3(50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



you can not answer. I wish some reader of 

 Gleanings would, at the tirst oijportunity, 

 test the matter, watch in hand. Now. please 

 do not think me irreverent if I suggest that, in 

 our recent studies about Jonah, I kept wonder- 

 ing how life was preserved when absolutely de- 

 prived of air; and is it not a little queer, that, 

 in so many of these Bible miracles, we sooner 

 or later find something somewhat parallel in 

 the present existing order of things? These 

 snakes stopped breathing, at least for a time. 

 Well, when snakes go under water they also 

 stop breathing— that is. they stop one kind of 

 respiration.— While dictating the above, a by- 

 stander tells us about seeing a mother-snake 

 swallow a lot of little ones, after which she 

 crawled into a log. The boys plugged the hole 

 up so she could not get out: and after school 

 they split the log open, and killed the mothei', 

 and found the "juveniles'" still alive. Sethis 

 answers a part of my question. — We are glad to 

 know that the bees at the college came through 

 all right.] 



THE NEW WATER CURE. 



render unto cesar the things that are 

 Cesar's, and unto god the things 



THAT ARE GOD's. 



ALFALFA AND SWEET CLOVER IN KANSAS, 



SOMETHING SPECIALLY FAVORING SWEET 

 CLOVER. 



The writer of the following letter sent us an 

 order for 100 lbs. of Bokhara, or sweet-clover 

 seed. As this aroused our curiosity we wrote 

 him, and he replies as follows: 



It may be of interest to you to know what it 

 was waiited for. Two years ago two neighbors 

 (living ten miles from me) each bought a sack 

 of alfalfa seed and sowed on their farms, 

 which joined. The one came up and furnished 

 a great amount of feed the first year. The 

 other got but little or no feed the first season. 

 Both fields bore purple or similar blossoms. 

 The plants were somewhat similar, only that 

 one grew very large, and fed a great many 

 hogs. The crop was cut three times, while the 

 other seemed to be getting root. The second 

 year one field bore white blossoms; the other, 

 the same as before. Upon investigation one 

 plant proved to be sweet clover, the other al- 

 falfa. The gentleman who had the alfalfa said 

 the sweet clover double discounted any plant 

 he ever saw for forage; that stock did well on 

 it; that it produced well on ordinary land, of a 

 dry season, and he was very anxious to get some 

 of the seed. As I wanted something for hog- 

 feed, I told him if he found any to let me have 

 some. But on examining your catalogue which 

 you sent me, I found you quoted the seed, and I 

 ordered immediately, and then notified the gen- 

 tleman of my action, and told him he could 

 have .50 lbs. 



I may not be satisfied with my venture. I 

 have since been told by men from York State 

 that it is a bad weed, impossible to get rid of, 

 and that nothing will eat it; but I shall sow all 

 the same. I have been in this country 32 years, 

 and have had much experience with cultivated 

 grasses. I have tested some kinds that were 

 pests in the east, and they would not live long 

 in this climate. Our soil is good enougli for 

 any thing, but it wants a peculiar grass to 

 stand the climate. Any plant does well in a 

 moist season, but we have dry hot seasons that 

 kill any grass I ever planted. The native 

 grass of the country always lives through and 

 keeps green, and gives good pasturage and some 

 hay. C. C. (Jardinki:. 



Bradford. Kansas. Apr. 2\. 



Among the great numbers of letters that 

 have been received in regard to this matter, 

 tliere are perhaps half a dozen who suggest that 

 Dr. VVilford Hall has not received quite tlie 

 credit that belongs to him. Our friend Free- 

 born, on page 377. suggests something of tlie 

 kind. Three or four think it is not quite clear 

 that I was justified in "breaking my pledge,"* 

 etc. As this matter of charging several dollars 

 for infoi'mation that can be put into a very 

 small pamphlet, oi' perhaps on a single sheet of 

 paper, is a thing that comes up every little 

 while, let us consider it a little. Some years 

 ago Herman Flick advertised artificial Inmey, 

 and made great claims in regard to its wonder- 

 ful excellence, and the cheapness with which it 

 could be manufactured. I sent him .*2.00 for 

 tlie secret: but as soon as I received it I found 

 he had copied it from Dr. Chuse's Recipe Booh. 

 I do not remember whether I signed a promise 

 not to U'U or not. In fact, it does not matter 

 particularly. I found him to be a humbug and 

 a swindler, and it was clearly my duty topub- 

 lish him as such, because lie was obtaining 

 money under false pretenses. The " pretenses "' 

 wei'e not only very many, but they 'wei-e very 

 false; liad it actually been a neiv discovery. 

 the case would have been vei-y dift'ereht Indcetl. 

 Some tell us that Dr. Hall is a good man, but 

 that it was only an error in judgment. Where 

 a man, by "errors in judgment." takes a great 

 many thousand dollars out of his neighbor's 

 pockets, and puts tliis money into his oivii. it 

 begins to look a little as if there were something 

 more than mere error in judgment. W\'ll, let 

 us drop the past and call it square. Let us say 

 he deserves what lie got, in view of the good he 

 has done. How about the present? Dr. Wil- 

 ford Hall's agents are canvassing with greedy 

 liaste almost eveiy town in the United States; 

 but as soon as one of our little tracts gets into 

 the town the business is done up, and the agents 

 gather up their circulars and depart to some 

 place where A. I. Root is unknown. They have 

 even gone to California, and the friends of just- 

 ice are following them there with the little 

 pamphlets. Now, can Dr. Hall and his agents 

 be Christian men, or even honest men, when 

 they continue to receive $4.00 from each indi- 

 vidual for something they know is being scat- 

 tered abroad all over the land free of charge ? 

 Who will answer? What excuse does Dr. Hall 

 make for such a practice? Why, the only ex- 

 cuse he possibly can make is to deny that his 

 discovery was in print previous to 1850. See 

 the following from his journal, the Microcosm, 

 for April: 



Now. to nail this villainy, and put a padkicls on 

 the pens of the scamps referred to, we will pay E. D. 

 Scott one liuudred dollars in cash if lie will show us 

 any publication, however obscure its autlior, which 

 sets forth the essential details of our Health Pam- 

 phlet, bearing- a date earlier than that of i)ur dis- 

 covery, said date heiiig- proved to be authentic, and 

 not cooked up by some miscreant to serve a rascally 

 purpose. 



I have right here in my liands, while I write. 

 Fowler & Wells' Water-cure ^Manual, by Joel 

 Shew, iniblished in 1847.t I do not want the 



*Dear friends, I have broken no pledge. I have 

 not copied from Dr. Hall's pamphlet; I have only 

 copied what I found in Kellog-g's doctor book and 

 the Water-cure Manual. 



tAmong-the readers of Gleanings we have one 

 whose grandfather was Joel Shcw'ii brother, and this 

 friend promises us some valuable facts in reg-ard to 

 his great-uncle's experiments. 



