OUR BEAN CROP---1861.

more beans-had 12 bushels. They were not quite dry enough to thrash easily or to turn out as bright as they EDS. Co. GENT.-As there seems to be considerable in-will in the winter, and need sifting and picking over to quiry in regard to white beans and their culture, perhaps come up to prime quality. an account of our last bean crop, its management, products, &c., may be of interest to your readers. We have planted beans more or less for the last seven years, claim to know something of their culture-though we do not know it all yet-we learn something new every year, both from others and our own experience.

Dec. 11th.-Thrashed beans another day-now in capital order. The sheep take hold of the straw as thongh they loved it. and

2614.-Sold 26 measured bushels at $1,874 per 62 lbs. Weighed nearly 27 bushels-brought us in a little over $50.

Jan. 11th.-We have the balance of the beans thrashed; there are 55 bushels, which will weigh over a bushel May 17th.-Finished plowing five acres of corn-stub-more, making the whole crop (including 2 bushels China We can now ble, in order to sow oats on the lower two acres. Intend Red Eye) 84 bushels, 28 bushels per acre. to plant the upper part with white beans. Would not sell at $1.75 per bushel, which will make the crop worth have plowed for the latter crop yet, but for the fact that $150, or $50 per acre, reserving some for seed and family the ground needed plowing up and down, rather than use. along the slope.

31st.-Harrowed and marked off bean-ground-rows two and one-half feet apart—with a common corn marker marked across the furrow. Planted in the same direction, or along the marks, with Wakefield's Hand Planter, about eighteen inches anart, six to eight beans per hill. Heretofore we have planted across the marks, but find that it leaves the hills irregular in the rows, one-half being on one side, and one-half on the other, as the planter goes and returns, which is inconvenient in cultivating and hoeing.

June 1st.-Finished planting the beans. Put in about a dozen rows of the China Red-eye-the balance being the medium white bean.

July 6th.-Cultivated the beans with a common shoveltooth corn cultivator. Hoed some, also; very few weeds to be seen-we merely go along and level the dirt around and between the hills.

The cost of cultivating an acre of beans in the best manner, including the use of the land and all expenses, will not exceed $15. The crop on good soil, planted by the first of June, and carefully harvested, will not be less than 30 bushels per acre. (Ours would have been that, but for the fact that the Red Eye beans planted, were some six years old, and had been damaged by getting wet a year or two before, and the ground was not more than one quarter occupied.) So at 50 cents a bushel, (what we sold one erop for,) one gets pay for his work and capital. We have said nothing of the straw-it is worth half as much as the best hay for sheep feeding. We had rather have two tons of bean straw to feed in connection with three tons of hay, than to have four tons of hay, to feed alone.

stacking.

Beans can be grown at a cost of $10 per acre-if planted on clover sod turned over immediately before planting, weeded by turning on sheep, and we have good July 12th.-Have at odd spells got the beans all culti-weather for barvesting, so that it can be done without vated and half or more hoed-working them only while dry. The rest will have to go as they are, for haying and harvest are upon us. Sept. 6th.-Beans fit to pull. Let the job to a German woman at $1 per acre.

We find the beans well podded and ripened very evenly. Wherever we find a green stalk, it is much bet. ter policy to let it stand than to gather it with the dry ones, as the unripe beans are sure to mould and color, injuring the market value of the others. The first day's pulling, shelled badly; we estimated the loss at $5 on the first half acre. The ground was very dry and warm-the day a warm one-after that we had some rain and cooler weather, and lost but few from shelling. In pulling they were laid in small bunches of four or five bills, and in two days of fair weather were fit to draw in. Some were wet by showers after pulling; these we turned with forks, and lost none from the rain, though at one time we feared half an acre of the best would be spoiled. When drawn they were spread about on the scaffold, and "over head," (over the barn floor,) about two feet thick, and thus dried perfectly, except a small place near the centre, where the -dust and shell beans fell most thickly in pitching. Even here but a few stalks were seriously injured.

The imperfect and colored beans were the result in almost every case, of the lower end of the pods growing down into the soft dirt, which had been moved towards the hills in cultivating. We should have had a cultivator, (like that we used one year,) in which the outer tooth can be turned to throw the dirt from or against the hills, as you like, and in cultivating and hoeing beans, we should not raise the hill more than half an inch above the level of planting time. It is important to give clean cultivation. On a clean soil this is very easy, as, planted at the distance named above, the hills soon cover the entire surface. The crop when free from weeds will be at least three times as valuable as when overrun by them, and the condition of the soil for future crops is enough better to pay the cost of weeding.

Sept. 19th.-Finished drawing in the beans; a few days afterward sowed the ground to wheat, harrowing in about ten loads of fine manure per acre with the seed.

Sept. 21st.-Cleared up barn floor-threshing a few

You have spoken of their value for feeding to sheep and milch cows; for the latter mixed with corn or barley and ground. We have tried them, and value them highly. Pork has been fattened upon such a mixture at a For sheep they need no grinding, but very cheap rate. should be mixed with corn and oats to produce the best effect. Indeed, a mixture of grains is best for any animal, and a change of fodder is equally acceptable to their appetites. ALBERT.

Western New York.

Loss of Weight in Hay and Corn.

EDITORS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-I have made an ex

periment as to the loss of weight in hay when put in the barn, and when taken out at this season. Some of my neighbors bought hay in July, and to accommodate the sellers, had it drawn at once to their carriage-houses, the price to be made in February. I told them they would lose by the operation, and in order to see what the loss was, I had a load weighed and put by itself in my barn on the 20th of July:

Weight, 20th July...

do. 18th February,

Loss..

2.001
1,449

552 or 27 per cent. The experiment was carefully made. I have a hay scale on my farm-(in four years it has saved more than its cost)-20 feet from my barn door, and I do not believe five pounds of hay was lost. Hay is worth $15 a ton, so that bought in July cost $20.65.

The cob in a bushel of good corn in November weighs 19 lbs.; in May, 74. Millers charge six cents per bushel for grinding corn, either shelled or in the ear; so if ground in the ear, when dry you pay 12 cents for the corn Will it pay? to make 56 lbs. of real feed instead of six. I think not.

I wish some of your cornstalk fodder disputants could see my cattle fed on them for two months. They would confess they are worth something. I have 20 head put in the stable on the 6th of December, and if not sold, will leave it for the first time in April. Warm, well ventilated stables, regular feeding, and good leaf bedding, with me saves fodder, keeps healthy cattle, and makes a Fishkill Landing. manure pile. W. H. DENNING.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] FARMING IN MARYLAND.

MESSRS. EDITORS-I have for some years read the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN with great interest, but have been surprised to find that the products of your land, even in the great State of New-York, by all your enlightened farming, by no means excel those of my neighborhood, and I would really be sorry if I could not beat many of the statements in your paper. Besides we have in our neighborhood as good and pure Alderney, Devon and Hereford cattle; as pure South-Down sheep, as good Suffolk, Berkshire and Chester pigs, as can be found in the country. I have but a small farm of 118 acres, of which about 90 acres are in cultivation. I raise wheat, rye, corn, hay, considerable potatoes and other roots; also beans, peas, &c. I planted about six years ago, over 1500 fruit trees, where heretofore forest trees occupied most of the place. I have also a vineyard of about 5,000 grapevines which last year bore some grapes, but next year I expect to make a full crop. I also raise an abundance of strawberries, rasberries, currants, &c.

land where clover has grown the previous year, and I al-
ways have some green matter to plow under with the
wheat stubble.

underdraining.
I am a strong advocate for rotation of crops, and of

I shall now haul from Baltimore, which is 8 miles, shell which I compost with bone dust, muck, salt, ashes and lime, 50 bushels to the acre. I buy only butcher manure, plaster. No guano or other mixtures. Bone dust gives my land the phosphates, ashes the potash, salt the soda, plaster the sulphate, and the lime the magnesia. As to the ammonia, I trust to the stable and hen manure, and to the chew bones any more since I put bone dust on my land. surrounding elements. I would add that my cows do not

Baltimore Co., Md.

G. H. MITTNACHT.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] SAVING GRASS SEED.

MESSRS. EDITORS-In order to have good hay-and this is a very important item-we must start aright, and sow clean seed. "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." If he sows sorrel, dock, daisies or Canada thistles, he will not be very likely to get a good crop of timothy or clover. Hence the importance of knowing that the seed sown is free from foul stuff. It is very difficult to know this if we buy the seed; for there is a great deal of this article bought and sold, that no progressive farmer would like to sow upon his land, if he knew just

When I bought the land, about six years ago, about 50 acres of it was in wood-land. With a Pittsburgh Iron plow, I plowed deep from the start, two men going along with plow cutting the roots. I then spread 50 bushels of lime to the acre, and planted corn, which, well cultivat ed, always gave a good yield. Next year I followed with peach blow potatoes. After they were taken out the land was clean. The spring following I sowed oats and clo- what it was. I have seen grass saved for seed that was ver. The next year after I always had a good crop of clo- too foul to make good hay. I therefore think that every ver, which I mowed once; the second crop, which gene-farmer should aim to save seed sufficient for his own use, rally is 12 inches high, I plow down in the fall, put 250 but not in the slovenly way practiced by some, of saving pounds bone dust, 2 bushels salt and 15 bushels unleach- it from the mow during the winter when foddering out the ed ashes on an acre, and sow wheat, or plant corn next spring. So far I have succeeded remarkably well with every crop; but I consider now that my land has done all it could without manure. But by this time I am well provided with the materials to keep up my land. I feed all my hay, corn fodder and root plants to my 14 head of cattle, 5 horses, and enough hogs to make about 4,000 lbs. of pork. I sell no straw, but use it all for litter. I have this season over 400 three-horse wagon loads good stable and butcher manure, and manure from over 400 chickens, which is all carefully taken care of, and mixed with muck and plaster; it goes into the hills of my corn.

hay, or by thrashing a part of the mow.

There are serious objections to this mode of obtaining grass seed. In the first place, grass that is not cut before the seed has matured sufficiently for seeding makes very poor hay-is not worth more than half as much as it would have been, had it been cut when in full bloom; and then you are pretty sure to get foul seed. Very few meadows are clean enough as a whole for seed. The best way to do this business, I think, is to select a portion of the meadow where the grass is not so stout as I don't pasture, but feed my cattle in winter on good to be liable to lodge-if the grass is very thick, the heads salted hay, cut when in blossom, good corn blades and will not be as long nor the seeds as plump, and where it tops, (not stalks,) and beets, mangold wurtzel, carrots and is clean, free from thistles and weeds, and let it stand until turnips, in warm stables. On rainy days my men have to the heads begin to turn brown and the seed is pretty hard cut the fodder, and it is fed, with a little mill feed and ripe. Then with a cradle cut off the heads just low oil cake meal, for a change. During the latter part of spring and in summer I feed my cattle in the stable or in a shaded yard, on grass, clover, cornfodder, mowed green and carted to the stables or yard. In this way I save all the manure, which enables me to feed my land well, and my land will feed my cattle in return from a few acres, where it would take four times as many acres to feed them half as well, and they are not tormented by the flies.

I have no manure sheds, and don't wish any, but I have always good muck to spread over the manure heap when ever it is brought out of my stables. I like the rain to fall on it, but not from the roofs. All the soap-suds and urine from the house is also spread over it. Besides the sun is only on it in the morning.

I mix all my manure as much as possible-first a layer of horse manure, then cow, and sometimes hog manure, and then muck. My pit will hold 125 loads, and I never have any fire-fanged. The urine from the stables runs into the manure pit. I plow deep, and always in the fall. I plow my manure under whenever I can, and I am never afraid of its sinking down; if so, the subsoil would always be the richest, which you all know is not so. I am more afraid of the sun and wind. I sow in spring clover seed on wheat, rye, &c., in fact wherever I can, which grows up to 10 or 12 inches by the next fall. I do so even in

enough, so as to be able to bind them in small bundles. As soon as the grass is wilted, bind and set it up into bunches, and let it stand several days, if the weather is good, and if you have hay caps, put them over it. The best way is to thrash it at once as it is drawn in-this saves considerable loss by shelling. After the seed is cut the bottom can be mowed, and if it is pretty thick with white clover and fine grass, it makes tolerable hay. Caution.-Do not make too free use with the stems after thrashing as fodder. Cattle are affected by eating them very much as they are when kept on straw.

By saving grass seed in this way, every farmer can have that which is clean if he chooses. At any rate, if his meadows are foul, be cannot throw the blame upon some rascally brother, who raised the seed and put it into the market. J. L. R. Jefferson Co., N. Y.

AN ENERGETIC FARMERS' CLUB.-The Annual Report of the Farmers' Club of Little Falls, (for which we are indebted to X. A. WILLARD, the Secretary,) indicates it to be a prosperous organization. There are 225 permanent members, and $480 were awarded last autumn in premiums. The whole receipts and expenditures were nearly $900 each-over $600 received from the sale of tickets.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] NOT GYPSUM ENOUGH USED, MESSRS. EDITORS-It seems to be a well established fact that the use of "gypsum or plaster of Paris," is beneficial to many kinds of soil, and that some plants, as the clover, are more benefited by it than other grasses. Now if it is a fact that some farms are benefited by the use of it, it is also a fact that some farmers do not use so much of it as would be for their interest. I have a lot of land in Deerfield Meadow, a part of which is a low flat, and is flooded by the Deerfield river in high water. This low land is sandy, and had been mowed many years up to 1855, when it was planted to corn, with a little manure in the hill, and the crop was light, not more than 25 to 28 bushels to the acre.

At

The following year (1856) it was manured broadcast with about fourteen cart loads to the acre, and plowed in about 6 inches deep, and planted again with corn. the third hoeing (in July) it was seeded liberally with herdsgrass and clover. The following spring (1857) the stalks were cut close to the ground, and carted off, and about 100 lbs. of plaster sowed to the acre. A heavy crop of grass was cut from it the last of June, and a lighter, though a very good crop of rowen, was cut in September, The following spring, 1858, about the same amount of plaster was sowed upon it again, and a good crop of grass was the result. It has been managed in the same way to the present time, (sowing plaster in the spring,) and I think a large profit has been realized from the plaster so used.

I have used about 100 lbs, to the acre also on my pasture annually, (which is a clay loam,) and I am satisfied that the benefit derived from the use of it is more than 100 per cent.

Three or four years since one of my neighbors living three-fourths of a mile west of me, sowed two casts of plaster on a hill pasture west of his house, from the foot of hill to the top. Those two strips of land where the plaster was sowed could be distinctly seen from my residence, as the grass was very green and luxuriant in contrast with other parts of the field. Many pastures in this vicinity have become very productive by the use of plaster; it not only acts as a "retainer of ammonia," but "converts the humus in the soil into food for plants." I have the authority of the "American Muck Book" for the following: "Native plaster contains 21 per cent of water, 33 of lime, and 46 of sulphuric acid." Deerfield, Mass., 1862.

JAMES CHILDS.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] CORN GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS. EDITORS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-I notice that D. Davis of Fall River, Mass., and C. B., wish me to inform them how I raised the crop of corn alluded to by J. W. in your paper of Feb. 20.

If corn is your object, plant as early as your ground will allow, for early planting produces small stover and heavy corn-late planting produces large stover and light

er corn.

I commenced harvesting Sept. 7, 1860-had some ground on the 10th of September, and it ground very well.

to be a little skeptical, I will refer him to my neighbors, As I have not the corn to show C. B., and as he appears and W. A. Robbins, who lives with me now, who weighed and measured the same also to J. H. Chapin and J. H. Demond of Springfield, Mass., and A. L. McKinstry of Chicopee, Mass. The above gentlemen gave their parcould mention. C. B., don't be afraid to write your name ticular attention to the crop-also many others that I and place of residence in a good cause.

Agawam, Mass.

WILBUR WILSON.

P. S.-The stover of the crop of corn which J. W. refers to in the Co. GENT. of Feb. 20, weighed when thoroughly dried, 5,800 and odd pounds.

We have also a reply to Mr. Davis and C. B., from J. W., which the above renders it unnecessary to publish; but we may add from J. W.'s notes, what Mr. Wilbur does not state, that the land on which the large crop of corn was raised, was in corn and turnips the previous year, and that fifteen cords of manure were applied per acre for the crop of 1860.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] Legal Weight of Grain Per Bushel. EDS. CO. GENT.-In your paper of March 13th, on the 176th page, J. S. H. inquires if the standard weight of a bushel of corn has been changed from 56 pounds to 58 pounds, and if yes, at what session of the legislature such a change was made, and where the law may be found. I answer, the standard weight of a bushel of corn was changed from 56 pounds to 58 pounds by act of the legis lature passed April 15th, 1857. See 2d vol., p. 190, of Session Laws of 1857, Chap. 560:

$1. Section thirty-six of title two of chapter nineteen of part first of the Revised Statutes, as ammended by chapter three hundred and seventy-four of the Laws of eighteen hundred and thirty-six, is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

§ 13. Whenever wheat, rye, Indian corn, buckwheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, clover seed, timothy seed, flaxseed or potatoes shall be sold by the bushel, and no special agreement be made by the parties as to the mode of measuring, the bushel shall consist of sixty-two pounds of beans, sixty pounds of wheat, peas, clover seed or potatoes, pounds of flaxseed, forty-eight pounds of buckwheat or barley, fortyfifty-eight pounds of Indian corn, fifty-six pounds of rye, fifty-five four pounds of timothy seed, and thirty-two pounds of oats, Ogdensburgh, March 14, 1862. DANIEL MAGONE, JR.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] CROSS DRAGGING.

MESSRS. EDITORS-I noticed a few weeks ago some remarks by one of your correspondents-I don't recollect the writer's signature-in regard to dragging in grain, which fully met my views. He said, in substance, that after grain was sowed, the ground should be dragged but one way-that cross dragging brought more of the seed fore worse than useless. I think the writer quite correct. to the top of the ground than it covered, and was thereIt is a better way, in my opinion, to fit the ground thoroughly before sowing the seed, so that it shall require but once going over with the drag after sowing the seed. And this last dragging should be crosswise of the last dragging previous to sowing the seed.

In the first place it is very important to have the best seed that ripens in the field standing. It should be fully ripe before it is gathered, then braided up and hung in a cool, dry place. Weak seed produces a weak plant. My crop, which I weighed, was raised in 1860. My land is sandy loam. I manure with the pure article from my stock. I load about twenty bushels into my horse-cart to a load, and dump the load at convenient distances apart to spread, and turn that down eight inches, and turn up a like crop of manure which was placed there in 1859. I plow green sward the day before I wish to plant. The variety of corn, the Cap or Canada, called here the "De-be killed before the seed is sown. mond corn." I drill my corn in with a machine, about three feet apart, two and a half stalks to a foot, cultivate twice with care, and an eye to every weed, and hoe flat, or with no hill. My planting was finished on the 25th of April.

Some farmers are in the habit of partially fitting the ground before sowing the seed, and then attempt to kill two birds with one stone"-fit the ground and cover the seed-after seeding. The first bird, I think, had better

Jefferson Co.. N. Y.

J. L. R.

A prize MANGOLD Root grown in Berkshire, England, the past season, and lately exhibited, weighed 31 pounds!

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] On the Construction of the Bee-Hive.

manner that the rows of said passages will run crosswise of or at right angles with the inside guide bars, it leaves an opening or nearly so, between every comb, and facilitates

MESSRS. EDITORS-M. QUIMBY's Mysteries of Bee-Keep-free and unobstructed ingress and egress of the bees to the ing Explained, is the most practical common-sense book on surplus honey boxes when placed on the top of the hives.the management of bees and bee-hives, that I have read in in winter, without inverting the hives, by merely opening 2d. Perfect ventilation is secured at all times but particularly any language. To learn how to have good luck in bee- these passages to the surplus honey boxes in the top of the keeping, and how to get surplus honey of the choicest kind hive, or removing the top board altogether, as the necessities and in the largest quantity, M. Quimby's book should be in of the swarm or the place where the bees are wintered might the hands of every owner of a hive with a swarm of bees. require. In the Bee-Keepers Department of the COUNTRY GENTLE- the temperature is even during winter, not over or below 40° A dark cellar, not too warm or too excessively damp, where MAN, last Jan. 2d, I find an article on the construction and above 0. of Fahr, is a good place to winter bees. In Novemsize of hives from the pen of that celebrated American bee-ber, or at the approach of winter, before removing the hives master. M. Quimby being of the opinion that the only im-to the dark cellar, the weight of the empty hive being known, provements which can be made in a bee-hive, must be to number and weight is put down in a little book kept for the they are weighed again-the hives being numbered, this afford facilities in managing the bees, by easy access to the interior of the hive. It is evident that those hives constructed purpose, and the contents of hives can be ascertained at any upon the movable frame principle are the best, and I will the honey board is unscrewed and entirely removed, as the time. The passages in the honey board are next opened, or not deny the fact that they do give great advantages in the case will require. The bees are left slumbering in the dark, bands of experienced and skillful bee-masters. But, may I undisturbed excepting to clean or change the bottom boards be permitted to say that all those movable frame hives I am acquainted with, are, upon the whole, ill-shaped and un- is found necessary with any of the swarms, pieces of comb of the hives every 30 or 40 days during winter. If feeding wieldy constructions to move about with, and they do in no containing honey are put on the top of the guide bars; if shape or manner compare with the light, simple and nicely honey in the comb cannot be had, strained honey may be proportioned Quimby box hive and cover, which can be carried used and poured in old pieces of empty combs or small round about any distance, affording all the facilities necessary to shallow dishes, with concentric grooves for feeding troughs, collect the purest honey, and every way adapted to the best like those described in Bevan's work on the Honey Bee, and management of the bees during winter or summer as con- the bees thus wintered come out in the spring very little sistent with the climate and the wants of the nature of the diminished in number or stock of honey, and with their insect. This Quimby hive must therefore, for common use combs as clear, bright and sound as can well be expected and general management, receive the preference over all after a confinement of three or four months. other hives, being cheaper, easier of construction, and much less complicated than the movable frame hives. It is, in my humble opinion, the most simple, and at the same time the best hive now in use. As proof thereof, I will only state that all those who have abandoned their numerous patent hives, and returned to this old box hive, have, invariably, by following the instructions laid down in Quimby's book, secured the best of luck with the bees.

We are again fast returning to the days when "the little busy bee will improve each shining hour." The swarming and honey making season will be upon the bee-keeper in due time, and hives should be formed ready for the moment. Farmers who keep bees should make their own hives, and the leisure hours of March may be improved to make the number of hives which will be needed, that they may be painted somewhat beforehand.

Jefferson Co., 15th March, 1862,

J. N. B.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] How to Get a Large Crop of Corn.

It has been fully proved in this warm calcareous region corn can only be grown when the seed of the many rowed of Western New-York, that the largest yield of Indian dent variety is imported direct from the prairies, and early planted on a highly manured, well drained soil, and afterwards thoroughly cultivated. JOSEPH WRIGHT of Water100, has not failed once in the last three seasons to get

over one hundred bushels of shelled corn to the acre

riety in the next field, with the same amount of manure, on like soil, yielded full one-third less grain, with a heavier cob. He will procure more seed from Illinois this spring to plant another eight acre field.

S. W.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.

For the benefit of your bee-keeping readers, it may per-Illinois red cob dent corn-while the improved flint vahaps not be uninteresting to give you iny mode of constructing the hive. My introduction of the loose bars and rabbets in the upper part of the hive is no novelty, and but a very trifling increase of expense in material and labor; the whole concern of hive and bars, cover, bottom-board and two coats of paint, does not cost me over seventy cents to the single stand. But the hive thus constructed with the guide bars, &c., is an improvement which has given me full satisfaction PRODUCT OF A SHORT-HORN HEIFER these two years past, and to all intents and purposes, I consider the hive thus improved, the most convenient for sumLUTHER TUCKER & SON-I send you an account of mer or winter management of the bees that I have ever used. milk and butter produced in ten days by my Short-Horn Using the Quimby hive as described in COUNTRY GENTLE- heifer Bell-Flower 2d. She calved February 6th, and will MAN, Jan. 2d, 1862, roof sticks and all, I have not wished to be four years old the 21st of March-made from the 13th depart much from the almost classical dimensions of that hive. To introduce the guide bar, I have therefore merely to the 18th inst. ten pounds ten ounces of butter; the readded one half inch to height of the hive, making the box maining five days eight pounds thirteen ounces. The 14 and one half inches high, instead of 14 inches. The quantity of milk was a little more the latter part of the upper edges of the front and rear sides of the hive are next trial, the butter less, owing, I think, to the change of rabbeted out half an inch square, (using inch pine boards for the hives) to receive one inch triangular guide bars or slate, cut weather, which was quite unfavorable in gathering the out at each end to within the quarter of an inch of their tops, cream. She gave during the ten days of trial 1974 quarts and to rest flat with the angle down in the rabbets. These of milk, making by weight 426 pounds, the same milk triangular guide bars, eight in number for a hive of the producing nineteen pounds seven ounces of butter. Feed Quimby size, are nicely adjusted, and fastened in the rabbits was hay of excellent quality, and six quarts provender per with a inch brad, leaving opening or interspaces distributed day. She had given milk one year fourteen days previbetween the bars as follows: three-eighths of an inch inter-ous to being dry, which was six weeks only to the time space between the two centre guide bars, seven-sixteenths of when she came in milk again. an inch interspace between the next three bars on each side of the centre bars, and having half an inch interspace between the last guide bar and the sides of the hive. The advantages derived from these triangular guide bars, left rough as they come from the saw, are-1st, that the bees uniformly build their combs straight down along the angle of the bare, and the top board of the hive with the same number and rows of holes being screwed to the top of the hive with four inch and a half tapering screws in a

one days of the month of April, and ten days of the month Her dam Bell Flower, when four years old, in twentyof June, gave five barrels ten and a half gallons, the same milk producing fifty-four pounds eleven ounces of butter. Her feed was four quarts provender per day. This I consider a good yield of milk and butter for Short-Horns that have been fed and raised upon the Talcott Mountains. Avon, Ct., Feb. 25, 1862.

E. A. PHELPS.

First-set in early spring a single row of good fresh and large cuttings-push into well prepared soil, perpendicularly, thirty-three to the rod, leaving about two inches above the surface. If the soil is not rich, it should be well manured. Stretch a line to set by, to have the hedge straight. Keep down all weeds and grass. The willow, if set early on good soil, will make a growth of four feet the first summer.

Cut all off close to the ground the second spring. Hoe once if weeds appear, and you will have a growth, dense and pretty, eight feet high the second fall. Form into a hedge by drawing a line through the center three or four feet high; cut off the rods that touch the line evenly on top by the line; these form living stakes or standards, and should be about three or four inches apart, through which the uncut willow is interlaced according to fancy, finishing up with a sort of rope-like binding on top.

The hedge is now complete, with the exception of covering it with thorns. This is done by cutting off the Osiers slanting, with a pruning knife. Each stub left thus cut makes a good sharp thorn.

My first twenty rods of hedge was cut at three feet from the surface. Wishing to increase its height, I proceeded as follows-cut the Osiers at two inches above the original top binding, leaving one standing at every three inches in a straight line, the whole length of the hedge; then commence with the first Osier, passing it back around the

cedar stake at the end of the hedge, bringing it forward and passing it on the right of the first standing Osier, and to the left of the next, and so proceed the length of the Osier, which in mine was an average of about five feet. Bend the next Osier at about six inches above the old line, and work it into line same as the first, and so continue through; each Osier holds the one back of it in place, and the whole forms a nice addition to the hedge, and adds to its strength.

I like it. Why? First, because it bears any amount of freezing without injury, and it is not injured by field mice or rabbits. It looks very pretty, costs but little. One hedge furnishes the material ready for the next. It makes a paying fence. Each rod three years old will furnish material sufficient for four corn baskets of two bushels each, without injury to itself, but be improved by the additional thorns produced by cutting off the osiers, Therefore I like it because its general introduction will be of large benefit to the country, multiplying home com forts, and stopping the importation of foreign Osiers. I like them because I like to see the children happy, and what makes better sport for them than to harness Fido and hitch him before the little willow waggon. Victory, Cayuga Co., N. Y.