o04 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CUF/IURE 



May 1 



{liven in Gi^kanings every spring for three 

 or four years. Tt takes about fifteen ears of 

 good size to plant an acre. Select the best 

 ears you can find. Place them where they 

 will not be disturbed, in rows of ten ears 

 each. Then get a shallow box, say l}4 feet 

 wide and 2 feet long. Fill it with sand or 

 good garden soil, and then with tacks and 

 strings lay it out in squares about 1}4 inch- 

 es on each side. Have as many squares as 

 you have ears of corn. Our plan is to lay a 

 jiiece of two-inch-mesh poultry-netting over 

 the lx>x. Fasten it down with tacks, and 

 then take five grains of corn from each ear 

 and plant them in the meshes of the poul- 

 try-netting. Have your box numbered 

 across one end and across one side, and have 

 it so arranged that, when any square does 

 not show five good strong corn-plants, the 

 ear from which these five kernels were taken 

 may be discarded. In this way, when you 

 come to plant you are pretty sure to have a 

 good strong plant from eacli kernel of corn. 

 The average schoolchild, with a little in- 

 struction from the teacher, will soon learn 

 to do the work, and will greatly enjoy it. 



May the Lord be praised for this new and 

 wonderful scheme for getting our American 

 schools in touch, not only wdth high-pres- 

 sure gardening, but high-pressure agricul- 

 ture in general. 



SOIL SUITABLE FOK SWEET CLOVER. 



I have inquiries from readers of the Riirnl Xeir- 

 Yorker in regard to the seeding of sweet clover and 

 the cliaracter of soil best suited to it. Sweet clover 

 will grow on any soil that is not water-logged if it 

 contains sufficient moisture to sprout the seed. On 

 very thin and worn soils the growth is small com- 

 pared with that on fertile soils. We use sweet clo- 

 ver to build up thin and much depleted soil.s — 

 fields that have become useless as pasture — those 

 filled with washes and gullies. These fields gene- 

 rally have a growth of small bushes or briers, where 

 they have been lying idle for several years. These 

 are cut and tramped into the ruts. The tops of the 

 little ridges are dug off and raked into the ruts. 

 which help to hold the briers and bushes in place 

 until they are converted into humus. If the washes 

 and gullies are not too deep the seed is harrowed in 

 with a double A harrow: otherwise the seed is sown 

 early in the sv)ring, just .is soon as the soil can be 

 stirred, and about half a bushel of spring oats sown 

 with it. The amount of seed to be sown per acre on 

 fields as described above is 15 or 20 lbs.: on soil that 

 is reasonably fertile, where sown for hay or pasture. 

 25 to 30 lbs. per acre. Where sown to produce seed, 

 the soil should be reasonably fertile and 15 lbs. of 

 seed per acre sown broadcast, and harrowed in. 

 Sow as early in the spring as the soil can be stirred. 

 For fall seeding, prepare a good seed-bed and sow 

 the seed in October. 



Sweet clover for hay should be cut just as the first 

 blossoms appear. If left standing longer the stems 

 become woody, and a great many of the leaves fall 

 ofT when cured. Oreat care should be exercised to 

 prevent the hay sun-burning, as this will destroy 

 the palat.ableness and its nutritive properties. There 

 is no better way to fit a piece of ground for alfalfa 

 than to seed to sweet clover, cut oflf a crop of hay 

 the first season, and plow under the second season 

 when the clover is about a foot tall; then cultivate 

 with drag and harrow until the first of September, 

 then seed to alfalfa. The .sweet clover improves the 

 soil and inocvilates it with the nitrogen-gathering 

 bacteria which are so necessary to the existence of 

 alfalfa. When seeding for hay T would not use any 

 nurse crop: and do not cut too close to the ground 

 the first time. I>eaveflve or six inches of stubble to 

 protect the crown and roots until a new growth is 

 made. Tf permitted to go to seed the second sea- 

 son, and the seed to ripen, it will reseed Itself. The 

 sweet-clover plant lives but two years. It dies at 

 the end of the second season, and Its large fleshy 



roots decay rai)idly. admitting the air deep into the 

 subsoil. 

 Warsaw. Ky. .1. W. (i. 



— Hiircil jVetc -Yorker. 



Temperance 



Wlien I gave i>lace to "Who are the guilty 

 ones? " on p. 98, Feb. 1, I was aware it had 

 appeared in ]5rint a good many times, and 

 also that it might not all have occurred ex- 

 actly as given there; but since then a clip- 

 ping has been sent me of something that has 

 occntrred quite recently, very much like it. 

 May (lod be praised that even judges are 

 beginning to wake up and call things by 

 their right names. Here is the clipping: 



THE SALOON CONVICTED: THE BOYS HANGED. 



In pronouncing the death .sentence on two boy 

 murderers at Owatonna, Minn.. Judge Buckman 

 delivered this iihillipiiic against the saloon: 



"Every coniinunity can well ask if it is not equal- 

 ly guilty with its sister city in not making a vigor- 

 ous effort to remove the snares which lie in waiting 

 for the young in almost every town in the l^nlon. 

 These boys can not have been brought to perpetrate 

 such a crime through the influence of heredity. 

 There is nothing to show it. It must be charged, if 

 it be true that they are guilty, to their environment. 

 Without any ill feeling toward the people of this 

 community, 1 must say that they are pariiceps crim- 

 inis in this tragedy, if the boys are guilty. The peo- 

 ple have allowed the conditions which have brought 

 these boys to such a pass. Tt is because the boys 

 could procure of newsdealers such literature as de- 

 based their moral natures; because the police, know- 

 ing of the conditions existing in the rooms of these, 

 permitted them to go on; because the saloon-keep- 

 ers of the city were allowed to place on the lips of 

 the young that which fires the brain and sears the 

 soul. By imposing the death sentence the court 

 will be striking at the eflfect, not the cause; and if 

 the cause remains undisturbed, the result will be 

 be another such case as a righteous retribution 

 upon those responsible." 



HITTING THE NAIL SQl^ARELY ON THE 

 HEAD. 



The following, whicli I cli]) from the Chi- 

 cago Advance, sums u]i tlie whole matter of 

 "wet and dry " better than any thing I 

 know of. I wish it could be held uj) before 

 the whole wide world, until every man, wo- 

 man, and child has read it. 



LET THE.M MOVE. 



The following appeared in the funny columns of 

 the press recently: 



" What are they moving the church for? " 



" Well, .stranger, I'm mayor of these diggin's, an' 

 fer law enforcement. We've got an ordinance what 

 says no saloon sh.all be nearer than 300 feet from a 

 church. 1 give 'em three days to move the church." 



This incident did not occur in Chicago, but the 

 idea has been occurring every da.v since the anti- 

 saloon campaign began. It is about all there Is of 

 the saloon side of the question. Wives have cried 

 out in agony that the saloons were taking the hus- 

 band's wages and robbing the children ot bread. 

 "Well, let the wives move out and the children 

 stop eating." Mothers have said with bitter tears 

 th.at saloons were ruining their sons. "Well, let 

 the mothers forget their .sons .and stop their whin- 

 ing." Citizens have decl.ared that saloons are the 

 resort of thieves and the whole bad bum element. 

 " Well, let the good citizens go to some other coun- 

 tr.v, if they don't like it." 



In a word, the saloons are against the welfare and 

 the common good which all law and _ righteous 

 government are intended to promote. " Hut let It 

 all go — the saloon must stay." 



How can the j^eojjle of a county that has 

 voted tvet look a good man or w^oman full in 

 the face after reading the above? 



