1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



2m 



also mixes his fertilizer; and in here his hands 

 are also congregated when a shower conies np; 

 and I believe he usually has some sort of work 

 for them to do at such timi^s. The building on 

 the left is a house for the overseer of this spe- 

 cial part of his farm; and it is the overseer's 

 bnsint'ss to look after the plants, glass, etc. 



CHEMICAI. FKHTILIZEKS. 



You may think that I am harping on this 

 matter a good deal: but it troubles me exceed- 

 ingly. We have just ordered '.M)0 lbs. of nitrate 

 of soda to be sent to one of our customers be- 

 cause he wished us to get it for him. He tried 

 some last year, and felt sure that it was an ad- 

 vantage to his onions. I have been carefully 

 scanning the agricultural papers, to see wheth- 

 er I can not find out why nitrate of soda pro- 

 duces no result on our soil. Several prominent 

 teachers say quite emphatically that it produces 

 the best results on ground that is already high- 

 ly manured. If this is true, then an applica- 

 tion on our rich plant-beds surely ought to 

 show. But it does not show a bit. Itdoesharm 

 if you use too much; but if you don't use too 

 much, it doesn't do any thing at all. I wrote to 

 the Mapes fertilizer people, stating to them my 

 troubles, and they have sent me a bagful of fer- 

 tilizer that they are sure will do some good. It 

 has been applied to every fifth row of ouronion- 

 plants in the beds. To be sure that we did not 

 make a mistake, the boys whittled a notch in 

 the side of the bed at every row where the ap- 

 plication was put on. Perhaps you ask why I 

 do not let well enough alone. Because I wish 

 to " hustle up" the plants faster than any sort 

 of stable manure will do it. Do some of you 

 say, " There is not any thing that would do 

 this"? Yes. there is. Slacked lime and guano 

 raked into the surface of the bed, first one and 

 then the other, will hustle up any thing I have 

 ever tried it on. Then why not keep on using 

 slacked lime and guano? Because I am not 

 working and exerimenting for myself. I am 

 troubled, because I fear that the millions of 

 dollars that our people are now putting into 

 chemical fertilizers is blundering in the dark. 

 Y'ou may say that almost all our agricultural 

 papers are against me. You may also suggest 

 that my soils are so rich, like friend Terry's, 

 that I do not need chemical fertilizers, and that 

 I must experiment on pooi'er soil. But our 

 teachers are by no means agreed on this. Peter 

 Henderson, in the first edition of his " Garden- 

 ing for Profit." spoke about using tonx of guano. 

 I can not learn that anybody is using guano 

 now. It costs about twice as much as many of 

 the fertilizers. Why. I have been disappointed 

 so many times, that, if I can just see some good 

 result apparent in those onion-rows. I shall be 

 ready to sail my hat in the air. and hurrah. 

 Yes, if I can find a fertilizer in the market, in 

 common use. that will do as much good as lime 

 and guano. I shall be exceedingly glad. An- 

 other thing: If you examine carefully the re- 

 ports of the various experiment stations, you 

 will see thar they pretty nearly agree with me; 

 at least, they say that, with present prices of 

 farm products, they do not see how a farmer 

 could make it pay to buy phosphates. Now, 

 how is it with stable manure? Why, it shows 

 a result sharp and clear. I do not think I ever 

 made an application of stable manure to any 

 crop in my lite where it did not show a good re- 

 sult right from the word yo. 



SUOAH-TROUGH GOURDS; SEFIDS SENT FliEE. 



Mr. Root: — I have about a peck of good fresh 

 sugar-trough gourd seed that I dislike to de- 

 stroy. If any one will send a two-cent stamp for 

 mailing a package I will send some seeds free. 

 The gourds are large, convenient, and useful. 



They make cheap and excellent troughs for wa- 

 tering chickens; good nail-boxes; nice hanging 

 baskets for the ladies' flowers; good tokeepseed 

 in, etc. If they are used to water bees from, they 

 should first be thoroughly cleansed and soaked 

 in water after the inside is taken from them, to 

 sweeten and purify them. C. H. Murray. 



Elkhart, Ind., March l(i. 



[Friend M., I am inclined to think you have 

 got yourself into a muss; however, we will let 

 your offer go. and see how it turns out. After 

 the few seeds are all gone, you will have a cent 

 left to buy a postal card, and another to pay for 

 your time in writing to your friends that they 

 are too late— the seeds are all gone.] 



Ourselves and our neighbors. 



Let not tliy heart envy sinners.— Prov. 2;}:1T. 



Before I get down to the thought embodied 

 in our text I want to talk a little about some- 

 thing else, This is a day and age when it seems 

 to be quite the thing to want to get something 

 for nothing. Farming doesn't pay; and earn- 

 ing money by day's work is slow and laborious. 

 Yes. it takes lots of hard work to get even hon- 

 ey; and we have to sell it at a low price, very 

 often, even then. The average Young American 

 is likely to say in his heart, if he does not out 

 loud, " I should like to get a living some easier 

 way. I want to have some fun. and see some- 

 thing of the world; but if I stick to the farm 

 or apiary it will keep me busy all my life to 

 make both ends meet." 



Now. I am proposing to discuss what has been 

 called the gambling mania, somewhat, in this 

 talk; but I do not believe I will begin by telling 

 how wicked the world is. I think I will start 

 out by giving you some instances that show 

 there are lots of good people who do not want 

 money or property or any thing else withou 

 paying for it. Yes. there are boys and girls— 

 quite a lot of them- who say by their actions if 

 not by their words, '■ I do not want any thing 

 without giving a just and fair price for it. 

 Whatever I have in this world I wish to earn 

 honestly, and pay for it a fair equivalent. I do 

 not want sometliinu for yiothimj. I pi'opose to 

 pay my way as I ijo.'' 



Oh how I do love to be in such a crowd of peo- 

 ple! Don't you. my friend? They are the salt 

 of the earth, and through them is the redemp- 

 tion of mankind to be attained. Only yester- 

 day a good friend of mine, who is well along in 

 years, dropped in during our noon service. He 

 has just recovered from a long fit of sickness, 

 and neither the doctors nor his friends had 

 much hope tiiat he would ever be up again. We 

 were glad to see him among us. After he had 

 by request made the closing prayer. I turned 

 and said to him, " Now, friend G., you will have 

 dinner with us, I am sure. Our dinner is all 

 ready, and it will be handier and easier for you 

 to take dinner with us than it will anywhere 

 else ■' He replied: 



" Mr. Root, I shall be very glad indeed to take 

 dinner with you, but it must be on condition 

 that I pay for it, just as the rest of your people 

 do. I like to come in here often, and I like to 

 stay for dinner; but I do not feel free to do so 

 unless I pay my way. You see. this is a public 

 dining-room. All your helpers have to pay for 

 their dinners; and if I can pay for mine too, 

 then I shall feel free to come in real often, as I 

 love to do." 



Again, a little time ago I chanced to take 

 dinner with W. I. Chamberlain, at a restaurant 

 in Cleveland. We were discussing the book on 



