1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



203 



try we had to have two, because one found it too lone- 

 ly. I have no more vivid memories in my life than of 

 these " servants " — strange and perplexine personages 

 who came from the south of Ireland and the north of 

 Sweden and the middle of Hungary and Japan. The 

 Hungarian ate raw sausage and bacon; the Irish one 

 dropped dead of apoplexy, and one from South Caro- 

 lina went crazy and threw the salt-box at my mother's 

 head 



There were times in our struggling days — many 

 years, in fact, wh-n we could not afford a servant, and 

 then my wife had to be it. And when she was ill, 

 which was about half the time, the role fell to me. So 

 1 know just what I am talking about when I discuss 

 this question of cooking, and what it means to human 

 beings. I have kno^vn what it is to build the fire and 

 broil the beefsteak and fry the bacon and eggs, and 

 peel the potatoes and shell the peas and boil the coffee 

 and make the toast; and to sit down and stuff it all in 

 quick before it got cold and spoiled, and then to crumb 

 the table and put the things in the ice-box and sweep 

 the floor and wash and dry the dishes and fill the ket- 

 tle and carry out the ashes and bring in more wood; 

 and then hitch up the horse and drive to town to get 

 more stuff from the butcher and the baker and the 

 grocer and the druggist, and then hurry back home 

 because it was time for the next meal For a long 

 time it was worse even than that, for we had a sick 

 baby, and the doctor had laid out an elaborate sched- 

 ule for him, which included such trifles as broiled 

 chopped meat and chicken broth and gruel and cream 

 six or eight times a day. We have gone through with 

 this sort of thing for weeks and month' and even 

 years; and now, as I look back upon it, it seems to me 

 a miracle that we ever missed committing suicide, as 

 we so often thought of doing. 



And now will you stop and reflect that there are Ave 

 million farms in this country, and an even larger num- 

 ber of workingmen's homes; and that in every one of 

 them there is some wre'ched slave, shut up to toil in 

 just such a treadmill, without hope of respite for life— 

 the men spending all of their energies in earning food 

 and the women in cooking it; and all for no purpose, 

 save to supply occupation for an army of doctors and 

 another army of dentists and another army of drug- 

 gists and another army of those who manufacture and 

 advertise and sell and transport patent medi<-ines? I 

 have an account of the drug industry of the city of De- 

 troit, in which it is set forth that in that city alone 

 there are manufactured nine billion pills a ye r. And 

 now bring yourself to realize that every single one of 

 those pills represents a meal which somebody ought 

 not to have eaten — the appalling total of a hundred 

 meals a year for each man, woman, and infant in the 

 country! 



I have come out from all that as from a charnel- 

 house into the bright sunlight and fresh air. I am 

 spending the winter in the South with my li'tle boy. 

 We have a big house, but we should no more know 

 what to do with a servant than we should know what 

 to do with a white rhinoceros if Pre-ident Roosevelt 

 should send us one from East Africa. We have a bar- 

 rel of walnuts in the pantry, and one of pecans; a sack 

 of figs and one of prunes and one of raisins; and once 

 a week the grocer-boy brings a big bunch of bananas 

 and a box of oranges and a basket of persimmons, and 

 there we are. Three times every day we put some of 

 these things into a bowl and pump water over them 

 till they are fresh and shiny, and then carry them out 

 on to the lawn; and there we spread a newspaper into 

 which we throw the nut-shells and the banana-peel- 

 ings; and when we are all through we chuck the paper 

 into the stove and put the bowls back in the kitchen, 

 and our housework is all done. We have no fires and 

 no dirt, no smells and no grease, no soiled dishes and 

 no ice-box, and no garbage-can and no medicine-chest. 



HAS MONEY FOR MISSIONS, ANYHOW. 



I have been the recipient of Gleanings for many 

 years, and a constant reader of the Home papers and 

 Notes of Travel. I have been for seventeen years a 

 Methodist minister i'l the mission fields of South Da- 

 kota, with an average salary of $300, and no missiona- 

 ry money. I have always labored to make the people 

 ambitious to carry their own work and also contrib- 

 ute of their own means to the mission fund. My prai- 

 Lrie circuit last year, consisting of twenty-six members, 

 furnished ilO.OO for missions. I feel called on to rnake 

 this report, for I esteem A. I. Root one of my very best 

 friends. 

 Bijou HiUs. S. D., Dec. 31. R. N. Kratz. 



POULTRY 



Department 



By a. I. Root. 



UTILITY AND BEAUTY; CAN THEY BE COMBINED? 



Mr. Root:— In your poultry department for Dec. 15 

 the heading reads: " Is it eggs and meat we want, or is 

 it fancy feathers and a good-looking chicken?" This 

 implies that a combination of boih qualities is impossi- 

 ble; further, the article advocates Leghorns or Leg- 

 horn crosses for eggs and meat; if so, why Leghorns? 

 Surely you would omit the meat clause. A Leghorn 

 broiler is possibly a fairly good meat proposition; but 

 beyond the broiler stage it is well to leave them out. 



It is also assumed that "Leghorn" expresses egg 

 type. Why? It is hard to find absolute authority to 

 substantiate such claim; but at the same time it is gen- 

 erally acknowledged that the Leghorn is entitled to 

 that distinction— not that it lays more eggs, but that it 

 produces them more economically, and, as a pullet, 

 becomes a producer ahead of other types. 



It is very hard for me to believe that fine feathers 

 and excellent type would lessen egg production or 

 carcass value; and I thoroughly believe that the best 

 layers in the land will be found where the stock grades 

 the highest. Certainly some fancy drones exist in 

 every fancy flock; but surely s >me drones continue 

 their useless lives in common flocks. 



Is it not a fact that the most authentic reports of ac- 

 tual performance can be obtained only from fanciers 

 and specialists? Is it not true that the fancier has the 

 best of reasons for keeping track of individual per- 

 formance? and does not the fancier set a higher value 

 on performance when the eggs produced have a high- 

 ly enhanced value than does the commercial poulterer 

 who sells eggs by the dozen? 



It would interest many of your readers could they 

 assemble as one of a bunch of real cranks — I mean the 

 kind thai dilates on barring, penciling, under-color, 

 etc., and then hear the trap-nest talk. You would 

 soon learn that the la- ing quality was considered very 

 imoortant, and some of the records made for certain 

 periods would make Ananias jealous of his laurels; 

 but the fancier does not put egg production first ; but 

 at the same time that very important function is rated 

 high, and an outstanding specimen from the fancy 

 standpoint that is also a heavy layer is valued far be- 

 y-'nd the reach of ordinary buyers. In fact, it is only 

 the fancier who will pay a fancy price for a fancy per- 

 formance. 



I heard two fanciers offer $2.00 apiece for every egg 

 that one certain Birred Rock pullet would lay during 

 the coming months of Marcn and April. This was at 

 the late Chicago show, and the offer was refused point 

 blank, if that pullet turns out to be as good a layer as 

 other Barred Rocks that I have owned; her owner turn- 

 ed down an offer of at least $100 for her produce for 

 two months. Supoose she had been a hen with an au- 

 thentic record of 250 eggs for the preceding year, but 

 she herself lacking in high-class breeding character- 

 istics, do you think there would have been several buy- 

 ers willing to take all her eggs at $2.00 apiece? I don't. 

 I know all the parties pertaining to the foregoing par- 

 agraph, or would not have mentioned the circum- ' 

 stance. 



I have no wish to belittle the value of laying quality, 

 but I here assert as my honest belief that fine feathers 

 do not lessen the laying function, and that ordinary 

 flocks are benefited by using high-class males; for it 

 goes without argument that in the course of a tew 

 years the heavies* layers in a flock will have the 

 greatest number of descendants 



Man V flocks have been ruined by crossing; and ad- 

 vocating this method is dangerous for usually those 

 who try it are the least cipable of controlling it; and a 

 fairly good flock may degenerate into dunghills very 

 promptly. 



All the American breeds and varieties combine util- 

 ity with fine feathers, and some other classes d > like- 

 wise; but Leerhorn crosses are not likely to add any 

 valuable feature to anv of the popular breeds. 



Sioux City, Iowa, Dec. 27. MATT. W. BALDWIN. 



Thanks, friend B., for the facts you pre- 

 sent and for your protest against haphazard 

 crossing. I a^^terward thought better of my 

 resolve on the spur of the moment, and my 

 Leghorns have not been crossed. In a re- 



