1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



243 



enough for me to agree to what / think is 

 fair and just; but when I feel so sure that 

 my opponent demands somethini;' clear out 

 of reason, then I confess it is hard for me 

 to give up. And then it is a pretty big 

 task, after I have once given up, to be 

 obliged to go and beg his pardon when I 

 feel sure that / was exactly right and he 

 entirely zt<roH,<r. 



Now, dear friends, if I have succeeded in 

 making some beautiful passages in that old 

 Bible shine out in a brighter light than 

 they ever did before, then I shall be glad. 

 If just one poor struggling brother or sister 

 who reads Gleanings shall feel more in- 

 clined to read over and over again the won- 

 derful words of the Savior — the words he 

 uttered while here on earth, living just such 

 a life as we live, then I shall say again, 

 "May God be praised." 



THEATERS AND THEIR TENDENCY. 



After my Home paper in the Feb. 1 issue 

 was in type I was pleasantly surprised to 

 see how a sermon by Dr. Bartlett, of the 

 First Congregational Church, Chicago, en- 

 dorsed the position I have taken as follows: 



The whole awful catastrophe iu the Iroquois theater 

 was a combination of tendencies in an unwholesome 

 modern life in which 'graft" and selfishness and 

 money-getting and pleasure-seeking joine^l hands in a 

 revtlfy of death that has left the city prostrated and 

 weeping. But what of the future? It is well to point 

 out to Christain people who are occasional theater go- 

 ers that they are voluntarily putting themselves into 

 the hands o< tricky and unscrupulous men whose only 

 care is for the dollar 



Can it be truly said that the theater in any way 

 assists the spiritual life or reinforces the work of the 

 church? The majority of plays are said to have some- 

 thing objectionable in them, and several young men 

 have told me this one was no excepiion to the rule. 

 I,et us walk soberly before God this year, and choose 

 our recreations and all our life with eternity in view. 



HIGH- PRESSURE FARMING. 



Julius Johannsen, of Port Clinton, Ohio, 

 a progressive farmer and greenhouse man, 

 sends us the following clipping from the 

 Watditower: 



About ten miles from Philadelphia there is a farm of 

 fifteen acres the owner of which has brought it to an 

 extremely high state of cultivation The results are 

 almost past belief. The matter has been attracting 

 the attention of the United States officials, who have 

 been keeping tab on the wonderful doings of this farm 

 for the past four vears. 



I visited the farm, and met the owner personally. 

 He is a minister in the nominal church, and manages 

 this little farm additionally. On the fifteen acres he 

 was supporting, at the time of my visit, twenty-nine 

 head of cattle and three hor.ses. He raised all the 

 feed for this stock on the fifteen acres, and sold addi- 

 tionally considerable hay and grain which he was un- 

 able to use. He has a good-sized house and barn on 

 the piemises; and last year, besides maintaining him- 

 self and family fiom the proceeds of the'farm, cleared 

 from it a profit of !t;2100. He has brought lis farm to a 

 condition where It produces three crops annually 

 without expending a dollar for fertilizers of any kind. 

 The vegetation is so heavy and luxuriant that weeds 



are completely choked out. There is scarcely a weed 

 to be found on the place. All this has been done on 

 an ordinary clay soil in only twenty years. About 

 him oti every side are farms many times as large 

 where the owners use great quantities of imported fer- 

 tilizers, gather only one crop a year, and just manage 

 to get along comfortably. C. J. Woodworth.^ 



We regret that we have not the full ad- 

 dress of the man who owns this fifteen-acre 

 farm; but as we have a large number of 

 subscribers in and about Philadelphia, I 

 hope somebody will tell us more about it. 

 Perhaps friend Selzer may be able to tell 

 us more of this minister who is doing such 

 wonderful work. Twenty-nine head of 

 cattle and three horses is what furnishes 

 the fertility for the fifteen acres ; but it 

 occurs to me that this minister must have a 

 large family of wideawake boys and girls 

 to help, or else he employs a great deal of 

 help. After getting further particulars I 

 I may decide to visit the place and give it 

 a thorough write-up. I know there is a lot 

 of high-pressure gardening going on in and 

 around Philadelphia; but if I get the idea 

 correctly this is not market-gardening but 

 regular farming on fifteen acres. In our 

 locality I have frequently grown two crops 

 on the same ground, and a few times three; 

 but to do this, even on fifteen acres, some- 

 body, so far as iny experience goes, has got 

 to do a lot of hard work. 



10>^ BUSHELS OF POTATOES FROM ONE 

 POUND OF SEED IN ONE SEASON. 



Knowing that you are interested in potato-growing, 

 and seeing an article in one of the florists' trade papers 

 a short time a-o that may possibly interest you, I am 

 going to send you a copy of it. It reads as follows: 



"I got one pound ot the tubers (New Gold Coin po- 

 tato) about March 1, 1903, and put them in a box in 

 the greenhouse. When sprouted about two inches I 

 took the sprouts out and put them in pots. When 

 about four inches high I cut the tops ofiF three or four 

 leaves above the soil. These cuttings I potted in a 

 compost of equal parts sand and soil. Nearly every 

 one rooted; and when four or five inches high I took 

 the tops off as before. This was continued uniil I had 

 4t)5 plants from the one pound of tubers These were 

 set in the field at the proper time, and about Septem- 

 ber 20 I dug 931 lbs. of potatoes. Had I left them in 

 the ground another thirty days I would have had 100 

 to 20U lbs. more, for many of the tubers were not fully 

 matured " 



Now, the above may not be new to you, and may be 

 in common practice among potato-growers who want 

 to make the most they can out of a small quantity of 

 seed; but while I knew it was an easy way to increase 

 them by breaking off the sprouts and planting them 

 in .soil, it never occurred to me that they could be 

 further propagated by cuttings taken from the sprouts. 



Now, Mr. Root, don't be backward about letting me 

 know what you want in the plant line; and if I have 

 them or can get them for you, I will be glad to send 

 them. S. M. Pike. 



St. Charles, 111. 



The above is " high-pressure " garden- 

 ing without any question. Sometimes I 

 have been afraid that the articles in this 

 department did not always really belong 

 there; but there is no question about the 

 above; and from my experience with a prop- 

 erlj' arranged bed I think there is no ques- 

 tion as to its truthfulness. Just now we 

 are told in the Scotsi)ian of Dec. 12, sent us 

 by Mr. J. S. Townhead, Thornhill, Scot- 

 land, of a new potato in that country that 

 has been sold for ;^1S0 ($726) for one pound 

 weight, and the buyer was offered £Vi 



