months. Of late
this procedure is unknown. We crossed our best common hens with Plymouth
Rock stock, paying a good price. We furnished comfortable quarters, gave
variety of feed, and at present writing the lady-like biddies furnish
enough eggs for our own use and some to sell to stores and neighbors.

We still have a few common hens (not caring to have all pure) yet we
find that with same care and attention, the purer strains give best
returns.

Skeptical, like a good many others, we were loth to experiment. Thanks
to Fanny Field for her wise and instructive poultry writings. In a
recent number she seemed to be in doubt whether her writings were heeded
or doing any one good. Let me say in behalf of myself and a few others,
that a few married ladies now have pin money by following her
instructions, who, before, had to go to their lords (husbands) when they
wanted a little money, which was sometimes begrudgingly given, and often
times not at all.

BACHELOR & MAID.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA.

[Illustration]

THE APIARY.

THE BEST HIVE.

In answer to many inquiries as to the best hive, we will here state that
is a mere matter of choice. Many good movable frame hives are now in
use, free from patents, and while we prefer the Langstroth, there may be
others just as good.

Apiarists differ as to what constitutes the best hive. Novices in bee
culture generally think that they can invent a better hive than any in
use, but after trying their invention for awhile, conclude that they are
not as wise as they thought they were. Many hives are patented yearly by
persons ignorant of the nature of the honey-bee, and few, if any, are
received with favor by intelligent apiarists.

The requisites for a good hive are durability, simplicity, ease of
construction and of working, and pleasing to the eye. We think the
Langstroth embodies these. It was invented by the father of modern
bee-culture. He gave to the world the movable frame; without its use, we
might as well keep our bees in hollow logs, as our fathers did.
Different sizes of movable frames are now in use, but two-thirds of the
apiarists prefer the Langstroth.

Upon many farms, bees may be found in salt barrels, nail-kegs, etc.,
doing little good for their owner, while if they were put into hives,
where the surplus could be obtained in good shape, they would become a
source of income. Specialists either manufacture their own hives, or buy
them in the