GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



thing advertised to help along the poultry 

 business. But a great part of them are prac- 

 tically of no account. For instance, I notic- 

 ed a $2.00 egg-tester that I had been thinking 

 of sending for. Mr. Bloom said he did not 

 find it a bit better for his use than the com- 

 mon 25-cent ones. Of course, there is a great 

 deal in getting used to a new machine or ap- 

 paratus. 



The next call I made was at the Old Hon- 

 esty hatchery, of New Washington, O. They 

 have a room similar to the one just mention- 

 ed, containing 82 incubators of 200 eggs each. 

 These incubator rooms or cellars are partly 

 under ground in order to secure a uniform 

 temperature. The upper story is used as a 

 workshop. I wish to congratulate these men 

 in both places on having their rooms, incu- 

 bators, and every thing else kept so neat, 

 clean, and businesslike. The ai'rangement I 

 had made to meet a special train was of such 

 a nature that I did not have as much time as 

 I really wished in order to look over the dif- 

 ferent establishments. 



My third and last call was at M. Uhl & 

 Co.'s, New Washington, O. These folks 

 have been in the business for about eight 

 years. Last season they sold 82,000 chickens, 

 but did not succeed even then in filling or- 

 ders. Their shipping-day is Tuesday, and I 

 suppose their incubators are started so as to 

 have chickens come out, say on Monday. On 

 Tuesday the chicks would be dried off enough 

 to put into little pasteboard boxes holding 

 not less than 25, which can be sent by express 

 even in cold weather As sma 1 anumber as 

 ten can be sent safely after May 1. Twenty- 

 five chickens in a box weigh only 4 lbs. You 

 see they are lighter than eggs. I presume 

 some arrangement is made with the express 

 companies so there shall be no delay. The 

 day I was there, Tuesday, they had sent out 

 about 6000 chickens. I had a box of 25 of 

 different kinds that I brought home to exper- 

 iment with in my home-made "fireless" 

 brooder. The prices run fi'om 7 to 15 cents. 

 The Leghorns are usually the cheapest. They 

 also make a special low rate on all the "odds 

 and ends" that are left. I supposed at first 

 that they had poultry-yards of sufficient ca- 

 pacity to produce their own eggs for hatch- 

 ing; but I learned that this was next to im- 

 possible. They get their eggs from farmers 

 and others in their vicinity who produce 

 them for this particular purpose, the propri- 

 etors of the hatchery probably furnishing the 

 stock. I judge this to be so, because they 

 have some very choice high-priced stock. 

 All the parties engaged in the business told 

 me that they had very few losses. The pack- 

 age of chickens is opened in the presence of 

 the express agent, and he certifies to the 

 number of dead, if any. The shipper then 

 replaces these with another shipment or makes 

 some satisfactory arrangement, if the number 

 lost is small. A shipment made from New 

 Washington, O., to Tampa, Florida, occupy- 

 ing four days, was received in very good or- 

 der, and the chicks did not seem to be much 

 the worse for having lived four days without 

 food or water. In fact, I believe the general 



decision is now that chicks arS better off 

 without any thing to eat for at least 48 hours 

 after they break the shell. Of course, it is 

 important that the purchaser be on hand at 

 the express oflice to take charge of the chicks 

 just as soon as they are received. 



I said in the outset that there is another 

 way of getting money that does your neigh- 

 bor good. These two boys, with their honest 

 enthusiasm, one for printing and the other 

 for raising chickens, have no idea in their 

 heads of any thing else than earning their 

 money in a way that will benefit their neigh- 

 bors and bless mankind. They may not be 

 exactly trusting in the Lord. I did not see 

 them long enough to find out about that; but 

 I rather think they are; and their hard hon- 

 est work, especially the particular work of 

 striving to please their customers, is a sort 

 of Christianity that even some church-mem- 

 bers do not possess. The chicken boy and 

 the printer boy both have to satisfy their 

 customers in order to prosper. These boys 

 and these people I have described are doing 

 good. We see that by the letters they give 

 in their catalogs. And they are going to be 

 fed, and clothed too; and every boy and man 

 who is doing an honest day's work every day 

 of his life is a credit not only to his country 

 but to the great Father as well. You may be 

 quite sure that these boys have no bad habits. 

 They ai'e so busy they do not have any de- 

 sire, even if they had the time. 



Now, friends, this new rural industry is not 

 only interesting to me because I have made 

 a study of chickens, especially of late, but 

 because it illustrates how things are chang- 

 ing, and what wonderful strides are being 

 made in almost every thing used on the farm 

 as well as in the great cities. T. B. Terry 

 was one of the first to exhort farmers to 

 choose some special line of farming. He de- 

 cided to be a potato- grower, and bend all his 

 energies to the task of growing more potatoes, 

 and better ones, than had previously been 

 seen. Thousands and thousands have had 

 success far beyond what the farmer did who 

 tried to grow every thing usually secured by 

 a farmer. Bee-keepers will remember when 

 almost every farmer had a few hives; but 

 nowadays the bee-men mostly have large 

 apiaries and make it their sole business. But 

 even the bee-keepers, like poultrymen, are 

 dividing up into specialists. The man who 

 makes the production of honey his special 

 line does not often have queens to offer for 

 sale. The queen-breeder makes it his special 

 business. One man produces extracted hon- 

 ey, and another one produces comb honey; 

 and, if I remember correctly, the number of 

 those who work for both comb and extract- 

 ed honey is growing less every year. There 

 has been talk about having bee-keepers, in 

 localities where it would be expensive to ship 

 honey, make a business of producing bees- 

 wax and nothing else. I do not know that 

 this has, as yet, been realized. In the poul- 

 try business we have egg-farmers where they 

 raise eggs for the table, and nothing else. 

 Then we have broiler farms; but I am told 

 that these two do not go very well together. 



