1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



587 



They need a different strain of fowls for 

 broilers (or capons) from those tor eggs on- 

 ly. In these large establishments they grow 

 special breeds for special purposes, where 

 they have single male fowls worth a thousand 

 dollars or more— that is, they claini they are 

 worth that, but it looks to me, however, as 

 if these very high-priced fowls come pretty 

 near the line of what the socialist paper said 

 about the man who got a dollar that he had 

 not earned. 



Last, but not least, it looks as if somebody 

 who is an expert, and has his heart and soul 

 in the business, is in the future going to /latch 

 the diickens. For instance, a busy man or 

 woman can not very well afford to fuss with 

 a single incubator. If they do it for fun or 

 pastime, all well and good; but when one is 

 in the business he can almost as well run a 

 dozen incubators placed in a proper cellar as 

 to have just one. I thought at one time that 

 sitting hens might be safer and simpler than 

 incubators; but during the last two or three 

 attempts at setting my hens, they broke so 

 many eggs, especially where I undertook to 

 give them twenty or more, that 1 began to 

 think I preferred the incubator. Another 

 thing, one of my hens made a very good 

 hatch out in the woods down in Florida, in a 

 grassy thicket, where you could hardly crawl 

 through. I could catch the sitting hen; but 

 the chicks hid in the grass and bothered me 

 so much that 1 almost concluded I did not 

 want to set another hen. 



They claim they can furnish hatched chick- 

 ens at just about double the price you would 

 have to pay for eggs of the same kind; and I 

 judge there is but very little difficulty in 

 raising the chickens by our best modern 

 methods after they are once hatched. If 

 this were not so, the customers of former 

 years would not be patronizing these same 

 establishments year after year. 



Now, what lessons are we to learn in re- 

 gard to this new development and the new 

 condition of things that is coming up all 

 around us? Some of us older people often 

 get into a way of speaking about the "good 

 old times when we were young." Yes, we 

 may get the idea into our heads that the 

 world is going to be "civilized out of exist- 

 ence," as I have mentioned, unless something 

 is done about it. But I think that, when we 

 come to look the situation fairly in the face, 

 we shall recognize the hand of a loving Fa- 

 ther in it all. Please savto yourself when you 

 are tempted to complain at modern innova- 

 tions, "Lord, help us to learn the lesson 

 thou art striving to teach us;" and then go 

 on smilingly, trying to see the good side and 

 overlook the objectionable features of the 

 new ways of doing things that are coming 

 up all around us. And let us finally decide, 

 in the language of our text, to "trust in the 

 Lord, and do good;" and have faith to believe 

 that we !<hall be "fed" and clothed. 



DAY-OLD CHICKS, AND " FIRELESS " BROOD- 

 ERS. 



At friend Uhl's I saw a vei-y bright young 

 woman handling the chicks and otherwise 



helping in the incubator-room; and it occur- 

 red to me that this is emphatically a woman's 

 work. Who can handle chicks, especially 

 "baby" chicks, to better advantage than 

 women or girls?* And. by the way, that I 

 may know how fast this new industry is 

 spreading I wish all those who make it a 

 business, who are taking (jleanings, would 

 give me their names on a card I believe it 

 is an industry that should be encouraged. I 

 will give the names of all free of charge. Ju>'t 

 one thing more: Will all those who have 

 tested the fireless or lampless brooder please 

 give me a postal- card report as to how far 

 they have succeeded? I have had 35 chicks 

 two days in the home-made "fireless;" but 

 last night, when there was a rather heavy 

 freeze and a strong north wind, I put them 

 in the house over night Perhaps I did not 

 need to; but I had not quite courage enough 

 to leave them entirely without any aid from 

 artificial heat. 



HIGH PRESSURE 



GADDENING 



A-LP^OT 



CELERY CULTURE IN MANATEE CO., FLORIDA. 



On pages 556 and 557 I give you some half- 

 tones showing Mr. Lattimer's five-acre cel- 

 ery-farm described in our last issue. On p. 

 160 of Gleanings for Feb. 1 I also gave a 

 brief account of Mr. A. F. Wyman's irriga- 

 tion with the overhead sprinkler system. 

 Mr. Wyman also includes celery in his plant 

 of 35 acres. It was my good fortune to meet 

 both of these progressive men at Bradentown 

 a few days ago. While congratulating them 

 on the success of their respective celery-farms 

 I suggested that Mr. Lattimer's two big ar- 

 tesian wells accomplished the irrigation at 

 probably less expense than Mr. Wyman's 

 expensive sprinkling outfit. The latter gen- 

 tleman, however, took me up at once and 

 said, "No, no, Mr. Root, you have got it en- 

 tirely wrong It does not cost me nearly as 

 much to irrigate my celery with the appli- 

 ance I now have as it does friend Lattimer, 

 and I think Mr. L. will agree with me." 



When I visitjd the Lattimer plant I told 

 you the water looked as if it was almost 

 knee-deep in some furrows between the plants ; 

 and with furrow irrigation I am told it is 

 often necessary to give the celery too much 



* My good friend Uhl is a very pleasant sort of man, 

 and some of the expressions in his catalog are quite 

 refreshing. For instance, in his directions how to 

 handle chicks after you get them at the express office 

 he says: 



As soon as you receive the chicks put them in a warm place, 

 in a good brooder or with hens. Do not let them stand around 

 and holler. It is very Important to feed only a little at first. 

 as they are liltely to eat or drink too much. 



After I got my chicks home, and they got a little 

 too cold, I could well appreciate his warning, " Do not 

 let them stand around and holler.'' 



