1334 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



get a secret, even if I did neglect to sign any 

 contract. This wonderful book contains just 

 four pages about the size of a postal card, and it 

 is the old lingo right over — see page 43, Jan. 1st. 



There is one funny thing about this secret bus- 

 iness. There seem to be a good many fellows 

 who have not brains enough to originate any 

 thing, and so they copy some other man, think- 

 ing that these other fellows, Hogan and Potter, 

 for instance, are making so much money in the 

 secret business that there is no reason why they 

 should not have some of it. Just see how many 

 are copying the secret regarding sprouted oats — 

 the best food in the world for chickens, costing 

 only 10 to 15 cents a bushel. And now some- 

 body advertises it at only 8 cents a bushel, and 

 every time it turns out to be sprouted grains. 

 But every man claims this as his own invention. 

 He would not be guilty of copying (no, no) or 

 stealing a secret from somebody else. 



Let me say once more, 50 cents is a big price 

 for a book of only four little pages. Mr. Palmer 

 also advertises his great '" profit-paying" White 

 Leghorn chickens and eggs in this same Jifty- cent 

 book. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND BIRDS. 



Id the last issue of Gleanings is a clipping in which a boy. 

 when remonstrated with for shooting birds, says, " President 

 Roosevelt does it." The Piesident does sometimes shoot a few 

 game birds, but does not shoot song or insect-eating birds, and he 

 has probably done more to preserve bird as well as animal life 

 than any other man in the country by setting aside reservations 

 where they are protected all the time .by the Audubon Societies. 

 By sending 20 cts. to the Macmillian Co., Harrisburg, Pa., for a 

 copy of the October number of a magazine called Bird Lore, you 

 can find out more about some of the reservations. 



Wall Lake, la. John A. Spurrkll. 



I am glad to give place to the above, friend S. ; 

 and since you mention it we ought to know that 

 the President would not practice or encourage 

 the slaughter of song birds or any other birds not 

 fit for food, or which are not detrimental to fruit 

 and crops. There are certain birds that ought to 

 be gotten rid of. The English sparrows are not 

 only consuming the grain provided for our 

 chickens, but they fill our eavespouts with their 

 excrement, and scatter it over our walks and 

 porches unless we continually fight them away. 

 If we are going to have pure drinking-water we 

 do not want guano mixed in with it every time it 

 rains. Notwithstanding all this, I feel pained 

 when I see young boys around with bird-guns. 

 I hope and pray that birds detrimental to crops 

 and health may be destroyed in some other way. 



ALFALFA. 



I hope you are trying a little alfalfa — a patch 

 big enough for your chickens if nothing more. 

 It does not make any difference where you live: 

 it can be made to grow all the way from Maine 

 to Florida. Here are the directions boiled down, 

 which I clip from the Ohio Farmer, written by 

 Willis O. Wing, the great authority on the sub- 

 ject of alfalfa: 



Please do not make a mystery of alfalfa-growing any longer. 

 It is such a simple matter that one can write all the rules needed 

 in small space. Here they are: Drain the water out ; let the air 

 into the soil ; fill the land with lime if nature did not do it ; get 

 humus into it^stable manure or some vegetable matter to rot and 

 promote the life of bacteria there. Put in plenty of phosphoms. 

 Sow good seed, with a little inoculated soil. Lime brings alfal- 

 fa. Alfalfa brings corn. Corn brings money, homes, pianos, 

 and education for farm boys. 



THE WRIijH T BROTHtRS AND OTHER FLYING-MA- 

 CHINES. 



We are pleased to note that Wilbur Wright 

 has so far recovered from his recent accident that 

 he is going back to his home in Dayton, and 

 probably is there at the present writing. The 

 broken bone has made a very quick and satisfac- 

 tory mend. The following, which we clip from 

 the Cleveland Plain Dealer, indicates that the 

 Wrights may soon have competition in their own 

 town. The clipping was dated Oct. 27, and 

 comes from Dayton 



Frank J. Heinfelt to-day made a successful flight of 1500 feet 

 with an aeroplane materially different from that of the Wright 

 Brothers. In this machine the single-plane principle is used, 

 while the Wright machine has double plane surfaces. Although 

 hitherto unknown in the aeronautic world, Mr. Heinfelt has built 

 three machines, paying his expenses out of his salary as a stenog- 

 rapher. His motor was given him by a friend who took it out of 

 an old automobile. The flight to-day was terminated by a lack 

 of skill on the part of the manipulator, who brought the machine 

 to the ground too suddenly and broke one of the wings. Repairs 

 will be made at once. The flight was witnessed by several 

 persons. 



A. I. ROOT, AND HIS DEPARTMENT IV GLEANINGS, 



I have been considerably worried of late, dear 

 friends, for fear that I might, perhaps, uncon- 

 sciously, as I get along in years, be taking more 

 space in these pages than is really wisest and 

 best. I have often heard it said that, as minis- 

 ters of the gospel get older, they become lengthy 

 and tedious in their sermons. Now, whenever 

 that thing happens in my case I hope some good 

 friend or friends will be frank enough to say so. 

 The foregoing was .suggested by a letter just put 

 into my hands. Here it is: 



I do not keep bees now, but can not do without Gleanings, 

 as the Home talks are worth more to me than I can name in dol- 

 lars and cents. Long live A. I. Root! He can not write too 

 much. Teil him to write an A B C poultry-book. 



Somerville, N. J., Sept. 26. L. B. Thatcher. 



Many thanks, my good friend T. , especially 

 for the sentence that reads, "You can not write 

 too much." Of late I have been using five to 

 six pages in each issue of Gleanings; but when 

 I get down in Florida, where I have no stenog- 

 rapher to talk to, as I do tp my old and tried 

 friend W. P. Root, it will be a harder task for 

 me to occupy so much space. 



Another thing that troubles me is that I don't 

 seem called upon just now to say very much in 

 regard to bee culture ; but it may be that others 

 fill that department so capably that it is not nec- 

 essary for me to talk on bees. I should dearly 

 love to write an A B C book on poultry while 

 my mind seems to run so much in that direction. 

 Of course, I have not had any great experience, 

 even though I have kept chickens most of my 

 life; but I have visited and am in touch with 

 many of the largest and foremost poultry estab- 

 lishments in our country. 



Now, if there are some of our readers who do 

 not agree with Bro. Thatcher that the originator 

 of Gleanints can not write too much, especial- 

 ly in his old age, I hope they will be equally 

 frank and outspoken. There is one class of peo- 

 ple who, I am well aware, are not particularly 

 well pleased with my department ; and these are 

 the dear brothers (and 1 hope they will let me 

 call them brothers) who are or have been hereto- 

 fore in the saloon business; for I am and shall 

 be, while God permits me to hold the breath of 

 life, fighting every thing that is unrighteous. 



