Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1894 — The Size of the Bee Hives. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Size of the Bee Hives.

There is a common tendency among beginners in bee culture to make the hive too large. The idea is that the large hive has more room for honey, and this'ls fortified by memories of large,bo'Hdw trunks filled with honey, sometimes found in bee trees where colonies worked undisturbed for years. But there are very different conditions in a dense forest than those which prevail in a bee yard where numerous hives are placed near each other. In the forest the bee mothr is not often foupd, at least during first few years life of .the colony. The hive in u yard: ought not to bs,larger than the queen requires fa? brood comb and the honey supplies: for the winter. If more space than this is given It is so much extra work for the bees in fighting the moth. Nine frames will give 1050 square inches,of comb, and that Is sutticlant for most queens. If more is given than the queen needs it will

be filled with noney that will remain from year to year and strongly attract the moths. It will also be apt to make the bees sickly. Farmer* and Hard Time*. Farmers recover from hard times sooner than can any other class They have the means for reducing expenses and living within their income as city residents cannot da At the worst, the farm will afford a home and a suply of food with some surplus. It is always the case when little money is coming to the farmers they reduce their expenses in propjrtloD, or as the old saying is. “Cut their coat according to their cloth.’’ Three or four years ago Southern farmers had a succession of bad years. They were badly in debt, and the price of cotton was so low that there seemed little chance to get out of debt again. But late reports from the South are that they have done so, and now owe less than in many years. The South now grows more pork and beef than over before. This diversification of its industry has helped the price of cotton, the chief money crop. Something like this will result to Northern wheat-grow-iug farmers if they diversify their crops and thus get their money from a number of sources instead of depending wholly upon one. Low Yield of Corn. It is surprising how low the average yields of corn are, taking the country as a whole. Twenty-two to twenty-three bushels per acre is the yield reported for 189::, and yet with good culture and manuring, yields of more than 100 bushels of shelled grain have been attained. No crop has its yield Increased more certainly than corn by manuring and thorough culture. Tho soil cannot be made too rich for corn, as it easily may for auy or the smaller grains The average yield or this crop is, therefore, a fair test of tho increase or decrease of soil fertility. It is doubtless growing harder to sccuro largo corn crops than it used to ho. The longer land Is cultivated with poor management the loss vegetable matter It contains. So long as soil Is full of its original supply of decaying roots good corn crops are grown. Now tho old conditions ipust bo supplied by manure and tho plowing under of clover. A Portable Fence. A cheap pontable fence isdosirablo, sometimes, In establishing temporary pasture grounds, fencing stacks, etc. A vory convenient form of panel Is shown In tho illustration. The end of ono panel locks within the end of

the other. For inciosuros of any magnitude, it would be necessary to set It up in tho form of a worm fence. In or.ier to give greater stability, the cleat or slat at ono end of the panel may be loft six or eight Inches long, when one stroke of the spade would let It deep enough In tho earth for ordinary purposes. Those panels will be found very convenient on the farm, even whore It is Intended to use posts, as a bit of wlro will hold thorn to the post, and they may bo removed again and again without injury. Duck Italslnir by Who’esiile. Mr. Pyo of Eastport, L. L, grows about 20,000 ducks per year. He buys his eggs and uses Incubators to hatch them except during the last week of Incubation, when the hen docs tho business better than the incubator can do. The hen is kept at work continuously and at the closing of tho hatching season has become exhausted, and is given several months to recuperate In. Mr. Pye makes his ducks weigh from four to six pounds each, when they are killed, packed in barrels and sent to tho New York market. The season lasts six to eight months, and the shipments average 800 ducks per week. Fifteen to 20 cents per pound aro realized for ducks in the New York market. , A Photograph Basket. 1 recently saw a pretty receptacle for photographs made of an ordinary splint basket, such as grapes are sold in. The basket was given a few coats of white paint and a finishing of enamel. It was ornamented with dashes of gilding and tiny bunches of for-get-me-nots, and liued first with a scented layer of cotfcop walding, then with pale blue silk caught in plain and smooth. The basket was fastened at each end with a handle made of a small piece of whale bone twisted with blue ribbon. These handles were bent slightly outward, and sewed on with a stout needle and thread.

Farm Notes. " Dry sulphur rubbed into the pores of tho face at night is’ an excellent remedy for annoying Irritations. Coarse hay may not be valuable as good timothy or clover, but the addition of a few pounds of bran may convert the inferior hay to a valuable food by.giving a greater value to the ration. Indigestion is one of the most serious disorders affecting all animals, and it gives rise to many diseased conditions that have no apparent cause to one who does not understand how a disturbed digestion affects every function or the system. There is as much difference in bees as there is between full-blooded and scrub stock, and, like in all other animals, quality tells fully as much in bees. By a proper and Jud clal selection in breeding, a very considerable and marked impiovement is possible. An ordinary well with a ten-foot windmill, which every farmer has or ought to have, will furnish sufficient water to irrigate a garden of three to five acres, and the plant to irrigate fofty or sixty acres will cost about S3OO. The tiling, laid, will cost from $22 to $25 per acre in additi m. It has been demonstrated by pracj ticdl experiments that it costs less to produce lean meat than to produce fat, which means that wheii a variety of food Is given there will be a greater gain in weight, with a fair proportion of lean meat, than when the animgl is provided with corn' jxdusively.

PANELS OF PORTABLE FENCE.