APRIL 1, 1914 



279 



grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. My chil- 

 dren were all converted, and some of the grand- 

 children. I expect to meet tliem some day. But, most 

 of all, and first of all, I want to see my Savior. 

 Abilene, Kan., Oct. 13. N. G. Hershey. 



Dear friends, the above is the record of 

 one of our good veterans who, by a chance 

 word of a good faithful pastor forty years 

 before, took up Bible-reading while sup- 

 porting a family of twelve children. I do 

 not know, and perhaps nobody but God 



knows, the influence and effect of reading 

 the Bible every day for forty years. It had 

 its influence, too, you may be sure on the 

 grandchildren as well, and perhaps on the 

 great grandehildren. And, besides all that, 

 he is enabled to stand up before us in this 

 little " class meeting " — for that is really 

 what it is — and "testify" that, even though 

 he is past threescore and ten, " tiiese are the 

 best days of my life." 



High-pressure Gardening 



ANOTHER " GREAT INVENTION " IN THE LINE 

 OP " CHICKENS " AND " GARDEN SASS.-" 



Before we can grasp the " magnitude " 

 of my discovery in full, I shall have to take 

 up some other lines leading up to it. In 

 making garden in years past I have bought 

 many loads of stable manure; for until I 

 came to Florida I had got to thinking if it 

 is true that it is " money that makes the 

 mai'e go " it is about as true that it is 

 " manure that makes the garden grow." 

 Well, one drawback on the manure, espe- 

 cially if bought at the livery barns, is the 

 weed seeds that come with it. Besides the 

 weed seeds are the seeds of oats that seem 

 to pass the digestive organs with vitality 

 enough to grow " right smart " of ttimes, 

 when they must be pulled out by hand. I 

 remember mulching some choice strawber- 

 ries with stable manui'e, and the oats came 

 up so thickly we had almost a green lawn. 

 Really, tliere is need that Terry and Fletch- 

 er give the iiorses lectures on chewing their 

 food more thoroughly. Grinding the oats 

 would certainly prevent germination; but, 

 if I am correct, our experiment stations 

 have not reported any very great advantage 

 in ground feed. There is certainly a big 

 waste in feeding oats along in this line; but 

 I really don't know the best remedy. I 

 believe it is generally agreed that poultry 

 have a " mill " that God gave them that 

 pretty well cuts off all chance of germina- 

 tion. Below is a clipping from the IHC 

 Almanac tliat may have it about right : 



It is a pretty generally accepted fact among farm- 

 ers that, to get the greatest feeding value from grain, 

 it should be ground. Investigation has demonstrated 

 that in some instances as high as 35 per cent of 

 grain can be saved by feeding it ground. The aver- 

 age saving, however, wnll probably be about 12 per 

 cent. 



For several years past we have kept dry 

 sand under the roosts in all our poultry- 

 houses, and Wesley has swept up the drop- 

 pings the first thing every morning. They 

 are kept in tin cans until wanted in the 



garden. Since we have done tliis we have 

 had little or no trouble from vermin. An- 

 other reason is that almost every day we 

 have visitors who take Gleanings — oft- 

 times ladies; and when I "show them 

 around " it is worth a good deal to me to 

 find no droppings visible in any of the 

 poultry-houses. Now you are about ready 

 to take in my " discovery." 



Mr. Rood, in looking over and admiring 

 my garden a few days ago, said he believed 

 some stable manure, even if it did cost $3.0U 

 a load, would be a profitable investment on 

 some of my new ground. I put a heavy 

 dressing on about 100 square feet where I 

 sowed alfalfa and sweet clover. I also put 

 on half a jjailful of air-slacked lime. The 

 seeds came up finely ; but there was also an 

 excellent stand of oats as usual. After 

 spreading two big loads on the garden where 

 it seemed to be needed, there was about two 

 wheelbarrow loads left. I told Wesley to 

 jjut it under the poultry-roosts. There were 

 probably oats in this like the rest ; but there 

 were very few when night came, and no 

 poultry manure visible; and Wesley says 

 fine dry stable manure is very much less 

 work to handle than heavy, useless sand, 



Terry, in all his writings, has been very 

 emphatic about having stable manure work- 

 ed up fine before putting it on the land. 

 Do you know of any " machine " that will 

 fine uj:) manure as will a hen and chickens? 

 When I saw how it worked 1 got a whole 

 load and put the manure six inches deep 

 under the roosts of all our eight houses. 

 When we used sand, and esjaeeially when 

 we fed much lettuce, the droppings were 

 often so moist they went on the garden in 

 lumps or chunks; and often in hoeing I 

 spent quite a little time in breaking these 

 up and mixing Vv^ith the soil. The hens now 

 do all tiiis, and we have the floors all look- 

 ing tidy if we leave them to the care of the 

 hens a week or more. 



Can you imagine any better way of keep- 



