1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



719 



uo the whole lot and threw them away. Our 

 Onio Experiment Station at Wooster has been 

 for some years testing the catalpa, and they 

 thoroughly indorse all that Mr. Rogers says 

 about tlie Catalpa speciosa. If I am correct 

 he furnishes seeds and little plants of the 

 right kind for timber. It is worth something 

 to look at the pictures of the enormous growth 

 that the trees have made. Of course, lie has 

 some good land for the purpose. Growing 

 trees to take the place of our depleted forests 

 is an industry that is already close upon us; 

 and Mr. Rogers has demonstrated that more 

 money can be made in growing these trees 

 than in growing an average farm crop. 



Below is a letter evidently not intended 

 for print; but I think I shall aid in a good 

 cause by giving it a place right here: 



Mr. Root:— I am not eroins to let you foreet about my 

 catalpa-trees, and trust that what I have written may 

 induce you to start in the woodwork of planting- trees. 



It is of irreat importance that land-owners see the 

 need of planting trees, and the sure profit to come from 

 this work. The Ohio Experiment Station, at Wooster, 

 has done a great work throug-h its experimental plant- 

 ing of catalpas in nearly every county of the State, 

 and, by their measurements in some of the older 

 groves, showing the great profit to be derived from in- 

 telligent tree-planting. 



My '25-acre field of catalpas that were planted in the 

 spring of 1906 now has some trees large enough to 

 make ax-handles. Catalpa wood makes a better ax- 

 handle than hickory; and as hickory fit for ax-handle 

 stuff is getting to be very scarce, a cliance to make big 

 profit from ca'alpas in a few years presents itself. 



Mv own fields of catalpa-trees are making a splendid 

 •.vth: but a Mr. Hatfield, living about five miles 

 fro: : me, has half an acre of catalpas that are just a 

 littli belter than any I have ever grown. This shows 

 th;!t " have no patent right on the growing of these 

 trees. Start a urove of catalpas this year and you will 

 be more than pleased with the result. 



Mechanicsburg, Ohio. H. C. ROGERS. 



WONDERBERRY — STILL MORE ABOUT IT. 



On page 519 you have stated that if any of your read- 

 ers have grown the celebrated wonderberries, and find 

 that they do really come up to the strong claims made 

 for them, you would be glad to hear from them. 



As to coming up to the claims made for them, I can't 

 say, as I do not recall the exact claims made; but I have 

 no doubt they come as near the claims made for them 

 as do some of the articles advertised in your paper. I 

 notice articles advertised in your paper as " the best," 

 " ours can not be excelled," " the very best," " the fin- 

 est," etc. Do you not think those are pretty strong 

 claims, Bro. Root? I admit the claims made are pos- 

 sible but not probable. So it may be with the wonder- 

 berry. 



I have been fortunate enough to read a number of 

 statements made by the Rural New-Yorker, and repub- 

 lished by the Literary Disest two weeks ago, also an 

 editorial in the Indianapolis Star and Indiana Farmer 

 on the wonderberry. 



I have eight plants of the famous wonderberry grown 

 from the seed by my mother, and raised from small 

 plants by myself. The plants now will average at least 

 4 feet across; and, if spread out, would measure 6 feet 

 across— that is, part of them would. Some are not as 

 large as others. When the first berries ripened I 

 thought of what I had read, that they were just plain 

 nightshade. I tried them, and they didn't taste bad. 

 Then I ate one and felt no worse, tfien I ate more, and 

 still no bad effects. So we lor, rather, the other half 

 of the firm- made a pie, and we didn't eat a piece — 

 we just ate the whole pie, and we've been eating won- 

 derberry pie ever since, just as often as we could get 

 it, and we have had wonderberry sauce, and it gives 

 the same results. 



I'll not say that they are the best that ever was, but I 

 will say that I never ate any thintj- in pies or sauce that 

 tasted any better. The berries are small, about the 

 size of a good plump wild cherry, and grow in clusters 

 of usually four or six berries to a cluster; and such a 

 profusion of berries as trrow on the wonderberry bush, 

 one doesn't often see. I am confident that the bushes 

 I have will average during the season almost a gallon 

 of berries to the bush. 



So much for the wonderberry. The nightshade, the 

 Rural New -Yorker calls it, if it is a new creation, we 

 have Burbank to thank for it. If it is merely the night- 

 shade we have Burbank 1o thank for the knowledge 

 that it is not poisonous, but dcliciously palatable. I 

 am fully convinced that if any one will give the won- 

 derberry a thorough test he will be perfectly satisfied 

 that it comes as near the claims made for it as most ar- 

 ticles that are advertised. Some people could not raise 

 weeds if they tried; and judging from the looks of the 

 illustration of the wonderberry-plant in the Literary 

 Dit;est, which, as I understand, was taken from the 

 Rural New-Yorker, ihai must be the trouble with the 

 person who raised the plant that was illustrated in that 

 paper. E. J. Spaugh. 



Burney, Ind., Aug. 21. 



Friend S., I heartily agree with what you 

 say in regard to advertising one's goods as 

 "the best in the world," etc. I think it is 

 bad taste, and that it really does not recom- 

 mend the article to the general reader. I 

 do not know how many incubator establish- 

 ments there are that claim to be the "biggest 

 in the world;" and may be one of them is 

 truthful, but they can not all be. 



In regard to the wonderberry, I am glad 

 to get evidence that it isreallyof some value; 

 but I do not see how we can excuse either 

 Childs or Burbank for coming out before 

 the world with such tremendous claims that 

 the berry is a "new creation "right from the 

 hand of L'urbank, who has been paraded for 

 some time past as the "wizard of horticul- 

 ture " Burbank did not create it, for the 

 plant was already known as the garden huck- 

 leberry, and the wild nightshade of the 

 woods. We are glad, of course, to know 

 that the wild nightshade is really good and 

 wholesome food when cooked. So far, good 

 has been the outcome of this wonderful stir 

 about the wonderberry; but as the Sunday 

 School Times has said so forcibly, "deception 

 is always wrong;" and we do not need the 

 Sunday School Times to prove that falsehood 

 is always wrong. 



TEMPERANCE. 



THE WAY THE TEMPERANCE WORK GOES 

 "MARCHING ON." 



I wonder if it has ever occurred to the 

 liquor periodicals that they are unwittingly, 

 now and then, giving us some splendid help 

 in our crusade. Along this line the Home 

 Herald has the following: 



GOOD NEWS P'ROM THE ENEMY. 



The following is from Bonfort's Wine and Spirit Cir- 

 cular: 



" With the loss of Tennessee we can now foot up six 

 States that have outlawed our business during the past 

 fifteen or eighteen months — the other States being Ok- 

 lahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and North Car- 

 olina; and we have prohibition contests facing us in 

 Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia, and perhaps in Ken- 

 tucky. 



"In Ohio some sixty-one counties have voted prohi- 

 bition since September 1, 1908, and all counties in In- 

 diana that have voted under the county unit law have 

 gone against the saloon by large majorities. There is 

 grave danger of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan being 

 lost entirely, and there certainly is danger, and grave 

 danger, ihat West Virginia, Virginia, Arkansas, and 

 Texas will go the same way. 



"The saloon business in this country is doomed un- 

 less the laws are so altei-ed as to rid the trade of the 

 disreputable element, and insure that it will be con- 

 ducted in the future with decency and with entire re- 

 gard for the expressed wishes of the people." 



