240 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 



box about 6x8x3 >^ inches. Mine is a box 

 that contained "toasted cornflakes," by the 

 Quaker Oats Co. Remove the top, and with 

 a sharp penknife cut the sides so it will fit 

 close around your face. Make the right 

 curve where it strikes your forehead, and 

 then the opposite side where it goes around 

 your nose. The idea is to make a little 

 "dark room" around both your eyes. All 

 the testers I see figured in the catalogs are 

 for one eye only; but I find it a very great 

 advantage to be able to look with both eyes 

 as you do with a stereoscope. Now cut a 

 hole in the opposite end or what is usually 

 called the bottom of the box, a little larger 

 than a good-sized egg. Cover this with a 

 piece of Tjlack cloth, soft leather, or, perhaps, 

 better still, a thin piece of soft black rubber. 

 Fasten this fabric over the hole with tacks or 

 glue, but so you have it tight and close. 

 Now cut a hole in the center of this rubber, 

 about as large as a common spectacle-glass, 

 and your machine is done. If made care- 

 fully, every streak or ray of light should be 

 cut off around the egg when held against 

 the opening, and also when the box comes 

 up around the eyes. If you use spectacles 

 you want strong magnifying power to see 

 clearly 6 or 7 inches from the eye. Now with 

 this you can quickly test fertility, even out 

 of doors, and fairly well on a cloudy day; but 

 to see what is going on inside the egg every 

 day you want a darkened room, with a single 

 ray of sunlight coming in about the size of 

 an egg. Stay in the room, as I have before 

 explained, until your eye is accustomed to 

 the darkness; and then when this single ray 

 falls on the egg opposite your eye you are 

 able to see not only the machinery of un- 

 folding chick life, but you can also see the 

 antics of the chick before he escapes the 

 ivory walls of his prison house. A day or 

 two before exclusion these "antics" will 

 cause the egg to move slightly when placed 

 on a smooth cut-glass mirror. This is what 

 I have termed "animated eggs." 



NOT ONLY AN EGG-TESTER, BUT A SEX-TESTER. 



I presume many of you have seen accounts 

 in the papers of a machine that would tell 

 sex, etc. I have passed it by heretofore as 

 too ridiculous to be considered by any intel- 

 ligent reader; but it seems the fellow has 

 had the cheek to carry his "toy" to one of 

 the poultry shows; but a reader of Glean- 

 ings was too much for him. Read the 

 following: 



At the recent poultry show at Madison Square Gar- 

 den, New York city, among the novelties there was a 

 " sure thing " egg-tester, the invention of W. Gunner- 

 son, of No. 20 Garden St., New Rochelle, N. Y. The 

 inventor claimed that his device would not only tell an 

 unfertile egg from a fertile one, but would also deter- 

 mine the sex. The device was a small pendulum 

 which was held over the egg to be tested. If it swung 

 around in a circle it indicated a cockerel; if back and 

 forth in a straight line, a pullet ; and if it remained 

 stationary, an unfertile egg. I devised a plan to test 

 the machine; and, accompanied by Frank Rodgers, of 

 Farm and Poultry Magazine, brought an egg for Mr. G. 

 to test. The device was placed over the egg and com- 

 menced to whirl around in a circle. Mr. G. pro- 

 nounced it a very fertile egg, and, if placed in an in- 

 cubator for 21 days, it would hatch out a cockerel, and 

 he would bet $100 on it. I then took the egg, and, in 



the presence of about fifty people, broke the shell and 

 stated that it was a hard-boiled egg, and showed it to 

 the spectators. Mr. G. said he did not care— there was 

 life in it any way. The joke of the boiled egg spread 

 all over the Garden, and next morning Mr. G. was kept 

 busy testing eggs which, on breaking, all proved to be 

 boiled, and the management then took a hand in the 

 game and ousted Mr. Gunnerson from the Garden. 

 The price of this marvel was the small sum of $2.50. 

 Yonkers, N. Y. WALTER C. MORRIS. 



ST. CLOUD, BURBANK, OCALA, ETC. 



In view of the many inquiries that are still 

 coming concerning the Florida land-adver- 

 tising schemes, we have thought best to give 

 place to the following from the Rural New- 

 Yorker of March 10: 



You stated the exact truth when you gald the lande of the 

 St. Cloud Veteran Colony, of Florida, were almost worthless 

 and almost uninhabitable. These land schemes requiring 

 money to be sent in advance, and the land allotted by the pro- 

 moters, always prove disastrous. The promoters work for 

 their own interest; and to send them money Is little less than 

 Idiocy. Any one seriously meditating such a course may well 

 be watched by his friends and put under guardianship before 

 he has a chance to consummate the deal. Though no mention 

 is made of irrigation, drainage, and fertilization, these are 

 very Important items. An acre of land in Florida irrigated 

 and fertilized for one year will cost the purchaser from tSOO to 

 S400 on an average. I have not seen an acre of land to be re- 

 lied upon to produce a crop without from t60 to $80 worth of 

 fertilizer, unless it be some of the muck land which does not 

 require quite so much. If several crops are raised on the same 

 ground, each one must have additional fertilization. And the 

 market is very uncertain. I could tell you some distressing 

 cases In connsctlon with this colony. One man came all the 

 way from Washington State only to find that the promoters 

 had deceived him. M. C. L. 



St. Petersburg, Fla. 



It seems too bad to have to give so much space to 

 one scheme. We have referred to it often; but when 

 schemers take advantage of the sentiments of old sol- 

 diers, and, through pretended interest and comrade- 

 ship, deceive them and rob them for personal gain, 

 one feels justified in any honest effort to block the 

 game. Do not send money to any land promoters any- 

 where. If you want to buy in any section, first invest- 

 igate yourself or through trusted friends. 



I am credibly informed that some of these 

 "promoters" buy up blocks of land for, say, 

 $2.50 per acre, or even less, and then persuade 

 their victims, they are getting a great bar- 

 gain at all the way from $10.00 to $30.00 or 

 $40.00 per acre. Florida is a good place if 

 you come, see what you are buying, and talk 

 with people who have lived here for years. 



THE "PROHIBITION LANDSLIDE" IN MISSOURI. 



Mr. A. I. Root.— You will be glad to learn that Jasper 

 Co., Mo., went dry by a handsome majority (excepting 

 the city of Joplin), in the recent fight against the sa- 

 loons. As a result of this election (closing yesterday) 

 28 saloons must cease doing business as soon as their 

 present licenses expire, which will vary from one to 

 about six months. The prohibition people are not go- 

 ing to stop at this; no, we are going to have a dry 

 State; then we shall get Joplin, a very wicked city of 

 about 60,000 population and some 40 saloons. 



Jasper County's greatest resources are the lead and 

 zinc mines. These mines employ lots of men, and 

 they are nearly all whisky men; therefore we are very 

 much elated over the prohibition landslide that has 

 swept over Jasper Co. despite vigorous eflforts of ac- 

 tive opposition. 



Oronogo, Mo.. Feb. 5. Howard Petefish. 



On page 97, Feb. 15, it is asked, "Does alsike or 

 white clover cause bloating in cattle? " I think not 

 unless left till it gets large before pasturing; neither 

 will red clover. Cattle that are very hungry should 

 not be turned on to such pasture more than about one 

 hour the first time, and that after the dew is oft. 

 I was raised in Hardin Co., Ohio, and had some expe- 

 rience with the bloating of cattle. After they get used 

 to it there will be no danger of bloating. 



Cowden, 111, A- W. SpracklEN. 



