Fruri'Ary, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



113 



that, must be a hai'd-working hen; and if 

 you will uolice carefully you will se;' that 

 the leg's of these extra layers have a bluish 

 tint. Dr. Sanborn, in thei American Poul- 

 try Advocate, writ'es as follows: 



Over and over again, day by day, it was urged 

 on ujS to get rid of the hen ■with the yellow shank, 

 yellow henk, yellow skin, contracted pelvic bones, 

 because such a hen in September had been, and 

 would still be, a low producer of eggs. We were 

 told that, if we had any doubts in the matter, to 

 divide our flock by this method, hold the two parts, 

 and see what the egg record wa.s of the two lots. It 

 was well put, I thought, when we were told in simple 

 words that we should find that one of the flocks 

 M-ould be found doing the bulk of the laying. 



In another part of the journal he gives 

 expression to the following: 



One of my friends paid eighteen dollars for the 

 use for three weeks, last spring, of a good bred-to-lay 

 cockerel. He got over fiity chicks from the eigs se", 

 and the added cost per chick was not at all high. 

 You want to get bred-to-lay stock, not culls from 

 some backyard breeder of show birds. In almost 



all the breeds you will find certain strains that have 

 been handled to breed for large egg production. Do 

 not for an instiint think that all 1 irds of a variety 

 or breed lay alike. There is as much difference in 

 their lay-work as in the color of feathers. 



Most of US would think that a dollar a 

 day for the rent of a cockerel is an awful 

 pT ice ; but if this cockerel were a " select 

 tested," as beekeepers express it, it might 

 be a good investment after all. But I con- 

 fess I do not know how ome ooiuld be sure 

 that a cockerel is worth that much until 

 he. had been " tested and tried," or, in other 

 words, he would have to be a bird two or 

 three j'ears old, so that he could be the 

 father of pullets that had shown themselves 

 to be extraordinary hens. Such a cockerel 

 might be worth a great deal of money; and 

 if you could not afford to buy him, it might 

 pay a prettj'- good price just to put liim a 

 few days with a flock of laying hens that 

 had in a like manner made a big record. 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



OUR FLORIDA GARDEN. 



When we reached our winter home, Nov. 

 9, we found it a worse wilderness of weeds, 

 velvet beans, cornstalks, etc., than any sum- 

 mer before, probably because Wesley gave 

 it less care. The reason for this was that 

 usually he looks after it when not particu- 

 larly wanted elsewhere. Well, during the 

 pasu summer he had plenty of jobs with bet- 

 ter pay than usual. He got seven bushels 

 of beautiful hard " Cuban Flint Corn " into 

 the crib of poultry netting that I made, but 

 with nobody around the rats managed to get 

 in and ate perhaps two bushels, and the 

 shelled cobs on the stalks out in the garden 

 would have made perhaps 10 bushels alto- 

 gether of beautiful, nice corn. We ground 

 some in our little mill, and I think it made 

 the iinest mush I ever ate with some Wis- 

 consin honey to go with it. 



By the way, I am eating more honey this 

 winter than I have for years, and my health 

 and digestion are better than for years.* 

 Maybe the cold Florida weather we have 

 been liaving agrees with me. 



Well, among the great rank weeds (be- 

 sides the corn) there was the RoseUe, or 

 " Florida cranberries," as some call it, and 

 the chayote. I have been telling you about 

 having hanging from the overhead trel- 

 lis 20 or 30 large fruits, ready to eat, and 



*This beautiful hard corn came from corn plant- 

 ed where potatoes were dug in March and April, 

 and after May 1 had no care whatever. It just 

 pushed its way with the weeds, velvet beans, etc. 



also ready to grow ; in fact, some of them 

 had started to grow already hanging on the 

 vines overhead. I pronounce the fruit full 

 as good as egg plant, but Mrs. Root doesn't 

 qitite agree with me. 



Now comes the sad " sequel " to my gar- 

 den stoiy. On Dec. 9 (my 78th birthday) 

 we had a freeze, and, as usual, just after a 

 rain. Our potatoes, knee high, were cover- 

 ed with empty burlap sacks, and. were but 

 little injured, but chayote and Roselle 

 couldn't be covered and so were brought to 

 a sudden standstill. We tried various ways 

 to protect corn, beans, eggplants, tomatoes, 

 etc., by hoeing dirt over stuff just out of the 

 ground, covering with newspapers, etc. ; but 

 the empty sacks gave best results, and were 

 less trouble.* If there is wind, the ]ia]iers 

 must be held down with dirt, and if soil is 

 hoed over the plants, they are more or less 

 injured in getting it off. 



Well, we got thru the first cold snap with 

 but little loss, but we had so many such 

 frosts and freezes, just after eveiy little 

 shower, that the plants got discouraged, 

 and 1 am sorry to own up that I got more or 

 less discouraged. We have perhaps cover- 

 ing for about 100 hills, but along in early 

 January came another cold spell, and after 

 putting on about a dozen sacks I decided 



*A porous blanket or comforter of wool is warmer 

 than paper or tight cloth. Oil cloth over potatoes 

 seemed almost no protection at all. while coarse 

 sacking that you could almost see thru, caught the 

 white hoar frost, and green stuff under it was un- 

 hurt. 



