294 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 



They put on some of the medicine, and the 

 pain soon ceases, as it wonld have done had 

 no medicine been employed. Well, onr 

 friends pay 50 cts. for a package of egg food. 

 It is given to the liens according to direc- 

 tions, and the hens begin to lay, just like 

 drumming on tin pans. After you have 

 drummed a while the bees begin to cluster. 

 I have not said any thing about the egg 

 food, because 1 hadn't time to investigate. 

 Our man who has charge of the horses and 

 cattle bought a package, and I decided in a 

 very few moments, that, even if it were 

 good, it was a swindle to cliarge 50 cents for 

 it. Please read the following extrnct. which 

 we clip from the K-::w-Eni/land Fanner of 

 March B: 



Prof. W. H. .Tonliiii, Director of the Maine State 

 Experiment StHtion, reports in a recent bulletin 

 upon the food value of some of the "conriimental " 

 foods found in our markets, and arrives at the con- 

 clusion that they cost those who purchase them 

 several times their actual worth. The Imperial 

 egg food, costing- 50 cents per pound, contained 84 

 per cent of mineral matter, chiefly g-round clam or 

 oyster shells, and a little bone, the rest being water 

 and organic matter; but he found only one per 

 cent of tiesh-forming material. Its true value is but 

 a small fraction of the price asked. Poultry-keep- 

 ers do well to furnish their poultry with abundant 

 supplies of shell or bone, but these can be bought 

 by the hundred pounds at from one to two dollars, 

 leaving the other forty-ciyht (Uillais for the dealer's 



Eroflt. ".Johnson's Continental Food," made in 

 ynn, Mass., and the "English Patent Food" for 

 cattle, which sells at from TU to eight cents per 

 pound, Avere found to be composed chiefly of wheat 

 bran and corn meal, with a trifle of fengreek. an 

 aromatic seed, and a little sulithur, neither of which 

 is of any. value to healthy animals, nor of any reli- 

 ance for curing sick ones. Neither of the foods 

 have any greater nutritive value than the bran or 

 corn meal from which they are made. But there 

 is a mystery in the minds of most persons concern- 

 ing all substances that are claimed as having me- 

 dicinal properties, and so the exorbitant prices are 

 paid quite cheerfully, The experiment stations are 

 doing good work when they clear away the mists 

 fiom'before the eyes of the working and debt-pay- 

 ing classes. 



Kow, friends, it may be that this egg food 

 contains some stimuhmt for ponltry, such 

 as cayenne pepper, or something of that sort; 

 and it is also possible that the combination 

 of substances is of value in stimulating the 

 hens to lay ; but, why charge .50 cts. a 

 pound for something that could be sold at a 

 proht for 5 cts. a pound? Is it fair or right? 

 and ought any one who professes to be a 

 Christian to engage in any«snch kind of 

 business ? I think Ave can safely say, 

 '• Thank God for this new era of experimen- 

 tal stations, kept up by the States." 



BLUEBERRY - PLANTS AND DELOS 

 STAPLES. 



THE OHIO AGRICULTURAL -EXPERIMENT STATION 

 NOW TAKES THE MATTER IN HAND. 



J THINK you are right in exposing Delos Sta- 

 pleg. Blueberry -plants such as he sends will 

 not grow on upland soil. I ordered some of 

 him two years ago, supposing from his adver- 

 tisement and the letter he wrote me, that he 

 had improved the upland species; but the plants 

 he sent evidently came from a swamp, and had but 

 very little root. They were also packed very poorly, 

 and 1 knew from experience that no kind of tree 

 or shrub with such poor roots, and so badly dried, 



would grow; hence I remonstrated with him before 

 paying for them. He wrote me such a penitent let- 

 ter, agreeing to profit by my suggestions as to 

 packing, also offering to send more plants, that I 

 sent the money. I inclosed a receipt for him to 

 sign, and then had to write sevei-al sharp lettei-s, 

 and even threatened to publish him, if it was not 

 returned. The last letter brought the receipt, and 

 more penitential promises, but that is the last that 

 I ever heard from Mr. Staples. I am now persuaded 

 that I ought to have published him. He may not 

 be defrauding intentionally, but surely his method 

 is the same as that practiced by the Bain gang and 

 others. First, you see au article in some unsus- 

 f.ecting newspaper on the blueberry, by Delos Sta- 

 ples; then his advertisement. Furthermore, he gets 

 his bushes from the swamp, and either does not 

 know how, or does not care to know how to pack 

 them. I even agreed to pay him for another lot of 

 plants, if he would pack according to my directions, 

 but it seems that he is not anxious to have his 

 plants experimented with. 



W. J. Green, Horticulturist, 



Ohio Experiment Station. 

 ColumV)us, O., Apr. 3, 1886. 



Friend Green, I am very glad indeed to 

 have your assistance in this matter, and I 

 hope now the agricultural papers at large 

 will give him sucli publicity as he deserves. 

 It is not alone on blueberj-y-plants, but in 

 other things that he is taking the part of a 

 swindler. Some years ago, failing to collect 

 an account of him, I ordered potted straw- 

 berry-plants; but instead of potted plants 

 he simply sent plants with what seemed to be 

 a ball of mud around the roots. As they 

 were put loosely in a box, the mud was 

 pounded off the greater part of them. But 

 it was almost impossible to get a word from 

 him in regard to the matter; and our ex- 

 perience was eventually about like your 

 own. One who advertises as widely as he 

 does ought to be just as widely exposed, 

 A great number of letters have been re- 

 ceived since the notice was put in Glean- 

 inCtS, and all tell the same story; viz., dry 

 twigs, no roots, nor suitable packing. 



REPORT FROM W"ELCOME APIARY. 



SIXTEEN YEARS OF BEE-KEEPINO, AND A PICTURE 

 OF FRIEND HAINES' BEE-YARD. 



rc-Tur ELCOME APIARY is located in the village of 

 ''' Bedford, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, on the Cleve- 

 land & Pittsburgh and Cleveland & Canton 

 Railroads, both of which run through it, 

 dividing it about equally — the east half 

 only showing in the above engraving. It may be 

 said to have been established July 4, 1844, when a 

 fugitive swarm of bees clustered on a tree near 

 where the house-apiary now stands. Being eleven 

 years of age, I assisted in hiving and caring for 

 them, and from that time they received box-hive 

 attention— sometimes numbering a score or more, 

 at others only two or three colonies, but never be-, 

 coming entirely extinct. 



In the spring of 1870, there being but three stocks, 

 I transferred and Italianized them, and commenced 

 bee-keeping on modern principles. I have tested 

 nearly every thing said to be an improvement or a 

 help in the business. I have retained only such as 



