741 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



market are rather expensive, especially if 

 one has to pay the express charges on a 

 package. 



This government leaflet speaks of these ' 

 troubles, gives us something that costs but a 

 trifle, and lasts something like a week. T 

 am glad to see they recommend naphthalin 

 flakes, which we have mentioned before on 

 these pages. I feel quite sure the mixture 

 will do the business. 



Tliis prei^aration is recommended aflei' 

 many exhaustive experiments with almost 

 every thing else. Here it is : 



Many of the substauc&s such as pyrethrum pow- 

 der, camphor, citrouella, and sassafras, while tem- 



porary repellents, lose tbeir effectiveness very short- 

 ly. Ten-pei'-cent solutions of the liquids in cotton- 

 seed oil, therefore, commonly have to he applied 

 daily. 



Various oils, emulsions of oils, and mixtures of 

 oils are used in repelling flies. Crude petroleum, 

 cotton-seed oil, fish or train oil, and light coal-tar 

 oil, may he used pure. 



Jensen (1909) recommends the following formula 

 wliich is said to protect cows for a week: 



Common laundi-y soap, 1 lb. ; water, 4 gal. ; crude 

 petroleum, 1 gal. ; powdered naphthalin, 4 oz. 



Cut the soap into thin shavings and dissolve in 

 water by the aid of heat. Dissolve the naphthaiin 

 iu the crude oil; mix the two solutions; put them 

 into an old dasher churn, and mix thoroughly for 

 15 minutes. The mixture should be applied once or 

 twice a week with a brush. It must be stirred well 

 Lefore being used. 



POULTRY DEPARTMENT 



THE BUSY HEN. 

 A hen stood on the garden lot. 



Whence all but her had fled, 

 And didn't leave a planted spot 



In the early onion-bed. 

 With vim she worked, both feet and legs, 



And the gardener says he bets 

 She was trying to find the kind of eggs 



On which the onion sets. 



When I found the above in the Rural 

 New-Yorker, and concluded to give it to the 

 readers of Gleanings^, I could not quite 

 decide whether it belonged in the Poultry 

 Department or High-pressure Gardening; 

 but I finally decided that it was rather more 

 chickens than garden. 



CHICKBN-MITES AND OTHER " VARMINTS." 



Dear Mr. Root: — Don't feel too bad about tho.se 

 poor mites that were obliged to live on wood between 

 chicken seasons. Wood is his native habitat, and 

 chicken only an acquired taste. If you have never 

 tried carbolinum for mites you have not found the 

 easy way of abolishing them. One application a year 

 to the perches and nests will keep them away, as 

 they hate it as bad as or worse than you do rum. 

 For body lice a little " blue ointment " or mercurial 

 ointment (same stuff) about the size of a pea w^ll 

 rubbed against the flesh under the vent will keep 

 Mrs. Hen free for six months to a year if no rooster 

 is on the job to supply more. These two things make 

 the vermin problem easy. 



Cheshire, Ct., July 6. E. M. Peaslev. 



CUTTING OFF THE SPURS. 



In your June 1st issue, about cutting off spurs 

 from fowls, we always trim them off. Sometimes they 

 bleed freely. If they do, sear with hot iron the same 

 as a cow's horn. 



Bernalilla, N. M., Jane 14. P. E. Pairchild. 



ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR LOST 

 TO THE UNITED STATES BY BUGS. 



When we spent our summers at the cabin 

 in the woods I told you how I fell in love 

 with the wild partridges. The partridges 

 are near relatives of the quails, and I should 



have had some tame partridges long ago 

 were it not that I spend my summers in 

 Ohio and winters in Florida; and when I 

 move away who would take care of my 

 quails or partridges? The following, which 

 I just clipped from the Chicago Advance, 

 has revived my craze for quail or partridges 

 — both or either. 



.■^AVE THli QUAIL. 



Very seldom have we eaten quail on toast. In the 

 first place, we have never felt sure that we knew 

 how; in the second place, it seemed to us to cost the 

 quail so much in proportion to the little good it did 

 us, that we had some conscience about it. We shall 

 now have other reasons. In the current issue of 

 Farm and Fireside a contributor says that the chinch 

 bug costs the farmers of the United States at least 

 $100,000,000 a year. Various means for fighting 

 these bugs have been devised, but their --ivist success- 

 ful enemies are the birds of the .lir. In regard to 

 the natural destroyers of this in!;ect pest the author 

 of the article writes as follows: 



" If the law of the survival of the fittest applies in 

 all cases, it is reasonable to believe that the ultimate 

 check to the propagation of the chinch bug will come 

 about by the birds that eat them at all stages of their 

 life history. Among the birds that eat millions of 

 these pests may be mentioned the quail, the meadow 

 lark, and the sparrow. 



" If the chinch bug is to be practically eradicated 

 we must depend upon the efforts of the quail, as his 

 home is in the brooding-grounds of the chinch bug. 

 Nowadays things that are done have a certain degree 

 of the idea of permanency about them, hence the first 

 step in the permanent destruction of the chinch bug 

 is a more complete protection of the quail that assists 

 also in lowering the losses caused by the cotton wee- 

 vil, the grasshopper, and the potato bug." 



We much prefer quails to chinch bugs. The chil- 

 dren of Israel ate quail. John the Baptist ate baked 

 grasshoppers. The latter were quite as nutritious, 

 and the farmers could spare them better than the 

 quail. Besides, no one wants honey with quail. 



I must confess I do not quite see where 

 the honey comes in in the above pleasantry; 

 but I presume it is because John the Bap- 

 tist, during his ministry, ate locusts and 

 wild honey. 



