1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



213 



only place is, as it seems to me, the manure- 

 heap, and it is but little work to incorporate it 

 thoroughly with the stable manure. But not 

 everybody has a stable. In my little book, 

 " VVh t to Do," I suggested having an all-metal 

 wheelbarrow. Have the closet so made that 

 the wheelbarrow may be whet^led in from the 

 back side, so as to stand directly under the seat. 

 Such a wheelbarrow can be made to hold the 

 accumulations of a month or more; and once a 

 month somebody can take a spade and spade it 

 under out of sight in the garden; but when the 

 garden is frozen up, what then? Will some 

 reader of Gleanings help us out? I like the 

 metal-wheelbarrow arrangement, because one 

 need not touch any part of it except the pro- 

 jecting handles. 



Once more, our good friend from Canada has 

 given us the very best absorbent, in my opin- 

 ion. Before we had the water-closet we now 

 have, we used ashes or road dust. Mrs. Root 

 objected to both, because, whenever you throw 

 down a shovelful, unless you are exceedingly 

 careful a cloud of dust rises up; and unless the 

 seat is carefully dusted off, your good clothes 

 will get a dusting, to say nothing of that nice 

 Dew brussels carpet friend M. speaks about. 

 Well, now, the dry sawdust does not rise in a 

 cloud like road dust or ashes. If possible, use 

 haid-wood sawdust, for it is much better for 

 the garden. The very small quantity needed, 

 however, would not be very obji>ctionable,even 

 if it were pine. There is another objection to 

 wood ashes: They quickly liberate ammonia 

 from stable manure or any other kind ; and 

 along with the ammonia we have certain odors 

 that are not altogether pleasant. Sifted coal 

 ashes do very well; but with these we have the 

 objectionable cloud of dust unless the one who 

 handles them is very skillful and careful. I am 

 glad to see so much interest in regard to this 

 matter; for my suggestions referred to in the 

 above article have brought out many commu- 

 nications, and several requests for more light 

 on the same subject. 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



ELECTKICAI. HUitBUGS. 



I have not " let up " on Eleclropoise and sim- 

 ilar quacks because they have been driven from 

 the held, but because 1 concluded I had done 

 my part in warning the public. Electropoise 

 still continues to be advertised in a good many 

 magazines, and especially by periodicals pro- 

 fessing to be religious. Let them go on, and 

 let God be judge as to whether such things are 

 consistent witn the Christian profession. My 

 attentioti has just been called to the matter by 

 a clipping sent me by Dr. Geo. E. Hailes, the 

 man who has the American Tongan beans. 

 Here is the clipping: 



The Eng-lish government has undertaken to check 

 the manufacture and smIc of electric bells, brushes, 

 pads, etc., on tbe ground that they are sold on false 

 pretenses, and warranted to cure diseases over 

 which they have no influence. '^^ 



DThat is the talk, friends. Let the government 

 take hold of it. Our expert chemists and intel- 

 ligent physicians can very easily decide (by ex- 

 periment if need be) whether these traps have 

 any effect or not on the diseases of the human 

 family. It is an easy matter to decide whether 

 there is any electricity whatever about the 

 greater part of them; and I think it maybe 

 settled quite conclusively that they have no 

 effect whatever on the patient, except through 

 the agency of the imagination. 



On page 171 of our last issue I spoke about 

 sending for instructions for making a home- 

 made windmill. 1 sent my stamps to Francis 

 Casey, St. Louis, and in the instructions we 

 read as follows: "The castings are worth $4. 

 Any one can gel the castings by sending to the 

 Mound City Dishwasher Co., St. Louis." In Ag- 

 ricultural Advertising for February we find the 

 following: 



Tht' Newspaper Collection Ag-eucy of this city 

 reports that their office receives claims against 

 them at the rate of fr.>m one to six a day, ranging 

 in amounts from $;'> to i^oO. and in total to several 

 thousand dollars. No efforts on the part of the Col- 

 lection agency can get a settlement from the Globe 

 people. 



The advertising that they are sending out is for 

 goods owned by the Globe people, and is placed in 

 such names as "Mound City Distiwasher," U. S. 

 Fruit Co., J. F. Casey & Co., and Miss A. M. Fritz. 

 On inquiry at the addresses given, it was found 

 that no such firms existed, but that the Globe people 

 got mail there in those names. 



DPermit me to repeat, that all this class of 

 communications to newspapers, telling how 

 somebody made great prohts by selling a dish- 

 washer, churn, or some similar thing, and that 

 wind up by a pretense of wanting to benefit 

 their " brother farmers" or hard-working sis- 

 ters, are probably frauds. They try to get these 

 communications inserted among regular reports 

 from farming people or their wives. Where the 

 editor of the newspaper has little or no con- 

 science he will put it in the general reading- 

 matter if he gets paid for it. Sometimes he 

 puts it in without getting pay for It, as you will 

 see in the above. But even if the editor insists 

 that it shall go in the regular advertising de- 

 partment, and under the head of advertise- 

 ments, he is, in my opinion, more or less a party 

 to fraud and deceit: and, worst of all, he is 

 helping to defraud the very people who are 

 obliged to sell their corn, oats, and other prod- 

 uce at such ruinously low prices. It is not only 

 wrong and unchristianlike, but the papers that 

 help to push this kind of fraud, and try to shirk 

 the responsibility, will find, sooner or later, that 

 '•whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 

 reap." They will find that there is a surplus of 

 some things in this world of ours besides corn 

 and oats, and there is ju^^t now getting to be a 

 surplus of periodicals. The editor who is not 

 careful, not only of his reading-columns, but of 

 his advertising department as well, will find a 

 lack of readers, and a lack of dollars to keep 

 his paper going. Great is truth, and will pre- 

 vail; and our farming people are fast learning 

 to hold the editor of their family paper respon- 

 sible for the advertisements he sends into their 

 homes. Any editor can with little trouble as- 

 certain whether his advertisers are responsible 

 men or frauds. 



WHO SHALL BE GREATEST? 



On page 129 appears something that I did not 

 see till it was in print— I mean that item as to 

 who has done the most for the cause of apicul- 

 ture in years past. Once upon a time the fol- 

 lowers of our Lord and Savior were disputing 

 among themselves. When he asked them what 

 was the ground of their disagreement they all 

 hung their heaos down and said nothing; for 

 the facts of the case were they had been disput- 

 ing as to who should be greatest. Now, I hope 

 it will never be necessary to have such discus- 

 sions appear in the columns of any of our bee- 

 journals. Shall we not seek to cultivate that 

 beautiful virtue that "suffereth long, and is 

 kind," " vaunteth not itself," and "seeketh not 

 her own" ? 



