736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



AVe arc sympathizers in your struggle to put the 

 Anheuser-Busch and Schlitz out of business, and to 

 give the boys and girls of America a better oppor- 

 tunity. 



Pasco, Wash., Nov. 11. Geo. Roger Chut. 



Ohio's shame_, etc. 

 The following was written last November, 

 shortly after our Ohio election ; but I have 

 given it a place, thinking it will apply very 

 well to tlie condition of things now as well 

 as a year ago. 



Shame on Ohio's election, and more shame on 



'i'ennessoe, iii> old Iiome, for not re-electing the 

 governor. May God show them their mistake. 



Why do you not tell some of those people wlio 

 favor liquor license that it would not cost so much 

 to pay for running the county with a less number 

 of judges, courts, jails, poorhouses, and hundreds of 

 other unnecessary institutions? And how may chil- 

 dren would be happy with their mothers, glad to see 

 the father and husband come home with his pay 

 check not "cashed. I have learned to believe that 

 doing away with grafting (called business; would 

 stop the sale of liquor or war, and make heaven on 

 eiirth with all nations brothers. 



Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 24. L. E. Wallace. 



MIGH=PEE§§UME €AEDEMNG 



"niGH-PRESSURE GARDENING" WITH A MORAL. 



For some years past I have been watch- 

 ing the movement for utilizing the vacant 

 lots in our cities; and just now somebody 

 has been kind enough to send me the follow- 

 ing clipping from the San Francisco Exam- 

 iner. May the Lord be praised for the good 

 men and women who started this beneficent 

 ball rolling. 



CITY FARMING MAKES MONEY AND MEN. 



There is a small group of men in Philadelphia who 

 believe in the precedence of human rights over all 

 property investiture, and for eighteen years Phila- 

 delphia, through its Vacant Lots Cultivation Asso- 

 ciation, has not only led in practical results, but 

 has served as a source of inspiration for the found- 

 ing of similar movements in Prance, England, and 

 Germany. 



The association prepares the idle land, which is 

 loaned to them (subject to dispossession when the 

 owner wants it) for cultivation by plowing, etc., 

 then dividing it into gardens of about one-sixth of 

 an acre. Fertilizers and sufficient rich seed to in- 

 sure a successful start are furnished the gardeners, 

 which cost the association about $5 a garden. For 

 these they charge $1 for the first season, $2 for the 

 second season, and so on until the family pay the 

 full cost of that which the association furnishes 

 them. The families spread the fertilizer, plant the 

 seeds, cultivate the growing crops, gather the prod- 

 uce, and, after supplying their family needs, they 

 sell the surplus that remains. 



Last summer 603 families were allotted plots 

 covering 81% acres. These diminutive farms on 

 city land, which otherwise would have produced 

 nothing but weeds and rubbish piles, and, in addi- 

 tion to being disfigurements, would have been breed- 

 ers of disease, have provided about 3000 men, women, 

 and children with a most healthful exercise, an in- 

 structive form of occupation, and materially aided 

 in reducing the high cost of living. 



The cost of cultivating these lands was $7693; the 

 food produced was valued at $32,000 — $4 for every 

 one invested — and all the profits went to the work- 

 ers, who earned the help given them. 



This back-to-the-!and movement is the best form of 

 progressiveness, and surely that man must be dead 

 to all sense of social responsibility who will not loan 

 his idle lands as instruments for self-support, better 

 habits, practical education, and real happiness. 



The largest profits of this non-pauperizing plan 

 cannot be figured. It is not a charity ; it is social 

 justice — an opportunity for those in need to help 

 themselves by their own work. 



In addition to providing food and the wherewithal 



for supplying other vital needs it furnishes the only 

 opportunity for physical and moral growth under 

 right environment. 



" The greatest value our little garden brought us," 

 said a Frenchwoman shortly after a Philadelphian 

 had introduced the plan in France, " has not been 

 in the fine vegetables it yielded all summer, or the 

 good times that I and the children have had in the 

 open air, but in the glasses of beer and absinthe my 

 liusband hasn't taken." 



" yuite right, mother," said a man standing near 

 by. "No one can ever know the evil we men don't 

 do while we're busy in our gardens." 



The total number of vacant parcels of land in the 

 city of New York for 1914 was 193,000. The total 

 for Brooklyn was 50,391. These parcels, often no 

 more than an ordinary building lot, sometimes com- 

 prise several acres. It is safe to say that there are 

 upward of 250,000 idle acres within New York's 

 city limits. These could produce, if the same re- 

 turns were made in New York as in Philadelphia, 

 $400 an acre, which would mean $100,000,000, and 

 a net profit of $75,000,000. Thus, to use these 

 vacant lots, which are now eyesores and nuisances, 

 would not only be making something out of nothing, 

 but give to thousands of families the truest relief — 

 the opportunity to help themselves to procure a 

 livelihood. 



There is one point in the above, and, in 

 fact, in everything I have ever gotten hold 

 of on the subject, that seems to be over- 

 looked. Any piece of gTound, no matter 

 where it is situated, would certainly be 

 worth more if it were occupied by a neat 

 pretty garden than by an accumulation of 

 rubbish, foul weeds, etc. Now, cannot the 

 owner of this vacant lot afford to pay 

 something for having it transformed into 

 " a thing of beauty," instead of being an 

 eyesore to the residents and passersby? 

 May God speed the movement. 



strawberries in 90 days AFTER SETTING 

 OUT THE PLANTS. 



On page. 692 1 mention red raspberries 

 that grew and matured quite a crop within 

 80 days after planting; and just now in 

 the OJiio Farmer I find something that 

 ]uctty neai'ly matches it in the way of 

 sr rawberries. 



