668 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



the most successful competitor to our old and 

 tried friend the Early Ohio. And, by the 

 way, there are different strains of the Early 

 Ohio. This is evident, for the strain we are 

 growing this season is a great improvement 

 on any other we have had for several years. 

 I got them from an old friend who says he 

 always has a good yield of nice clean potatoes, 

 of good size, by late planting. This strain is 

 almost as round as an apple — almost no small 

 ones in the hills, and a very good yielder. 



In the above report there are several encour- 

 aging things ; and one of them stands out 

 strong and clear ; namely, it pays to keep 

 your potato-patch clean, and to fight the bugs, 

 even if the potatoes are apparently almost ripe 

 enough to dig. Why, I should have lost 

 more than half of my crop of New Queens up 

 in the swamp if I had said they were so nearly 

 ripe it would not pay to put out more work 

 on them. All over the West I saw potato- 

 patches abandoned after the vines pretty well 

 covered the ground. I am sure it is a mis- 

 take. When you can not get a horse to go 

 through them any more, let a boy go through 

 just after a rain, and pull out the weeds. 

 Where the potatoes have been well cared for, 

 it does not take very long to get all the scat- 

 tering weeds out of an acre, and these scatter- 

 ing weeds grow with amazing rapidity. I 

 found red-top among some of our potatoes, 

 almost a yard high, when I am sure there was 

 not any in sight before I left home. Even 

 though it is to-day the 23d of August, we are 

 having our potato-fields cleaned out nicely. 

 If our present rains continue, I shall expect 

 our potato-vines to keep grovnng clear on until 

 frost catches them. At this season of the 

 year there are no bugs, and not often any 

 blight. When we have passed the extremely 

 hot weather of summer we have the very best 

 time for potatoes to grow, and this is one ad- 

 vantage in late planting. 



You may remember the big potato that I 

 got last October at friend Terry's (see page 

 597, Aug. 1). Well, the potatoes that I grew 

 in the greenhouse finally started in my ab- 

 sence, and a great many of them are up, and 

 are growing rank and strong. I am going to 

 make a pretty good record of a crop from one 

 potato in just one year, after all. 



Manum's Enormous potatoes, planted on 

 some rich ground where we turned under 

 strawberries at the last picking, are making a 

 most astonishing growth. I not only feel 

 happy every time I take a look at them, but 

 about every time I think of them, as the vines 

 are now covering the ground almost like 

 pumpkin-vines. And this reminds me of 



THE BENSON RENOVATOR COW PEA. 

 I had half a pint of these peas, and planted 

 them some time in June. They were along 

 the edge of that field of wheat that had lodg- 

 ed. In cutting the wheat, the three horses 

 with the binder went right over the peas. 

 They stopped and started so much when the 

 machine was clogged that the cow peas were 

 almost tramped out of existence. I had pretty 

 nearly given them up. But on my return 

 home I had another of ray happy surprises in 



seeing the great rank mass of green foliage 

 that not only covered the ground but spread 

 over on to the wheat-stubble and into the corn 

 on the other side. Some of the vines are s.x 

 feet long, and there are great pods, almost a 

 foot long, crammed full of peas. If a tenth 

 part of what friend Benson claims for this 

 renovator cow pea is true, it seems to me it 

 niust be a great thing; and at least a part of 

 it, I am sure, is true. I should just like to 

 plow under all this mass of vines in order ta 

 fit the ground for planting potatoes; but to do 

 this I suppose we shall have to plow the pea- 

 vines under in the fall. 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



After reading the article in Gleanings about the 

 electric healer at San Saba. Te.x., I wish to say that 

 we have one of the same frauds located at Waco. He 

 calls himself Dr. W. T. Coleman, natural electrical 

 healer. A great many go to him for treatment, and 

 some are willing to testify in almost any way that 

 they have been entirely cured of all sorts o"f maladies; 

 yet I have no idea he "has benefited any one in the' 

 least, e.\-cept to create a little mental and physical 

 excitement. He rubs the naked skin, f,nd ladies, 

 young and old, submit to his treatment, and pay a 

 big price for it. I think most of his patients are 

 ladies. We are visited frequently bv divine and elec- 

 tric healers, spiritualists, hypnotists,"and other frauds, 

 and they all seem to reap a good harvest from the 

 " suckers." You have my sympathy in all your efforts- 

 to better mankind. Jno. M. Killough. 



Waco, Tex., Aug. IS. 



That is right, friend K. Hold them up to 

 public gaze, and pass them around. Give 

 them free advertising. Shake up community 

 until people begin to open their eyes to the 

 absurd folly of the quacks. Let us keep the 

 thing going until the Oxydonor people, Elec- 

 tropoise, electric healers, and everybody else 

 who is robbing sick people finds that the 

 business does not pay. The proper thing to 

 do is to starve them out. 



ONE PERSON OUT OF EVERY SEVEN DRINKS, 



BUT NOT MORE THAN ONE OUT OF 



SEVEN THINKS. 



The above is from our national president of 

 the Anti-saloon League, Howard H. Russell. 

 Bro. R. adds further to my heading above 

 that the other five are indifferent. Now, the 

 above strikes me very forcibly, as we have 

 been having in our town of Medina a pretty 

 fierce conflict — in fact, we are having it yet — 

 in regard to open saloons. Our town has had 

 no open saloons for a little over twelve years; 

 but since we have, within a very few weeks, 

 made a big raid on the saloons that are not 

 open (except to a favored few), the enemy 

 have been massing their forces in favor of an 

 open saloon. I can get along very well with 

 the person who drinks, and I stand right be- 

 side (or at least I hope I do) the one who 

 thinks; but I have been exceedingly tried with 

 the other five out of the seven who, without a 

 thought, sign their name to a petition, and, in 

 fact, even withotit reading the petition so as 

 to know what sort of paper it zvas they signed. 



