1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



287 



trip to Medina. Almost instantly conscience 

 brought to mind my impatient spirit be- 

 cause the automobile " wouldn't go." Well, 

 it is bad to have an automobile suddenly 

 stranded; but, oh dear me! what does that 

 amount to in comparison with having the 

 busy and helpful wife lie helpless on a bed 

 of sickness? As I went about the quiet 

 house ministering to her wants, in sight of 

 the familiar objects at every turn, that she 

 handled so successfully and deftly, it cut 

 my conscience like a knife, and I inwardly 

 resolved that, so long as 3frs. Hoot was spar- 

 ed to be my helper, I would never again 

 look cross nor feel cross because of the fail- 

 ure of something else. Some sixty years 

 ago a little song called "Annie Laurie " all 

 at once became all the go. Everybody seem- 

 ed to be singing it. It was before the days 

 of Gospel Hymns, and memory went back 

 and held up before my inner consciousness 

 the words "She's all the world to me." 

 When I first heard it I was just getting ac- 

 quainted with Mrs. Root. And in my boy- 

 ish imagination she was then, pretty truth- 

 fully, "all the world to me." How is it 

 how, after we have fought life's battles hand 

 in hand for just about fifty years? Is she 

 stiil ''all the world to me"? Yes, a hun- 

 dred times yes, and more so than my boy- 

 ish imagination of long ago could then com- 

 prehend. Under Mrs. Rood's care and skill- 

 ful directions she was far enough recovered 

 to start the next week on the 48-hour jour- 

 ney home; and as we take up the threads of 

 life again here in Medina I remember the 

 closing words of that old song, especially 

 when I am tempted to be impatient because 

 every thing does not move as I wish, " She's 

 all the world to me." 



Poultry Department 



By A. I. Root 



MY INDIAN -RUNNER -DUCK STORY UP TO 

 DATE. 



To-day is April 6, and my one Indian 

 Runner duck I have several times mention- 

 ed is still laying her egg a day, and she has 

 done this now for almost if not quite loo 

 days without a single break. I have read 

 in the poultry journals of stories like this; 

 but I fear I shall have to confess I never ex- 

 pected to own a fowl of any sort that could 

 give a big white egg (perhaps I should say, 

 rather, a bluish-green egg) for over three 

 months, without a skip. What about the 

 other of the two? you may ask. Well, after 

 I had been scolding her for being lazy for 

 some little time I one day saw the two ducks 

 acting a little queer near some dried-up 

 leaves and brush. A little later one duck 

 was missing, and finally I caught a glimpse 

 of her down under this mass of rubbish. 

 Sure enough, she was on a nest, and evi- 

 dently did not propose to get off for me or 

 any one else. I finally got her off, but only 

 after a real downright pght. I thought) 



once she was going to chase me clear out of 

 the lot, and I actually had to get a small 

 stick or club in order to convince her that / 

 and not she was boss of the ranch. Well, 

 after we settled the matter about who was 

 "running things" I made out to count the 

 eggs and found eleven. You see I had been 

 giving her a bad name while she was quiet- 

 ly attending to business and filling her well- 

 secreted nest Right here let me remark 

 that a woman said in one of the poultry 

 journals that Indian Runner ducks never 

 sit. How is it, friends, you who know? 

 After her racket about giving up her eggs, 

 she got the pouts and didn't lay for a week 

 or more, but she is again laying now. 



As fast as I could get sitting hens, every 

 egg was used for setting, and so far I have 

 had splendid "luck" as the farmers' wives 

 express it. Notwithstanding the caution 

 to give a hen only ten or eleven duck eggs 

 I have given ordinary hens thirteen or four- 

 teen, and one hen came off this morning 

 with thirteen bright and exceedingly lively 

 ducklings. Another had 12, another 11, 

 and one hen that had only 12 eggs hatched 

 every egg. We now have 49 ducks, little 

 and big, and I sold a brood of ele\ en "day- 

 old ducklings" for 20 cts. each. We have 

 not lost a duckling, except the two the alli- 

 gator confiscated, and one that got out of 

 the fold into the great canal, and one more 

 that was gone in the night. You see, after 

 they got a few weeks old they were so much 

 taken up with that waterfall (over the alli- 

 gator cave) that they just wouldnH go to 

 bed at all. Ducks don't go to roost at sun- 

 down as chickens do, and they actually 

 ivouldiVt go into their box with the mother 

 hen, and so I tried leaving them out; but 

 after one out of the flock of 20 "turned up 

 missing" I fixed a sort of "corral, "as they 

 call it out west, and now when they see me 

 coming, just about dark, with the "big 

 stick," they hustle inside and stay until I 

 get round about daylight (not much after 

 4 A.M. at this season) to let them out. 



By the way, I have just received from the 

 publisher a 50-oent book entitled "The In- 

 dian Runner Duck Book;" and while I have 

 gone over the book with great interest I for 

 one would like more space given to the real 

 habits of the duck, and not so much in re- 

 gard to where they came from, growing 

 ducks of peculiar shade of feather (even 

 white ducks) and ducks that lay only white 

 eggs instead of eggs that are slightly tinted 

 green or blue. Again, I have looked the 

 book through without finding a sentence in 

 regard to the Runners being non-sitters. 

 Just this morning I decided to try if it would 

 be safe to let our ducklings four or five 

 weeks old go out in the creek with the old 

 duck; but the minute the biggest drake saw 

 the "youngsters" he gave the signal and 

 the whole four old ducks went like a whirl- 

 wind for the poor little chaps, and before we 

 could interfere the drake had one of the 

 smallest by the neck and wouM have finish- 

 ed him in no time had we not been near 

 by. I think I have read something about 



