690 



a little book with red-ink phrases such as 

 be would most need to use in English, and 

 an explanation in his own tongue. He 

 studied his little " dictionary " all the way 

 on the long trij), probably talked with the 

 passengers as well as he could, and that is 

 hoAv it came about. Well, now, here is tlie 

 best part of the little story : 



The farmer who agreed to pay him a 

 certain price raised his pay the first 

 month; more the second month, and so on. 



M|llll|i|||||||l:il!lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!lllllllllllll!lllll!IIIIIII|i|li:illlllllll!lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Why, it was wortli a whole lot to have 

 these tAvo good men brought together. His 

 learning to speak English impressed me 

 \ividly with my experience in learning to 

 speak Spanish when down in Cuba. 



Now send for that article and read it 

 through. It will increase your faith in 

 our Government, and increase your faith 

 in the fact of what I am telling you, that 

 God's kingdom is coming. 



HIGH 



SPINEIiESS CACTUS — WHAT OP THE FUTURE? 



T suppose I shall meet with some criticism 

 because I think best to give so much space 

 to the spineless cactus, esioecially since the 

 Department of Agi'ienlture and the experi- 

 ment station of Florida do not at present 

 give very encouraging reports in regard to 

 it. When I first saw Kidder's circular and 

 price list in regard to the spineless cactus 

 I decided some of the statements should be 

 received with caution; and while I feel to 

 a eeitain extent the same way yet, I think 

 he and others like him often do great ser- 

 vice to agTiculture. His circular and his 

 letters suggest a certain comicality that is 

 contagious. As an illustration I submit be- 

 low a portion of a letter just received ; and 

 1 have taken tlie liberty of giving the letter 

 just as he wrote it, " short cuts " in spell- 

 ing, and all. 



Mtj (Jrar old jriend :• — -Apologizing for the lon;j 

 delay, I iiave been greatly overburdened with bizness 

 and correspondence. I thank you for your kind 

 letters and interest, and copy of Gleanings. I have 

 enjoyed looking it thi-u instead of reading it thru, 

 hckawz I don't have time to read anything thru late- 

 ly, and my table is piled hi wth unlookt-thru books, 

 magazines, and papers. Yet I enclose $2.00 chock, 

 for which please send me Gleanings beginning with 

 the August number and also a Luther household 

 grinder. My family will enjoy it anyway, and may 

 be 1 will have a little more leisure time too to look 

 it thru more carefully. My eye cant the letter from 

 .\our good kind Christian friend Henry Borchers, 

 of Laredo. Texas. My I I wish my naborhood was 

 full of such men as that. I also appreciate the joke 

 about the reward your wife gave you for sharpening 

 up her paring-knife, and I presume my wife will 

 reward me quite as handsomely — she frequently 

 does. 



Yes, I saw the criticism on spineless cactus in 

 the papers you mentioned, and it caused a pei-fect 

 avalanche of inquiries to slide on to mc, and also 

 I lie loss of hundreds of dollars' worth of orders. I 

 have, therefore, prepared an article on spinele^ss 

 cactus for publication, which you are at liberty to 

 quote or publish in whole or in part if you wish. 



I certainly shall be delighted to liavo you call and 

 see me at any ti.-ne it is convenient for you to do 

 so; but I am afraid I cannot supply you with any 

 cactus fruit jet awhile, at least not \intil late next 

 fall, as I am constantly cutting my plants back to 

 1)11 orders. 



.E (CAEDEMNG 



I don't think / have made any e.xtravagant state- 

 ments in my circulars which are not true. I have 

 quoted some quite exnavagant-sounding statements 

 from other people, however, and presume those are 

 the ones to which you refer. Yes, certain varieties 

 grow better on rich soil than on poor soil. I have 

 □ever written any different opinion, but you seem to 

 have misunderstood me there. 



Monticello, Fla., July .29. Samuel Kidder. 



What ga^'e me enthusiasm down in Flori- 

 da was the astonishing growth of the cactus 

 in just a few days. Well, right here in 

 Medina T am liaving the same expeiience. 

 A coujole of pictures on another page will 

 show you the growth made in just nine 

 days; and the funny thing about it is that 

 we have had rains about every other day 

 (or oftener), while the cactus made this 

 growth in a heavy clay soil. 



Mr. Kidder's booklet, which I advise all 

 to get and read (as well as look at the half- 

 tone pictures), suggests that the cactus 

 plants will take the place of the silo in 

 Florida and other southern states. You can 

 plant it any day in the year, and harvest it 

 anj' day in the year — that is, the kind for 

 forage. I think one of the government re- 

 poi'ts gaA'e as a reason Avhy it could not be 

 of any great value was that it is " almost 

 all water." Here is a clipping from Kid- 

 der's circular in regard to the matter: 



The erroneous statement that there is " too much 

 water " in spineless cactus to make it a desirable 

 and practi<-al food, '" especially in Florida where 

 vi'ater is so plentiful"* (ha! ha! ha! it makes me 

 grin to think of it), v/as recently made by a hither- 

 to supposed-to-be-wise old guy. He evidently must 

 have been dozing for the moment or else forgot the 

 days of not so long ago when mother first saw the 

 pictures of tomatoes in the catalog and wanted to 

 try some; but father said, "No, I've ijead in the 

 newspapers that those things are poison, and will 

 i^ive you a capcer if you eat them. Besides, the 

 ])rofessors say they are of no value, as they are al- 

 most all water, anyway." 



Suppose they are almost all water. Be- 

 low is a table that friend Kidder submits of 



* The expression. " where water is so plentiful," 

 cave me a good hearty laugh, and I laugh again as 

 I think of it. " Plentiful " — I should think so. 

 Wlien it is rainiuf; close to a foot in 24 hours it well 

 might be called " plentiful." 



