768 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



while they are fleecing the farmers. When such 

 a man is exposed he is put out of office, and per- 

 haps sent to the penitentiary — that is, providing 

 he and the manufacturers back of him have not 

 enough ill-gotten gains to get him off scot free. 

 Now, these men who succeed in tricking the gov- 

 ernment and the people are not happy. The 

 money they have stolen does not do them any 

 good. When they are exposed, as you will no- 

 tice by the papers, they often commit suicide; 

 and / maintain that such a course is only "jump- 

 ing out of the frying-pan into the fire." It may 

 not be a literal i\re, but I am persuaded it is some- 

 thing even -xvorse than fire. Now, Jesus came 

 from his home in heaven down to earth to bring 

 us glad tidings — peace and happiness and enjoy- 

 ment that God in his great mercy has provided 

 for all of us; and he tells us to be liberal and to 

 lend, hoping for nothing again. He tells to lay 

 up treasure in heaven where it will not get away 

 from us — to lay it where we can find it when we 

 get to heaven. Naked and penniless we came in- 

 to this world, and naked and penniless we shall 

 go out of it. Oh! why do not men and women 

 recognize that all this wealth and property and 

 money that they are raking and scraping togeth- 

 er may have to be given up in just a few hours.? 

 I remember a friend who could not be happy; 

 in fact, he could scarcely eat or sleep because he 

 was likely to lose something like $500 that he 

 thought he ought to have, and some of his rela- 

 tives did not think so; but after a lot of jangling 

 and hard feeling he got the money. Did he buy 

 something with it to make him happy.' No, he 

 just put it out at interest, and in a little while he 

 died suddenly without ever having had any good 

 at all from the $500, and a great lot of money be- 

 sides, that he had been spending his life's energies 

 in piling up where it would bring in more.* Do 

 you know of such people? Now, my dear friends, 

 let us come a little closer home. Are you sure 

 you are not one of that sort.? If so, suppose you 

 get down your Testament and read that sixth chap- 

 ter of Luke that I have quoted from, and see how 

 many other passages there are (that contain the 

 precious words of God's only Son) that read 

 something like our text — " Give, and it shall be 

 given unto you, good measure, pressed down, 

 and shaken together. " 



Poultry 

 Department 



HOW TO MAKE A HEN S NEST. 



Some of you may laugh at my title; in fact, I 

 ha\e heard there has been considerable laughing 

 at my poultry talk, and perhaps at my poultry 

 knowledge; and some people may wonder what 

 there can be new about making hens' nests. 

 Well, now, friends, there are a good many who 

 do not know how to make a hen's nest, and I be- 

 gin to think / belong in that crowd. In the last 

 issue I spoke about sitting hens breaking their 



*When I heard of this friend's sudden death I could not help 

 thinking of Luke 12 : 20, where God says, " This night shall thy 

 soul be required of thee. Then whose shall these things be 

 which thou hast provided ? " 



eggs; but it did not occur to me that one great 

 reason for sitting hens breaking their eggs is be- 

 cause they are not provided with proper nests. 

 The eggs broken by sitting hens are costing this 

 nation alone annually thousands of dollars; and 

 if you will permit me to go so far as to "count 

 chickens before they are hatched " (just this once, 

 you know), I do not know but the loss will run 

 up into the millions. I have been advocating 

 giving the hens fifteen or twenty eggs; but a cou- 

 sin of mine had a White Leghorn hen that stole 

 her nest up in the hay-mow, and hatched taventy- 

 one chickens all by herself. The chickens kept 

 rattling down from the hay-mow until they 

 thought there was no end to them. Well, now, 

 this little hen successfully brought up the twenty- 

 one chicks, and they were sold in the market at a 

 good price. If a little White Leghorn hen can 

 hatch twenty-one chickens, how many could a 

 Light Brahma or some of the other big breeds 

 hatch.? You may suggest that these big breeds 

 are the ones that break the eggs; but if I should 

 be able to convince you that it is the fault of the 

 nest, instead of the awkward and contrary hen, you 

 would have to admit there is a great need — in 

 fact, I might say, a "long-felt want" of a better 

 hen's nest. Biddy breaks an egg, and in rolling 

 them around, as she should do, about every egg 

 in the nest gets more or less daubed, and this 

 daubing cuts off the pure air from the baby chick. 

 We are making a great ado about pure air nowa- 

 days, you know. Well, chickens even before 

 they are hatched need pure air as much as they 

 do after they are hatched. If you love the chick- 

 ens, and even a contrary sitting hen, and keep 

 due watch, you can wash off the eggs in hot wa- 

 ter; and if it has not been on too long the chicks 

 will hatch out all right. This breaking of the 

 egg not only soils the other eggs and the mother 

 hen, but it gets a whole lot of fowls into the hab- 

 it of eating their eggs; and if they once get into 

 that habit you may finally be obliged, in despera- 

 tion, to get a sharp hatchet for a remedy. Some- 

 body says that broken eggs and filthy nests hat- 

 bor vermin. I have good reason to believe that 

 many a severe attack of hen fever has resulted in 

 a disgust and dislike for the whole chicken busi- 

 ness just because of a little carelessness in the 

 start in letting a hen break her eggs. Well, what 

 is the remedy.? It has been suggested to me by 

 a good friend whose letter I append at the end of 

 this talk. She says " plenty of litter. " But that 

 is not all. 



I have been watching sitting hens quite a little 

 lately, and have finally succeeded in getting some 

 pretty fair hatches. I confess I do not knoiv how 

 to make the very best kind of nest; but when I 

 explain to our readers my conclusions they will, 

 perhaps, tell me of something better than mine. 

 First you want the right kind of box to hold the 

 material. In the summer time I suppose a box 

 without a bottom would be better; but as we oft- 

 en want to carry these nests around, hen and all, 

 to some other place, I suggest that a bottom 

 made of inch poultry-netting would be the right 

 thing. This would let the fine litter sift through. 

 Now, I would have the box about 15 inches wide 

 and 30 long. Many of you will say this is too 

 large, beyond all reason. Just wait a bit. If 

 you have this poultry-netting for a bottom, chaff 

 will not do. You want some soft straw — at least 



