DECEMBER 1, 1913 



bill introduced in the House by four brave young 

 men, it was greeted with coarse laughter and coarser 

 jests. What wonderful changes have come during 

 those few short years 1 Sterilization has aroused the 

 thinking people to thought and action. They are 

 reaching out in all directions to find methods to 

 check the evils that are threatening our nation. 

 Sterilization stands at the head. It is radical, for it 

 cuts oflf the contaminating source and the progagat- 

 ing source of the undesirable. It is benign, and it 

 is harmless. The people may veto it, as did Govern- 

 or Chamberlain in 1909, but they can not kill it, for 

 it will come forth with renewed strength as it did 

 before. In time it will be acknowledged to be the 

 saving factor of this great problem. 



Dr. Owen-Adair. 



MOSQUITOES — A SUGGESTION IN REGARD TO 

 FENCING THEM OUT OF OUR HOMES. 



Mr. Boot: — In reading over your four objection- 

 able features as regards Florida in the winter, I no- 

 tice the mosquito seems to bother a good deal; and 

 knowing a way that mosquitoes get into your houses 

 that most people overlook I want to tell you. In the 

 day time they retreat down the chimney ; and when 

 you light up the house at night, instead of "oing 

 back out at the top they come inside. A great many 

 will come in this way ; and to remedy it just screen 

 the mouth of the chimney. 



Memphis, Tenn., Sept. 9. W. E. Drane. 



Friend D., I presume you have explained 

 exactly how mosquitoes get into our Florida 

 home when Mrs. Root is sure every thing is 

 carefully screened from garret to cellar. 

 We are troubled with them only occasional- 

 ly in our locality. But several times we 

 have been wondering how some pretty good- 

 sized ones could possibly have crawled in 

 during the night. 



FLORIDA AS A PLACE FOR BEEKEEPERS, ETC. 

 I have been reading a copy of Gleaninqs you 

 sent me some time ago, and have been doing consid- 

 erable thinking along the line of beekeeping. It seems 

 to me this would be an ideal country for bees. There 

 are but few in the country. Those that are here are 

 doing well with no attention whatever. The best 

 honey-producer we have here in these hills is the 

 partridge pea. Hundreds of acres of this hill land 

 are icovered with this pea, which grows to a height 

 of three feet in many places, and produces honey 

 from early in the spring until late in the winter — 

 usually about nine months in the year. The bees do 

 not get the honey from the blossom of the partridge 

 pea. There is a small cup or nodule, near the base 

 of each leaf, from which the honey is gathered. There 

 a»i! also many other wild flowers from which honey 

 could be gathered. 



These hill lands, being a red clay loam, produce 

 much better than the flat sandy lands of Florida. 

 Citrus fruits are at home here, and the flavor is 

 much better tlian that of the fruits grown on the flat 

 lands. The water in these hills is pure freestone. 

 We have no malaria ; mosquitoes are not troublesome 

 ac any time of the yoar. The past summer the mer- 

 cury never went above 93 degrees, and only once 

 tliat high. In my garden are lima beans which were 

 planted the summer of 1912 still producing beans, 

 and apparently are growing as well as ever. They 

 had no protection whatever last winter. 



I will willingly answer any questions beekeepers 

 or others may want to ask regarding this country. 



871 



I am not a land agent nor any thing of the kind; 

 1 ui I am a booster for this country. My native land 

 is Shenandoah Valley, or Virginia — a good old coun- 

 try ; but now I am a "Florida Cracker." 



Greer, Fla., Oct. 16. G. R. Coverston. 



As the writer of the above is a " booster " 

 for his locality, perhaps we should take it 

 v/ith a little allowance. Although he is lo- 

 cated not very far from our Florida home, 

 1 think he overestimates the partridge pea. 

 I know we get some honey from it, and it 

 may be much more plentiful in his locality ; 

 but bees in Florida, if I am correct, have 

 quite a good many poor seasons for honey. 

 His statements in regard to the temperature 

 are about the same as with us, and I have 

 already mentioned that lima beans as well 

 ar much other garden stuff frequently bear 

 tlie second year, especially if we have rain, 

 and no killing frosts for quite a long period. 



HONEY CURED WHEN ALL DOCTORS FAILED. 



The last of June a colored girl four years old got 

 liold of a box of potash, and ate some of it. A doctor 

 was called in, and he prescribed for her, but she 

 grew worse all the time. Her parents carried her to 

 Montgomery, 24 miles away. This was the last of 

 July. The doctors there said nothing would do her 

 any good but an operation. Her parents were not 

 able to stand the cost, so they brought the girl back. 

 But she soon got to a point where she could not eat 

 any thing. Then they carried her back to Montgom- 

 ery, where the doctors performed an operation. She 

 stayed there three weeks without eating any thing. 

 They told her parents they had done all they could for 

 her, and told them to take her home if she were 

 able to get there ; but they thought death would be 

 the result, as she had " grown up inside," and noth- 

 ing could enter the bowels. I was on my way to 

 Montgomery, and met them at Pike Road, Ala., my 

 station. They then told me about the child. I looked 

 at her and was very sorry for her. I had known 

 her parents a long time; so when I returned home 

 I asked if the child was still alive. They said she 

 was. I sent them some of my honey, and sent word 

 to the parents to give the child as much as she want- 

 ed. She could not eat it at first, but it tasted good 

 to her. At the third trial they said she did swallow 

 some of the honey, and that was the first thing she 

 had swallowed in three weeks. They say it was a 

 sight to see how she improved at once. After she 

 ate a spoonful or two more she drank some milk, 

 and now she can go from house to house, and is do- 

 ing well. She has had no medicine since except hon 

 ey. A doctor stated to me that if she had had honey 

 at first the poison would not have done her any 

 harm. 



Mathews, Ala., Sept. 8. N. S. Nordan. 



The above is interesting because it corrob- 

 orates what we have heard many times, that 

 milk and honey are nature's remedies. You 

 remember that when the children of Israel 

 were wandering in the wilderness they were 

 repeatedly cheered by the promise that if 

 they would obey the Lord they would enter 

 "a land flowing with milk and honey," 

 and the above plaintive letter tells us that 

 milk and honey really succeeded after the 

 doctors and surgeons with all their skill 

 had failed. 



