586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



do the same thing after making careful in- 

 quiry; and, of course, the purchaser must 

 make some allowance for the enthusiasm of 

 the inventor or introducer of some new 

 thing. What should be done is this, and I 

 have urged it again and again : The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington, and the 

 experiment stations of our different States, 

 should have some man appointed to run over 

 the agricultural papers, and promptly send 

 for and test all of these nev/ things; and 

 people should be asked by the Department 

 or station to hold on a little until these sta- 

 tions can give some kind of encouraging re- 

 port. Let me illustrate : 



Something over twenty years ago a man 

 secured a patent on some sort of house- 

 apiary. He was full of enthusiasm, and was 

 going to sell every bee-keeper an individual 

 right. Just as soon as the thing was adver- 

 tised I visited the man, reported through 

 Gle.\nings what I had seen, and cautioned 

 the friends all over the United States to let 

 me build a house-apiary and test the matter 

 thoroughly before rushing into it or buying 

 a right. In my experiments I invested sev- 

 eral hundred dollars; promptly gave notice 

 as to how it succeeded, and gave a prompt 

 notice also in regard to the failures. In one 

 year's time I said we wanted our hives out- 

 doors where each hive could stand by itself 

 so the owner could walk clear around it 

 while caring for it. As a consequence, no- 

 body, so far as I know, bought a right to 

 make and use a house-apiary; well, the thing 

 has so completely gone out of sight now 

 that I can not even remember the inventor's 

 name. Two or three house-apiaries were 

 installed in my own neighborhood to con- 

 vince me that such an apiary would give 

 tons of honey, no matter what the season 

 was; but if there is one left now it must be 

 used as a chicken-coop. The owner had his 

 houses painted all colors of the rainbow so 

 the bees could find their own entrance. I 

 know that for several years half a dozen or 



Eerhaps more were found who liked such 

 ouse-apiaries, and kept on using them. If 

 there is a man now in the whole United 

 States who still uses and likes a house-apiary 

 I wish he would hold up his hand. Let us 

 now get back to the beautiful Buttercups. 



They are thus named because the comb is 

 something like a cup and saucer or a butter- 

 cup flower. I promptly sent $4.00, and re- 

 ceived for the same fifteen beautiful white 

 eggs. They were put into the incubator the 

 30tn of August; and I propose to take them 

 (you see I am counting my chickens before 

 they are hatched) down to Florida; if I can 

 get them to laying in three months and a half 

 from the lime they are hatched (Providence 

 permitting), you will all hear about it. Now, 

 as I said, do not, any of you, invest in But- 

 tercups until I report. The good lady who 

 has them for sale will get a big free adver- 

 tisement if they are all she claims. If I de- 

 cide they are not all she claims, I am sure 

 she will not feel hard toward me for working 

 for the greatest good to the greatest number. 

 By the way, I wish the friends would help 



me in hunting up such things advertised in 

 the way of bees, poultry, fruit, etc. 



POULTRY-KEEPING IN SOUTH DAKOTA; CAN A 

 WOMAN SUCCEED WITH POULTRY? 



In my trips through South Dakota I have 

 several times mentioned my good friend C. 

 M. Peck, who for so many years was a Sun- 

 day-school missionary in that region. He 

 has recently settled down on a farm a few 

 miles out from the city of Mitchell, their 

 county-seat; and he happened to say in a 

 personal letter that his wife was having won- 

 derful success with her chickens; that she 

 had raised about 700 with very little loss. I 

 at once wrote, asking if she used an incu- 

 bator or raised her chickens under a hen. 

 Below is his reply: 



Dear Friend A . I. Root: — She set her incubator (100- 

 egS' and some eight hens the first of February. When 

 the chicks arrived, the incubator chicks were divided 

 up among the eight hens to brood and care for along 

 with their own. Then the incubator was set again 

 along with other hens, and this was the program until 

 she had over 700. She is saving all the pullets forv/in- 

 ter eggs. The roosters have been sold for 23 to 25 cts. 

 per lb., save home consumption (and thisisgreati, and 

 those we have on have on hand for later use. Our lay- 

 ing hens, we think, have done remarkably well. We 

 have on an average 150 hens, and from Jan. 1 to July 

 1 we sold at the grocery $202.52 worth, besides the eggs 

 we used (and we lived on them for a time, it seemed 

 to me), and the eggs used for hatching the 700 chicks. 

 Poultry is helping out Vantage Farm in fine shape. 



Mt. Vernon, S. D., Aug. 31. C. M. PECK. 



You will notice from the above that Mrs. 

 Peck is using the incubator as an adjunct to 

 sitting hens; and she makes those sitting 

 hens take the place of a brooder — the plan I 

 have been following and writing up during 

 the past summer. Well, here is a letter from 

 another good woman who has been working 

 along the same line. I take great pleasure 

 in giving these letters, because they may be 

 an encouragement to others — men as well as 

 women. 



THE "NATURAL-HEN INCUBATOR;" INCUBATOR CHICKS, 

 ETC. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — By all means enlarge the poultry de- 

 partment in Gleanings, as you are surely doing a good 

 work exposing frauds. I too was drawn in by the 

 Natural-hen Incubator Company, and for my dollar I 

 received a few plans on a sheet of paper which I never 

 made any use of. That was several years ago. I only 

 wish they had the plans and I the dollar. It would 

 pay a year's subscription to GLEANINGS, which would 

 be a thousand times better. 



Now, your discovery concerning the giving of incu- 

 bator chicks has also been mine. I have been giving 

 them to new broody hens for about three seasons past, 

 and never experienced very much trouble in the work. 

 Simply place a couple of peeps under the to-be-adopt- 

 ed mother in the evening in her brood-nest, and next 

 morning take her to a box preferably having one side 

 knocked out, leaving a ground floor, and moving the 

 box as the place gets soiled, thereby saving the scrap- 

 ing necessary to a clean healthy coop. In rainy weath- 

 er I lay a board in so they may sit on it; but I place the 

 box at an elevation if possible, so the water all drains 

 out fast. I find this a very good plan. 



I always grease my peeps every month or so, if in 

 brooder; if with hens, I give the hens a triple dose, or 

 more if possible, and she greases the babes at night. 



I lose none with gapes, and very few in any other 

 way since adopting this plan. I grease them with clean 

 lard and a few drops of oil of sassafras added. 



OsceoH Mills, Pa., Sept. 3. SADIE S. THOMAS. 



And I too have lost no chicks for the last 

 ten days — no more dead ones found in the 

 mornintr. 



