1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



Just now there is a great number of humbug 

 advertisements going the rounds, and they seem 

 to find a place in the columns of many other- 

 wise respectable journals. I allude to the kind 

 that are always signed "A Farmer's Daughter." 

 "A Reader," "A Brother Farmer," etc. This 

 kind of advertisements somewhere in the read- 

 ing-matter refer to certain firms. The writer 

 tells how much money he made in a very short 

 space of time by selling the wares of certain 

 houses. How to make a windmill is just now 

 having quite a run. You are to send a dollar, 

 or some smaller amount, to somebody for in- 

 struction.* Now, this whole thing comes right 

 in line with the business of selling secrets or 

 recipes or instruction. Let me repeat: All that 

 is valuable in agriculture or mechanics is very 

 soon published in book form; and any thing 

 neiv pertaining to rural affairs is almost al- 

 ways to be found in our agricultural periodicals. 

 Suppose, for instance, you send some stamps, 

 30 or 40 cents, for directions for making a home- 

 made windmill. You get in return instructions 

 on a piece of paper, generally one page of read- 

 ing-matter; or even if it were three or four 

 pages, they do not cost the man who sends them 

 more than a cent a sheet. For the amount of 

 money you send, you ought to have a consider- 

 able sized book 01) the subject. Another thing, 

 these home made windmills are generally prac- 

 ticable only wh^re the wind comes from a cer- 

 tain direction almost every day; and the mill 

 will not run unless the wind is very nparly in 

 that certain direction. The Nebraska Experi- 

 ment Station is now prpparing a bulletin on 

 home made windmills. Just as soon as it is 

 ready for distribution our readers will be noti- 

 fied. This bulletin will be worth ever so much 

 more than any of these plans which you get by 

 sending a dollar or a less amount, in stamps. 



Special Notices in the Line of Gardening, etc. 



By A. I. Root. 



GREGORY ON SQUASHBS. 



In my talk on raising Hubbard squashes, on page 

 134, 1 failed to suggest that everybody who proposes 

 to raise squashes ought surely to have Gregory's 

 squash-biiok. It will pay you to have the book, 

 even if you raise only a few hills in your garden; 

 and the exhortations laid down by that veteran gar- 

 dener will apply to raising almost any sort of crop 

 by high-pressure gardening; and, besides, it is such 

 interesting reading that any one who will pick It up 

 will be almost sure to read it through from begin- 

 ning to end. I like to read it through once in two 

 or three years to remind me of things T knew 

 already, but had neglected to keep in mind. We 

 now offer the book at the re'duced price of 20 cents. 

 Postage 5 cts. extra, if wanttd by mail. See revised 

 book- list. 



TURKEYS. AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



[ The above is thetitleof abeautiful new book just 

 out from tlie O. Judd Co. In fact its daU' is as late 



* We have just received instructions for making 

 a home-made windmill, for which we sent 36 cents 

 in stamps. The instructions are on a single sheet of 

 pHper. i^rinted on one side, and they are really an 

 advertisf ment for a set of castings for making a 

 windmill. The castings cost $4.00. The mill, when 

 it is made, does not turn to face the wind at all. 

 You have to wait till the wind blows in the right di- 

 rection to have the mill pump water. Still further, 

 and of much greater importance, there is no device 

 of any sort to stop the mill or to turn it out of the 

 wind during a gale — nothing, in fact, to prevent the 

 tbirig from being blown to pieces at the very first 

 moderate blow. 



as 1897. In the frontispiece we have a picture of 

 the American wild turkey, and the book is fully il- 

 lustrated all through. It has 160 pages, 12mo, and 

 is handsomely bound in cloth. The cuts are, the 

 greater part of them, photographs from nature. 

 The book seems to cover the whole subject, not only 

 of raising turkeys on the farm, hut turkey-raising 

 as a business. Price, postpaid, $1.00. It can be or- 

 dered from this ollice, if more convenient. This re- 

 minds me that Salt Lake Valley is one of the great- 

 est places for turkey-iaising, perhaps, in the world. 

 They will thrive and grow fat on alfalfa, and you 

 can get a "turkey dinner " in Phoenix, better serv- 

 ed, and cheaper, than perhaps in any other city in 

 the United States. 



ALL ABOUT PARSNIPS. 



To-day they are quoted in the Cleveland market at 

 $1.75 to $3.00% barrel, and scarce at that. Now, 

 friends, on suitable si il you can raise them for 15 or 

 20 cts. a bushel, and make money at it. You do not 

 have to guard them from frost as you do potatoes, 

 squashes, onions, and almost every thing else. You 

 just grow J our cron and let them staud right in the 

 ground, and dig them whenever there is the best 

 demand for them. The season for selling is from 

 November till May; and anytime during the winter 

 when there happens to be a thaw they may be dug 

 and sent off to market. They are a very easy crop 

 to raise. You want to get the seed in very early, so 

 as to have them get a good start before most of the 

 weeds germinate at all. You need not be afraid of 

 frost; and after you get the plants two or three 

 inches high they will take care of themselves. You 

 need a deep, rich, bottom land to gruW them— not 

 too much muck, or the parsnips will be spongy and 

 of poor quality. The soil should be sandy enough 

 so the roots can make good shape without having so 

 many prongy ones. In case there should be a sur- 

 plus (which seldom happens), parsnips aie almost 

 always worth more than they cost, to feed to stock. 

 Catile, horses, pigs, and almost all domestic ani- 

 mals, will eat them greedily. Just now we are get- 

 ting Bets a lb. for them; and our man who drives 

 the wagon says, "we do not need to advertise pars- 

 nips—just say you have got them, and they will sell 

 fast enough." Now, if you want to go into the pars- 

 nip business we can give you a Hit; for we have 

 just purchased a two-bushel bagful of the very best 

 seed, and we are making the lowest prices on it 

 that we ever heard of: Oz., 5c.; 1 lb., 2,5c; 5 lbs., 

 $1.00; 10 lbs., S1.50. 



WANTED— BMSS RED TRIUMPH POTATOES. 



While almost every other kind of potato is offered 

 at very low prices indeed, no one seems to have any 

 of the Triumphs, and yet they were the s'andard 

 table potato for many weeks last summer, and Tri- 

 umphs w* re quoted in almost every northern city. 

 They were shipped in from the South, and were the 

 standard early table potato. Now, if nobody has 

 saved any of the seed so that it can be sol<i at a rea- 

 sonable pi ice, it is a mistake somewhere. Of course 

 the White Bliss is just as good, and, in fact, a little 

 better lonking; I ut it is of recent date, and, of 

 course, high priced. Is it possible that our potato- 

 growers were so crazy after new sorts that they neg- 

 lected to plant this well known staple and standard 

 variety? I have noticed for several seasons, that 

 wten new potatoes first make their appearance, Tri- 

 umphs are (juoted everywhere at the highest price 

 of any variety. In fact, they are so well known 

 that in market reports they do not say "potatoes" 

 at all— just Triumphs, so much a barrel. Now, may 

 be somebody has a big lot of these saved up. If so, 

 and such party can offer them at the prices that 

 other standa'd early potatoes are selling— say $1.59 

 a barrel— there ought to be a good demand fur tliem 

 right oft'. In fact, in many places they are ready to 

 be planted. 



THE AMERICAN COFFEE-BERRY. 



There is just one thing more we want; and that is 

 the American coffee-berry, at a reasonable price. 

 It has been long enoujih before the American peo- 

 ple so somebody ought to have a stock. I should 

 like the job of raising them at $1.00 a bushel— that 

 is, if I could get the seed to plant at a reasonable 

 figure. I think they have all the advantage of the 

 ordinary soja bean; and, besides this, they are quite 

 a httle better for coffee. The beans ripen so (arly 

 that it is an easy matter to grow them here at the 

 North, and get them matured before frost. We are 

 offering the seed in .5-cent packages; but our stock 

 Is so limited that we shall soon be sold out. 



