Jan. 15, 1912 



this Is all the work handy. There are 75 to^OO men 

 who ride on this work train. 



You suggest tliat a I'aniily miglit live on "boiled 

 wheat." which would keep them healthy. Now let 

 us get to conclusions a.s to wliat i.s the best diet for 

 all. We must obtain the facts for this from the ac- 

 cumulated experience ofmen under various circum- 

 stances. Take the Cliinesf and Hindoo rice-eaters. 

 They are not supcrim races of pcoiilc. neither are the 

 llesh-eating lOsiiuinios nor tlie fisli-eating people of 

 Norwa.v and the I'echeras of South A inerica. Kither 

 vegetable or animal food a man can live on; but 

 the decision of those in authority is that a mixed 

 diet is best for the average. Take the American — 

 he is always blamed for eating to excess. Where 

 can you find a superior race of people with their 

 mixed diet? Nature's first food is animal food. 

 Milk — what is better? Look at young birds. They 

 are fed wholly on bugs and worms until grown up. 



Three Springs, I'a. W. S. Cohenour. 



Why, my good friend, yoii are a rich man 

 already — richer by far than many milUon- 

 aires, in my estimation. I quite agree with 

 you that the liappiest people in the world 

 are those who are obliged to get up at four 

 o'clock, or something like it, and keep busy 

 at something until bedtime. I am usually 

 up at about four o'clock to let the chickens 

 out before they begin to worry, and I keep 

 btisy at something until nine or ten o'clock 

 at night. In regard to dieting, if I am cor- 

 rect. Dr. Wiley argues ju.^t about as you do; 

 but I still think that I could get along very 

 well and be satisfied and happy with boiled 

 wheat, especially if I had a bowl of milk to 

 go with it, and a little honey or some ma])le 

 molasses. Notwithstanding, when I feel 

 that I am rather running down, two or three 

 meals with good beefsteak, or, better still, 

 ground meat, nicely broiled, is about the 

 best medicine in the world to get my diges- 

 tion back into good trim. Perhaps, my 

 good friend, you and I will not live long 

 enough to see what those children you have 

 been talking about will amount to; but with 

 the bringing-up you are giving them, it 

 would not besurprisingif one or more should 

 turn out to be millionaires, or something a 

 great deal better for the good of humanity. 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS, ETC., IN IDAHO. 



Dear Mr. Boot: — Yesterday, when I got Glean- 

 ings from the postoffice. a neighbor said to me " I 

 see you get some circulars too." I told him it was 

 Gleanings, and added that it was one of the pub- 

 lications that I really read, although I never owned 

 a bee in my life. I am planning to make next 

 spring a start, for it is an awful waste of good honey 

 to let all these alfalfa-fields bloom without a bee- 

 hive to the square mile. 



I read Gleanings backward. First I read the 

 poultry department and then your home depart- 

 ment: then editorials and Dr. Miller. I happen to 

 know Dr. M., whose smile "never comes oflf," and 

 I like to read after him. 



I read with approval what you had to say of ster- 

 ilizing certain kinds of criminals. Last winter the 

 legislature of the State of Washington passed a 

 sterilization law. and the other day a man who 

 attacked a girl was condemned to a term in the 

 penitentiary and to sterilization — the first time 

 such a peutalty has ever been given a man in this 

 country. 



I note In Gleanings for November 15. that a cor- 

 respondent gave up Indian Runners because they 

 laid tinted eggs, and few of them. lie says his 

 ducks were fawn and white. l''awn and white 

 Itunners nearly always lay more or less tinted eggs; 

 but the penciled variety invariably produces white 

 eggs, and also lay better than the fawn and white; 

 because to get fawn and white, very close and in- 

 discriminate Inbreeding has been resorted to. As 



63 



to white Indian Runners I have lately learned 

 something of them. I was at Stockton. Cal. a few 

 days ago. judging the poultry show there, and met 

 a lady who tohl me that she had penciled Indian 

 Kunners, and concluded to get some white ones. 

 She paid a high price for some white ducks from a 

 well-advertised strain; but they proved to be such 

 poor layers that she sold her stock and now keeps 

 only the penciled variety. 



I am inteiested in linding proof that Runners 

 need water to swim in in order that they may mate 

 in-operly and produce fertile eggs. I am inclined 

 to think you are right about it: if so, this compli- 

 cates the matter for a good many. 

 ^^ I want to congratulate you on your courage in 



saying things" about advertisers who overstate 

 matters. Sometimes 1 think I say too much, and 

 at other times 1 am somewhat afraid my spine is a 

 little defective. 



We are having delightful weather here — cold at 

 night, but bright sunny days and snow-capped 

 mountains in every direction. It is a beautiful 

 country. Every time I go to California, Washing- 

 ton, or Oregon (and I am called into these States 

 often), I come back glad to see Idaho. 



Wendell, Idaho, Nov. 22. Miller Purvis 



SWEET CLOVER IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 



The following from the St. Paul Disj^atch, 

 dated Pierre, S. I)., Sept. 13, is another il- 

 lustration of the way in which humanity, 

 even good farmers, have been neglecting 

 one of the most valuable legumes God ever 

 gave to mankind, and treating it as a nox- 

 ious weed. 



T. J. Steele, of Sioux City, one of the owners of the 

 Steele and Goudy ranch in western Sully County, 

 feels confident that one of the coming forage-plants 

 of the Northwest is sweet clover. This plant, which 

 has been spreading over the Missouri Valley, mak- 

 ing a heavy growth wherever it has secured a foot- 

 hold, regardless of adverse weather conditioTis, and 

 showing an ability to thrive on the prairie with 

 but little rainfall, has been looked upon as a pest 

 to be exterminated if possible. 13ut Mr. Steele 

 says it has been proven to him by tests that, if it is 

 handled as is alfalfa, cutting it while tender, and 

 before it becomes woody, it makes one of the best 

 of stock foods: and that it can be grown success- 

 fully is made evident by its rank growth wherever 

 it has secured a start on the prairie. It Is claimed 

 to be just as good for hogs as for cattle. 



Mr. Steele is hunting for a supply of the seed to 

 start a field of it on his Sully Comity ranch, and to 

 give it tests. It is a fodder for which stock must 

 acquire a taste; but when they once take to it they 

 eat it readily, and the results have been shown to 

 him by men who have tried it. 



BOOMING SWEET CLOVER. 



There seems to be a boom on in sweet clover. 

 We were among the earliest of farm papers to call 

 attention to the value of this long-despised cousin 

 of alfalfa, and are glad to have our judgment veri- 

 fied. But booms are unsafe things, and a word of 

 caution may well be dropped. 



Sweet clover is a money-maker to the farmer who 

 can grow it successfullv. Hut because it is away- 

 side weed it must not be assumed that it will grow 

 successfully of its own accord. There is a trick to 

 sweet-clover growing which must be learned, or 

 failure will be met with. It has about the same 

 feeding value as alfalfa. It will grow in localities 

 where alfalfa fails. It prepares tlie way for alfalfa 

 on the same ground. It makes good hay and fur- 

 nishes good pasture. It renovates the soil. But it 

 is not as good a plant as alfalfa for the purpose for 

 which alfalfa is grown— that is, we don't think it is. 

 — Farm and Fireside. 



One farmer reports .succes in killing quack-grass 

 with sweet clover. In view of the fact that the 

 sweet-clover crop, for either pasture, hay. or seed, 

 is almo.st as valuable as alfalfa, and that it is a great 

 soil-renovator, quack-grass and Canada-thi.stle vic- 

 tims may well look into the matter.— /<'"//n ond 

 Fireside, Dec. 9. 



