Dec. 1, 1911 



Within the past few years the publishers of 

 Gleanings have been instrumental in the distribu- 

 tion of nearly 1000 copies of Mr. T. B. Terry's great 

 health boolc, " How to Keep Well and Live Long." 

 Whoever has followed Mr. A. I. Roofs writings on 

 health in our columns knows how heartily he has 

 endorsed this volume, and we dare say that no com- 

 bination offer we have recently made has met with 

 greater success than that of (H.eaning.s one year, 

 and Mr. Terry's dollar book, both for j?1.50. 



Mr. Terry is not a theoretical writer. He is prac- 

 ticing what he teaches, and is to-day both hale and 

 hearty, with good prospects of rounding the century 

 mark, which he does not hesitate to say he hopes 

 to reach. And Mr. Terry is adding every day to his 

 knowledge on matters pertaining to health. His 

 latest discoveries in this line, as well as his able 

 discussions on subjects pertaining to successful 

 farming, appear each week in the rractical Farmer 

 —a weekly agricultural paper published at Phila- 

 delphia. 



The Practirul Farmer is one of the most worthy of 

 our exchanges, and is, indeed, a down-to-date and 

 worth-while farm paper. It is in no sense localized; 

 and an application of Mr. Terry's teachings, and 

 the teachines of the other editors of this excellent 

 journal, are applicable wherever practical farming 

 is undertaken. The regular subscription price of 

 the Practical Farmer is Sl.OO per year; but we take 

 pleasure in oflfering a combination of this weekly 

 paper with Gleanings one year for only 81.50. both 

 postpaid in the United States. To Canada the com- 

 bination rate, including postage, is 82.30, and to 

 other countries 83.15. 



If the book " How to Keep Well and Live Long," 

 by Mr. Terry, is included with the Practical Farmer 

 one year, and Gleanings one year, the rate will be 

 82.00 in the United States, 82.80 in Canada, and 83.70 

 to foreign countries. 



By A. I. Root 



"DUCKS" AND "dollars." 



Now, the above is not exactly the title of a beau- 

 tiful new book put out by the Farm Journal people, 

 of Philadelphia, for their book is called "Duck 

 Dollars." This book is one of my "happy sur- 

 prise.s." With all I have had to do with ducks and 

 ducklings during the past year or more I was ready 

 to drink in every word of this book and to appre- 

 ciate fully every one of the forty or fifty beautiful 

 pictures. In the first place, there is a beautiful il- 

 luminated cover that ought to make any young- 

 ster's eyes dance when he gets a glimpse of it. 

 Then there are almost a hundred pages of beautiful 

 plain print on fine heavy paper. Their title-page 

 is a gein. A system of side headings will tell one at 

 a glance every subject treated on in the whole 

 book. Another thing, there is no advertising of 

 ducks for sale, nor any thing else. I have searched 

 the book through to find out who wrote it. He is 

 certainly one of the most able and scholarly writers 

 on poultry I have ever come across. The book is 

 worth dollars — I came near saying, to any one, no 

 matter whether he raises ducks or not. It not only 

 tells about ducks, but it tells how to do business; 

 how to learn any business by slow steps and hard 

 work. I suspect our good friend Michael Boyer 

 had something to do with it; but his name as 

 author does not appear anywhere. The Farm. 

 Journal people certainly deserve great credit for 

 the beautiful books they have been giving us on 

 poultry at such a very reasonable price. This book 

 is (fnly 25 cents: and it is clubbed with the Farm 

 Journal so you can get it for even less than that. 



Now, right here I wish to make a protest against 

 the poor cheap poultry-books that are being adver- 

 tised and sent out. There are poultry-books now 

 afloat, almost by the hundreds. Some of them are 

 simply advertising catalogs, poorly printed, and 

 that on the cheapest kind of paper; and yet the 

 owners — I can not call them authors — ask 50 or 75 

 cents, and even 81.00 for books that do not cover 

 the subject at all, and are full of errors and blun- 

 ders. May be this is a little severe; but, my friends, 

 before you think of pushing off on tMe world another 

 poultry-book, just place before you one of the Farm 

 Journal books and see how many pages tfiey give 



of beautiful print and half-tone engravings from 

 real work and actual life. This book I am speaking 

 of is a history of the Weber duck establishment in 

 Wrentham, Mass. These men, father and son, 

 have raised ducks, not only by the hundreds and 

 thousand.s, but tens of thousands, and they know 

 what they are talking about. 



BUCKWHEAT— ALL ABOUT IT; HOM' TO GROW IT; 

 DIFFERENT KINDS, ETC. 



After my article on page 545, Sept. 1, was printed, 

 I felt for a time considerably disappointed because 

 no information was forthcoming— that is, in print- 

 ed form— from our experiment stations in regard 

 to buckwheat. Just now, however, some kind 

 friend has sent us Bulletin 84 from the West Vir- 

 ginia Experiment Station, entitled "Experiments 

 with Buckwheat and Oats." About a dozen pages 

 of it are devoted to reporting experiments with 

 buckwheat. The pamphlet also contains four beau- 

 tiful half-tone illustrations of buckwheat-fields. 

 Experin)ents with chemical fertilizers show no re- 

 sults with nitrate of soda alone; but 400 lbs. of acid 

 phosphate gave 43 bushels to the acre, where no 

 fertilizer, side by side, gave only 17 bushels to the 

 acre. This experiment was repeated in 1898, 1899, 

 1900, 1901, and 1902, with a similar result. Four 

 kinds of buckwheat were tested— the Japanese, 

 silverhull, gray, and the Russian. During a test 

 of three seasons the Japanese gave an average 

 yield of more than ten bushels per acre more than 

 any of the other varieties. Northern-grown seed 

 gave a balance of titree bushels per acre above 

 seeds grown in the South. In ^\'est \'irginia two 

 crops have been grown successfully on the same 

 ground in one season, the first crop ripening in 

 July, and the second in September or early in 

 October. The sowing of May '28, however, gave the 

 larger yield. 



In the concluding summary they advise plowing 

 as early as possible, and then harrowing the land 

 so as to kill the weeds and aid in getting the soil in 

 soluble and available form. They recommend 

 sowing one bushel of seed and applying from 150 to 

 300 lbs. of acid phosphate to the acre. The above 

 agrees substantially with our own experience. I 

 am glad to see the Japanese buckwheat, which we 

 introduced, and have recommended for more than 

 twenty years, still holding its own. 



Nothing is said in this bulletin regarding the 

 value of buckwheat for bees. Their experiments 

 were evidently conducted with the view of testing 

 its value as a food product. The tables given are 

 worthy of a careful study. I do not know whether 

 this bulletin is available at this late date; but I 

 have written the director; and if it is now in print 

 we will try to make arrangements to furnish it, or 

 a reprint, free of charge to our readers. 



MEMORY-BOOKS AND AIDS TO MEMORY, ETC. 



After the article on page 407, last issue, was in 

 type I saw a little book on memory culture adver- 

 tised with such extravagant praise that I at once 

 .sent '25 cts. for it. Well, it is a pretty fair little book 

 of a dozen pages or more; but the particular point 

 or help that I found in the book was to write down 

 a list of the things we have trouble in remember- 

 ing, and put the list in the pocket. There is cer- 

 tainly not much discovery in writing down the 

 names of things you wisli to remember; and I 

 think I heard it mentioned years ago, that, after 

 you have written out a word or a man's name you 

 will be pretty sure to remember what you wrote; 

 and if you can also remember that it is written 

 down on a piece of paper which you have in your 

 pocket you can pull out the paper and read what it 

 is. No doubt all of this is a useful exercise in help- 

 ing you to remember, but I do not quite see that it 

 is a new discovery. 



As I approached the end of the book I had not 

 .seen any thing advertised, and was going to con- 

 clude that the investment was not a bad one after 

 all; but in the last paragraph the author mentions 

 that he has a memory or correspondence school; 

 and if you wish to know more about improving 

 your memory you are to send him 85.00; but if you 

 are real anxious to get the very best up-to-date in- 

 formation you had l)etter send 810.00. Now, let us 

 look at it. The originator gives us to understand 

 that 25 ct.s. would cover the entire cost of discover- 

 ies in aids to memory; but after you pay the 25 cts. 

 and read your book it needs five or ten dollars 

 more to get the " wonderful secret " in full. 



