7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
979 
tain the moisture so that the seed will germinate 
quickly and be able to push its tender sprout through 
to light and air. Cultivation should begin as soon 
as the rows can be traced, to retain moisture if the 
weather is dry, to let in air, and to kill the weed 
seed as soon as it germinates. The best seeds ob¬ 
tainable should be purchased, and tested before 
planting permanently, for many times have I heard 
the complaint from growers, “My seed was poor and 
I have not got half a stand,” and consequently half 
a crop. It is better to be on the safe side and sow a 
little thicker than the gauge on your drill directs, 
for it is much easier to thin out than to replant, be¬ 
sides, it may be too late to replant certain seeds to 
mature in time. 
But outside of the monetary advantage, and far 
above it, is the satisfaction and joy of the bountiful 
harvest and the vigorous health, keen appetite and 
been to minimize home surroundings and maximize 
the advantages of village and town. Then, too, the 
craze for pleasure and amusements which has been 
and is being so generously fostered as a means to a 
larger education (?) has strengthened the pull, and 
the fathers are left alone in their homes, while far 
too many of the boys struggle in some shop to earn 
enough to support themselves and follow the movies. 
What our friend can best do on a farm 1G miles from 
market must depend largely on what he and his 
land are best adapted to. With good pasturage the 
dairy offers attractions, but no man can be content 
to produce only enough to sell at the town grocery, 
■where he gets the lowest price for what he sells and 
pays the highest for what he buys. If operations 
can be carried on of sufficient magnitude so that 
regular shipments of butter or cheese can be made 
to some reliable city dealer, one takes less from the 
while earning his living in other ways, look for¬ 
ward to realizing a generous sum from the timber 
and yet have the farm left. A young man of my 
acquaintance swapped a colt for an old back pas¬ 
ture which, when the stock was removed, ‘started 
a growth of pine, and 30 years later he sold the tim¬ 
ber, standing, for $5,000, and that was some time 
before the late war, when timber prices were far 
below what they are now, or will be in the future. 
I wish I could give more definite advice, but this is 
as far as I dare go with the man and the farm in 
the distance. g. m. twitchell. 
How the Honey Bee Makes Muscle 
[Some of these studies about balanced rations and 
vitamines have started remarkable discussions. Most 
people understand that hone in the animal body i« made 
up of lime and phosphorus. These minerals must be 
mm 
Wmmm 
p mm 
«C'/5W 
i a jfp ifg 
lifegii 
mm 
Fitting the Orchard Hod—the Cover Crop Goes in Later. Fig. 390 
a feeling that you are glad to be alive, which the 
outdoor life gives one, is greater than in any other 
avenue of life. wm. perkins. 
New Jersey. 
What Can A Maine Farmer Do? 
I have been a subscriber of your paper several years 
at Sebec Station, Me., but the last few years have 
been very unsuccessful in potato growing, which is the 
crop in that region, and my boys would not stay longer 
and work for nothing, so we came to a mill town in 
Rhode Island, where we have work at good pay, but are 
•not contented. I have just come from Maine, and while 
there the neighbors talked of a co-operative cheese fac¬ 
tory. There is no market for milk or cream nearer 
than 16 miles. All make butter, which is bartered off 
at the stores, which is very unsatisfactory. Could you 
put me in touch with the methods of starting a co¬ 
operative cheese factory, also makes of machinery, etc., 
for that business? Any literature on the subject would 
be appreciated. Something must be wrong somehow 
when a person with a 200-acre farm, all equipped, can¬ 
not get a living on it, with two big, husky sons and a 
daughter ready to help, but that is the case. We lack 
income in the Summer months. i>. P. L. 
Rhode Island. 
S EBEC is a good farming town, and years ago 
had the reputation of having more slate-shin¬ 
gled farm buildings than any town in the State. 
Lying some distance from a market, and with ship¬ 
ping charges high, the problem is a good big one. 
The story told by D. 1*. L. about the boys leaving the 
farm can be repeated in hundreds of cases all over 
the State, and constitutes an issue of tremendous 
proportions. The breaking up of the old school dis¬ 
tricts and massing of the children in centers, away 
from home surroundings, marks the commencement 
of this larger exodus of young people, and inevitably 
so, for the conscious and unconscious influence has 
farm and leaves behind the skim-milk or whey with 
which to grow young stock or feed a flock of hens. 
When one has grown into a herd of eight or 10 good 
cows, producing each better than 250 lbs. butter 
yearly, he has a safe business and a valuable amount 
of by-product in the skim and buttermilk. 
There is no question but there is a good opening 
on Sebec farms for sheep. Perhaps no branch of 
stock husbandry offers more at the present time. 
Then there is a growing field for all small fruits, 
with an increasing market; but no man can force 
success; there must first be the vision of what he 
would have and the determination to get there. 
Who can say that on such a farm there is not a good 
opening for raising beef in connection with the 
dairy, but not from the same animals? Sebec is a 
generous hay-producing town, wherever the land is 
well eared for and fed, hence there is pasturage, 
and the Winter feeding can be supplemented with 
roots, which thrive all through that section. Follow¬ 
ing some one or more of these lines one gets away 
from shipment of crude products and minimizes the 
labor item, but the line followed must be one in 
which the man has an increasing interest. 
To my mind there is call for some definite action 
to bring back and hold the boys, who would make 
good farmers, to the farm, and there is no question 
that on farms located as this one is there is great 
opportunity for planting some of the cheaper land to 
pines or spruces which, after once started, will 
pay, in yearly increase, better than bank interest. 
Let the boys see Avhere there is hope for them to 
realize and a big motif will be found to hold to the 
farm. Planting such a grove, and a young man can. 
eaten in the food if the body is to be-kept up. It is 
also well understood that muscular development de¬ 
pends upon the protein eaten in food. The uetive prin¬ 
ciple of this protein is nitrogen, and unless the food 
contains that substance, muscle and lean meat could 
not be produced. Now, if this i« so, how and where 
does the honey bee obtain its protein? Anyone 
who has felt the bee’s sting will quickly admit that 
the honey bee has muscle all out of proportion to its 
size. The bee also has a hard skin or covering which 
could not be made from starch or sugar. Now the bee 
is supposed to live on honey, and the general opinion 
is that honey is almost entirely a form of sugar, with 
no minerals or protein in it. The usual idea is that 
ice and honey are the two products which take noth¬ 
ing whatever from the soil. If that is so, where does 
the busy bee obtain the bone and muscle-making ma¬ 
terial needed in its active body?] 
W HILE it is probably true that the main food 
of the adult bees is straight honey or sugar 
syrup, yet we have very definite proof that most 
honeys contain, besides certain mineral elements, 
about 1 to 2 per cent of protein. Practically all 
honey, when examined under the microscope, shows 
the presence of pollen grains; and we know defi¬ 
nitely that the bees feed their larvae, when they are 
making such an enormous growth, a very large per¬ 
centage of protein. This protein is in the form of 
digested pollen and honey; and, so far as I know, 
the larvae are not fed on a straight honey. In ad¬ 
dition to 1 or 2 per cent of protein in the honey, 4 
per cent of various mineral elements, consisting of 
iron, lime, sodium, sulphur, magnesia, potassium, 
manganese and phosphoric acid is sometimes found; 
but whether these last named have anything to do 
with the development of the growing larvae I can¬ 
not state positively; but the presumption is that the 
lime, at least, has something to do with making the 
cliitinous substance that makes up the shell or cov- 
