648 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



INCUBATION — SOMETHING YET TO BE DISCOVERED. 



Just before I left Florida, one day when I was 

 awaj' from home Charley, our colored boy, found 

 a nest out among the palmettos containing 16 

 eggs. As he knew we were going away soon he 

 drove the hen off, covered up the nest, and car- 

 ried the eggs to Mrs. Root. She broke one to 

 see if they were fit for use; but finding they were 

 about a week toward hatching she kept them un- 

 til my return next day, and then suggested that 

 I could boil them for the young chickens. I 

 said, " Not so. We will put them bacl^ in the 

 nest, and let these chickens hatch after we are 

 gone." 



"But, my dear husband, they certainly will 

 not hatch, for they were on the benchin the work- 

 shop all night, and it was quite cold." 



I told Charley to fix the nest as it was, and put 

 them back; but the hen was too badly scared, and 

 paid no attention to them. So they were out 

 another night; but when I found a hen tHat want- 

 ed to sit, I gave her the 15 eggs. Mrs. Root 

 thought I was crazy in thinking eggs would hatch 

 after they had been out in the cold for two days 

 and two nights. But I had read somewhere in a 

 poultry journal that, after eggs had been incubat- 

 ed until the fertile ones could be sorted out, they 

 could be sent by express short distances and still 

 hatch. In this way you need not send oft' unfer- 

 tile eggs at all, and have your customer go to 

 the expense of sending back the bad ones to prove 

 that they were no good. Mrs. Root laughed at 

 my pains with some eggs that " everybody knew " 

 could not possibly hatch chickens. Well, my 

 neighbor, Mr. Rood, writes as follows under date 

 of April 15: 



"The hen hatched fourteen chickens, and they 

 are all growing finely." 



I suppose of course the mild weather of Florida 

 favored the matter; but, if I remember correctly, 

 one of the two nights when the eggs were out of 

 the nest the temperature was somewhere between 

 40 and 50 in the morning. In view of this, is it 

 so very important that the temperature be kept 

 constantly at 103°.' One of the poultry journals 

 says if you let a sitting hen have the eggs for the 

 first week almost any incubator will give a suc- 

 cessful hatch. Who knows about it.? 



ALFALFA FOR POULTRY, BEES, AND OTHER FARM 

 STOCK. 



I take great pleasure in presenting the follow- 

 ing, taken from the Ohio Farmer iox April 23: 



Last year 1 selected a plot of rich garden soil, pulverized the 

 soil as fine as for an onion-bed, then I made shallow furrows two 

 feet apart, and sowed the alfalfa seed in them with the garden- 

 seed drill the same way as onion seed, and about as thick; then 

 I walked over the seed, firming the soil over them. In a week 

 the seed had germinated, so that 1 could see the plants in the 

 rows. I ran the wheel cultivator between them, removed all the 

 weeds, and replanted vacancies. The wood ashes from the house 

 were scattered between the rows, and the cultivation kept up all 

 summer, and in the early winter the plot was top-dressed with 

 fine manure. 1 obtained two cuttings the first year, and a second 

 was left on the ground. This season, judging from other plots of 

 alfalfa on my place, I shall cut four large crops. Thus I know 

 from experience that alfalfa is the best food for the poultry, the 

 cow, and the horse, that I ever used. When you have obtained 

 all the milk or eggs you can with other grasses and grain, you 

 can further increase the yield with alfalfa, and the cow will leave 

 all other food for if, and hens that are confined in yards will eat 

 cut alfalfa as readily as grain. 



With all my animals, I can reduce the grain feed more than 

 one-half with alfalfa. Here is the solution of the problem of 

 making hens pay on the village lot, if there is a good piece of 

 soil near by where alfalfa can be grown as I have described. 1 



wish to be understood that one must learn to grow alfalfa, and 

 how to handle it for feed. It never will be easy u start alfalfa 

 on common soil; but give it the same care as the garden crop, and 

 understand that its culture is the highest type of farming or gar- 

 dening, and that it requires as much skill as to grow fancy straw- 

 berries. Study the plant and its needs, then do the work the 

 right way, and there is no doubt about results. 



I have a neighbor in the village where I live, who tells me he 

 can show a balance sheet of $2 profit per hen for one year. His 

 hens have plenty of grass. My friend living in the village of 

 which I have spoken made a profit of only 60 cts. per hen last 

 year. I told him about my experiments in the cultivation of al- 

 falfa. He is going to try growing it in the same way. 1 believe 

 it possible for him to make as good a showing as my neighbor, 

 whose margin of profit is $2 per hen. W. H. Jenkins, 



Delaware Co., N. Y. 



Now, friends, the above is true — every word of 

 it. Alfalfa is being grown successfully over al- 

 most all of the United States. I got a good strong 

 stand on a little piece of ground in Florida by 

 making the soil.j'ich with cow-chips, as I have 

 explained. Of course, it may not be suitable for 

 all soils; but if you find you can grow a little 

 patch of it in your garden you can extend the 

 area and get a good field of it eventually. Please 

 bear in mind that, where it is once well started, 

 it is good for fifty years or more. It certainly is 

 nearer a grain ration than any other clover or 

 grass in the world. Sweet clover may come pret- 

 ty close to it in value after the stock have once 

 learned to eat it. I do not know about that, but 

 I would urge every farmer or gardener to start a 

 little patch in his garden at once — that is, if alfal- 

 fa is not already growing and succeeding in his 

 region. It is the quickest seed to germinate, I 

 think, I ever got hold of. The plants will be up 

 and growing before you know it; and with a very 

 rich and suitable soil, and plenty of water to start 

 with, they will make about the most rapid growth 

 of any plant I know of. Even if you have only 

 a few chickens in town, you want a bed of alfal- 

 fa; and it will be just the time to start it when 

 this gets before you. For years we thought al- 

 falfa would not grow in Ohio; but as the people 

 have learned how to handle it, it is now getting 

 to be a success almost everywhere. 



ONE OF THE STRAWS WHICH SHOW WHICH 

 WAY THE "wind BLOWS." 



Dear Brother Root: — "Missouri is going dry." The Anti- 

 saloon League is bringing things to pass in this State. We have 

 76 counties out of 114 in the State; have closed nearly 300 

 saloons since the first of January. We are distributing 50,000 of 

 the enclosed buttons; will have another 50,000 ready for delivery 

 in July. Yours for the annihilation of the liquor traffic in the 

 nation. U. G. Robinson, State Supt. 



St. Louis, April 29. 



Perhaps I should explain that the matter on 

 the enamel button inclosed in the above letter 

 reads "Missouri dry in 1910." 



Here is another straw. Several Medina peo- 

 ple have recently moved to New Mexico, and 

 they have recently sent me a leaflet to let us 

 know how they prosper. It reads as follows: 



Artesia was the first town in New Mexico to abolish gambling 

 by law, and on March 3, 1908, by a vote of more than two to 

 one, the citizens banished the saloons. The first town in New 

 Mexico to take such action. Moral: Come to Artesia. This 

 tells you what kind of neighbors you will have. 



By the way, friends, there is a big moral right 

 here. Did you ever hear or did anybody ever 

 hear of anybody else boasting that a town had 

 gone ^cvet? How would it seem to hear some- 

 body say, or to see an advertisement (asking 

 people to locate) reading as follows — " Our town 

 has just voted wet t--vo to one"'!' 



