1904 



GLEANINGS IN REE CULTURE. 



347 



of the sand, and washed them 

 spring water, I thought they were 

 somest potatoes I ever saw, and 

 now the brilliant pink flowers. 

 the accident I have told 3'ou a 

 were scattered here and there ove 

 and when they were in full bloom 

 so handsome they might do very 

 greenhouse plant. 



in clean 

 the haud- 

 I recolltct 

 Owing to 

 bout, thej' 

 r the field ; 

 they were 

 well for a 



SWEET CLOVER FOR ORCHARDS, VERSUS CRIMSON. 



/^>-;>Kd ^(»o/.-— Recently in New York Mr. F E. Daw- 

 ley, Superintendent ot Farm In.>ititules, told me he 

 wa.s giouiug white raeblol in his orchards Every 

 third year he ripens seed, cultivates the ground, and 

 scratches in the seed in the chaff with a weeder. He 

 says seed kept over is not likely to gernii, ale. The 

 o her j'ears he mows it and lets it lie a-, a mulch 

 through fall and winter. He got his first seed by get- 

 ting m as road supervisor, and le'ling the wild road- 

 side crop ripen its seed. Very likely some of your New 

 York readers know llr. Dawley. He s<iid he was get- 

 ting a ripiilatiou for slovei.liness in growing wet ds, 

 but nevertheless it answered as well as 01 better than 

 crimsi-n clover. ' L. B. Pierce. 



Tallmadge. O., Feb. 16. 



Tobacco Column. 



THE TOBACCO INDUSTRy(?) — DAYLIGHT 

 AHEAD 



You can not imagine the condition of this part of the 

 country where tol acco is almost the sole m ney crop. 

 We can I sr U at any pi ice- every th ng tied up. I was 

 thinking thr other day ot friend' A. I. Root s talks, and 

 wondering if Divinity was not going to show us that, 

 in raising the vile stuff, we weie commitiiig a sin. In 

 rais rig it we exhaust our lauds. We wcai out our 

 strength, and we place upon the ra.rkft something 

 that IS of no value on earth to any one, except merely 

 as a destructive agent, as, for instance, an insecticide. 

 Ask the old gent eman what he thinks of this, and let 

 us hear from him. R. C. Hollins. 



Hadensville, Ky., March 18. 



Now, I am afraid some of the friends will 

 think I am hard hearted when I sa^', "May 

 the Lord be praised for the fact that tobac- 

 co in at least one spot in the world is a 

 drug in the market." Perhaps those who 

 use it will be on my side because it will 

 not cost them so much in the future. But, 

 seriously, it would be strange indeed if it 

 were not true that, with the education and 

 intelligence that now are spreading over 

 the whole earth, clean pure minded people 

 did not begin to think of throwing off this 

 yoke of bondage imposed on us by tobacco. 

 For many years we have been told its use 

 was on the increase. May God be praised 

 if a turning point, or, better still, a revolu- 

 tion, were coming. There are thousands 

 engaged in growing tobacco whose con- 

 sciences are troubled by it. I have talked 

 with them again and again. I have been 

 told over and over that what our brother 

 says above is true. It exhausts the land 

 and deadens the conscience. In a town not 

 ten miles from Medina, where tobacco-grow- 

 ing is all the craze, one church-member con- 

 fessed to his pastor that growing tobacco 

 is bad business for a Christian. "But " 

 said he, "there is money in it, and we 

 must have the money. ' I co not know just 

 what the paster replied; but I should have 

 answered, 'What shall it profit a man if 



he gain the whole world and lose his own 

 soul?" And just now it transpires that he 

 not only loses his soul but he fails to gain 

 an3' thing at all. He wears out the land, 

 and does not get the money he expected. 



THE ALMANAC WEATHER-PROPHETS; INFLU- 

 ENCE OF THE MOON 0^f THE WEATH- 

 ER, ETC. 



A few days ago an editorial appeared in 

 the Cleveland News and Herald to the ef- 

 fect that the U. S. Weather Bureau in- 

 dorsed the "moonshine" notion — that is, 

 that the changes of the moon influence the 

 weather, etc. At the time I mailed this 

 clipping to the Bureau I inclosed the article 

 which was published in our issue for Jan. 

 15, in regard to Hicks and his almanac, 

 etc. Now, as .some of the readers of Glean- 

 ings still insist that Hicks is scientific, I 

 here give the answer received from the 

 W^eather Bureau: 



Mr. A. r. Root:—\ have to acknowledge receipt of 

 j'our letter of the 16tn instant, inclosing an article pub- 

 lished in your journal ot January 1.5, and 10 thank you 

 for your vigorous arraignmeut of fake forecasting, 

 which is along right lines. 



The statement in the Cleveland News and Heraldin 

 relation to the influence of the nioo:i en wi athcr is not 

 authorized by any publication of the Weather Bureau. 

 Very truly yours, 



Willis L. Moore, 

 Chief U. S. Weather Bureau. 

 Washington, D. C. Feb. Ii7. 



Please notice, friends, that the above 

 comfs from Willis L. Moore, Chief of the 

 U. S. Weather Bureau; in fact, the letter 

 contains his signature. 



Just a word more in regard to Hicks and 

 his almanac which a good friend mailed 

 me. I have carefully noted the almanac 

 and the weather since that article was 

 written, Jan. 7, and there has not been the 

 least encouragement from these observations 

 to believe that Hicks knows anymore about 

 the weather than anj'body else. His al- 

 manac does not make even a suggestion of 

 the severe winter that is just passed— so se- 

 vere, in fact, that it scarcely has a parallel. 

 There was not a suggestion in the almanac 

 in regard to the thaw, Jan. 21, that caused 

 such a loss of property and life. If his as- 

 tronomical stulies in regard to the moon 

 and planets, as he avers, gave him any in- 

 sight as to what the weather for the past 

 winter was going to be, he certainly would 

 have made mention of the severe winter in 

 plain and unmistakable terms; and he 

 would also have considered the sudden rise 

 of temperature for just a few days, after 

 which the winter resumed its swa}' and 

 continued so till the first of March. 



It seems to me the above suggestion, cou- 

 pled with the indorsement of the Chief of 

 the Weather Bureau, ought to convince any 

 in the pursuit of true science that no man 

 living at the present time can tell any thing 

 ab:ut the weather ten days ahead, much 

 less point out what it will be day by day 

 for a whole year. 



