1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



485 



the place of electricity unless it is to run 

 about towns and cities where there are pav- 

 ed streets. 



I think Mr. Calvert used the machine I have 

 some two or three years. Then he sold it to 

 another son-in-law, Mr. A. L. Boyden, who 

 usef^ "' .ee or four years. During the past 

 wmter it has been used by our mail-boy to 

 run back and forth between here and the 

 nostoffice, a distance of half a mile. When 

 1 returned from Florida the mail service had 

 been so severe on it that we concluded it 

 was about used up; but as our automobile is 

 away down in Florida I decided to have this 

 one fixed up, and for the first time in my life 

 run an dearie carriage. 



I have just been telling you some of the 

 faults of the electric machine, and now I will 

 mention some of its good points. First, it is 

 the stillest automobile in existence so far. 

 On this account you will have to look out 

 about running into people, as they can not 

 hear you coming. Second, it is easier to 

 manipulate than any other machine. Just 

 push on one lever, and off you go. If you 

 wish te CTo faster, put on another notch; and 

 to go stnl faster, push the lever clear up. 

 When you want to go slower, or stop, just 

 pull the same lever back. That is all there 

 IS to do. If you are out after sundown, and 

 t begins to get dark, just turn a button, and 

 two beautiful electric-light globes shed light 

 on your pathway. If you have an electric- 

 povver plant of your own, as we have here, 

 just attach two wires when your machine is 

 standing still, and it will always be charged 

 when you are ready to use it. With an elec- 

 tric plant of your own, the expense of the 

 electric current for storing the batteries need 

 not exceed a cent a mile when the batteries 

 are new. When they are old the expense 

 may run up to ten cents. Any woman, or 

 any boy or girl big enough to drive a horse, 

 can run the electric. If properly used, I 

 think a set of batteries should run the ma- 

 chine several thousand miles. But when the 

 batteries are used up by bad management or 

 many miles of use it will cost something over 

 JlOO to renew them. They can many times 

 be repaired and fixed up temporarily for a 

 small part of this sum. 



SKUNKS, HAWKS, OWLS, ETC.; ARE THEY ALL 

 ENEMIES OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY? 



Mr. Root:— We creatly appreciate your department 

 in Gl-EANINGS, and feel clad indeed that one periodical 

 of influence devoted to agricultural interests does not 

 hesitate to expose frauds, and to assist in the warfare 

 aeainst intemperance. 



_ I can not refrain, however, from calling your atten- 

 tion to the fact that, perhaps, you are unthinkingly 

 causing injury by your occasional careless remarks 

 about the creatures which you call "varmints." I 

 have all my life been very much interested in the 

 study of our wild life, and have often done so, per- 

 haps, at the cost of netrlectintr work that needed to be 

 done; and it pains me to hear men sr>eak of some of 

 our most valuable friends as " varmints." You will, 

 no doubt, be surprised to hear that of the thirty or 

 more kinds of hawks in America only about four are a 

 menace to poultr>-; yet the average person will shoot 

 every hawk he sees, without a question as to its possi- 

 ble value. Of the owls, only one of the more than 24 

 kinds is destructive to poultry, yet the rest get no con- 

 sideration for the good they do. ^ Skunks.ias we all 



know, are sometimes troublesome to poultry; yet we 

 who have investigated the matter know that it is the 

 individual which has formed the habit, and not the 

 whole lot of skunks, that should be destroyed. When 

 we see one man compelling the Chinese to sit idly by 

 while their children are defiled by the American To- 

 bacco Co. and its cigarettes, cari we blame them for 

 thinkiner that all Americans are bad, including the 

 missionary who is sacrificing every tliinc to do them 

 srood? It is the individual with bad hah)its that has 

 brought all the race of hawks, owls, skunks, and wea- 

 sels into disrepute; and it is high time that our people 

 wei-e educated as to the great value of these creatures. 

 I should like to say more, but think it is only necessa- 

 ry to call your attention to the matter, and suggest that 

 you send to the Department of Agriculture for two 

 free publications that will throw a lot of light on the 

 matter — " Hawks and Owls as they Affect the Farmer," 

 and "The Mouse Plague in Nevada." 



I sincerely hope that I may have the pleasure of 

 meeting you at some time, and it will double the pleas- 

 ure if I ever have the opportunity of delivering my 

 lecture, " The Plan of Eden," in your hearing. 



Atlantic, Iowa. FRANK C. Pellett. 



Thank you, friend P. I have seen the gov- 

 ernment bulletin in regard to hawks; but I 

 supposed that all skunks were addicted to 

 robbing hens' nests and killing the httle 

 chickens; and I am very glad to know that 

 owls are not all bad. Now, the question is, 

 how are we to know which to kill and which 

 to let alone or encourage? The particular 

 skunk that gathers the eggs and catches lit- 

 tle chickens if they are not penned up every 

 night, I suppose had better be killed. This 

 reminds me that every little while we hear 

 of chickens that have learned to gobble up 

 worker bees. But this so seldom happens 

 that I believe no one thinks of keeping poul- 

 try away from the hives. I suppose rats 

 and mice do more harm, on the average, 

 than owls or hawks. The trouble is, as I 

 have already said, to have the poultry-keep- 

 er or bee-keeper sufficiently well posted to 

 know what to shoot and what not to shoot. 

 Perhaps I should tell our readers that, ac- 

 companying the above kind letter, was a 

 leaflet whicn gave an extract from the lecture 

 referred to, as follows: 



EXTRACT FROM THE LECTURE. 



"Perhaps, if you are a farmer, your crop of red- 

 clover seed was a failure last fall ; yet you never 

 thought of laying the blame on the new gun you gave 

 your boy on his birthday, but it is not an unreason- 

 able conclusion. In a hollow tree near that field lived 

 an owl that patrolled it every night in search of voles, 

 or short-tailed field-mice; a hawk that also lived near 

 by did the same by day, thus effectively keeping the 

 voles in check. The boy, however, soon killed both 

 birds, and the voles increased and multiplied without 

 hindrance. They are very prolific little creatures, in- 

 creasing continuously throughout about ten months of 

 the year, and the first litter of the season will have 

 grandchildren by fall. ' But,' you may say, ' what has 

 that to do with my crop of clover seed?" Simply this: 

 The voles are enemies of the bumble-bees, and destroy 

 their combs, and, thus, the bees. Without the assist- 

 ance of the bumble-bees in pollinating the blossoms, 

 your clover will produce no seed, so there you Vr)'i9 

 it." 



I must confess that I never heard of 

 "voles" before; but I do know that field 

 mice do a great amount of damage; and 

 while we have reports from newspapers al- 

 most continually of casualties resulting from 

 giving guns to boys, I for one would keep 

 the guns away from the boy until he gets to 

 be a rather old boy. By all means let us get 

 posted and keep posted — at least enough so 

 that we shall not make the blunder of mis- 

 taking our best friends for foes. 



