1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



I did not plow the vines under, any of 

 them ; in fact, we left them until they were 

 killed by frost about ihe first of November, to 

 allow as many of the peas as possible to ripen. 

 I am inclined to think the strain is not yet 

 perfected, for different plants blossomed at 

 very different times. Some of them were 

 covered with pods that were dry, while others 

 were full of pods all green, and still others 

 hardly yet in bloom. All the seed we saved 

 was from the earlier ones. When frost caught 

 them the whole plot was covered with a great 

 mass of vines and foliage. I did not plow 

 them under, as I got the impression they 

 would be worth just as much to be plowed un- 

 der in the spring. I tried to feed them out to 

 our horses, but they did not seem to take to 

 them. My impression is, it was because they 

 had not learned how. I am sure cows will 

 eat them, and I have no fear but that horses 

 would also after they have acquired a taste for 

 the pods filled with the mature peas. I did 

 not record the date they were planted, but it 

 was some time in June. With the chance 

 they had, they made a most remarkable 

 growth ; but I have seen very much of this 

 same rampant growth from the cow peas we 

 obtained from the South, only these latter did 

 not produce ripe seed in our locality. 



SWEET CLOVER, AND WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR. 



The above is the title of a 12-page pamphlet 

 that we are prepared to furnish free of charge 

 to bee-keepers or anybody else interested in 

 this kind of clover that grows better on ground 

 so poor that nothing else will grow on it. The 

 leaflet is made up of suggestions from bee- 

 keepers and others who are well acquainted 

 with the clover. It also discusses fairlv, I 

 think, the question as to whether sweet clever 

 can be called a noxious plant under any cir- 

 cumstances. 



THE KEELY MOTOR. 



Just about the time Gleanings was started, 

 the scientific world was full of excitement in 

 regard to the new force discovered by Keely, 

 that was to supersede steam, electricity, and 

 every thing else heretofore known. Almost 

 every periodical in the land boomed Keely as 

 one of the greatest of modern inventors; but 

 the Scientific American denounced him first, 

 last, and always. They said he was a fraud 

 and a humbug, and that he dared not make a 

 public exhibition of his motor, in a way that 

 honest discoverers do. He gave some exhibi- 

 tions, it is true; but nobody was permitted to 

 come on to the stage, nor would he come out 

 in front before people. He stood by a little 

 window keeping himself a good deal out of 

 sight. The Scientific American declared the 

 wonderful results he displayed were done by 

 the power of compressed air; and when they 

 suggested proving their position by exploring 

 the premises he pretended to get into a tower- 

 ing rage. Notwithstanding, men of great 

 wealth invested their money in Keely stock, 

 and he became almost if not quite a million- 

 aire before he ever gave the world any tangi- 



ble result. For 25 years he duped innocent 

 people who happened to have capital. One 

 of his largest victims, and one of his best 

 friends through all these years, was a lad}'. 

 So well was his secret guarded that the papers 

 declared it had died with him, and some even 

 now pretend the world had suffered a great 

 loss. You know Gleanings has had consid- 

 erable to say about people who possess won- 

 derful secrets that they will divulge only for a 

 certain sum of money; and Gleanings still 

 insists that no good thing ever came along in 

 this line. Keelv succeeded in humbugging 

 people, and making at least a large part of the 

 world believe he was an honest inventor, while 

 he lived in all the affluence and comfort that 

 money could procure during those 25 years. 



While he was living nobody succeeded in 

 gaining an entrance to his laboratory and 

 workshop; but after his death, what then ? I 

 believe there was some little effort made to 

 cover up his hypocrisy and rascality, even aft- 

 er he died; but a reporter from the Scientific 

 Amcrica)i succeeded, with several scientific 

 men, in having the whole premises opened up 

 and explored; and in a recent issue there are 

 half a dozen photographic views exposing the 

 whole thing. In a concealed cellar under his 

 laboratory was an immense steel sphere with 

 strength almost if not quite able to resist the 

 recent tests of cannon at Sandy Hook. From 

 this tremendous reservoir of compressed air 

 Keely had tubes leading to his humbugging 

 machinery. With air under a pressure so that 

 it was forced with a power almost equal to 

 that of gunpowder, no wonder he astonished 

 people, and then called it " etheric vapor, " 

 and made a pretense that this astonishing 

 power was evoked from " vibrations," because 

 he drew a fiddle-bow across the edge of a turn 

 bier ! In additition to the discoveries, a man 

 has been brought forward who helped him 

 make his humbug apparatus. Keel}' robbed 

 rich people — people with immense capital, as 

 a rule. The Electropoise humbug, which it 

 has been our privilege to s'> thoroughly venti- 

 late, was a little different, in that the owners 

 robbed sick people, and are still taking the 

 hard earnings of poor women who do washing 

 for a living, providing they can find victims 

 who do not happen to be posted. And by the 

 way, dear friends, what do you think of a 

 man who would live on other people's earn- 

 ings, enjoying every thing that money can 

 purchase, with such a prospect before him as 

 Keely must have had just before he died? He 

 evaded the truth a long while ; but death 

 brought his iniquity to light. What shall it 

 profit a man if he shall gain the whole world 

 and lose his own soul? 



Many have been the days when I thought I'd write 

 a few encouraging words as to how I appreciate 

 Gleanings. Mr. Matthews took it quite a while be- 

 fo-e I took notice of it. One Sunday evening I hap- 

 pened to pick up a number, I can never tell how 

 much I enjoyed reading your Home talks especially. 

 While I am no flatterer, I believe in letting one know 

 how much good he i-; doing in this life — not after he is 

 gone from this world where they know nothing of it. 

 Mrs. S. D. Matthews, 



Hamilton, N C, Jan. 22. 



