932 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



lindeni. Then we have some deep-red colei 

 for a contrast to the golden bedder. These 

 beautiful foliage-plants, when grown to per- 

 fection, are to me fully as handsome as any 

 flowers in the world ; and when you once get 

 the hang of it, it is the easiest thing in the 

 world to get rooted cuttings by the doz ns or 

 hundreds. Now, please do not ask me to sell 

 or give away these plants I have mentioned. 

 With all the business on our hands we really 

 can not do it — at least not now. You can get 

 them of our friend S. W. Pike, St. Charles, 

 111., cheaper than we can possibly grow them, 

 or of almost any oiher florist. 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING, OR, RATHER, FRUIT- 

 GROWING, IN COLORADO. 



I thought I could top all of your aiticleson high- 

 pressure fi uit-gro wing ; but the Nov. 1st uuniber of 

 Gleanings has pioved too much for lue. However, 

 as my little story is simply one of peaches and apples, 

 and grown only by ordinary culture, I will se^d it 

 along. 



Our situation is in a little valley on the western 

 slope of the Rockies, known as the North Fork of the 

 Gunnison. It is a small vallev, with peaks running 

 from 10,000 to 13,000 feet elevation on three sides of it, 

 and snow iu sight for ten monihs lu the year, and 

 but a few miles away. The altitude of the valley is 

 5500 feet, or over a mile above sea level. It seems 

 wonderfullv adapted to fruit-raising, and we raise to 

 perfection all the Iruits giown in the United States 

 except the tropical fruits. 



Last year a man here measured off an acre of peach- 

 trees and kept account of it. He netttd 11000 from 

 that acre. But perhaps a more convincing report is 

 that from a woman who last year had 'iV% acres in 

 peach-trees. The fruit fiom these was sold to one 

 dealer for $3000. This year she had four acres in 

 bearing, and the same man gave 92800 (or 50c a box) 

 for the fruit, and she sold some J200 woith besides. 



These orchards received simply the ordinary care, 

 but they are very favorably located. They are, of 

 course, above the average, but the general run of or- 

 chards here produce results far ahead of any other 

 locality I know of. 



One little orchard of three to four acres of apple- 

 trees produced a crop of apples that sold for 81-100 for 

 the choice apples, leaving all the second-giade, which 

 brought a few hundred more. I can t give any returns 

 on winter apples for this year as yet, but some 30,000 

 boxes have been bought and shipped by a Chicago 

 firm, for which they paid from 50c to 00c a box, they 

 doing all the work except the picking, and also fur- 

 nishing the boxes. Then they had to have them haul- 

 ed 30 miles to the railroad. Thev consider the cost is 

 from 80 to 00c a box on the cars ; 2^ boxes equal one 

 barrel, and the same firm are buying apples in the 

 Ea.st, they claim, for fl.lO a barrel, so you see the 

 quality is here. 



1 will try to get some figures about the apple crop 

 later on, and let you know. H L,. James. 



Hotchkiss, Colo., Nov. 7. 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



" ANOTHER WARNING IN REGARD TO COM- 

 POST PEDDIvERS." 



The above is the title of a bulletin issued by 

 the North Carolina Experiment Station. They 

 send it out because so many rascals are going 

 ab )Ut the country offering to sell recipes by 

 which any farmer can manufacture the best 

 fertilizer, as they claim, that cos's only $3 00 

 a ton. The price of this recipe is §5.00. The 

 bulletin tells how it is done, and gives the rec- 

 ipe in full. 



Now, this illustrates once more what I have 

 been laboring so hard for years to teach the 

 general public. There are no valuable pro- 

 cesses or recipes for doing any thing, hawked 



about the country for a certain sum of money, 

 say $5.00 for something that is printed on a 

 piece of paper not laiger than a postal card. 

 The whole thing is a humbug and a swindle. 

 Our agricultural books aid papers contain all 

 the valuable informaiion as soon as it has been 

 proved to be valuable The experiment sta- 

 tions of the United Slates are constantly de- 

 voting a large portion of their time to testing 

 all these things as fast as they come up. 



Another of these swindles is what is called 

 " the farmer's compound fertilizer." It is a 

 plan of composting all the manures made on 

 the farm, with various chemicals. No doubt 

 the stuflf can be made for .?3 00 a ton or less, 

 especially if the farmer does not count his 

 time any thing while he is " fussing." 



But this bulletin disciisses all these plans 

 and processes. It shows up their weak and 

 absurd points, and then tells the farmer, free 

 of charge, the most intelligent and up-to-date 

 plan of composting and mixing his stable ma- 

 nures with peat, muck, straw, or soil. Market- 

 gardeners and greenhouse men are already 

 in the business ot making valuable compost 

 from every thing available — street-sweepings, 

 muck from the swamp, leaves from the forest, 

 etc. But these rascals that are stealing money 

 from the farmers under the guise of being 

 scientific are not even as well posted as the 

 gardeners and florists in this business. When 

 any such man comes around and wants $55.00 

 or any other sum for such a secret, show him 

 this, and then set the dog on him. 



Once more : Wh}' should anybody pay !? 1.00 

 or S5.00 for what is printed on a little bit of 

 paper when the whole thing might be given, 

 and, in fact, is given, in our agricultural pa- 

 pers that go to thousands of people ? and in- 

 stead of paying >^1.00 for what is printed on a 

 little scrap of paper you get a great big valua- 

 ble newspaper once a week, with thousands of 

 such valuable items, for a whole year, for the 

 dollar. The only trouble about the home pa- 

 per is that it sometimes is inconsiderate enough 

 to help push these schemes in their advertising' 

 columns. 



OUR RELATIONS WITH CHINA. 



We quote as follows from a writer in the 

 Rural New- Yorker: 



Our exclusion of Chinese subjects from residence 

 here, while demanding entrance into China for all 

 sorts of American enterprises, has aroused a deep re- 

 sentment. . . . After exacting a reasonable com- 

 pensation for the los-s of American lives and property 

 we should get out of China, and stay out until we are 

 welcomed back, asking only such privileges as we are 

 willing to accord the Chinese— that of merely trading 

 between the ports of the respective countries. 



I confess I have alwa}S wondered how we 

 could demand freedom in traffic and travel on 

 Chinese soil while we single out China alore 

 among the na.ions, and forbid her peopk^ 

 from setting foot on our soil. Yes, I have 

 heard the mat'.er explained, and I have listen- 

 ed to the reasons; but still I am not satisfied. 

 If we wish and expect to be permitted to carry 

 the gospel of Jesus Christ to China, and civil- 

 ization with it, are we not in duty bound to 

 practice a little more the teachings of the gos- 

 pel in our treatment of the Chinese people 

 who wish to come over here ? 



