354 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



and prayed that some of the milUons that 

 often do harm instead of good might be 

 used to spread the gospel. As nearly as 1 

 can make out from a hasty review of the 

 copies of the Outlook, the conversions run 

 away up into the thousands. Yes, let me 

 say it most emphatically, the preaching of 

 the gospel ivill be found the solvent of all of 

 our political troubles, and it is also (most 

 emphatically) the only remedy. AVhile I 



dictate, ex-president Roosevelt and Presi- 

 dent Taft, two men who have enjoyed the 

 highest gift our nation has to bestow, are 

 now engaged in filthy mud-slinging. God 

 grant that our people may awaken from 

 their mistaken lethargy, and decide that (if 

 this continues) neither one of these men is 

 wanted as President of a people who are 

 proud to style this the " land of the free and 

 the home of the brave." 



[p(DQI]LT[K^ [ffiE[PM[K"FKa!EraTr 



A. I. Root 



"locking the stable after the HORSE' 

 IS STOLEN." 



On page 322, May 15, I made mention of 

 28 smart chicks, and said that not one of 

 them had been lost up to the time they were 

 two weeks old. Well, fully half of those 28 

 were three-fourths-blooded Buttercups. The 

 way it came about, I selected from my flock 

 a dozen laying hens, half Buttercups and 

 half Leghorns, and gave them to my old 

 full-blooded Buttercup rooster; and the 28 

 chicks were hatched from eggs from these 

 selected half Buttercups. At least half of 

 the 28 were finely marked Buttercups. As 

 their wing feathers grew and showed the 

 spots and the delicate pencilings, I thought 

 that they were handsomer than the most 

 gorgeously painted butterflies. In fact, I 

 thought so much of them that I began to 

 wonder if something would not happen to 

 them while I was off to my northern home. 

 I arranged with a near neighbor to look aft- 

 er the hen and the 28 chicks. They were 

 put into a poultry-house where all openings 

 were covered with poultry-netting; and the 

 chicks w^ere getting to be so lively with 

 their wings that I expected them very soon 

 to occupy little roosts about two feet from 

 the ground. When I left, the chicks with 

 the hen occupied a brooder box that had 

 been out in the weather imtil some of the 

 boards were getting to be pretty rotten. The 

 day before I left Florida I planned to put 

 inch netting a foot or more in the ground 

 below the sills of this poultry-house, but I 

 did not get at it. Now read the following 

 letter: 



Dear Friend Root: — Your letter came Saturday, 

 and I was very glad to hear from j^ou. Miss you? 

 Well, I should say so! The ducks seem to be get- 

 ting along nicely. They lay three eggs almost every 

 day; two or three days we have gotten only two. 

 Something got after the chicks. I did not know 

 what; but they were so frightened that they did not 

 want to go into the coop at night. I had to pick 

 them up and put them in. Friday morning I found 

 /our dead ones. One was almost all eaten up, and 

 one was hurt so it could not use one leg. Wife took 

 it into the house and nursed it so it is almost well 

 now. After that I shut them in, as I thought, se- 

 curely in the little coop. This morning I went out 

 to find them, and tvery one wax dead. Almost all 

 had their heads eaten off. Mr. Morgan thinks It is 

 rats. He killed one rat among the ducks. 



I shall put out Roriie poison to-niaht, and see 

 what the result will be. 1 feel very badly over it — 

 more than if they were my own. 



The watermelons are doing nicely, and I will hoe 

 them out in the morning. 



Bradentown, Fla., April 28. C. L. Harrison. 



Monday mornina. — I got the culprit last night — a 

 skunk. I " locked the barn door after the horse was 

 stolen." 



Oh dear me ! I wonder if I shall ever 

 learn to protect my chickens so there abso- 

 lutely can not be any such mishap as the 

 above. They had been having bread and 

 milk and boiled eggs, and every thing that 

 could conduce to their thrift. And just 

 think of the time I spent, to get them past 

 the danger period, and then went off and 

 left them so a skunk could dig in the soft 

 sandy ground and get under the sills, and 

 then tear out the boards and mutilate and 

 kill every last one of the 28! I have been 

 feeling so sore and conscience-stricken ever 

 since the above letter came to hand that I 

 am seeking relief, and finally it occurred to 

 me that I could get some satisfaction by 

 warning others whose chickens were as yet 

 safe and sound. What a piece of folly it 

 is, any way, to waste feed and time and 

 money, and then let some miserable " ro- 

 dent " ruin it all! By the way, I was not 

 aware that a skunk would kill a whole flock 

 . in that way. Is it not possible that it was 

 the work of a weasel and not that of the 

 skunk that happened to get poisoned? Of 

 course no blame at all is to be attached to 

 my good neighbor Mr. Harrison and his 

 wife. 



Do you want to know about the ducks I 

 left? Well, here is a letter from Dr. Mor- 

 gan's boy, scarcely twelve years old: 



Mr. A. I. Soot:— I thought I would write to you 

 how the ducks are getting along. I get three eggs 

 every day, but once in a while one of them slcips a 

 day. The ducks are almost all full grown, except 

 the one small one in the bunch of the fifteen. 



Papa got Mr. Raub's Incubator and put flfty-two 

 duck eggs in it. The ducks are real tame. Nobody 

 has stolen them. There are still 30 of them. 



I have five little ducks. I expect to have more 

 before long. 



Bradentown, Fla,, May 7. Reginald Morgan. 



By the way, it is, to me, astonishing that 

 three ducks have kept on, winter and sum- 

 mer, giving three eggs almost every day. 

 Will a flock of 25 or 30 do any thing like it? 

 If nothing serious happens, I propose to an- 

 swer the question next winter. 



While I am about it I want to tell you of 

 another lesson that I learned. I planned 

 to carry 48 laying hens of a cross Ijetween 

 Buttercups and Leghorn s over to neighbor 

 Abbott's; and as the weather was warm I 

 had a wire-cloth cage made large enough to 



