1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



407 



am backing that organization up, for I under- 

 stand it has been at work for some time. It 

 publishes a little eight-page pamphlet, with 

 the above title. It is largely the report of the 

 Massachusetts State Board of Health, and 

 gives a correct analysis of pretty nearly all the 

 popular patent medicines ; and they decide 

 exactly as our Ohio State Food Commissioner 

 has decided, that these things owe their pop- 

 ularity to the alcohol, opium, salicylic acid, 

 cocaine, etc., they contain. Just one illustra- 

 tion : A medicine, largely advertised to assist 

 inebriates in breaking away from the drink 

 habit, had a testimonial from a noted temper- 

 ance evangelist. Now, this very medicine 

 contained a large per cent of alcohol. I am 

 glad to see that this little pamphlet does not 

 spare ministers of the gospel who lend their 

 names to testimonials, and religious papers 

 that publish glaring advertisements of these 

 dangerous drugs. Permit me to quote a para- 

 graph : 



The habit of 'dosing" grows, and one vaunted 

 remedy is tried after another, until the health is thor- 

 oughly undermined, and the poor deluded mortal is a 

 physical wreck, his only comfort being, if he takes it, 

 that he has been useful in helping to build a steam 

 yacht or a palace for the patent-medicine manufac- 

 turer. 



All through Florida you will see palatial 

 mansions built and owned by patent-medicine 

 men whose names have become household 

 words, and their "steam yachts" are almost 

 always an accompaniment. I wish these pam- 

 phlets could be scattered broadcast all over 

 the United States. Single copy, 2 cents ; 60 

 cents per 100. Address Mrs. M. M. Allen, 809 

 South Geddes St., Syracuse, N. Y. 



STEAM - BOILERS, POTATOES, CXOVER, AND 

 STRAWBERRIES. 



Well, friends, the above is a rather queer 

 " rotation " in farming, is it not? but with 

 myself it comes about in this way : We have 

 for several years been using three ordinary 

 steam-boilers, side by side, of 60 horse power 

 each. With these boilers we use for fuel all 

 the sawdust shavings, and refuse from our 

 factories, the sawdust and shavings being 

 blown directly into the furnace under the 

 boilers. Well, besides the above we have 

 been obliged to buy from $500 to $600 worth 

 of coal every year, and yet this slack coal 

 cos:s us only $1.25 per ton, laid down at that ; 

 but during the past few months we have put 

 in a new water-tube boiler — one large boiler, 

 made on a new principle, taking the place of 

 the other three. In the old boilers the water 

 circulates around the flues, and the heat passes 

 through them. In the new one the water 

 circulates through the flues and the heat is 

 outside of them. Ernest has already told you 

 about it. Well, the new boiler is such an 

 improvement that we have not used a shovel- 



ful of coal since it was fired up. Further- 

 more, we have had wood and kindling to sell, 

 to the extent of several wagonloads a day, 

 because there was more fuel than was needed 

 to keep up steam. The new boiler has given 

 us very much more power than the old ones 

 all together. It was made by the Wilcox & 

 Babcock Co., New York. So much for new 

 machinery. 



As we are now using no coal, quite a quan- 

 tity of wood ashes is produced every day, and 

 we have been told that wood ashes are pro- 

 ductive of scab on potatoes where applied to 

 the ground. But I wrote to our Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station, asking them if, in their opinion, 

 these ashes would be productive of scab, if 

 applied to the clover and strawberries which I 

 use in my rotation. The reply by Prof. W. J. 

 Green, which I give below, I am sure will be 

 of interest to many of our readers. I also 

 asked him if he would recommend mammoth 

 clover instead of medium, where it is all turn- 

 ed under, to prepare the ground for potatoes 

 without cutting any clover or pasturing it off. 



It is commonly belived that unleached ashes favor 

 the development of the potato scab, but I have con- 

 ducted no experiments to determine whether this is a 

 fact or not. Not being able to give you any thing 

 from my experience on this subject I do not like to 

 risk an opinion, as it is a matter of considerable im- 

 portance to you I suggest that you write to the Ex- 

 periment Station, New Haven, Conn.; also to the Ex- 

 periment Station, Amherst, Mass. I think, however, 

 that if I were situated as you are I should not hesitate 

 to use the ashes on clover, and to plow the clover un- 

 der for potatoes. I do not believe that you will have 

 as much trouble with the ashes causing scab as with 

 the scab germs which remain over in the soil from 

 one potato crop to another. The ashes which you are 

 using are, of course, less valuable than those made 

 from hard wood; but if ashes do have any effect in 

 prom .ting the growth of the scab- germs it is probable 

 that it would not make much difference what kind of 

 wood they were from. 



You speak of growing potatoes and strawberries 

 with clover for rotation. Permit me to call your at- 

 tention to a fact which you no doubt have observed, 

 and which mav be of value to you. We have had so 

 many successful potato crops planted in July, on 

 ground where a crop of strawberries had been grown, 

 that I am beginning to think the strawberry crop is 

 an excellent one to precede potatoes. More than that, 

 if the potatoes are laid out about this time of the 

 year, or some time in May, and allowed to sprout in 

 the light, it is not likely that there will be much, if 

 any, scab on them. Such has been our experience; 

 and I think now that, if I were growing potatoes for 

 seed, I would take just this course. Put the potatoes 

 out to sprout about the middle of April; plant about 

 the first of July, on ground where a strawberry-bed 

 had just been turned under. We secured in this man- 

 ner 200 bushels of Bovee per acre in 1897. and 800 bush- 

 els of Enormous in 1898. Not only this, but all that 

 we have grown in this manner were almost entirely 

 free from scab. I do not think that the Mammoth 

 clover would be any better for you than the medium. 



W. J. Green. 



The Ohio Ag. Ex. Sta., Wooster, O. 



LONG-RANGE FORECASTS. 

 On page 378 of our last issue, I alluded to a 

 slander on the United States Weather Bureau. 

 Since then a letter from the chief of the 

 Weather Bureau has been addressed to me on 

 the subject, and I take pleasure in submitting 

 it to our readers: 



TJ. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Weather Bureau. 

 Washington, D. C, May 4, 1899. 

 Mr. A. I. Root, Displavman, Weather Bureau, Medi- 

 na, Ohio : — Sir. — Referring to clipping from daily 

 paper, giving long-range forecasts, which are alleged 

 to have been furnished the L,ife-saving Service by the 



