1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



957 



iiiuinlis ill cold storage, il is a wonder that so many t-ntis leach 

 consumers' rabies in edible condition. 



It seems that there aie tliree it" not more very 

 important considerations in this matter. First, 

 we get more eggs. Second, according to Mapes 

 we get bttttr eggs, or eggs that will keep fresh 

 and in good order ever so much longer. Third 

 (and this last argument I do not see mentioned 

 ut all), if you have some high-priced stock, and 

 have a surplus of eggs, you do not want othgr 

 tolks following you to the grocery and buying 

 eggs to set under a hen. To avoid all of this, 

 have your choice stock in pens. We are told on 

 pretty good authoritj' that we get more eggs in 

 confinement in a yard than where the fowls have 

 unlimited range. These eggs from your choice 

 stock you sell to neighbors or anybody else at a 

 [)roper price. The eggs from the rest of your 

 riock that you sell in the market for food are sold 

 at a slight advance because they are fresh and 

 "germless," and the label on each box warns the 

 public that they are better for table use, but en- 

 tirely unfit to set, because they would not 

 hatch any way. Then when somebody comes 

 to you, and wants eggs, you ask him whether he 

 wants table eggs at 30 or 35 cents a dozen or eggs 

 for hatching at, say, $L00 a setting. 



Just one more point: As a proof that eggs will 

 keep a long while in fair condition when germ- 

 less, even during hot weather, I may mention 

 that I have boiled eggs for chickens, taken right 

 from the incubator, and they looked so good and 

 wholesome that I tasted the yolk several times, 

 and could see nothing wrong about it. In the 

 hot climate of Arizona, where they have a tem- 

 perature of over 100 degrees for days at a time, 

 eggs have actually hatched out in the stores 

 where they were offered for sale. Other eggs 

 that were germless, kept in the same temperature, 

 were fit for cooking even after they had been kept 

 three or four weeks. Does not this seem to in- 

 dicate that eggs that can not be used in a short 

 time after they are laid should be germless so far 

 as we are able to manage it } 



GROWING PARTRIDGES INSTEAD OF CHICKENS, ETC. 



After I left the boys, as I have mentioned in 

 another column, I started with my valise over 

 the hills through the woods to the station. I 

 had enjoyed myself so much during the previous 

 week that I was wondering if I could not invent 

 some excuse for staying up in that locality a con- 

 siderable part of each summer. Let me digress 

 a little. 



Just as soon as I got back to the old cabin I 

 put the hammock into that little clump of maple- 

 trees on the hill that overlooks the bay; and just 

 before dinner (the boys cooked the dinner them- 

 selves, and it was a nice one too) I lay down in 

 the hammock, as I have mentioned several times 

 before, for a refreshing nap. Oh how I did en- 

 joy it ! It was a hot July day; but the breeze 

 from the bay rustled the leaves over my head 

 and gave a delicious coolness to my brow as I 

 lapsed into unconsciousness. When I awoke, 

 twenty or thirty minutes later, there was all 

 through my being a sense of cleanness and puri- 

 ty that I have never found in any other locality. 

 Whenever I sleep in a close room my mouth 

 tastes bad when I awake; but up there in that pure 



air every thing seems Ui be pure and sweet and 

 wholesome, and it produces an exhilaration that 

 I never get anywhere else. Perhaps I am exag- 

 gerating the advantages of that climate. To tell 

 the truth, I have not tried a hammock in the 

 open air, either in Ohio or down in Florida — 

 that is, to any great extent. Well, now, let us 

 get back to that trip through the woods over to 

 the station. 



I was considering what I could do up in those 

 wild woods to keep busy and pay expenses dur- 

 ing the summer time. As I rushed along I al- 

 most ran over a partridge. I have told you be- 

 fore that they are all through my woods up 

 there; and as nobody is allowed to shoot them at 

 this season of the year they get to be quite tame. 

 It seems as if my foot almost struck that mother 

 partridge, for such she was. She went rolling 

 and tumbling out of the way, making a plaintive 

 noise as if she were hurt. I caught on at once ; 

 and by searching around in the grass where she 

 first started I found a whole brood of little part- 

 ridges, just feathered out enough to be hand- 

 some. The minute I saw them and took a look 

 at the plump handsome niother, still tumbling 

 around as it she were hurt so she could hardly 

 move, I said to myself — no, I guess I said it out 

 loud, for I was off alone in the woods — " Dear 

 me! why can't I come up here and raise part- 

 ridges with my Cyphers' incubator just as easily 

 as I raise Leghorn chickens down in Florida .? "' 



As I hurried over to the train I began figuring 

 what nice plump young partridges would bring 

 in the market compared with Leghorn chickens. 

 Perhaps they would not stand confinement ; but 

 then Bro. McClave, of New London, O., raises 

 wild ducks right along, and lets them fly wherev- 

 er they wish to go. They always come home at 

 night to roost and for their feed. 



When I got over to Manistee I told my broth- 

 er-in-law, Mr. C. D. Gardner, about my project; 

 but he at once " poured cold water " by the pail- 

 ful on my speculation. Said he: 



" Why, Mr. Root, you can very likely grow 

 your partridges all right, and with comparatively 

 no trouble; but the minute you undertake to sell 

 a partridge in the market you will be arrested, 

 fined, and perhaps imprisoned. A man right 

 here in Manistee, raising brook trout on his own 

 farm, with water from his own spring, was mak- 

 ing money hand over fist ; but the game laws in- 

 terfered. It is against the law here to sell trout 

 or black bass. He took the matter into the 

 courts, and fought them until it cost pretty near- 

 ly every dollar he was worth. But he had to 

 give it up." 



Now, will somebody who is posted on this 

 matter tell me if this can be true .? Is it possible 

 that there are laws which forbid the farmer from 

 growing trout or partridges on his own premises 

 and selling them for what they are worth in the 

 market .? Of course, I understand the importance 

 of preventing sportsmen from depopulating our 

 woods and inland lakes of fowl and fish; but he 

 who grows thousands of partridges and fish where 

 none grew before, or at least in limited numbers, 

 is, it seems to me, like the man who makes two 

 blades of grass grow where only one grew before 

 A plump partridge, as everybody knows, is about 

 the finest table delicacy the world affords ; and, 

 if I remember correctly, my father and mother, 



