512 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



right on the premises, and were already 

 growing finely when the celery had been 

 sold off. 



Now let me put in a woi'd of caution. Mr. 

 Lattimer was probably an excellent farmer 

 in Alabama, where he came from. Before 

 going into this venture he probably looked 

 up celery-growing in this region very thor- 

 oughly, and I have reason to think he em- 

 ploys at least one or moi'e expert men who 

 know all about the business. I think, too, 

 he must have ample means to do the right 

 thing at the right time, for his son told me 

 he had still another celery-ranch tenor twelve 

 miles away. 



Just now very good prices are being offer- 

 ed for celery; but during the past winter, I 

 am told, carload after carload of lettuce has 

 been grown that didn't pay cost. Mr. Latti- 

 mer had quite a little patch that was never 

 cut, on account of the low price offered. 



The bleaching is done with boards, and 

 these are of what is called "pecky cypress." 

 1 do not know what the boards cost for an 

 acre; but this kind of lumber can be bought 

 here for about $18 or $20 per 1000. As it is 

 light, never warps, and almost never rots, it 

 is a splendid material for bee-hives. As the 

 boards can be moved as fast as the celery is 

 bleached sufficiently, and sold, only enough 

 boards are needed at one time for a small 

 part of the whole field. 



Quite a quantity of water is needed during 

 a dry time. As it lay in the furrow between 

 the rows of plants it seemed to me it must 

 be almost "knee-deep." The strong but not 

 unpleasant perfume pervades the whole lo- 

 cality when marketing and shipping are go- 

 ing on. 



SELLING SECRETS, ETC. 



For some time past there has appeared in 

 many of the poultry journals the following 

 advertisement: 



CUT OFF THREE-FOURTHS YOUR FEED-BILL. 

 Send us your name and address on a postal card, 

 and we will send you free 16 sample pages of our re- 

 vised book, "Successful Poultry Culture." This 

 book will tell you tiow to actually make four bushels 

 of the BEST FEED IN THE WORLD for chickcns from 

 one bushel of common grain, and it will tell you how 



to SAVE THREE-FOURTHS TOUR FBED-BILL. 



This is certainly the greatest discovery of the 20th 

 century, and will double and triple your profits in the 

 poultry business. These 16 sample pages are abso- 

 lutely free, and will tell you all about it. Send us a 

 postal to-day for them. 



Recorder Publishing Co.. 

 332 Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 



A cut, which we do not reproduce, repre- 

 sents a loaf of bread cut in four pieces. I 

 suppose the advertiser does not object to our 

 giving him one insertion of this advertise- 

 ment free of charge. Now, the greatest ob- 

 stacle in the wav of successful poultry-keep- 

 ing in Florida is the cost of grain ; and it 

 certainly would be a big item to be able to 

 save three-fourths of this expense. I accord- 

 ]y sent at once for the free (?) sample pages 

 that the above advertisement says will "act- 



ually tell you how to make," etc. The 16 

 pages came promptly; but they did not tell 

 the wonderful secret. They simply indicat- 

 ed that it was given in one chapter of the 

 whole book, and you could not get the whole 

 book unless you sent them $1.00 for it. If 

 they make misstatements in their advertise- 

 ment, why should they not make more in their 

 dollar book? But as I had started in to save 

 three-fourths of my grain I thought I would 

 follow the thing out. I found, as I rather 

 suspected, it was the Briggs secret of mak- 

 ing "feed for ten cents a bushel " that I ex- 

 posed and wrote up at different times during 

 last year*. As I have been feeding sprouted 

 oats and also sprouted corn and wheat all 

 winter, more or less, I ought to know some- 

 thing about it. While sprouted grains arc 

 excellent feed for fowls, especially during 

 the winter time, when there is apt to be a 

 dearth of green food, I am satisfied that you 

 do not cut off three-fourths of your feed-bill, 

 nor any thing like it. May be the sprouted 

 grain will go twice as far, but 1 very much 

 doubt that. It seems to me our experiment 

 stations are the ones to settle this matter be- 

 fore more such statements come out along this 

 line. Poultry of all ages will eat with avid- 

 ity sprouted grain, even when the sprouts 

 are as much as six inches long. I suppose 

 all of you have seen fowls scratch up seeds 

 in the garden, and then swallow them, and 

 the plant attached, with great satisfaction, 

 and no doubt this is an excellent thing for 

 poultry ; but will our experiment stations 

 please tell us how much money it saves in 

 feeding sprouted corn and oats instead of 

 feeding the grain itself? If the advertisers 

 are right in saying that one bushel furnishes 

 as much nutriment as four bushels of dry 

 grain, I will beg their pardon and be glad 

 that I have advertised for them. 



Sprouted grains, as is well known, have 

 been used more or less for human food. In 

 the Chinese quarters of San Francisco, and 

 in some other cities, I have seen sprouted 

 peas offered for sale in front of the Chinese 

 groceries. "Malted nuts" are excellent 

 food, and, I believe, are made from nuts 

 that have been sprouted so as to convert the 

 starch into sugar for making a more deli- 

 cious food, and perhaps a more digestible 

 one. But if one bushel of sprouted oats is 

 worth as much as three dry for poultry, 

 why wouldn't they be worth something for 

 horses or for human beings? I have often 

 gathered beechnuts in the woods in the 

 spring of the year, when the nuts had 

 sprouted till the plants were two or three 

 inches high, and they were very good 

 food. 



Now, then, who will tell us more about 

 sprouting nuts and grain for human food? 

 And, by the way, why do not some of our 

 enterprising poultry journals inquire into 

 such things a little more before inserting ad- 

 vertisements like the above? 



* The " book " is a cheap paper pamphlet, 128 pages, 

 with nothing in it particularly new or valuable except 

 about two pages on sprouted grains. 



