most farmers to know just how 
they stand with the world. Yet, we suspect 
half of the men who cultivate the soil never 
make an entry in a book, and for want of this, 
the account runs up fearfully at the store, and 
many articles of luxury are purchased for which 
they are unable to pay at the end of the j^ear. 
Debt accumulates, the farm is mortgaged, and 
finally lost, for want of a little paper and ink. 
It is a little tiling to put up a tool in its place 
when not in use. Yet many have no tool-house, 
or place of shelter for any implement or vehicle. 
Things are left where they were last used, the 
plow in the field, the cart in the yard, the chains 
in the stable, the harness in the wood-house, 
the axe at the wood-pile, and the rakes in the 
corn crib. Many do not even house the expen¬ 
sive implements they have bought, and reapers 
and thrashers are treated like old plows and 
harrows. The parts made of iron and steel 
grow rusty, and the wood decays. A machine 
that is good for thirty years with proper care is 
used up in five by abuse. It is a very little 
thing to turn a nut when it is loose. Yet for 
want of the tightening the nut is lost, the 
bolt comes out, and the loaded wagon breaks 
down on the way to market, and a whole day 
" for man and team is lost. It is a little thing to 
keep a horse properly groomed, yet for want of 
clean fetlocks the skin cracks and the horse is 
lame, and the owner loses the use of him for 
months or weeks. Ventilation is a small affair, 
yet for want of it the health of stock in stables 
suffers severely, and disease sets in. It is a 
small affair to provide good seed at the begin¬ 
ning of the year, but the whole success of the 
season depends upon it. It as an easy thing to 
