1901 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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"$720 A YEAR, AND AIX EXPENSES PAID." 



The above is what a Chicago book firm ad- 

 vertised. Oue of the readers of Gleanings, 

 Mr. W. E. Birch, of Afton, Va., wrote them, 

 and after some correspondence sent them $10 

 for the outfit to go to work. After they had 

 got his money they informed him that his sal- 

 ary was to be taken from what he received 

 frum other people whom he might be able to 

 set to work ; that is, his sub-agents were to 

 pay him some money to l)ind the bargain, just 

 as he paid the book firm some money, and 

 from this money he was to get his salary. 

 When he objected to this latier explanation, 

 returned the cheap outfit, and wanttd his mon- 

 ey back, they refused, and called his atten- 

 tion to the printed agreement he had signed. 

 1 do not see how he can help himself ; neither 

 do I see how anybody should be persuaded 

 that advertisers will do as they agree, when 

 tliey promise to pay Tom, Di.-k, and Harry 

 all over the country $720 a year and all ex- 

 penses. Notwithstanding, lots of people are 

 losing $10 or come similar sum by going into 

 just such swindles. Nobody will hire you and 

 pay you wages until he sees what you are able 

 to do and how you do it 



GINSENG AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



While it is true our own plan's did start 

 bright and brisk in the spring, they have so 

 far made only a very small growth. Some of 

 them grew perhaps a few small berries ; but 

 with the ricnest soil we could give the plants, 

 with proper attention, shading, etc., it is cer- 

 tainly tne slowest thing I have ever grown in 

 the whole vegetable kingdom. Are any of our 

 experiment stations growing ginseng ? We 

 very much need reports from somebody in 

 regard to the business, who does not have 

 plants and seeds for sale No doubt the busi- 

 ness will pay at the present prices of roots 

 and seeds. 



ALFALFA — SOWING IT IN THE FALL. 



Mr. Root : — I have never read in your writings of 

 your allemp ing to raise alfalfa on \ our own grounds. 

 if you have tried it and failed, try my plan. I believe 

 you cau grow it a.s well as we of the We.^t. Try sow- 

 lug it thi^ fall between the 20lh of th s month and the 

 l.jth of September. You can not put too much work 

 on your ground. Give it a good plow ng ; hariow aud 

 loll Until you get tired, firming the s^ed-btd down 

 fine and .smooth before sowing Sow about 20 lbs. to 

 the acre, with a seeder or drill, or broadcast with an 

 even di.stribution : then harrow lightly : aud if there 

 is moistuie, in a few days the clover will he up ; and 

 by cold weather you will find some of the ri^ots have 

 gone down 12 to 18 inches, and you will h.nve a stand 

 for all time. I will harvest four crops from mine this 

 season, without inigation, and get a honev crop too, 

 right through the most tei rible drouth and heat I ever 

 saw in my 38 years' residence in Kitn-.as. The tiuth 

 has never been fully told of the benefits o alfalfa. 

 It is king of all forage-plants, as well as a ."-uistitute 

 for grain. All kinds of stock except hogs will fatten 

 on the hay in shape lor market, and hogs will keep in 

 good order on the hay, without grain I have been 

 trying for 15 years to grow alfalfa by sowing it in the 



spring. I could get a stand, but by fall it was all gone 

 —killed out by crab-grass and hot tuns during the 

 summer. 



About three years ago I sowed 7 acres, as an experi- 

 ment, the latter part of August, and got a fine stand ; 

 and now we sow in the fall ; and so far, when put in 

 right, there are no failures ; and, take it one year with 

 another in this locality, land in alfalfa vrill pay inter- 

 est on land, even if valued at 8200 per acre. If you 

 have never tiie 1 fall sowing in Medina, do so, and I 

 believe your experiments vrill benefit others. The 

 great vaUie of this plant is known best only to those 

 who raise it ; and I believe it can be grown nearly all 

 over the United States. Possibly it would winter kill 

 in some of the more northern Slates. 



Rossville, Kan., Aug. C. M. F. Tatman. 



Thanks for your suggestion, friend T. ; and 

 my opinion is that aJI kinds of clovers will 

 succeed if the work is done thoroughly, and 

 put in in the fall in the way you describe. 

 The failures with fall sowing of almost any 

 kind of clover are because the work has been 

 done in a slipshod sort of way. Perhaps 

 heavy clay ground will first need underdrain- 

 ing before we can make a success of it. If 

 the ground is poor, and has not had manure 

 for many years, very likely it will need some 

 sort of fertilizer to get the alfalfa started. 

 The fact that we have succeeded in growing 

 crimson clover year after \ear, without any 

 failure, for half a dozen years, put in almost 

 exactly as > ou describe, goes far to convince 

 me that many of our old and successful farm- 

 ers have something yet to learn in regard to 

 putting in clovers in August and the fore part 

 of September. We have made a success with 

 alfalfa on our grounds in small plots. 



SWEET CLOVER THAT HORSES AND CATTLE WILL 

 NOT EAT. 



I have had an experiment with sweet clover, and 

 find that no stock will eat it, not as hay and not as 

 green p{sture It is just as thick as it can stand ou 

 tiie road here in some places, and cows and horses 

 turned out ou it would starve to death before they 

 would eU it. I have seen it tried my-elf. It is good 

 bee pasture, and that is all it is good for. 



Bishop, 111. C. H. ZURBURG. 



My good friend, you have made a mistake 

 somewhere, but I do not know exactly where 

 it is ; but the plant is not sweet clover, or it 

 is a difTerent kind of sweet clover from that 

 growing along the roadsides here, or else your 

 horses and cattle have not been taught to eat 

 it. Our horses learn the trick by grabbing at 

 green stuff when they are cultivating or doing 

 other work around the farm. A horse that 

 catches on to this trick will, as you know, 

 bite at any thing with green leaves on it ; and 

 in this way our horses learned to prefer sweet 

 clover to any other plant. We have at differ- 

 ent times owned a dozen horses, and thej' all 

 learned to e-it sweet clover in this way. Cows 

 usually learn how when there is a severe 

 drouth and the pasture is very short so they 

 c^n not get any thing else. At such time, if 

 they are where they can get a bite of sweet 

 clover when it is young and tender, they very 

 .soon catch on. I never saw it fail, and I can 

 not think the cows and horses in your locality 

 are any different from those hf-'-re. Of course, 

 the plant may be sjmewhat different in differ- 

 ent soils ; but when you say they would starve 

 to death before they would eat sweet clover, 

 you are certainly making a mistake. Let us 

 have a lot of reports in regard to this matter. 



