most farm houses are built, and the slovenly his patients that repose, that cleanliness, and
way in which filth, of both man and beast, is food, which he can command in cities, lighter
allowed to accumulate, and decaying vegetable would be his labors, and more successful his
matter allowed to remain in close proximity to treatment. Of course these remarks do not
dwellings, is one cause which produces and apply to all cases, but we believe they will to
keeps in full force those tedious cases for which the majority.
farm patients are noted.

Most farm buildings in our part of the country are built upon the ground, and without cellars or means of ventilation. If they are provided with cellars, they are damp, foul receptacles for old potatoes, wilting cabbage, rotten turnips, spoiled meat, pools of stinking milk spilled upon the ground, and other poisons too numerous to mention.

Would it not be well to make these subjects more popular than we do? The silly smattering of physiology and hygiene which is being pumped into unwilling pupils, as the fashion now is, does not in the least remove the evil.

Every year houses are made more air-tight, and the old fire-place is giving way to the airburning and lung-destroying stoves, and the food of the people is, as a rule, served up, generation Another cause of disease is the character of after generation, in the same unwholesome the food used upon the farm, and the common manner, while the wells from which the supply method of preparing it. The prevalent method of water is expected is an unprotected pool, and of over cooking all meats and under cooking receptacle for surface water. vegetables is a source of much alimentary Farmers as a rule either work too hard, or derangement. The use of salt pork most of the year, and woody vegetables raised without care, and cooked only partially, is a kind of diet that will sustain life, but not in its greatest comfort or health.

work to a disadvantage through lack of any method; they are not clothed against the cold and rain as they might be; they work in the night or early damp mornings, without food or clothing sufficient for the exigency; their meals There is a Hoosier prejudice against mutton are irregular, and, taking all together, the that debars two-thirds of our population from western farmer is, in body and brain, to a comenjoying a constant fresh meat diet, which gives fortable English or New England farmer, what so much health and strength to the English a poor, consumptive, half-breed Indian is to the laborer, at a price far less than pork or poultry. stalwart sons of the forest, that inhabited this The character of country pastry, which is country at the period of the discovery of devoured with such relish by the farmer even at America.-Indiana Journal of Medicine. supper, is simply one degree more indigestible

than the half-baked, swampy bread.

When the food is of such character in health, ANY PORT IN A STORM.-A certain doctor what is the diet of the sick room? Simply the was apt to quarrel with his wife. Returning same bad cooking, with the addition of a little from a professional visit, he was overtaken by a more sugar, and a half dozen kinds of teas, with terrible storm. A return hearse came up, going rarely any morsel that is craved or wholesome. homeward. The doctor crept in, with pall and Perhaps no more fatal error exists in the plumes for his companions. The hearse stopped country than in the over-crowding of sick at the door; the lady looked out. "Who have rooms by the curious and kind neighbors, who are ignorant as to what attention is most agreeable to the sick, and therefore each one tries to do something, and that something, as a rule, is wrong. Two things the patient hardly ever gets, and that is a refreshing drink of cold water, all that he wants, and an hour's freedom from questions, whispering, tramping, and slamming of doors, coming and going.

Many of our country people have not yet learned that dirt is a disinfectant, and instead of depositing filth in a sink or privy, at a distance from the house, or covering it with fresh earth, the utensils of the sick room are emptied upon the grass about the house, which perhaps for years has been undergoing a constant saturation with like matter. Oftentimes, no doubt, fevers and diarrhoea are produced or continued in this way. If the country practitioner could but get

you got there, coachman?" "The doctor,
madam." "Well, thank heaven for granting
me resignation! So the poor man has gone to
his long home at last." "Thank you, my love,"
said the doctor, getting out of the hearse, "for
your kind regards for my safety."

A sick man, convalescing, who was congratulated by a pious friend upon his recovery, and asked who his physician was, replied, Dr. Jones brought me through." No. no," said his friend, "God brought you out of your illness, not the doctor." "Well, may be he did, but I am certain the doctor will charge me for it."

Domestic Economy.

MY BEES.

HAVE kept bees in a small way for
some time, and was on the point of
writing down my experiences for

I determined on the spot to write down the results of my experience, and here they are.-I suppose that you have a small garden, and wish to keep some bees in it, but are contented to begin in a very humble way, as I was; only desiring a little amusement, and honey without much expense or trouble. Then buy a stock in the autumn or winter; or if you can not get one, obtain a swarm in the early spring. But take care that the hive is in good condition, flat on the top, with a hole in the centre fitted with a bung; and be sure you see that it is placed on a good thick comfortable board, projecting well before the entrance-hole. I can not make out that the aspect matters much; but be careful to place your hive on a firm stand, which can not be knocked or blown over, and in such a situation that you can get conveniently at the back of it. On the edge of a path, with the back towards it, is a capital site; it is true that the

the benefit of those who wished to eat their honey, upwards of a year ago, when the Bee-master's letters in the Times prevented me. I am not a bee-master, only a bee-scholar, and have not learned very much. gardener may dislike digging close in front of But the few things I do know have been puzzled the bees; but that is a trifle. He must cultivate those two or three yards on cold or wet days, or out very slowly, and tested with great care, and late in the afternoon. If he does not heed they go to establish no preconceived theory, but them, they will not annoy him at any time, unless are as practical as bread and butter. The cause of my retaining the idea of publishing them is you have been trying experiments on them: the wonderful ignorance of the very first rudi- they do hate that. Never mind about having a shed over the hive; it only harbors spiders, who ments of bee-keeping still existing amongst catch the bees in their webbs; moths, who get well-educated people who have gardens, in spite inside the hive, and lay eggs which turn to of all the popular treatises on the subject. larvae, and destroy the comb; snails, who will Why, not long ago, I lunched with Dr. Mac-Hey also crawl into it, and worry the inhabitants out of Sunshinshire, a man whose knowledge is generally considered as boundless as his hos- of their senses; and other such vermin. A good pitality; and after the meal, he gave me a cigar, and took me round his garden. Presently, we came to a row of bee-hives, twelve at least, all whose inhabitants were so hard at work that the united hum was like that of a thrashing machine. I made a dead stop.

"Ah," said the doctor, "I like to watch these little fellows; they are so cheerful over their

work."

"You must have plenty of honey," said I. "Well, no," he replied: "I do not get any honey from them. To tell the truth, I can not make up my mind to have them stifled."

"Stifled!" I almost shrieked; "I thought that barbarity was as extinct as the burning of witches. You should never kill a bee. All you have to do is to make a hole in the roof of your hive in the spring, and stick another smaller hive on the top of it. In the autumn, you slip a sheet of tin between the two hives, to cut off the communication; carry off the top one full of honey for yourself, and leave them the bottom one for their winter provision. You get your golden eggs, and don't kill your goose."

"Oh!" said he. "I have heard of some such system, but did not know it answered practically."

heavy red earthenware milkpan is the best sectum for a hive. If you desire an ornamental affair to set off a portion of your garden, that is But if simplicity and cheapness are attractive to a totally different matter; I can not advise you. you, I can tell you that those qualities are the most likely to insure success. Many an individual of slight apiarian tendencies (do not be alarmed, dear Mrs. Grundy; they have nothing to do with Essays and Reviews) enters some such establishment as the exhibition of workingbees, at the Crystal Palace (and a most excellent and interesting one it is, or was), and is frightened out of his half-formed intention of having a hive or two-it seems such a business. There is the glass-case, invented for the purpose of showing the most minute domestic occurrences amongst the little creatures; indeed, so far is the spirit of inquiry carried, that the exhibitor announces," Her Majesty has just laid an egg!" when that event happens, which is really pushing inquisitiveness beyond the limits of the Court Circular, if that be possible; he determines at once not to have that; but amongst the other contrivances for housing bees he wanders perplexed. The one great recommendation of any particular hive or box seems to be, that it

affords greater facility than the others for acting in the super, or top hive, because it is interestas a sort of Gulliver in Lilliput, and directing ing to see how your share of honey is getting on. the labors of the community; removing old Or, if it is full of comb-not only filled, but rotten comb; examining the honey, to see that sealed-early in the summer, it is of real use to the winter store has not crystalized, in which discover the fact, for you may take the spoils at case it would be useless to them; &c. And so once, exchanging the full cap for an empty one, the novice gets an impression that a proprietor and giving your family honeycomb for breakfast of bees has to be a providential king-bee him--which families like. The little window, then, self, with a good chance of being stung to death in the super is a real advantage, and you should while establishing his authority, and shrinks always have one. If you can get only blind from his purpose in dismay. Or perhaps his hives in your neighborhood, cut a hole with purse is a slender one, and he is frightened by your pen-knife, and mortar a bit of glass in for the paraphernalia of feeding, fumigating, comb- yourself. Of still more importance is the shape. cutting, honey-straining apparatus which appeal to it.

If, instead of going to an exhibition of bees, he buys a book about them, he is liable to be still more appalled by the minute and intricate directions contained in it-the things it seems necessary to do, the articles he is told to buy. There is no fault to be found with the workindeed, the most popular of these little handbooks are excellent: but it is, of course, their business to put you up to the last new dodge in bee-keeping. Read by the light of practical experience, they are stepping-stones; without it, stumbling-blocks. The judicious tyro, indeed, might, without much difficulty, adopt what was simple, and eschew the rest; but many tyros are not judicious.

of the super; it should be low and broad; the higher it is, the longer the bees take in filling it, But the worst-shaped straw super is better than the best-shaped glass. I hate glasses: they look very pretty, I own, and adorn a breakfasttable-but that is all that can be said for them. The bees do not take to them kindly; they will go up into them sometimes and begin making comb, and then suddenly strike work, and swarm. And for a bee-keeper who attends to his bees himself, instead of merely superintending, swarming is a serious nuisance. But if you must have glasses, get low-crowned ones; the trade will try to force bell-glasses upon you (why, I can not imagine), but don't you have them; the others are to be had, let them say what they will. Why, even Neighbor's Cottage Now, what I have to say is simply this-that, Hive, which I bought on the recommendation of as far as my experience goes, the less fuss and a capital shilling hand-book (which, by-the-bye, bother you make with your bees, the more also declaims against bell-glasses), is fitted with homely the arrangements you provide for them, three of the odious things; and I lost pounds the more successful you will be. The old fable and pounds of honey before I finally made up about the bad luck attending a stock or swarm my mind to discard them, being diffident, and for which money is paid, is not so much super-thinking Neighbor, with his great experience, stition as a myth, the interpretation of which is, must know best. In other respects, the hive is that if you want plenty of honey, you had better a good one, with a little thermometer, which not waste your cash on elaborate contrivances. imposes on strangers, and other natty conveA bee wants her house to be warm, dry and niences; but not a whit better than others one dark; and when you have provided her with one which combines those requisites, her comfort is insured. Of course, if you like to take the roof off, open the windows, and watch all that goes on; or if it amuse you to note the temperature of the interior, and ventilate it whenever the thermometer rises above a certain height, you can. Only remember, all this is to please yourself, not the bees, and it will not improve your harvest.

quarter the cost. But then it is not always easy to get decent hives at all, and if you live near London, Neighbor's is mighty convenient. Only be firm, and refuse the bell-glasses. The best investment you can make at his shop is in mahogany circular boards, with holes in the middle; for they are very good, and never shrink or curl.

When you put on your super, which should be soon after the bees begin to work in real earnest Of course, there is a preference in hives; it in the spring, you pull the bung out of the hole is better to have a rim of wood round the in the top of the hive (I prefer covering it with bottom, because that prevents the straw from a little straw mat myself; if you do too, remove wearing out; and if the top is not straw at all, that), so that the bees can come up; you fit one but mahogany, or some hard wood which will of the boards on to the top, so that the hole in not crack or shrink, it will save you trouble the centre corresponds with that in the hive; when you put the super on in the spring, and you place a second board, with a similar corretake it off in the autumn. But that is all. sponding aperture, upon this, and then you put Again, it is an advantage to have a little window your super hive upon this last, cover the whole

with the milk pan, if any wind is blowing, to and you can do the same if you want a little exkeep all snug till the bees have glued the super citement and excuse for trespass. When the firmly to the board, which they will soon do: swarm has resolved itself into a live pudding, and then the less you interfere with them the shake it into a hive, and you have it. It reads better, until it is time to take this super, or top easy, does it not? And if the queen selects an hive, and sack the honey. Now it is you find easy bough for her resting-place, it is not a difthe advantage of your two boards, for you pass ficult operation practically. But queen-becs are your sheet of tin quietly between them, and so often perverse, and then it is a nasty job, especut off the communication as comfortably as cially on a hot day, which it mostly is. possible. Then, half an hour afterwards, you For example, last year I had reason for wantcarry off your top board, with the super still ing a pretty-looking glassfull of honeycomb, so upon it, to any dark room with a little bit of I capped a strong hive with one instead of a open window left visible, and there you leave it. straw super. The bees flocked into it, and comGive the bees in it time enough, and they will menced comb-making, so I thought it was all all come away, and fly back to the stock-hive right; but on visiting my colony one fine mornwhere the queen is, and leave you in quiet pos- ing after breakfast, and carefully lifting up a session of your share of the honey. corner of the black cover which darkened the But, supposing the queen should be in the glass, I found it empty, and its late inhabitants super? Well, that would be awkward; the as excited as Parisians on the eve of an emeute; main body might come to it, perhaps. I never and a little while afterwards a swarm issued knew of such a case. The hand-books tell you forth, and went careering about high in the air, how to hedge against it; but their directions finally settling in a lump under the bough of a are very bewildering, and no authority that I pear-tree at some distance from the ground. I have read mentions such a thing as having hap- had no spare hive by me, so the first thing to be pened; the queen stops below. Yet I have heard done was to get one, and I rushed off to the of brood-comb being found in a super, and the nearest town for that purpose, and for some time queen must have visited it in that case to lay could meet with nothing but absurd things with the eggs. By-the-bye, if there should be any rounded tops-the regular old-fashioned beebrood-comb, the bees will not leave it, and then hive shape, such as you have seen in pictures. you had better replace the super until the At last, however, I managed to procure an awkjuveniles are hatched. But I have never been ward thing, somewhat too small, and rounded bothered by that difficulty myself, and therefore off towards the top, but still flattish at the very suppose it to be exceptional. crown, and with a hole in the middle of it, and I am almost ashamed to write down such returned with it in my hand. Then, having got simple directions, which are to be found in every an alighting-board and every thing else I might modern treatise on bee-keeping; yet I am sure want ready, I set a pair of steps up under the that anybody who was puzzled what to do with pear-tree, and invoked the aid of the househis first hive, would be glad of these few prac- hold. A sister, Susannah the housemaid, and tical hints, standing out clear from all the elab- the cook responded nobly to the appeal, and we orate directions with which they are wont to be commenced operations. I ascended gingerly to entangled. the summit of the steps, which wobbled uncomI was abusing swarming just now, and it is a fortably, for the ground underneath had been very troublesome business; but if you want to recently dug into potato-trenches; and when my increase your number of hives without purchase, weight bore more on one side than another, the you must make your bees swarm. You do that corresponding leg of the steps sank deeper into by letting them alone in the spring, and not the soft earth. At last I contrived to balance giving them the increased room by capping myself on the top, and found that by stretching them. It is very provoking if they get clear off upwards on tiptoe I could just hold the hive up while no one is watching, and go to enrich some to the pendent swarm. The next question was, neighbor's apiary. That is what generally hap- how to shake it in? My sister brought out a pens to me; but then the premises are not ex- rope, and suggested that the bough might be tensive, and a few yards suffice to carry a swarm sufficiently agitated by its agency; so I fastened into the grounds of a cantankerous market- it, threw the end down, and held up the hive. gardener, who would no more assist me to find First my sister alone pulled and jerked, then it than he would give me his blessing. If, how- Susannah joined, and finally cook added her ever, you are surrounded by civil folk, or own strength; but the united efforts of all three several acres, you will probably get your pilgrim could but sway the branch gracefully up and bees; for they do not travel far without settling, down, and a swarm to be taken must be well if you let them be quiet. Our ancestors used to shaken. Then they tried sudden jerks, and suchunt them all over the parish with rough music, ceeded in dropping a few bees into the hive, and

disturbing some hundreds, who detached them- been kept up strictly for a month, was relaxed, selves from the bunch, and flew about my ears, and where they went I don't know-certainly crawled up my sleeves, and tickled my neck. not into my smart hive. Well, I went off to We were pounded; and the swarm might be in my friend's garden, and sure enough there was the pear-tree to this day if Susannah had not a small cast hanging in a favorable position, and had an inspiration. She seized a long piece of I soon had them in the hive, and transferred wood which happened to lie in the yard, and them in the evening to my own garden. But coming under the bough, banged it as close to the hive was a very large one, and the swarm a the swarm as she could without hitting it, and very small one, and it was just at the end of the the sudden jars began to dislodge the bees in season, so that all the bees could do for themearnest, so that they dropped by handfuls into selves was to build in one corner two or three the hive. Still the process was a slow one; and combs, perfectly destitute of honey. Here was if you can picture my position to yourself, you an opportunity for trying that uniting of swarms may believe that I had had about enough of it. which is so strongly recommended by all modern My arms ached till I could hardly hold the hive, writers on bee-keeping. I had another hive, which was getting heavy, up any longer, and the strong in population, rich in honey, but in a difficulty of keeping my balance increased every most dilapidated condition. The sides actually minute. Then cook, improving Susannah's dis- gaped in places, and I had been obliged to bind covery, brought up a heavy clothes post, and it together with rope coiled round it, till it battered the bough; that was the true solution looked like a capstan. I determined to try and of the difficulty; at the second blow, the whole lump, queen and all, fell plump into the hive; and now I might come down, if I could-without falling, I mean. Well, I did not actually go over, but was so near it, that I had to grasp the hive in a fresh place, to avoid dropping it, and so crushed some bees, who naturally stung

me.

transfer the community in the rotten old hive to the new one, and then feed up the united kingdom with the honey taken from the former; for bees will make comb, and store up honey, if fed out of the season, either with the real article or barley-sugar, just as well as they will from the flowers and blossoms, when they are available. I studied my books, then, and fixing upon If you are a man and a smoker, always light chloroform as the simplest stupefying medium, your pipe before doing anything with your bees; made all necessary preparations, and commenced if one gets angry, and attacks you, a puff will two hours after sunset. First of all, I passed a drive him away; or supposing you are wanting bit of string between the old hive and its alightto set a hive with a newly taken swarm, say, ing-board, for the straw is always glued tightly down on its alighting-board, and the provoking to the wood, and unless you take some such preinsects will insist on getting under the edges, caution, you can not wrench the two asunder where they will be crushed, a few whiffs will without a commotion it was my particular object make them withdraw, and save dozens of lives. to avoid Then gently raising the hive, thus You may not care for a sting, but remember loosened, I thrust in a piece of rag saturated that the bee who stings you performs the harri- with chloroform, and let it down again sharply; kari, and dies, poor thing. I have twice en- only two bees escaping, and about three getting deavored to soar into the regions of high-art crushed. Simultaneously, however, two or three apiarianism, and on each occasion have met more rushed out at the proper entrance, which with a terrible fiasco. The details of one may I had forgotten to close. But this mistake was serve in a measure to buoy the shoals, by show- rectified in a moment, and so far there was not ing where I blundered. much harm done.

Late in the summer, a friend and neighbor Presently, such a buzz arose as you may hear sent me word one day that there was a swarm of if you are about half a mile from the ring at bees in his garden belonging to nobody, and that Epsom an hour before the Derby. The murmur I had better have it, as he himself would not grew fainter, fainter, ceased entirely. The books keep the things on any account, having a super- promised that I should now find all the bees stition about their stinging propensities, which, lying senseless on the board; and on raising the by-the-bye, are about as strong as yours would hive, I saw that the greater number were so be, if you lost your life by the act. I was pleased enough, for I had got a brand-new cottage hive, with three windows, and a little thermometer; and I was naturally anxious that it should be tenanted. I had forced another hive to swarm in the spring for that purpose; but the provoking insects took their flight on the very afternoon that the watch upon them, which had

heaped together, and poured them upon a white dish; but there were thousands of strong-headed bees still crawling about the top of the hive and the combs. "A few sharp taps will dislodge them," said the books. Sharp taps applied dislodged perhaps twenty. Sharper taps brought down a great piece of comb, smothering a lot of bees in their own honey, crushing others, and