774 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



SHORT-TUBE RED CLOVERS ; WHY THEY 

 BACKSLIDE. 



Darwin, in his " Variations of Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication," says that " the 

 progeny of the first cross alwa3's reverts to one 

 or the other of the original ancestors." In my 

 opinion (mind, I don't make the assertion, 

 but simply give my opinion), the cause of so 

 much of Mr. Hasty's clover reverting or back- 

 sliding, as you call it, was due to cross-fertil- 

 izing by the bees. You see that will be some- 

 thing that will have to be encountered when- 

 ever the seed is sown near other red clover. 

 In breeding a great variety of thoroughbred 

 fowls during a period extending over 40 years, 

 so far as my experience goes Darwin is right. 

 Take, for instance, the Plymouth Rock fowl, 

 which was made by crossing a Dominique 

 cock with a Black Java hen. Now, if you 

 cross the Plymouth Rock with a Brahma or 

 Leghorn, or any pure-bred fowl, a very large 

 percentage of the chickens bred from this 

 cross will revert or breed back to the Black 

 Java or the ancestors of the Plymouth Rock, 

 and some will show the plumage of the Callus 

 Bankiva, or wild-jungle fowl of India, which 

 is the original ancestor of all our domestic 

 fowls, i. r. , chickens. It took Sir John Sea- 

 bright forty years to perfect the " Seabright 

 bantam." He conceived the idea of produc- 

 ing a breed of bantams with the marking or 

 lacing of the Polish fowl. He started with a 

 small yellow or Nankin bantam and a Polish 

 fowl. He had to reduce the size of the Polish 

 bird nearly two-thirds (of course I refer to the 

 progeny), get rid of its crest, or topknot, and 

 beard, and at the same time preserve or per- 

 petuate its lacing or marking upon the dimin- 

 utive bantam. Njw, if we could only control 

 the mating of our queens as we can that of our 

 horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry, I 

 firml}' believe that the breeding of bees with 

 longer tongues or any other desirable quality 

 would soon be accomplished. 



Ashbourne, Pa. W. E. Flower. 



THE MEAT DIET, AND THE USE OF SUGAR. 

 You speak of meat diet, and I am pleased 

 to say that, if I took Gleanings for a hun- 

 dred years, and paid you §1.00 a year for it, 

 and never read it, I would still owe you a debt 

 of gratitude for the mention you made some 

 years ago of the treatment by Dr. J. M. Lewis, 

 Rose Building, Prospect Street, Cleveland, 

 Ohio. I was then pretty well run down in 

 health, and I know some of my friends did 

 not give me very much longer in this world. 

 For several years at the close of the honey 

 season I was sick. As a result of your advice 

 I took treatment from Dr. Lewis. Not only 

 did he leave me in better health than I had 

 ever been, but I learned from him rules in con- 

 nection wiih food, etc., for which I shall be 

 grateful as long as I am in the scene here be- 

 low. I believe there is nothing like meat diet 

 and the hot water between meals ; and after 

 the system gets into good condition I have no 

 doubt simple vegetable foods will answer. In 

 beans we have the same components as lean 

 meat. Doubtless the reason why many can 



not digest meat and beans is because they eat 

 too many other things with them, and their 

 system would first have to be brought under 

 skillful treatment into a condition to digest 

 and assimilate such food. You can have some 

 idea of the way in which I have gained 

 strength through Dr. Lewis' treatment when 

 I tell you in preaching last winter in the lum- 

 ber-camps my average walking was more than 

 15 miles a day, and several times I walked 25 

 to 29 miles in a day, or even without a stop- 

 ping-place between ; and I made, by walking 

 and running, the 29 milesin exactly 7 >4^ hours, 

 preaching, besides, every evening. I can in- 

 dorse all you say about sugar, and more. We 

 soon get accustomed to not using it, and will 

 enjoy our food even more without it. 



Our Homes for April 1st was to me particu- 

 larly profitable. How sad it is that salvation 

 and healing of the soul can' be had " without 

 money and without price," by simply accept- 

 ing Christ, a "free gift," and yet people re- 

 fuse this, and hundreds of thousands can be 

 duped into paying $5.00 to some humbug. 

 The welfare of the body is, after all, nothing 

 compared with the soul. May you have wis- 

 dom from on high to use your influence in 

 Gleanings for the Master. 



Leith, Ont. R. F. HolTERmann. 



[Yes, the meat diet is all right, and so is 

 Dr. Lewis ; but a great many who have tried 

 the treatment have attempted to do it alone, 

 without proper advice. When a patient is too 

 sick or too far away to get to him. Dr. Lewis 

 can give treatment through correspondence ; 

 but of course he prefers to see the person. 

 He has hundreds of grateful patients who have 

 recovered from their old maladies, among 

 whom may be named A. I. Root, E. R. Root, 

 Mrs. J. T. Calvert, and our friend above, R. 

 F. Holtermann. I could name dozens of oth- 

 ers, but they are unknown to the bee-keeping 

 fraternity. — Ed.] 



CHOCOLATE ROLLS AND HONEY. 



I have just returned from a European trip 

 of three months. While it no doubt is not 

 news to you, it was to me that the staple and 

 universal breakfast meal throughout the Con- 

 tinent, with no exception, from Holland to 

 Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, 

 Germany, and even in the hotels of London, 

 consisted of the regular breakfast of chocolate, 

 coffee, rolls, and honey. Sometimes a marma- 

 lade would be substituted for honey. No 

 meat is ever served for breakfast unless spe- 

 cially ordered. 



With this breakfast our party, consisting of 

 44 people, thrived exceedingly, doing steady 

 hard work traveling for three months, no one 

 missing a meal, which seemed to me remarka- 

 ble, as it convinced me that there must be more 

 nourishment in honey than is commonly sup- 

 posed. It was all extracted honey, and most 

 of it would not compare favorably with our 

 Northern State production in flavor, etc. The 

 consumption of extracted honey must be very 

 great there. I saw no comb honey. 



H. R. Wright. 



Albany, N. Y., Sept. 20. 



