356 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



tested out of an incubator on the third day under a 

 broody hen, thinking to give them to her for a 

 short time only, and see whether she really meant 

 business or not. I did not receive the eggs I intend- 

 ed to place under the hen, and no more attention 

 was paid to her. What was my surprise when, at 

 the end of about three weeks, she came ofl with 

 three chicks! There were eight eggs in all, and I 

 at once examined those remaining in the nest. 

 Four were still clear and one rotten, showing that 

 it had started to develop. 



The above is a stronger corroboration of 

 the superiority of the sitting hen than I had 

 thought of or expected to get. Once more, 

 what have the venders of incubators to say 

 to it? And in order that this may be fur- 

 ther tested, can vre not have reports from 

 eggs pronounced infertile by the incubator, 

 say in five days, and afterward submitted 

 to a sitting hen? This once more strongly 



suggests .the idea of starting all the eggs un- 

 der a sitting hen and letting the incubator 

 finish the hatch. It would not be so very 

 expensive to put all the sitting hens found 

 on a large poultry-farm in a room by them- 

 selves; then give these sitting hens, all at 

 one time, enough eggs to fill the incubator, 

 or rather more - say enough to furnish fer- 

 tile eggs to the capacity of the incubator. 

 If there should happen to be a few more, let 

 one or more of the hens finish them up; and 

 in this way I think we might easily get a 

 hatch of 90 or even 95 per cent, and probably 

 avoid, at least to a great extent, "dead in 

 the shell." As I have said before, this plan 

 is one of the big secrets in the book " Poul- 

 try Secrets," from our good friends of the 

 Farm Journal. 



FLORIDA LAND SPECULATIONS, ETC. 



Our readers are well aware that I have 

 beeri holding up warnings against the 

 schemes of land speculators for years past, 

 or ever since I have made my winter home 

 in Florida. I have again and again urged 

 that no one should think of investing unless 

 he has been on the spot, seen what he is 

 buying, and made inquiries of old residents 

 not having land for sale. Under the cir- 

 cumstances the following brief letter from 

 an old friend of GirLEANiNGS comes as a sur- 

 prise, and I confess it was not altogether a 

 pleasant one: 



A. I. Boot.— Jn Gleanings for April 15 I find In 

 an advertisement these words: "Low-priced lands. 

 Easy terms. Plenty of water. Healthful climate, 

 in the land of Manatee, on west coast of Florida. 

 Net $500 to $^1000 per acre." For shame! With all 

 your boasted religion and pretense of a clean life, 

 for the paltry amount you get for this advertise- 

 ment you can stretch your conscience so as to in- 

 sert this in Gleanings. Do you suppose such an 

 advertisement asthis would be inserted in theHural 

 jyeiv-Yorkerf Never. The net amount stated is a 

 bald lie, and is intended to deceive. Why, if people 

 generally could be made to believe that statement, 

 there would not be an uncultivated acre of land 

 (or, rather, .saw!, for that is what it is) in Florida 

 In a year's time. I have been In Florida, and know 

 just what it is. Take the advertisement out. 



White Hall, 111., April 19. A. W. Foreman. 



Permit me to thank you, my good friend, 

 for your interest in the good name of your 

 old friend A. I. R., and Gleanings also; 

 but were you not a little hasty when you 

 wrote the above? What you quote comes 

 from the advertisement of the Seaboard Air 

 Line Railway Co., and they have been our 

 regular advertisers for years past; and I can 

 not remember that we have ever before re- 

 ceived any objection to the way in which 

 they word their advertisement. In fact, I 

 have many times advised inquirers to get 

 and read their literature. The matter has 

 been so much discussed in the pages of 

 Gleanings that I will need to go over it 

 only briefly. 



As you say, the greater part of Florida is 

 really sand; but if you will visit my Florida 

 home in Manatee Co., I think I caa astonish 

 you by showing you what my neighbor 

 Rood, right across the street from our place, 

 is doing and has been doing for years. He 



has some excellent land that was formerly 

 a sort of pond. It is now thoroughly under- 

 drained, and also equipped with an artesian 

 well to furnish water in times of drouth. 

 Furthermore, in addition to neighbor Rood's 

 horses used on his forty acres, he keeps quite 

 a few Jersey cows, and sells milk; and he 

 grows his own hay, and I guess the greater 

 part of his feed for cows and horses. Let me 

 say now right here that these Jersey cows 

 are kept mainly, if I am right, for the ma- 

 nure; and his horses and cattle are kept in 

 stables such as we have here in the North. 

 Besides the stable manure, he buys load 

 after load of commercial fertilizer. 



You object to the statement in Glean- 

 ings of $500 to $1000 per acre. Well, Mr. 

 Rood, during the past winter, if I remember 

 correctly, received over $2000 for the celery 

 grown on a single acre. After the celery 

 was off he planted potatoes; and when I 

 came away he had about as handsome a 

 stand of potatoes as I ever saw. The fertilizer 

 put on to grow the celery was all that was 

 needed for the potatoes. They did not have 

 a cent's worth more. The potatoes will soon 

 be dug, and in their place will be put toma- 

 toes or some other crop. He has been get- 

 ting three big crops off the same ground 

 year after year. And this is not all. Be- 

 sides his reclaimed swamp he has some poor 

 sandy land on higher ground. I supposed 

 this pine land would not yield enough to 

 pay, even with his skill and experience; but 

 while I have been living there, and could 

 watch operations, he cleared ofif that high 

 and dry pine land, got out the stumps, 

 worked it up thoroughly, put in tiles, put 

 down an artesian well, and, much to my 

 surprise and astonishment, he has this year 

 taken off almost as good a crop of celery as 

 from his reclaimed swamp. Of course it 

 has cost a lot of money to do it, and it took 

 a man like Mr. Rood to make a success of 

 it. When I asked him what amount of fer- 

 tilizer he put on that new land to get such 

 a quick response, he replied smilingly that 

 he put on all he could afford to, and then 

 shut his eyes and put on some more. I ask 



