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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



SUNBURNT POTATOES FOR SEED. 



In planting potatoes whole, as we have been 

 doing the past year, there is usually so large a 

 number in a hill that they are liable to pro- 

 trude out of the ground, so as to get sunburnt. 

 Of course, thi:5 can be pn'vcnted by hilling up; 

 but where the potatoes sue wanted for seed, we 

 have for years considered it an advantage 

 rather than a det?iiuent. One of the large 

 establishments for manufacturing potato-ma- 

 chinery writes us in regard to the matter as 

 follows: 



As to the second (or junior) potato for seed the 

 next year, we would suggest one thing ; and this is, if 

 your second crop does not get ripe fully, leave them 

 dug on top of the ground until they are thorouglily 

 sunburnt and turned green— at least part of the 

 potato. This will ensure them keeping well through 

 the winter, and also a sound seed potato for the 

 next spring. Of course, they would be unfit for 

 cooking; but for seed it improves them one hundred 

 per cent. Please try it. 



While we would not state the matter quite as 

 strongly as they do, we have been watching the 

 thing for years, and are satisfied that potatoes 

 that are burned green by being left out in the 

 sun will keep firmer, and are less liable to rot. 

 In sorting our potatoes we always place the 

 greened ones among the potatoes for seed — nev- 

 er among those for table use. We make this 

 explanation so our customers may not com- 

 plain. In ordering potatoes the purchaser 

 should state distinctly whether he wants them 

 for seed or for table use. 



Health Notes. 



How do you thrash sweet clover? 



Linn, Kan., Sept. 14. J. T. Van Petten. 



We save our sweet-clover seed by thrashing 

 the stalks on the barn floor, with a flail. As the 

 seed ripens only a part at a time, a good deal is 

 lost unless we clip off the mature dry branches 

 while others are green and in blossom. Where 

 one has enough of it, it can be thrashed with a 

 machine, as a matter of course. Will others 

 give US their experience in saving their seed? 

 When it comes to removing the hulls, a clover 

 huller is required. The biggest part of the seed 

 we handle is sold with the hulls on. 



• REPORT ON THOROUGHBRED POTATOES. 



You sent me last spring one pound of Maule's 

 Early Thorovighbred potato for a new subscriber to 

 Gleanings. We have just dug them, and got 119 

 lbs. The largest potato weighed one pound and 

 thirteen ounces. W. E. Thompson. 



Laddonia, Mo., Sept. 11. 



Very good, friend T. You have made one 

 pound go away ahead of T. B. Terry's figures 

 when he first tried it. You know he estimated 

 he got about 90 lbs. from one planted. Now all 

 you have to do is to do the same with an acre, 

 and you are all right. 



THE NEW UPLAND RICE, NORTHERN PROLIFIC. 



When I made mention of this rice in our issue 

 for September 1, I had lost the label containing 

 the name, and here Is what the originator says 

 in regard to it: 



The name of my new rice is Northern Prolific. I 

 am glad to hear that it did well with you, as I have 

 spent many years in perfecting it. 



Dongola, 111., U. S. A. Martin Benson. 



A GOOD WORD FOR THE VINELESS SWEET PO- 

 TATOES AND YAMS. 



I like both the vineless bunch yam and the Span- 

 ish vineless very much. They are both early, dry, 

 and of good quality; fine keepers, and much easier 

 to raise than the kinds with long vines. 



Claremont, Ya. A. F. Ames. 



SALT IN cisterns; IT WORKS WELL WITH DR. 

 MASON. 



M7: EditOT- :—lt it hadn't been for your footnote 

 to one of Dt Miller's "don't knows" I think I 

 should not liave seen what you said on page 617 

 about purifying the water in cisterns and wells 

 with salt. Dr. Miller's " don't propose " amounts to 

 nothing only as it calls you out. If, as he says, 

 " any Mcrating pump . . alone ought to sweeten 

 it," why didn't he use the pump and save the salt ? 

 Probably he would say he hadn't tlie pump. A^ any 

 rate, he might have waited till he had tried the salt, 

 and then we should have known whether salt has 

 the same effect on bad-smelling Illinois water that 

 it does on the same kind of water in Ohio. 



As you ask others to "test the matter and report," 

 I at once complied with the test part. We have a 

 large brick cistern, 14 feet, deep and 9'4 feet across, 

 the top being about three feet under ground, and 

 made so tliHt worms and bugs can't get in. The 

 water runs directly from a large shingled roof into 

 the cistern, and is not filtered. For 17 years we 

 have used it for cooking and drinking, and all pur- 

 poses about the house and barn, and you and Mrs. 

 Root and the Root girls can testify as to its good 

 qualities. 



Generally, for a short time after a heavy rain it 

 would taste a little like rain water; but the past 

 summer we have had so much rain, or, rather, it 

 came so frequently, that we have drunk rain water 

 most of the time, and for a short time the water has 

 been smelling and tasting as though it had " got off 

 its base," and seemed hardly fit to use; but as we 

 are all quite healthy, and able to digest microbes, 

 bacteria, etc., we have kept on using it. As you 

 know, we don't drink tea nor cofl'ee at our house, so 

 our drinking-water has not been boiled. 



Well, as I have said, I put the salt-purifying qual- 

 ities to the test at once. I removed the cistern cov- 

 er and found that the cistern had about 76 barrels 

 of water in it. I got about two quarts of coarse 

 common salt, and sprinkled or scattered it over the 

 top of the water, putting more near the pump than 

 elsewhere. I then pumped a few pails of water, let- 

 ting it run directly back into the cistern, and, lo 

 and behold I the bad odor and taste had entirely dis- 

 appeared, within a few minutes, and our whole 

 family were happy. Long live the footnotes. 



But, just hold on a minute if you please. "All is 

 not gold that glitters," although I love gold, and for 

 the same reason I love the Savior— "he first loved 

 me." I salted the cistern water on Thursday of 

 last week. On the following Saturday we had an 

 unusually heavy rainst.sorm, and the water took on 

 its old-time smell and taste, as after all previous 

 heavy rains, only more so." A little of the bad 

 smell and taste returned; but another dose of salt 

 has madf all lovely again. 



I have seen many ways for purifying the water of 

 eifcterns, described in the papers, but none of them 

 ever seemed to satisfy me; but when I saw what 

 Gleanings said about salt it occurred to me that, 

 as it is used in our food, it certainly would do the 

 water no harm, even if it did no good. 



Toledo, O., Sept. 8. A. B. Mason. 



Let me say in answer to Dr. Mason and Dr. 

 Miller that we have had an aerating-pump of 

 the most modern construciion in our cistern for 

 the past year; but it did not do the business 

 until we put in a couple of pounds of salt. 



Tobacco Column. 



, THE evils OF THE yOBACCO-HABIT. 



Dear Bi'otlicr Root:— While I am well aware that 

 you are heartily opposed to tobacco, I don't re- 

 member that you have published any thing to show 

 it in all its evil tendencies. 



It does not follow that the plant which the Lord 

 created at the first, and pronounced "good "as a 

 romit, as a poxiltice in case of inflammation, and as a 

 decoction to kill lice on cattle, and on plants, is 

 equally good to be chewed daily as a quid, or burnt 

 for the purpose of making a smoke-pipe of our 



