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Strawberries from the Seed
A correspondent ot ours tells us
bow be grows seedling strawberries,
which vve publish, lie asserts that
full three-fourths of the seed sown
germinates. He says : “I make a
water tight box of the dimensions of
three feet, long, two feet wide and six
inches deep. (This is made water
tight by calking or placing a piece ol
canvass covered with while lend or
tar between the joints.) I then nail
on the bottom a cleat six incecs long,
two inches wide and one and a half
inches thick.
Now make another, hut two inches
shorter f rom outside to outside than
the inside of the water tight box, one
half inch narrower and six inches
deep. In the bottom ot this box bore
some fiftecu or twenty holes ; be care¬
ful not to shove the chips out; if you
do, lill iu with small wisps of grass or
bay. Take a corn sieve and silt ibis
inside box full of rich black earth.
When full, strike the box from end
to end with a straight edge, making
it level.
Now all is ready to receive the seed.
Choose such berries that have the
ripest appearance—those having* the
darkest seed. Let them lay exposed
to the air in a room until the berry is
diy : the seed will then crumble out
of the cavities by rubbing them
gently with the thumb and forefinger.
Now take the seed and scatter them
evenly on the surface of the earth or
loam; afterward, with your sieve,
barely cover the seed be then placed
The seed-box must
inside the water-tight box; be fore it
is tilled the under box must bo made
level on the ground, so as to save an
even depth of water on the bottom,
leaving at one end all the space you
can for irrigation. constructed, and
Your box thus
your seed thus sown, make a tight
cover of boards, four feet long, three
feet wide, with hinges. Drive a stake
in the ground at each corner of the
box, letting the top of the two stakes
at one end be three inches above the
top of the inside box, and the other
two nine inches at the opposite end
These arc to place your cover on at
night, or in case of a rain ; far if you
let it rain, or pour water on your bed,
it will wash some out and bury others
too deep, besides rot others.
Have some rain-water standing in
the sun to temper it, and pour sufficient
water in the lower box to come half
way up the seed-box until the moisture
appears on the surface, let the cover
remain i ff from sunrise, to 11 o’clock,
A. M-, and from 8 o’clock uutil sun¬
set. If directions be followed as laid
down, ono will be suprised toseehow
soon the surface will be covered with
young plants .—Banner of the South.
--
Mr. Raymond, the United States
Commissioner of Mining Statistics,
estimates the total product of gold and
silver in the United States, during
the year 1870, at $66,000,000. Of
this amount California yielded $25,
000,000, and Nevada $16,000,000.
Gold, to the value of from $9,000,000
to $18,000,000, is used every year in
the arts by jewellers and others,
Profits of Bee Keeping.
In response to a request from lion.
Horace Capron, Commissioner ot Ag¬
riculture, Mr, Adam Grimm, of Jel
ferson, Wis., replies : pleasure that I
Sir :—It is with
make the following report, in compli¬
ance with your request of January
9th.
In consequence of the total failure
of the honey harvest of the season of
1868, the only one I experienced in
twenty years. 1 wintered safely only
six hundred colonics out of six hun¬
dred and seventy. These, with the
exception of about one bundled, w ere
in poor condition, some of them con¬
taining only about a teacupful of bees;
and 1 subsequently lost Out about a the dozen
more of the number. of re¬
maining* five hundred and eighty
eight, l sold at the beginning of May
thirteen of the best colonics, leaving
me five hundred and seventy-five
living stocks. These, however, did
not contain more bees than three
hundred colonics contained the spring
previous. During the mouth of May
I deprived thirteen colonics of their
queens. These, and eleven more
queenless colonies, gave no yield of
honey or swarms ; leaving, in all,
five hundred and thirty six colonies to
produce the stocks. surplus honey and the
increase of
From this number of colonies we
saved three hundred and thirty-eight
young swarms, almost all natural
ones. No swarms went away, though
some united together, and were not
separated in hiving. I had, there¬
fore, after the swarming season, nine
hundred and three colonics. But
this number is greater than any one
apiarian can attend to, with such help
as 1 want to employ. I therefore
united, in August, one hundred and
sixty-four colonies; took the honey
out of the comb by the index tractor,
and saved the combs. The bees of
nine colonies were sold and shipped
oil', leaving seven hundred and thirty
colonies for wintering in. In count¬
ing my yield of surplus honey, the
winter stores of one hundred and
seventy-three colonies, united and
sold, are included.
In common and good seasons the
bees will always support themselves.
There is no outlay for food, though
hives and surplus honey boxes cost
considerable. New hives are only
necessary whon the apiarian wants
still to increase his stocks. In my
case, I have to get up a number of
stocks every year to replace those
that are s*.Id. New hives, with one
set of honey boxes, cost me about two
dollars and fifty cents each, counting
my own labor at two dollars per day.
My yield of honey last 6easou was
as follows :
Pounds.
Box comb liouey..........................11,51*0
Prime corub honey, in frames............. 1,500
St raided honey............................ 7,725
Honey iu old combs;, frames and hives____ 1,7-20
Used iu family and given away............ 2SO
Total..............................25,726
This amount would certainly have
been doubled, if my stock of bees had
been in good condition in the Spring.
This honey is not yet all sold. Alt
the white box honey, and all the
white strained honey was sold, and
some of the dark and mixed for $3,180
net. I have yet on hand four thou
sand one hundred and seventy-five
pounds, and in the hands of commis¬
sion merchants, remaining unsold,
one hundred and forty pounds strained
honey, making a total still on hand ot
five thousaud and fifteen pounds. and
This honey, being mostly mixed
dark, will not bring much over fifteen
cents a pound, deducting expenses, dollars. or
about seven hundred and filty
No prudent bee-keejer, however, will
sell all his honey. lie ought to
keep in reserve for contingen:*ics,
about ten pounds for every hive win¬
tered.
The average price for honey sold
is about nineteen cents net per pound.
Strained honey sells for about one
thinl less than nice honey in the
comb.
'fhc sales from my apiary, during
the present season, figure up as fol¬
lows :
For honey..............................$3,180 1,151 00
For queen bees and slock**.............. OO
Add to tbis—
For honey remaining unsold............ 750 OO
Value of Hixty stock** which I wintered
more than the season before........ COO 00
Strained wax ou hand, 206 pounds at 30
cents................................ Cl 80
Total.........................$5,742 SO
Expenses for help, etc., about $500
per year.
The value of surplus stocks is no
guesswork. I sold a few days ago to
two parties, two hundred and forty
colonies of bees for shipment to Utah,
for two thousand four hundred aud
fifty dollars; but these sales have to be
counted with the present season's bus¬
iness.
I keep my bees principally in three
locations, from three and a half to six
miles apart, uutil after swarming
time, when I scatter them still more.
The greatest number of stocks I ever
had in one location was three hundred
and ninety-three. I find, however,
that the yield of honey from such a
number averages less than fiom a
smaller number. One hundred colo¬
nics in one location is all that can be
kept without materially injuring the
yield of honey by single stocks. At
three miles distance, another hundred
could be kept, and so on.
Adam Grimm, in Ex.
---«*+--
Fattening Stcx'k .—Those who are
engaged in fattening animals for
market or for home use, will find that
speedy fattening, whether of cattle or
hogs, is much the most profitable, and
produces the best and tenderest meat.
Where the process is slow, a large
proportion of the food used is wasted
in respiration; therefore it is evident
that the less time taken in fattening
the less the waste and the greater the
profit. In Euglaud, where the busi¬
ness of fattening animals for market
is carried to perfection, both as to
profit and quality of meat produced,
the animals are absolutely crammed
so as to increase their weight as much
as possible in the shortest space of
time, and it is recorded as the result
of experiment that a hog weighing
100 pounds much when lie put up to fatten, if
fed as as can cat of nutrious
food, will double his weight in sixteen
weeks, aud that if the same amouut
of food be given during a grater
numbci weight w jjf ^^ 1 ], }) ^ s . The theory i
that after supplying the - animal • with
the amount of food requisite to sustain
healthy life, the more rapidly you can
* 0 1 him to cat the quantity will necessary be the
to fatten him, the profit, greater and the bet¬
increase and the In
ter the quality ol the meat.
Maryland, raisers of fat stock adopt
this method of rapid fattening, and
they attribute to it the the superior
quality of their beef, as well as the
profitable nature of the business. It
is therefore true of stock feeding as it
is of charity, that, “He Who Gives
Quickly Gives Twice. — Southern
Farm and Home.
Rotation of Crops .—A rotation of
crops is as essential to improved
farming as rest and sleep arc essential
to the human being. Until the
Southern farmers acknowlcd this
fact, and quit trying to raise the same
crop year alter year, and year aftei
year, upon the same land, until its
bareness compels them to-quit, they
will always have “exhausted lands '
to talk about, and will be asking y u
and other agricultural editors tor
“renovators.”
We all know men calling them¬
selves farmers, who have grown corn,
cotton or wheat upon the same laud
for a number ot years in succession,
and when the crop would not pay for
gathering, “turned it. out” to grow up
in old field pines aud rest. Different
plants extract different sorts ot plant
food from the soil aud in varying
quantities, lienee by rotation the
ground has time to recuperate, and
while it yields full crops ot each
kind, retains its fertility, whereas
continuous planting the same crop in
a constant drain which ends in barren¬
ness. #
For our uplands, the rotation which
[ recommend, and which lknow front
experieece to be good, is as follows :
First year, corn ; second year, wheat;
after the wheat is taken off, plow the
stubble under and plant peas broad¬
cast, and having sprinkled them well
with lime plow under iu the Fall while
the vines are green. Third year, eol
ton ; fourth year, corn ; and fifth
year wheat, rye and clover. Leave
the land in clover for two years and
then rocommeuce the rotation. If
this is done, I promise that the last
estate of that land shall be better than
the first, while in each year it has
yielded good crops, and has in the
seven years netted to the farmer more
than twice the sum he would have
gained had he raised the same crop all
the time.
This is the cheapest and best
“renovator” that I kuow, and the
sooner it the our farming friends resort to
sooner will they find that “farm¬
ing will pay” if common sense and
good judgment control its operations.
Not otherwise.— N, in Southern
Farm and Home.
Hancock Co., Ga., May, 1872.
W hen a man has no design but to
speak plain truth, lie may say a great
deal in a very narrow compass.