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G I. E A N r N G S T N B E K C U I. T U R E 



467 



Now please consider this electric-liuiit 

 business is, after all, right along in line 

 with the two woi-ds I suggested. Giving 

 them the electric light and extra food in the 

 nighttime is only one of the ways of let- 

 ting the biddies know that you love tliem. 

 By the w^ay, on this 22d day of May the 

 weather is getting so warm that I am jjut- 

 ting up a iiole attached to the evei'green 

 trees so the four biddies can roost out in 

 the open air when they prefer to. When 

 it is cold and stormy they can go inside 

 their little poultry-house. You will find a 

 picture of said poultry-house and the bid- 

 dies on iiage 878, Gleanings for 1916. At 

 that time I called it my " outdoor sleeping 

 porch " for the Eglantine chickens. Later, 

 the four Eglantine hens that I now have 

 that are giving four eggs a day a good deal 

 of the time, are away on other premises 

 during the six months we are absent. But 

 they all seem glad to get back to their " old 

 hunting grounds " among the evergreen 

 tiees. They remember their drinking place, 

 their outdoor sleeping porch, and the fact 

 that they have a ramble outside with the 

 gate open evei-y day about sundown. In 

 fact, they gathered about the gate about 

 the time we used to let them out, the very 

 fii'st day they were put back in their old 

 quarters. When I get back to Florida in 

 November I find my chickens down there 

 remember things just the same. Chickens 

 oftentimes have better, and more accurate, 

 memories than their keeper, and it pays to 

 keep this in mind when you are striving 

 to " make hens lay." 



Altho I am making a long story of this, 

 friends, I am impressed there is something 

 further that should be added. It is a won- 

 derful task for a hen to lay a fair-sized 

 egg every day, and to do this she must 

 have the best of feed, and have it at fre- 

 quent intervals. During the part of the 

 year when the nights are long the crop is 

 crammed to its utmost capacity when she 

 goes on the roost; but even this is not suf- 

 ficient ; and therefore, ordinarily, laying 

 hens take a rest during the early fall and 

 winter months. A molting period comes in 

 about this time, and both together make the 

 price of eggs run away up. Now, making 

 the day longer and the night shorter by 

 means of electric light gives her a chance 

 to get sufficient feed to enable her to lay 

 an egg evei-y day much as she does in the 

 months of May and June; and I want to 

 add right here that neighbor Abbot* 's 700 

 hens gradually commenced laying after the 

 days got longer, and during spring, and he 

 liad a very profitable egg crop. Now here 

 comes something that should be well un- 

 derstood. Of course, you have seen ad- 



vei'tised in the jjoultry journals and farm 

 papers — yes, even in the religious papers 

 — " dopes " to make hens lay. The adver- 

 tisement reads that if you give the chick- 

 ens their peculiar " condition i)owders," oi- 

 whatever it may be, and it does not stai-f 

 them laying, you can have your money 

 back. And I think that most "of them— a't 

 least I hope so— c^o give the dollar back 

 when. asked to do so. Can anvthing be 

 fairer? Well, most people think so;" but 

 please notice that these advertisements 

 come in all the papers along toward spring, 

 just at a time when tlie hens would natuj-al- 

 ly begin to lay; therefore the dope does 

 the business— at least it would appear so. 

 forgetting that hens at this precise time 

 of the year would all at once besin to lay, 

 even if they didnt have the " tonic." 



THE CHAYOTE ONCE MORE. 



My Dear Mr. Root: — Knowing your fondnes.s for 

 new things I send you by mail' a " chayote " or 

 mango squash. Plant the whole business, keep 

 well fertilized, and you will have a squash vine for 

 8 or 10 years, bearing what is to me the most de- 

 licious squash I ever ate, cooked as you. do summer 

 crookneck and other squashes. Then too you can 

 pack thom away in il-y sawdust and have them all 

 winter. They are fine stock for pickles, being more 

 crisp than cucumbers; they are also good fried as 

 eggplant. 



I forgot to state that the chayote will not fruit 

 much till cool nights come in September when it will 

 do business in great shape. I have had more than 

 five bushels this sea.son from two vines. I let them 

 grow on my grape arbor. Sincerely yours, 



J. C. Bates. 



Lake City, Fla., Jan. 14, 1919. 



With the above letter came two samples 

 of the chayote squash — see Gleanings for 

 1917, page 641, where we picture and de- 

 scribe the chayote. See also pages 803 and 

 886. Our readers will note from the above 

 that the two chayotes were received about 

 the middle of January. Well, about the 

 last of April, or 100 days after the receipt 

 of the plants, one of the vines had grown 

 so far as to give two vei^ nice fruits or 

 vegetables, or whatever you may please to 

 call them. Mrs. Boot and I both agree 

 with what friend Bates says in regard to 

 them. The Department of Agriculture has 

 been, for two or three years past, mailing 

 samples to plant wherever asked for. I do 

 not know whether they are giving them 

 away now or not, or whether my friend has 

 any left of his " two bushels " from two 

 vines. 



The chayote is about the rankest grower 

 of any vegetable I know of. I presume 

 they can he started in the North in the 

 greenhouse (like tomatoes and similar 

 things) so as to bear some fruit at least, be- 

 fore frost comes. 



