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M. A. McConnell.—We have kept Shanghais and Bremens; these are the best for all purposes. They are large, and good layers; take good care of their brood, and are not mischievous about the yards.

H. Pierce.-A cross of Dorking, Shanghai and the common fowl is, I believe, preferred, although the black Spanish is being introduced with fine success.

A. Rankin.-The Domingo fowls are the most profitable to raise, as they are good layers and setters, and good for the table-I mean when left to hunt their own liv ing. I consider Brahmas, with a little extra care and feed, a very superior fowl. Rev. G. W. Minier.-Aye, sir! Did you ever know a preacher that did not like poultry and honey? But, let me whisper this in your ear: They prefer eating them to rearing them, and study their peculiarities on the table, rather than running at large, or roaming in quest of the "healing dew."

Although the earth was cursed for man's sake, yet a beneficent Creator has placed within his reach many comforts and blessings, that he may enjoy by making use of the means to obtain them, and of these, none, perhaps, repays with greater yield the labor bestowed, than the honey bee. Those that have taken proper care of them have not only enjoyed the liquid nectar of their rich store houses, but have received large remunerative profits in return. But, like all other stock, they must have proper care and attention. First, they must have the right kind of a hive. The one I have found the best is a square box, containing from 1,800 to 2,000 cubic inches, with movable frames, and a cap on top, covering a box the same size as the inside of the hive, that will contain from 25 to 30 pounds of honey. But the box should not be put on when the bees are first put in the hive. There should be a thin board, the size of the top of the hive, which I call the honey-board. This should be put on top of the hive, to prevent the bees from coming up into the box. The honey may be set on the honey-board, and the cap put on; and when the bees have filled or nearly filled the frames in the hive, then take off the cap and honey-board, and put on the honey box with the frames. The honey-board may be laid on top of the honey-box, and then put the cap on, which is a covering for all the top. In a good season, a strong colony will fill two such boxes, which we call surplus honey. But, in order to have bees do well in this latitude, they should be housed in winter. room that will not freeze is best. The idea of some, that bees freeze up in winter and thaw out all right in spring is very erroneous. If bees once freeze they never come to life again. The best place to winter bees is in a dry, side-hill cellar, made dark. But, as few people have such a place, a small room in the dwelling will answer, made perfectly dark. But if that cannot be had, set all the stands together and cover with straw. I would recommend those that have bees to get Quimby's work on bee-keeping.

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T. Gregg.-Bees are beginning to attract attention, and are increasing rapidly. Italians are being introduced. The bee moth is very destructive in some instances. I am not cognizant of any very effectual remedy.

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H. Sodowsky. I have raised the Shanghai, Cochin China, Brahma Pootra, Hunter's Dominico and Black Spanish. The Hunter's Dominico is the largest chicken I have The Black Spanish is the best layer, the liveliest and smartest fowl I ever tried. It is a very healthy fowl. When cholera prevailed among our fowls, killing most of our large fowls, it killed very few of the Black Spanish. It is, too, a handsome fowl. The cock is a dark, glossy green, while the hen is black, with They are medium size, not much at setting, but extra layers.

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and sides with hydraulic cement. The cellar under my house, which was formerly wet and infested with rats, has been treated in this manner, and it is now perfectly dry and free from the encroachment of vermin.

S. P. Boardman.-In sheep-keeping there is not a doubt but sheds enough to shelter all the different divisions of a flock, pay a large interest on the investment. I have not as yet been able to form an opinion whether it would pay to build large hay barns or not. It is easy enough to figure up the difference in amount of hay saved by barns over stacking, but there are other considerations which complicate the problem. To put a large hay crop in barns takes much more time than to stack it in the meadow wherever most convenient. In "catching weather" it frequently is of great importance to put up large amounts of hay in a short time. I find that I can "rope up," or "slide up," and get into the stack nearly double the hay in the same length of time that I can put on a wagon and haul to a barn. It is also much easier loading from the stack, in feeding out, than from the mow. I think, perhaps, when one had all the other buildings and improvements generally, it might then pay to build bay barns-one of the things to come in just before tile draining. Only such "high farming" will be practiced in our State as will bring in money enough to pay the cost-that, too, in a year.

For sheep-barns (used merely as shelters) our flock-masters use, nearly altogether, low double-roofed sheds inclosed on all sides. They are usually from 100 to 200 feet in length, and from 26 to 30 feet in width.

J. G. Swann. My house is 18 by 40. Cellar under all. Two stories high; five rooms; upper and lower halls 8 feet wide. An L kitchen, 16 by 24, one story, with hall 6 feet wide.

A common stable, 8 stalls, a corn crib and cow shed. Stable 86 by 36. 10 foot stable, on north side for hay and corn. 16 feet center cow shed, on south side 15 feet.

J. Balsiger.-My buildings are of the most common kinds, i. e. some of frame and some of logs. I think brick buildings for dwellings, as well as for stables, preferable, more durable, and both warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

18. FENCES.-Material preferred: cost per rod, and cost of keeping up hedge, board and rail fences: value of hedges for protection: is it cheaper to fence out stock than to keep them up? E. Moss.-Osage for hedge is thought most desirable. Fence stock in. Not allowed at large.

M. A. McConnell-We think pine boards and burr oak posts preferable to anything else, and the cost is about as follows, per rod:

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Hedges do not do well in this climate. The winters are too cold, and they freeze down; but if they could be grown as they can farther south, they would be a great protection to stock, and very much cheaper than any other fence.

H. Pierce.-Osage orange costs $1 per rod for making a good stock fence. The cost of keeping up a post and board fence for 10 years averages 25 cents per rod, and then it must be renewed almost entirely.

Hedges are much used around orchards, and are valued highly as a protection. My opinion, after a careful calculation of the land that is occupied by fences around a farm, and cross fences, wear and waste, is, that it would be far cheaper to keep cattle up, though, as yet, we have a large lot of land unoccupied, upon which the large cattle owners pasture their stock, to the manifest injury of the poorer man, who must fence them out at a first cost of not less $2 per rod, and then some fine morning wake up and find

his fields of wheat or corn destroyed by from 50 to 500 cattle filling themselves and trampling down the remainder; and no recourse left but to pocket the loss with as good a grace as he can.

J. Tefft.-For road fence we prefer wire, as it turns unruly stock better than board fence. Costs about 50 cents per rod when well made.

C. E. Barney.-Quaking asp poles, cut, split and peeled in summer, nailed on good, seasoned posts, make a light and very strong fence. Cut eight feet long.

I think, if no stock was allowed to roam in the roads and lanes, people would have better stock, take better care of it, and make more money on it.

V. Aldrich.-Fences here mostly made of rails, called the Virginia fence. The staked and ridered fence, where timber is plenty, is the best. In this locality the post fence, with rails or boards, is fast taking the place of the old worm fence. Either of them will cost from $1 to 1 25 per rod.

Osage hedge, properly made, I prefer to all other fence. The plants cost from 62 1-2 to 75 cents per rod. It will require four or five years growth to make a substantial fence. I formerly cut it back each year, but now prefer to let it grow as fast as possible, until large as fork stobs-10 or 12 feet high, or more, then lop it by cutting each one about half off near the ground, laying it in an angle that will make the top high enough for the fence. It will sprout up through this and become very thick and still retain life in the main lopped stem.

When I desire wind-breaks I let them grow their own way after lopping; prune other places to suit. The cost of a hedge is less than keeping up other fences.

I am greatly in favor of keeping up stock. Which is cheapest, to fence in or out? I don't know, but believe least trouble to arise from fencing in.

A. Rankin.-I think Osage orange is the best material for fencing. The next best is made by using large, round cedar posts, with three boards and three wires; costing about $1 60 per rod.

It is decidedly cheaper to put up stock than to fence them out.

G. W. Minier.-Osage orange hedge every time and all the time. Mine, completed, cost just twenty-five cents per rod. Board and rail fences will soon be obsolete. We can hardly estimate the value of hedge as a wind-break and modifier of our bleak climate.

"Is it cheaper to fence out stock than to keep them up?" Yes; by at least fifty per

cent.

T. Gregg.-"All sorts" of fences abound. White oak posts and pine lumber are very extensively used as a first fence, both on the prairie and on the bluffs. The Osage orange succeeds well and is being planted in great quantity. It is believed to be the best material for live fences for this region, and will have to be generally resorted to. That earlier planted has, however, been much neglected; so that it is a rare thing to see a really good and beautiful live fence in the country. But the slovenly habits of our people are gradually yielding to the influence of better teachings, and there is a marked improvement taking place.

A. C. Hammond.-The Osage orange is the cheapest, best and most durable fence. It can be planted, cultivated and trained until it forms a perfect fence, for 50 cents per rod, and afterwards annually pruned for 5 cents per rod. A board fence cannot be built for less than $125 per rod, and I find the expense of keeping it in repair greater than that of trimming the hedge. When properly pruned a hedge is of little value for protection. If the farmers of Illinois were to keep their stock up, instead of fencing it out, it would undoubtedly add hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to their pockets.

W. A. Allen.—Hedges preferred for fencing. Cost now, $1 per rod. Keeping hedge trimmed costs $8 per mile per year. Keeping up a board fence costs nearly all your

time, besides boards and nails. Hedge for protection is very good, but does not equal the grey willow.

It is cheaper to fence stock in.

S. P. Boardman.-In the way of fencing, public interest in Central Illinois is now entirely concentered on hedge. Since the discovery and practice of plashing has come about, there are but few doubters as to the complete efficiency of the Osage hedge. Many of the old hedges (rather attempts at hedges) which were considered not only failures but nuisances, have been made, by plashing, to turn all kinds of stock.

G. Harding-My experience is in favor of a live hedge fence of the Osage orange. It gives shelter to stock; is a good wind-break, and an everlasting and effectual fence, at a cost of 60 cents per rod, when large enough to turn stock, and an annual cost of two cents per rod to keep the same in repair.

I consider it cheaper to fence out stock than to keep it up.

The Osage is best for a live fence. If managed rightly, it will turn any kind of stock in 2 or 4 years from re-setting in the hedge row. We have no machines for cutting bedges. The plan I have followed for preparing ground, setting, tending and trimming plants, is this: Prepare the ground in the fall, then break deep in the spring by throwing together several furrows. Run one furrow in the centre, set the plants in it eight inches apart, then cover the root to the same depth as in the nursery. If the ground is rough or cloddy, roll or barrow, or both. Plow well with the double shovel and hoe them well for the first and second years, then use the turning plow. If good-sized plants the first year, they may be plowed the second by the turning plow. I find a ditch on either side the hedge essential, to make the roots strike downward and not spread when the plow runs near them. If there is no ditch the roots will be broken by the plow and then sprout and spread. If the land is not tilled the ditch is unnecessary. If made at all it should be finished by the third year. I do not trim hedges until the third year, when, if of sufficient size, I cut the plants half off and bend them down along the row. The young shoots will again start where the plant is cut off, and when cut form the height of the fence, while the ones bent down stop all holes. If not well trimmed the young shoots will shade those bent down so much as to cause decay. The cost of hedge fence varies according to its width and the manner in which it is tended. As I set them it takes 2,000 to 80 rods, costing near here 82 50 per thousand, making $5 to 80 rods. The labor of setting, etc., about 86. Therefore it will cost about 20 cents per rod for setting hedge, including cost of plants. After being set it will cost 20 cents per rod to till and trim the hedge, which should be trimmed once or twice each year after the 8d or 4th year. With machines there would be little expense in keeping up the hedge once well started. I prefer rails for cross fences, as they are often moved. A rail fence costs at least $1 25 per rod, if made out of good rails, such as oak, ash, walnut and red elm. A board fence costs $1 85 or $1 40 per rod, if of oak; more if of pine lumber. Where one is fencing against cattle and horses only, a three-board fence will answer, and will last until a hedge fence can be made. Hedge fences are the cheapest the farmer can have, and afford good protection to stock and fruit. Orchard trees are much less liable to blow down when a hedge protects them from the wind.

I think and ani sure that in any part of the country where the land is not fenced, it would be much cheaper to fence for pasture to keep stock in, than to feuce the whole of the land in order to keep stock out of the farms.

S. Butler.-Rail fence costs $5 per hundred.

We, as a general thing, fence out stock, and keep it up if we choose.

D. Gove. I have tried all kinds of wooden fences, and at best they require a great deal of repairing to make them safe. I have also had considerable experience in hedging; and it is just the fence for this prairie country. It will cost less to make it and keep it in repair than any other fence, and it bids defiance to high winds or any kind of stock. It can be made sufficiently strong to turn any kind of stock for 75 cents per rod, and can be

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