952 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



EEC. 1 



to blossom, I thought they would be all vines 

 and no beans ; but later on, Mr. Hilbert 

 wrote me there was an astonishing yield of 

 beans on those same vines. The stalks 

 were something like two feet high and two 

 feet broad, and just yellow with bean-pods. 

 I told friend Hilbert that, as he took such a 

 fancy to them, he might save the seed and 

 plant it another j'ear. He took the beans 

 home and put them on the barn floor till he 

 could get time to thrash them out. Pretty 

 soon the chickens got to breaking the pods 

 open and eating the beans. He was aston- 

 ished at this, for he says he never before 

 saw a dry bean that a chicken would eat. 

 As he regarded the seed as valuable, he 

 covered the beans up, as he supposed, so 

 the chickens could not get at them. But 

 they seemed determined to have them. In 

 fact, he had to fight, almost, to keep the 

 chickens away. Now, he decided that this 

 unusual occurrence was because the beans 

 were of a different variety, and something 

 the chickens liked; and, by the waj', they 

 cook quicker than any other bean I ever 

 saw — in fact, they are cooked all to pieces 

 before you know it, and I do think they are 

 the best table beans — that is, in the shape 

 of a dry bean — I ever got hold of. I will 

 not except even lima beans. 



Well, it may be the chickens discovered 

 that this bean was different froin other 

 white beans. My impression is, however, 

 that they simply acquired an appetite for 

 Ihem under the circumstances. Probably 

 they were confined to the barn some rainy 

 day, and wanted something- to do. Chick- 

 ens are curious, especially young ones. 

 They broke open the pods, swallowed a few 

 beans, found they digested all right, and 

 one after another learned the trick. By the 

 waj', I wish Rro. Hilbert would try those 

 same chickens with the common Navy white 

 bean, and see if the}' will not eat them since 

 they have learned how. 



You may suggest that beans at the pres- 

 ent price are rather expensive feed for fowls. 

 My dear friend, cull betins can be bought 

 in great quantity at a very low price where 

 beans are grown largely. After the chick- 

 ens have learned to eat good beans they 

 will eat the culls, without a doubt. Then 

 here is another thing: Hundreds of bushels 

 of beans — may be thousands — are thrown 

 away, or put among the culls, just because 

 they have a little stain on the outside. This 

 stain does not hurt them a particle — it only 

 makes them look bad. We have for years 

 cooked our cull beans for poultry." I have 

 told you with what iividity they eat them, 

 especially in winter, when they do not have 

 a great variety of food, and how it starts 



* since the above was put in type I have had some 

 old red kidney beans cooked for my new strain of 

 young pouUiy the progfeny of that fighting rooster. 

 They had not yet learned to eat beans, and wouUln't 

 I took away their other feed, and tried starving th^ni 

 to it. but they would not eat them, even then Finally 

 I mashed the beans up and stirred in them .some chop 

 feed, so as to make it look like their daily mash, and 

 it was all gone in a twinkling I was obliged to go 

 to all this pains in order to convince them that beans 

 are good to eat, and nozv they eat them with a\adity. 



them to laying. Well, one day when we 

 cooked up some beans for the chickens (they 

 were sorted beans that had already been 

 sorted once ) they looked so good I decided 

 to taste them. They were just exactly as 

 good to eat as beans that are all white. 

 People who are suft'eriug from the want of 

 a good wholesome food might use these cull 

 beans. 



A few days ago one of iny neighbors in 

 the Traverse region, who raised quite a 

 few beans was throwing the bean straw 

 out on the manure-heap. These beans had 

 got caught by the frost, and a good many 

 of them did not thrash out. I suggested the 

 straw was valuable for cattle, if kept im- 

 der shelter until cold winter weather ga\e 

 them an appetite, and also that the unrip- 

 ened beans could be easily thrashed out 

 for the poultry. They keep a large lot of 

 poultr}', and all kinds of grain are expen- 

 sive away up north. Now, their chicken.s 

 had not learned to eat beans, and the own- 

 er of the beans had not learned to cook them 

 for the chickens nor for the pigs (they keep 

 pigs also); and although they grew beans 

 by the acre, they had been in the habit of 

 wasting bean-stalks and the cull beans. 



Now, this matter touches on another one 

 — of the cows and horses not eating sweet 

 clover. The successful farmer should see 

 to it that his chickens, pigs, cows, and 

 horses are ediicafed to eaX things that might 

 otherwise be thrown away. Here is an ar- 

 ticle I just took from the Rural A'cza- )'o7 A- 

 fi; that touches on this matter; and it con- 

 tains so much other valuable information 

 that I give it entire. The truck farmer, 

 and farmers in general, keep, as a rule, 

 more or less poultry. They ciin not afford 

 to lose the valuable stuff poultry will con- 

 sume. Here is the article: 



CLOVER AND COW-PEA BENEFITS. 



Reference has been made in these notes to the ii.se- 

 fnlness of crimson clover and cow peas as hen forage. 

 \\ e are able to report an increasing partiality for the.se 

 nitrogenous foods among the two flocks ot chickens 

 krpt on the Rural grounds and correspondingly good 

 results in the way of egg prodi.clion Hens readily 

 take to clover in any variety, but they are often shy 

 of b ans. seldom eating them uncookeS. An appetite 

 for raw peas or beans may be considered an acquired 

 taste coming on gradually. Our hens ignored the cow- 

 pea .seeds the first season they were grortii here, and 

 developed the taste only late in the winter wht-n 

 .scratching the pods open iiy chance in a sheltered part 

 of the field The eximple of contented old biddits 

 coming in with comfortably extended craws and an 

 urgent thirst for water to complete the .swelling pro- 

 cess proved contagious, and thev all now hurr\- to the 

 field at once on being relea.sed from the yard. There 

 can be no doubt as to the beneficial efiect of the exer- 

 cise needed to get the pods open, nor of the high food 

 value of the beans themselves. The Rural grounus 

 lie in a strip about SOO feet long by 200 wide There 

 are poultry houses near each end, and the flocks havc 

 but little chance to mingle, as they are neces.sarily 

 kept yarded most of the time ; yet the cow-pea habit, 

 which we heartily' approve, seems to have been com- 

 municated. The .second flock has no access to the 

 field-, but acqtiired the taste from scratching the gath- 

 ered pods shelled for seed An increase in egg yield 

 was noted in both cases as quickly following the rip- 

 ening of the Karly Black cow peas, which is the varie- 

 ty best suited for us. Cow-pea seeds, when ready for 

 market, are too costly for poultry food, but we are con- 

 vinced that a patch of these liustling land-improvers 

 handv to the chicken-yard is a good investment where 

 practicable Ciimson clover has become a necessity, 

 sown in .\ugust between bush fruits and after early 



