18 



SPECIAL NOTICES 



A. I. Root 



THAT HYBRID-TOMATO S15ED. 



Do not send money to me for t"he tomato seed. 

 Send it to E. C. Green, Medina, Ohio — ten cents 

 for about fifty seeds of his new hybrids. 



THE Solomon's islands gourd, or guada bean. 

 It has now produced three beans, or gourds, 

 whichever you may call it. The longest is nearly a 

 foot ; and at the rate it is now growing, if frost 

 holds off it may easily make several feet. 



" COPN," THE ONLY CORN MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD. 



In our issue for July 15 I gave the price of this 

 magazine as $1.00. I do not know how I came to 

 make such a mistake, for the price is only 50 cts. 

 for one year, or three years for $1.00. Address Corn 

 Publishing Co., Waterloo, Iowa. 



BLACK MEXICAN SWEET CORN. 



Just now we are almost living(?) on sweet corn ; 

 and my preference is very strongly in favor of the 

 Black Mexican. It is sweeter than any of the other 

 varieties, and it can be used much longer before it 

 gets too hard to eat. Of course, it is not quite as 

 early as the Golden Bantam and some others. Give 

 me a couple of ears of the Black Mexican pretty 

 well matured, and a glass of milk, and I can make a 

 very good breakfast or dinner either, with but little 

 else. 



CANDY FOR QUEEN-CAGES, ETC. 



The business at the Home of the Honeybees is as- 

 suming such dimensions that every little while I have 

 one of my " happy surprises " because I did not 

 know what was going on. As an illustration, in 

 writing an article found in another column in this 

 issue concerning water for queen-cages I was inci- 

 dentally informed that we buy powdered sugar, for 

 making the bee-candy for the cages, by the barrel; 

 and, furthermore, that we have been using it by the 

 barrel for several years. Just think of the number 

 of queen-cages a barrel of sugar would provision. 



"THE TRUTH ABOUT SWEET CLOVER" THE NEW 



EDITION JUST OUT. 



The new edition of our new book on sweet clover, 

 revised and enlarged to 144 pages, is now ready to 

 send out. It contains the latest developments from 

 our experiment stations and the Department at 

 Washington in regard to this legume that grows 

 where nothing else will grow. More than that, it 

 sweetens and fertilizes in a measure barren soils so 

 that almost any thing else will grow after the crop 

 of sweet clover. The new book tells also how sweet 

 clover prepares the soil for alfalfa, perhaps better 

 than any thing else. As the book is doing such won- 

 ders for agriculture and general farming, aside from 

 the honey business, we send it out free of cost. All 

 we ask is that you send 2 cents to pay postage. 



TILE DRAINAGE, BY W. I. CHAMBERLAIN, ETC. 



In 1891, after doing considerable tile draining 

 here on our own premises in Medina, and after vis- 

 iting W. I. Chamberlain, of Hudson, Ohio, who was 

 then, and I presume is still, expert at the work, I 

 arranged to have a little book prepared by Prof. 

 Chamberlain, and we have since that time sold many 

 thousand copies of it, and I am sure they have done 

 a lot of good to the world. The reason I bring the 

 matter up just now is that we have just sold out the 

 first edition of the book, and our good friend Cham- 

 berlain is already at work getting out a second edi- 

 tion, carefully revised and up to date. We expect 

 to have the book out about Jan. 1, and, may be, a 

 little sooner. I expect, also, to put in an appendix 

 to the book, in which I shall have something to say 

 about tile drainage and sub-irrigation in Florida. 

 The new book will be somewhat larger than the old 

 one, and the price will probably be 50 cents by mail. 



Later. — It seems that Dr. Chamberlain, before 

 undertaking the revision, sent some inquiries to our 

 Ohio Experiment Station, to which Director Thorne 

 replies as follows : 

 Dr. Chamberlain — 



My Dear Friend: — One of my stock letters reads: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



" We have published nothing on tile drainage, but 

 would advise the purchase of a little book on the 

 subject ■mitten by Dr. W. I. Chamberlain, and pub- 

 lished by Tlie A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio." This 

 means that we know nothing else as good. I am 

 glad you are going to rewrite it — not that it is so 

 very much out of date, but there is, of course, some- 

 thing to add, especially since the perfection of the 

 traction ditcher. Mr. Williams and I have both rec- 

 omoiended your book as being as late as any, and 

 better suited to Ohio conditions. 



Yours sincerely, 



Chas. E. Thorne. 

 Wooster, Ohio, Aug. 31. 



THE " AJAX IMPROVED OXYGEN VITALIZER ;" 370 

 CHICKS FROM 370 EGGS, ETC. 



Some little time ago a lady wrote me, calling my 

 attention to a wonderful invention that would do 

 away with " dead-in-the-shell " in the use of the in- 

 cubator. I sent for particulars, and one of the ad- 

 yertising sheets had the above for a heading. They 

 have a very ingenious explanation, to the effect that 

 eggs hatched under a hen get more oxygen than any 

 incubator at present furnishes; and their apparatus 

 sends a constant stream of oxygen into the incuba- 

 tor. A bottle of water is connected to the incubator 

 by means of a rubber tube. Then they have special 

 tablets that, when thrown into the water, liberate 

 slowly oxygen gas, just fast enough to give the eggs 

 and chicks inside the benefit of the health-giving 

 fluid. Mrs. P. J. Russel, of Summerdale, N. Y., 

 makes oath that she hatched 370 chicks from 370 

 eggs, and they furnish also 22 different testimonials 

 from those who have used the vitalizer. The oxygen 

 furnished by the apparatus, they claim, is 99 3-10 

 pure. Now, what troubled me at first sight was that 

 I am not aware of any chemical or combination of 

 chemicals that will liberate oxygen by being thrown 

 into viater; and experts in chemistry tell me they 

 know of no such substance. The well-known car- 

 bide for liberating acetylene gas is, of course, in 

 common use. But acetylene gas is not oxygen by any 

 means. 



I have been waiting to find out more about this 

 wonderful invention ; and now I find in the Rural 

 New-Yorker of August 30 a complaint from a man 

 who bought half a dozen of the vitalizers. In the 

 first test there were 32 dead in the shell; next, 54; 

 and with a different incubator 72 died in the shells. 



Now, all through these advertising sheets they 

 put strong emphasis on sending "money back" if 

 not satisfactory ; but when the Rural people wrote 

 them they said the " money back " referred only to 

 those who bought a single vitalizer, but did not apply 

 to agents who bought several. 



On reference to Dun and Bradstreet, we find the 

 Reliable Specialty Co., of Alexander, N. Y., is quot- 

 ed blank. 



Now just a word in closing. I do not like the 

 idea of a company that does not include in its head- 

 ing the name of some well-known and reliable man 

 I know there are lots of such " companies," espe- 

 cially in poultry literature. A poultry company once 

 sent us some advertising. The man who brought it 

 to our office ordered it inserted. We knew him and 

 supposed him to be responsible. We never got our 

 pay. He said we would have to collect from the 

 "company;" and as our relations had always been 

 pleasant we let the matter drop. 



Moral. — Do not send money to anybody nor take 

 " stock " in any " great invention " unless some 

 good reliable man comes out into the open and heads 

 the concern. 



If I have in the above done an injustice to the 

 Reliable(?) Poultry Specialty Co. I will gladly apol- 

 ogize, and give them some free advertising. 



THE NEW CELERY CULTURE, ETC. 



The following, from our good friend T. 

 Greiner, explains itself: 



Mr. Root: — I think you are wrong in giving cred- 

 it to T. Greiner for the " invention " of the " new 

 celery culture," and for the authorship of a booklet 

 of that title. After writing the New Onion Culture 

 I had my eagle eye fixed on a " new celery culture," 

 " new strawberry culture," etc. ; but the Rural Pub- 

 lishing Co. (I believe) was the one that got ahead 



