JANUARY 15, 1915 



87 



i-luised bag. The plant throve when the alfalfa all 

 about it was blighted or afflicted with the ' yellows.' 

 I determined to let it grow. I would see w liai would 

 coiiie of it. 



" The next .vear quite a patch of this phmi ap- 

 l>raied in my field. This was a very dry yeiir, Imt 

 this patch remained green the year through. I de- 

 cided to have the plant classified for me. ' Sweet 

 clover!' I knew of the existence of such a post. 

 I was for rooting it out, smiting it hip and Ilii^h. 

 But I observed that my saddle pony was not iiliove 

 eating it. I did not have any very high opinion of 

 that animal. I did not care particularly what be- 

 came of him. If he was poisoned or bloated by the 

 sweet clover I was prepared to take the aflliction 

 with equanimity. 



" He throve on it. He preferred it even to alfalfa. 

 This gave me an idea. Perhaps I could teai ii my 

 other animals to like it. I succeeded. Tlu sweet 

 clover covered the patch of forty acres. .''.s you 

 see, I have so much of it that I can hardly Utcp it 

 <-ut and stacked. It makes excellent pastur;i.;t' and 

 good hay. I cut and cure it precisely as one would 

 deal with alfalfa. I do not have to irrigate it. Thus 

 I save for other things what water I have. It holds 



my soil from washing away. It appears to thrive 

 lii'st of all among the rocks that have tumbled down 

 the mountain-side. 



" To me the best thing about it is its action on 

 alfalfa and alfalfa's reaction on it. Sweet clover 

 strengthens alfalfa. It prepares the ground for 

 alfalfa. In a pasture made up of about equal parts 

 of sweet clover and alfalfa one may safely let his 

 cows and sheep roam. The coumarin in the clover 

 prevents bloating by the alfalfa. Moreover, when 

 1 was teaching my stock to eat the clover I fed the 

 alfalfa with it. They would devour the alfalfa greed- 

 ily, of course, and now and again would come upon 

 a bunch of the clover. Thus they acquired the taste. 

 Now they will sometimes thrust aside the alfalfa to 

 get at the clover. 



"And I have discovered another thing: If one 

 has a good stand of alfalfa, that is just the chance 

 for one to get a good stand of sweet clover. The one 

 inoculates the other. The reverse is true as well. 

 One may secure a good stand of alfalfa on a field 

 where sweet clover has grown even sparsely. This 

 despised plant thus became to me a blessing. Again 

 I learned the benefit to a farmer of just making the 

 best of the thing nearest at hand." 



TEMPERANCE 



" THE CASE AGAINST THE LITTLE WHITE 

 SLAVER," THE AMERICAN TOBACCO CO., ETC. 



I presume every one who reads knows 

 somewhat of the stand Edison and Ford* 

 have taken in regard to the use of cigarettes 

 among their employees; and perhaps many 

 have also seen what the American Tobacco 

 Co. has said in defense of cigarettes. The 

 matter has called up so much interest that 

 Mr. Ford has sent out a pamphlet of toward 

 40 pages from which I make the following- 

 extracts : 



ME. EDISON'S LETTEB 



FROM THE LABORATORY OF THOMAS A. EDISON, 



ORANGE, N. J., APRIL 26, 1914. 



Friend Ford : — The injurious agent in cigarettes 

 comes principally from the burning paper isTapper. 

 The substance thereby formed is called " acrolein." 

 It has a violent action on the nerve centers, produc- 

 ing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is 

 quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics this 

 degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I 

 employ no person who smokes cigarettes. 



Thos. a. Edison. 



Below we give part of a paragraph from 

 a long letter from the president of the 

 American Tobacco Co.: 



Unquestionably the cigarette is the favorite smoke 

 of doctors in every city and large town throughout 

 the country. Preachers, lawyers, bankers, business 

 men, laboring men, and men of all classes have 

 deliberately turned from cigar and pipe to the cigar- 

 ette. Inasmuch as ten to twelve million American 

 men use cigarettes, and perhaps even a larger pt-r- 

 centage of Europeans, your charge of fet'lilp-inindcd- 

 ness lies against an overwhelming proportion of the 

 commercial, professional, artistic, musical, and in- 

 dustrial world. 



* Henry Ford now occupies the unique po.>;ition of 

 being at the head of the largest manufacturing in- 

 Btitution of any kind in the world. What a won- 

 derful opportunity he has for philanthropic and 

 reform work of this very kind I We may be thank- 

 ful that he is the kind of man that he apparently is. 



May God help the people, especially the 

 boys, who belong to or even attend a church 

 where the minister uses cigarettes. Does 

 any one know of such a minister? I fear 

 it may be true of some doctors aad perhaps 

 lawj-ers; but I am sure, if so, they are 

 already beginning to see what tliis age de- 

 mands of a medical and legal adviser. 



Below is a part of the reply to the 

 American Tobacco Co. : 



I also call your attention to the statement of one 

 of the magistrates in your city (New York) who 

 states that 99 per cent of the boys between the ages 

 of 10 and 17 who come before him charged with 

 crime have their fingers disfigured by cigarette stains. 



If, as your letter indicates, scientists and others 

 have thus far failed to find any injurious element in 

 the cigarette, then we must laud Mr. Edison for 

 being the first man to find the reason for the de- 

 generative effect of cigarette-smoking. 



I doubt very much the statement you make in 

 your letter that the popularity of the cigarette is 

 possible only because millions of American men have 

 convinced themselves that cigarettes are good for 

 them, and would, therefore, ask you to point out 

 what beneficial result has ever been experienced by 

 any one through indulgence in this habit. 



It would appear that the statements contained in 

 your letter aie not of such a nature as to be for the 

 benefit and uplift of our wayward lads; and in 

 justice to the American youth who knows not what 

 permanent injury accompanies this habit, this grow- 

 ing evil should be combated. 



E. G. LlEBOLD, 



Secretary to Henry Ford. 



Perhaps I should mention here that, dur- 

 ing the past summer. Prof. Wiley spoke at 

 our Medina Chautauqua. Well, after his 

 talk it was (he privilege of the Root Co. to 

 entertain him a couple of hours or more. I 

 had a long talk with him about medical 

 frauds of all kinds, water-witching, etc. I 

 mention this as some our readers have 



