148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



Set more fenile eggs; 15 to 30 per cent better hatches from 

 store or farmers' eggs by using ny grading method. Easy to 

 learn. Eggs graded in three grades. Grade No. 1 hatches over 

 30 per cent better than grade No. 3. Send 10-cent piece securely 

 wrapped for full particulars. Money back if not satisfied. 

 Stamps not accepted. Joseph Ruel, Withrow, Minn., Route No. 

 1. Box No. 18. 



As the amount asked for in the above is so 

 small, it is not particularly objectionable; yet 

 how does it come that no poultry journal has ever 

 gotten hold of it.? If it is true that you can pick 

 out eggs as outlined above, it should be careful- 

 ly tested by some experiment station, and a neat 

 little bulletin published giving full particulars. 

 Of course I have sent the dime. 



Years ago there were many secrets advertised 

 about bee-keeping. When Gleanings was start- 

 ed I decided it should give the bee-keepers of the 

 world not only all the news in regard to the in- 

 dustry, but all the secrets. When some one de- 

 clared he had invented a way to fertilize queens 

 in a wire-cloth cage I prepared to make him a vis- 

 it, even if it did take about all the cash I could 

 scrape up at that early day. Before I got start- 

 ed, however, he was kind enough to inform me 

 he feared he was mistaken, even if he had already 

 announced his discovery in print. (Since then 

 we have invested quite a little money in the same 

 arrangement, but it " don't seem to go," even 

 yet.) We have literally "ransacked the earth " 

 for any thing that might prove new and valuable 

 to honey-producers, and we have our reward. 



Now, brethren of the press, you who are edi- 

 'tors of the fifty or sixty poultry-papers, why not 

 hunt up and purchase with honest money these 

 secrets and give them to your readers.? Say, as 

 do the Farm Journal folks, " We will pay $10.00 

 for any secret " " that is both good and new. " 



Oue of the worst features of the " secret" busi- 

 ness is that it takes the hard-earned dollars, usu- 

 ally, from poor hard-working people, often from 

 sick people — those who are ignorant and do not 

 keep posted. I know about this, for letters are 

 coming to me almost daily, asking if I would 

 advise investing, etc. Giving some sort of book 

 for the money is not quite as bad; but I do feel 

 that it is almost an outrage to take $2.00 for a 

 cheap paper primer of less than 100 pages. If 

 you have something to tell, get it up in a nice 

 attractive book like "Poultry Secrets," and sell 

 it for 25 cts. and make everybody happy who 

 buys it. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, 

 and his righteousness, and all things else shall be 

 added unto you." 



As I have not very much time to read «// the 

 poultry-journals, there may be quite a number 

 that do not deserve my criticisms, and of these I 

 beg pardon. I will close with a very kind letter 

 from one of their editors. 



Mr. A. L. Boydtn: — Your publication is a most meritorious 

 one, but I can not help regretting the criticisms Mr. A. 1. Root is 

 prone to make. For instance, on p. 1533, Dec. 15, he refers to 

 Poultry and the Petaluma Poultry Journal as the only two poultry 

 papers he has found which are willing to lose some of their ad- 

 vertising by cutting out swindlers and frauds. Perhaps it would 

 interest yourself, or even Mr. Root, to know that Poultry Hus- 

 bandry is not bought and sold by its advertisers. There are poul- 

 try-breeders using space in other poultry-journals that can not buy 

 space in Poultry Husbandry. I am sure that, if your Mr Root 

 would look for the good instead of being somewhat pessimistic, 

 he would find a great deal of good. For instance, take in your 

 own city of Toledo, the Toledo Blade, which does not accept 

 brewery or whisky advertising, and editorially supported the non- 

 partisan Senator Sylvester Lamb in the late campaign. This 

 was a great deal for the old conservative Blade to do, as it is a 

 strong Republican paper. It supported Sylvester Lamb because 

 he more than any one else was responsible for getting the local- 



option bill through the Ohio legislature. Again, this was a great 

 deal for the daily Blade to do, because the weekly Blade has a 

 circulation of 175,000 copies, and the breweries and whisky re- 

 tailers cut the weekly off their list. 



As hard up as this little publication is, we are trying to play 

 the square game. Frank L. Platt, Editor. 



Waterville, N. Y., Dec. 26. 1908. 



Many thanks, dear brother, for your very kind 

 criticism; and may the Lord be praised to know 

 that the Toledo Blade has turned down the beer 

 and whisky advertising. 



Poultry 

 Department 



Conducted by A. I. Root. 



" NOTHING TO DO BUT GATHER THE EGGS," ETC. 



On p. 69, Jan. 15, I told you I got three eggs, 

 the day of my arrival, from my flock of 70. 

 Well, by diligent care I increased the daily num- 

 ber gradually until I had from 35 to 40 eggs per 

 day. When I was a boy, "keeping chickens," 

 I figured out I was doing very well when I could 

 average an egg a day from every two hens. With 

 the Philo system, only six hens in a pen, we can 

 do much better, of course; but it not only costs 

 a lot of money to install such a plant, but it is a 

 lot of work to look after so many little houses. 

 Well, if there is any place where every thing 

 favors "nothing to do but gather the eggs," 

 Florida is the place. When the chickens are all 

 in one flock, and " run loose," no fencing is need- 

 ed; and when they roost in the trees, as my 70 

 do (all in one little pine-tree), there is no partic- 

 ular need of any house or structure of any kind 

 — some boxes or barrels for nests, that is all. In 

 order to save time, hotvever, in gathering the 

 eggs as well as to save time in feeding, I had a 

 cheap structure made, covered with cloth except 

 a shingle roof over one end where the grain is 

 stored. The cloth roof over the nest apart- 

 ment answered very well for one season; but here 

 in this damp warm climate the cloth on the roof 

 got so full of holes from mildew that I have just 

 made a shingle roof over the whole structure. 

 Stout canvas, such as is used for tents, would, of 

 course, last longer; but 1 am afraid any kind of 

 cloth poultry-house in this region would prove 

 rather expensive in the end. 



Well, something else has come to pass that re- 

 minds us the "chicken business" is not exactly 

 " the thing " for a lazy man, even down here in 

 Florida. I have so far boasted that I have never 

 seen any "vermin" on my chickens. On p. 69 

 I mentioned the Orpington pullet I expressed 

 here with my male bird. The way I came to 

 send her was this: I prepared a shipping-crate 

 such as you see on page 138. It was made to 

 hold three White Leghorn males — the $5 GO chap 

 ("select tested") and two of his young "sons." 

 As they had been running together all summer I 

 supposed they would, of course, be "agreeable;" 

 but while I was eating breakfast his "lordship" 

 would have killed the two cockerels had they not 

 thrust their heads out of his way between the 

 slats. I " yanked " them out of the cage in dis- 

 gust. Just then this handsome pullet came along; 

 and as he had always been particularly " sweet " 



