18 



GLEAiJINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



in the house, say once a month or oftener. Second, 

 tie up your things in paper bags ^vhere insects can 

 not get in. Carefully screen your doors and win- 

 dows, making your floors so tight with the modern 

 floor varnishes or enamel that there is not a crack 

 nor crevice where moth or other insects can get in, 

 and using rugs instead of carpets. The old-fashioned 

 carpet, tacked down clear up to the wall, and left so 

 for a year, is almost sure to be a harbor for house- 

 hold pests. 



This bulletin comes from our Ohio Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Wooster. It is sent free to all residents of the 

 State; but I can not tell whether it will be sent out- 

 side of Ohio or not. 



THE OHIO WEED MANUAL OF ABOUT 100 PAGES. 



This is a very valuable bulletin (also from our 

 Ohio Experiment Station), describing the weeds of 

 Ohio. It will prove valuable to beekeepers, for many 

 of the so-called weeds are good honey-plants. There 

 is only a brief mention of sweet clover ; but the 

 bulletin was put out in 1906, and sweet clover was 

 not at that time as fully recognized as a blessing to 

 humanity as it is at the present date. Very accurate 

 and nice pictures are given of the greater part of 

 the plants mentioned. These will enable the beekeep- 

 er or anybody else to recognize quicklj' any plant. 

 Still more important, there are three pages of nice 

 photos of the seed of pernicious weeds, also the seeds 

 of all clovers. This is of especial value to the farmer 

 who buys clover seed. With a magnifying-glass he 

 can tell almost exactly what he may expect if he sows 

 the seed that is offered for sale. In fact, he can get 

 samples before buying; and this is specially impor- 

 tant in purchasing alfalfa seed. Some of the very 

 worst seeds known are brought on to the farm in 

 clover seed that is purchased, unless great care is 

 taken ; and should the farm for any cause be neg- 

 lected after such purchases, these foul seeds maj' 

 crowd out the grass, clover, and every thing else. 

 Such weeds are plainly visible in almost every local- 

 ity in traveling over the country. A farmer dies, for 

 instance, and perhaps nobody looks after the place 

 for several years. If some of these pernicious weeds 

 are once started it becomes a very difficult and ex- 

 pensive matter to get rid of them. In Northern 

 Michigan quack grass and Canada thistle have in 

 this way crowded out almost every thing else in neg- 

 lected fields. The worst part of it is, they are often 

 allowed to go to seed, and in this way do serious 

 damage to good careful farmers whose fields adjoin. 

 Of course, we have laws against permitting some 

 plants (milkweed, etc.) to go to seed; but these laws 

 are not always enforced. 



Brief directions are given in regard to the best 

 way to eradicate troublesome weeds ; and a good up- 

 to-date farmer rarely permits weeds of any kind to 

 go to seed on his premises. But, unfortunately, his 

 fields may adjoin those belonging to a slack or ab- 

 sent neighbor. 



ROBBING SICK PEOPLE; SOMETHING ABOUT 

 THOSE WHO PREY ON THE SICK. 



It is a cowardly act to point a revolver 

 at a strong man and demand his money; 

 but just think how much more cowardly it 

 is to go to some poor mortal who is near 

 death with consumption, cancer, epileptic 

 fits, and the like, and rob him of what few 

 dollars he may have remaining, and give 

 him nothing in return — perhaps loorse than 

 nothing. Our government has recently un- 

 dertaken to punish quacks, and it has' been 

 demonstrated that millions of dollars have 

 been given to these vultures who prey on 

 sick humanity. 



Three pamphlets from the American Med- 

 ical Association, of Chicago, have just been 

 put into my hands. The title of one of 

 them is, " Professor Samuels, of Wichita, 

 Kansas. A shrewd scoundrel who sells a 

 solution of salt and sugar as a cure-all." 



Another one is, "The United Doctors. Fake 

 specialists Avho prey on the sick and de- 

 fraud the public." The third one is en- 

 titled, " George H. Coutant and his fraud- 

 ulent cure for deafness." 



Let me give you a little illustration of the 

 way these men work. A fake doctor was 

 arrested ; and among his effects were quite 

 a number of " testimonials " different from 

 those he published. Some were from poor 

 people begging for their money back when 

 they got no relief from his treatment ; from 

 other poor people after the patient had 

 died before he had had a chance to take any 

 medicine, or at least veiy little of it, asking 

 for their money back. Did the good doctor 

 return the money? Not much. In one ease 

 a poor woman scraped up money to send 

 for medicine for her daughter. The daugh- 

 ter died before the medicine was received. 

 Would he pay back the money to the poor 

 woman, or any part of it? Not a copper. 

 Like the Electropoise people they probablj^ 

 told her to sell it to some "ailing neighbor." 

 Well, the above is bad enough, is it not? 

 But listen. 



It transpires that quite a few of these 

 testimonials came from people who are 

 dead. After a man is dead and gone it may 

 be a difficult matter to prove he did not 

 sign the testimonial. In one case a little 

 girl, or perhaps a young woman, had been 

 sorely afflicted with epileptic fits almost 

 from her birth. A testimonial came out in 

 the papers from her, telling what wonderful 

 relief she had received. The fore part of 

 the letter Avas a very truthful account of 

 her sufferings; but when the testimonial 

 was presented to her parents thej^ said it 

 was the first time they knew she had given 

 any such testimonial — that, in fact, she bad 

 received no benefit at all from the treat- 

 ment. When the girl herself was interview- 

 ed she acknowledged signing some paper in 

 the doctor's office; but she was either too 

 young or too stupid to think it necessary 

 for her to read over the paper before sign- 

 ing her name. 



The three pamphlets I have mentioned 

 give full particulai-s of the way these ras- 

 cals work to rob the sick. 



A vivid illustration is now right before 

 me of the way in which peojDle get " no- 

 tions " into their heads, or imagine they are 

 helped. It is a pamphlet of 20 pages or 

 more entitled " The Wonderful Story about 

 Captain Eand." Well, this jDamphlet is all 

 about Captain Eand's lucky stone.* There 

 are testimonials from perhaps a hundred 



* See page 358 for 1912. At that time I submit- 

 ted the pamphlets to the Postoffice Department at 

 Washington ; but Capt. Rand is still peddling his 

 pebbles wherever he can find a victim. 



