26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



good tobacco is conducive to both health and 

 morals is in substituting it for bad tobacco. 

 Whether the writers of said bulletin thought 

 of advocating the use of tobacco or not, it 

 seems to nie that these government bulletins, 

 with the premiums offered for articles on the 

 cultivation of tobacco, do advocate pretty 

 strongly the use of it. 



I confess the comparison of the horse and 

 bicycle to the tobacco habit seems to be rather 

 wide of the mark. Horses and bicycles some- 

 times do harm — or, rather, men do harm with 

 them ; but I do not see where the ' ' sometimes ' ' 

 would come in in the matter of tobacco, as 

 there seems to be no let up in its bad effects. 

 And may I be permitted lo call attention, not 

 only of Milton Whitney, but also of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, to the position taken, 

 almost without exception, by the teachers in 

 our land, our college professors, the medical 

 fraternity, and last, but not least, by the 

 mothers of the boys ? Is it not proper and fit- 

 ting that the mothers and teachers should 

 have a voice in regard to it? Of course, I ob- 

 tained permission to use the above letter for 

 print. In connection with the permission 

 came the following, which I have taken the 

 liberty to head — 



"who is responsible?" 



I have no information in regard to the use of opium 

 in cigarettes. I know that it is a common idea that 

 .such things are used, but it has never come within the 

 province of my official work, and I have never made 

 any official investigation of the matter. Dr. H. W. 

 Wilev, Chief of the Division of Chemistry, would be 

 the man to consult in regard to adulterants found in 

 cigarettes. I will only say that it is not necessary to 

 use such substances, nor to u.se flavoring of any kind, 

 as the natural leaf, if of first-rate quality, is far better, 

 to my mind, for a light smoke in pipe or cigarette, 

 thanany of the manufactured brands. What is put 

 into the tobacco, therefore, is merely to meet a demand 

 of the people. It is a good deal like the newspapers 

 of to-day. I do not myself believe in the enormous 

 size of the Sunday papers and the free use of illustra- 

 tions ; but they seem to appeal to the general public, 

 and seem to be necessary, for nearly all the papers 

 are issuing enormous illu.strated Sunday editions. 

 Public sentiment is the only thing which can modify 

 the practice. Very truly yours, 



Milton Whitney, 



Chief of Division. 



You see, friends, our Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, or at least the writer of the above, casts 

 the responsibility back upon the people ; and 

 our electric railways are at the present time 

 evading the responsibility very much in the 

 same way. They say their business is to carry 

 the people ; and they certainh' would never 

 think of running their trains on Sunday if 

 the people did not demand Sunday trains. 

 While there may be some truth in this, and 

 while the fault is doubtless partly ours in 

 wanting to grow tobacco and in wanting Sun- 

 day papers, or in asking to be carried about 

 on the sabljath day, I still insist that the Ag- 

 ricultural Department of the United States 

 should have something to do in the matter of 

 advising and encouraging wholesale industries, 

 such as growing strawberries, and discourag- 

 ing an industry that seems almost if not al- 

 together baneful and bad in its final results. 

 Certain it is, the indictment against tobacco is 

 a long and fearful one ; but not a bit of hu- 

 man suffering can be traced to the fact that a 

 man never began its use. 



MEDICINES FREE OF CHARGE. 

 In many of your home papers you will see a 

 whole column advertisement, with pictures all 

 along down the reading, representing those 

 who have been more or less deaf for years, 

 and claim to have been ctired. After giving 

 all these testimonials, at the bottom of the col- 

 umn we read, "Medicines for three months' 

 treatment free." When I saw this in so many 

 papers I wondered how this great doctor could 

 pay such enormous sums for advertising some- 

 thing to give away. One of our correspond- 

 ents has posted me, however. He wrote for 

 the free medicines, and received a very nice 

 letter which looks very much as if it were 

 written with a t} pewriter, but it is not. In 

 this letter he says he does furnish the medi- 

 cines free of charge, but adds that they can 

 not be applied without an instrument called 

 the air-medicator, to throw the medicine up 

 through the nostrils to the organs of the ear. 

 The medicines and instruments are worth 

 §^17.50; but if you send right away you may 

 have the whole for !^7.•^0, the price of the med- 

 icator alone. Please notice, i am not at pres- 

 ent prepared to say that this doctor does not 

 cure or h Ip deafness; but I want to protest 

 against this whole way of doing business, and 

 advertising one's self as a philanthropist who 

 cures disease just for his love for humanity, 

 when the trulli is you must pay !?7. 50 for an 

 instrument that may not cost more than 'lb 

 cents. Our friend wants to know if I would 

 advise him to send the . $7. 50. Certainly not. 

 I wotild not send money to any doctor who 

 advertises treaunent free, and then gets 

 around it this sort of way. 



OUR GOVERNMENT WEATHER BUREAU. 

 I have said a good many kind words for the 

 Rural New-Yorker, but I have now found 

 one thing in it I want to scold about a little. 

 See the following : 



"• Papa, how do the people in the Weather Bureau 

 find out what kind of weather we are going to have?" 

 "I didn't know that they did, my son." — Yonkers 

 Statesman. 



I do not believe it is well to encourage peo- 

 ple, even byway of a joke, to class the Weath- 

 er Bureau with the weather-quacks such as 

 Venner, Hicks, etc. I not only watch the 

 weather daily but hourly. With my electric 

 lamp I look at the barometer just before going 

 to bed and the first thing on getting up ; and 

 d tiring the month of September our Weather 

 Bureau, in making over 50 predictions, did 

 not make one that could really be called a 

 mistake ; and during the month of November, 

 when it rained almost every day, and the 

 weather was changing every hour or two, they 

 mapped it out from 24 to 48 hours ahead al- 

 most as well. One who takes pains to inform 

 himself in regard to the machinery' used by 



