1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



793 



PEACE AND PLUNTV. 



As a i-ulc, I believe we arc as a nation blessed 

 with an abundance of almost every thing'; and 

 whatever you need to buy can g'eneralli' be pro- 

 cured in good quality and quantitj- for a small 

 amount of money. While this is a little hard on 

 producers, it is, on the other hand, a blessing- to the 

 purchaser. Please let us remember this when we 

 are inclined to think \vc have to work hai-d for tol- 

 erably small pay. 



A ■k)-ll()RSE-POWKK ENOINK EOK SALE CHE.\P. 



Sept. Sit. —Our new auloniatiu eut-otf IWhoisc- 

 power engino has just been stiirted today, and is 

 ready to drise the machinery in all our buildings. 

 This is the Buckeye engine, built at Salem, O., the 

 engine which won gold medals at tlie Centennial, 

 the New Orleans, and the Cincinnati E.xposilions. 

 Now, wc want to dispose of our 4J-ho.-se-power en- 

 gine wliich has done such faithful work for us for 

 the last eight years. It is a standard plain engine. 

 Lord & Bowler make, 12X^0, with a !Moot balance- 

 wheel and a C foot lly-wluel. We will offer it, put 

 in good repairs, for *H.")0.0;I. We will throw in the 

 stone upon which the bedplate is bolted, free of 

 charge. For further particulars, write us. Whom 

 shall we hear from first? 



TIt.VlNISG GIt.A.PEVINES OVEll BEEHIVES. 



Our .500 Concords that shade our bee hives are 

 just now giving the finest and largest ci'op of 

 grapes they over produced. Many single vines fill a 

 ten-pound basket of great heavy handgome clus- 

 ters. As there arc about .500 vines, you can believe 

 the apiary presents a beautiful appearance. I tell 

 you, it is real fun to go out and show folks the bee- 

 hives and then pass around tlie fruit. Almost ev- 

 ery visitor exclaims, "Why, how is it that jour 

 bees do not eat the grapes? " Well, it is a little fun- 

 ny, but not a bee is to be seen on any one of the 

 thousand bunches of fruit that hang right over 

 their hives. But when we gather baskets of 

 grapes, and put them out in front of the store, 

 waiting for customers, the bees just make a regu- 

 lar raid on them. Do you see whj'? Why, it is very 

 simple. The grapes are so ripe that it is almost 

 impossible to pick them and lay them in baskets 

 without bruising or bursting more or less of the 

 berries. The bees then have a regular picnic suck- 

 ing out the juices. If youlhink the plan of train- 

 ing Concord grapevines in front of bee-hives, as 

 laid down in the A B C book, is all "on paper," as 

 one or two friends have expressed it, just pay us a 

 visit now. We are getting 3 cts. per lb., or 2'2 cts. 

 for 10 lbs. or over; 100 lbs. or over, 2 cts. per lb. 



DIGGING POTATOES AT THE ;.RATE OF A BUSHEL 

 IN SIX MINUTES. 



1 HAPPENED to be down at the creek bottom 

 where one of our men was digging " Dakota Red " 

 potatoes. The crop was raised according to Terry's 

 instructions. A man was throwing them out with a 

 potato-fork, and a small l)oy was throwing them 

 into one (jf our bushel boxes. 1 thoughtthey were 

 making pretty good progress, so 1 glanced at my 

 Waterbury watch, and, to my astonishment, a good 

 plump bushel was thrown out and picked up in just 

 six minutes. The man's wages is 15 cts. per hour, 

 and the boy's 5 cts., so you can see it cost me just 

 two cents a bushel to dig the potatoes and put them 

 in the boxes. 1 do not know what the cultivation 

 cost, but the ground is so nice and mellow that it 

 did not cost very much. Now, there are other 



places on our ground where the man and boy would 

 do well If they got a bushel in a whole hour. Do 

 you see the point'? Poor ground can be made, by 

 proper care, to do as well as the best; and you have 

 to go through all the motions with a poor crop, al- 

 most, that you do with a good one. 



THE HEN THAT ALWAYS LAYS EGGS. 



It is the same hen I have told you about, friends 

 —the cross between the Plj mouth Keck and Brown 

 Leghorn. She commenced to lay in Februaiy, and 

 is still laying during these last days of September. 

 Now, I want to ask the poultry-fi lends. Why not 

 breed from such fowls as these, rather than from 

 those that show more or less of the " 100 points " as 

 a standard of excellence? I have looked the poul- 

 try-journals over, to see if I could find any one who 

 has bred for eggs, without regard to any other 

 qualities. Why, it seems to me I could almost atloid 

 to give a thousand dollars for a thousand hens that 

 would do as well as this one. You maj' ask, Why 

 not do the same thing with bees? That is it, exact- 

 ly. Why not give our strength and energies to the 

 production of hecH that gather huncy, and fowls 

 that lay eiigti'/ 



LETTUCE FOR POULTRY. 



It seems to me a little singular that our poultry- 

 journals do not have more to saj' on the above sub- 

 ject. AVe had just started a fine plat of lettuce, 

 which we expected to head up about Thanksgiving 

 time; but that brood of thirteen Brahmas we told 

 you about went for it with such greed there would 

 hardly have been a leaf left in 24 hours. Wt tried 

 giving them corn, wheat, mashed potatoes, and 

 other things; but, no, they considered thrifty rank- 

 growing lettuct leaves a good deal better than any 

 of it. Finally we transported the brood down to the 

 carp-pond; but they found another lot of lettuce 

 down near the creek bottom, and began paying their 

 respects to that. This latter patch was, however, 

 so large and thrifty we thought it would grow as 

 fast as they could consume it; but I tell you, 15 or 

 20 half-grown Brahmas will consume a pile of let- 

 tuce. Now, then, why not let them have it ? Let- 

 tuce-seed scattered where we have dug potatoes, or 

 taken up some other crop, will make an amazingly 

 rapid growth in the fall, and it does not cost any 

 thing of any account, except the seed. Some good 

 old stable nmnure raked in with the soil will help 

 the lettuce amazingly. Cabbage and lettuce will 

 often start hens to laying when they will not lay 

 otherwise. We have quite a quantity of Hanson 

 lettuce-seed that we will send by mail at 10 cts. per 

 ounce, for the above purpose, if you don't happen 

 to have seed of your own. The seed is three or 

 four years old, but it germinates beautifullj-, and 

 pleases the Bi-ahmas, I tell you. 



DAIRYMEN! T 



For only $1 and this adv't we 

 will send the Dairy World, best 

 and largest dairy journal publish- 

 ed, (price $i) one year; one Sum- 

 ner Cream Tester, price $1, for 

 testing milk of 6 cows at onemilk- 

 ng; one Perfect Milking Tube, 

 ^price tOc, for cows with sore or 

 obstructed teats; one Hazard's 

 Butter Making, a guide to good dairying, price 

 2.5i — all for $1. AiUlress TuF. D.mrv \\'()Ri.d, 

 til I.a.S;ille St., Chi<at,M), III. Samples free. 



