in mind is this: We have always carried 

 our eggs to market in egg-boxes holding a 

 dozen each, and costing about half a cent 

 each box (in 1000 lots^, and, finally, our 

 grocer sent for a lot and furnished them free 

 to his regular customers. Well, he got out 

 a few days ago, and 1 tried for a while carry- 

 ing my eggs in a basket in the good old- 

 fashioned way; but I don't like it. I object 

 to having my "eggs all in one basket" 

 (may be you have heard wise advice along 

 this line before). Well, I object to the 

 repeated counting it necessitates, to say 

 nothing of a possibility of broken eggs, etc. 

 Well, just at this crisis Mrs. Root brought 

 me a pasteboard box she had just emptied, 

 and said, "Here! why won't this hold a 

 dozen eggs?" It held them exactly. As 

 they come apart pretty easily you will need 

 to drive the smallest size of tinned tacks 

 through the pasteboard at each end, and 

 clinch the tack down by holding the box on 

 the back of an ax or hatchet. By the way, 

 I have always been pleased to see the full- 

 page advertisement in our journal. These 

 crackers have been a real boon to humanity 

 — always the same thing, for sale every- 

 where; and any hungry mortal who can 

 scrape up a nickel can always have a most 

 wholesome and appetizing lunch on a min- 

 ute's notice. Mrs. Root and I always prefer 

 them to any thing else to go with the nice 

 fresh Florida oysters that are in the market 

 here every day in the year. 



By A. I. Root 



SEEDS, PLANTS, ETC., FOE FLORIDA. 



Conditions, climate, etc., are so different down 

 here Irom the North, that it is often advisable to 

 submit your wants to seedsmen who live here and 

 know what is wanted and what is best. Crenshaw 

 Bros. Seed Co.. of Tampa, Fla., issue a very neat 

 and pretty catalog of seeds, poultry supplies, etc., 

 gotten up specially for this region, which contains 

 suggestions and advice to any one thinking of com- 

 ing here. 



THAT "addressed POSTAL CARD." 



If you want a prompt answer from me, you must 

 enclose an addressed postal card. One good brother 

 sends just a plain postal, and his name at the end 

 of his letter was such a scrawl I just had to give it 

 up. I might paste it on the card, but I have no 

 time for such fussing. It isn't the one-cent card I 

 want — bless you, no; it is that I want uox to do the 

 work of addressing. I don't want addressed envel- 

 opes either. I lose them or get the wrong letter in- 

 to them, and a postal holds all I have time to say 

 to each one of you. There is all the time before 

 me a lot of unanswered letters, many of which, I 

 think, I ought to answer, but I simply can not, and 

 there is about a " wheelbarrowful " of papers, mag- 

 azines, books, etc., that I am trying to get time to 

 glance over. I appreciate your many kind words, 

 and may God bless you all; but I really can not 

 stand being kept indoors so much. 



Your old friend, 

 A. I. Root. 



THE CORNING EGG-FARM BOOK, BY CORNING HIM- 

 SELF. 



The above is the title of a large beautiful book; and 

 that is not all, for it must, in my opinion, prove a 

 most valuable addition to the poultry literature of 

 the world. As I have recently visited and written 

 up briefly the Corning establishment, and frequent- 

 Jy referred to it, it will not be necessary to go over 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



it again here only to say it is, perhaps, almost the 

 first really successful attempt to keep as many as 

 1500 laying hens all in one building, and, we might 

 almost say, in one room. The book contains over 

 200 pages of beautiful print on the very best of pa- 

 per, and the engravings of every thing described 

 are masterpieces of art. I wonder if the authors 

 of some of the dollar poultry -books sent out with 

 paper covers and poor print, on poor paper, will 

 not feel ashamed when they come to see this dollar 

 book. Every thing is pictured that they use in the 

 way of implements and building, and there are 

 even long folded maps of their colony houses, and 

 in the back part are diagrams of all the buildings 

 on their premises. I am glad to note that they 

 have tested, extensively, mustard for laying hens, 

 and it not only seems to benefit the health of the 

 fowls, but the eggs have even better fertility where 

 a reasonable amount of ground mustard is incor- 

 porated with their food. They use what is called 

 mustard bran, a by-product from the mustard fac- 

 tories, costing only about one-fourth of the regular 

 product. Red pepper tried side by side with the 

 mustard gave no such result. It did not increase 

 the laying, but seemed detrimental to the health of 

 the fowls. Another important point made in the 

 book is that hard-coal ashes are an excellent sub- 

 stitute for charcoal, lime, and grit. Where the 

 fowls have access to the ashes they seem to care 

 very little for their regular grit and shells. If you 

 have a touch of the poultry fever you can not af- 

 ford to be without this new and up-to-date book. 

 If our company have not already done so, I hope 

 they will soon make arrangements to offer it at a 

 low figure clubbed with Gleanings. 



After so many kind words I want to mention one 

 or two possible objections. First, the Corning book 

 pronounces the " baby-chick business " cruel, and 

 advises against it. Surely they are not posted in 

 regard to the magnitude of the basiness in certain 

 parts of Ohio, and also of the number of satisfied 

 customers who continue, year after year, to buy 

 chicks instead of eggs. I would not mention my 

 other criticism, were it not that I feel I must do so 

 to be absolutely fair. It is this: The book all togeth- 

 er is a SDlendid advertisement of their (compara- 

 tively recent) business of selling eggs for hatching, 

 as well as fowls for breeding. Do you suggest to me 

 right here that the same might be said of the A B 

 C of Bee Culture? You are right— at least to a cer- 

 tain extent, and the same might be said of a great 

 part of our most valuable rural and other books. 

 An important item comes in here, however, and 1 

 think I can make it i)lain if you will listen. The 

 Corning people first started to produce sterile eggs 

 for food consumption only, and the first book put 

 out by our good friends of the Farm Journal so 

 stated it. So long as this was true, there could be 

 no cause for exaggera,tion or for dwelling on the 

 brightest side of the story. Well, on one page, in 

 the middle of this beautiful book, we are told that, 

 during the year 1910, they returned money for more 

 than 50.000 eggs for hatching. I do not know what 

 they pet for eggs for hatching. If but little more 

 than for those for table use. the point I am making 

 amounts to little or nothing. If they get (like Kel- 

 lerstrass), a dollar apiece (or more) for choice eggs. 

 I feel troubled about recommending this beautiful 

 book. Yes, I might as well own up that I feel trou- 

 bled when I see some boy or girl send off for eggs 

 that cost anywhere between a dollar a dozen or a 

 dollar apiece. When these high-priced chickens 

 don't lay any more eggs than those they had al- 

 ready, I feel more troubled. The poultry journals 

 keep telling their readers to be sure to " buy the 

 best "to start with. A woman went into a seed- 

 store and found they had seeds of two qualities — 

 one grade much higher in price. Looking sharply 

 into the seedsman's eyes she said, " If I pay for the 

 best, am T sure to get it?" In conclusion, I believe 

 the Comings will give you full value for every thing 

 they receive, just as they have in sending out this 

 beautiful and valuable book. 



The Northern Michigan Bee-keepers' Association 

 will hold its next annual meeting at Traverse City, 

 March 13 and 14. 1912. Headquarters will be at the 

 Whiting Hotel, where special rates h.ave been se- 

 cured; and in its parlor on the second floor the 

 meetings will be held. A good program will be 

 provided, and we hope to see many new faces as 

 well as the old. 



East Jordan, Mich. Ika 1). Baktlett, Sec. 



