JANUARY 15, 1916 



85 



long laddei- to get them. Besides, when we 

 do have a bad storm, the chickens seem to 

 prefer a shelter. Our five houses now have 

 a good roof of shingles or roofing-paper; 

 but the walls are mostly only poultry-net- 

 ting, and even then the poultry prefer the 

 trees during very warm weather. A lot of 

 money is worse than wasted all over Flori- 

 da in tight houses. 



Do you advise the yard or colony plan for Flor- 

 ida! 



If you want eggs, give them as big a 

 run as you can. Our Ohio experiment sta- 

 tion has just put out a leaflet showing not 

 only more eggs but a considerable saving in 

 feed by giving a wide range. Down here a 

 piece of wild land seems to suit the chick- 

 ens. We give an average of 100 fowls a 

 run of three acres of trees, bushes, or weeds. 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



APPLE-GROWING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST, 



WITH SOME KIND WORDS SPRINKLED IN 



HERE AND THERE. 



Our good friend Peter Henderson made 

 quite a sensation years ago by writing a 

 book called " Gardening for Profit." liater 

 on he gave us another book called " Garden- 

 ing for Pleasure." The two books have had 

 a great run, and are selling yet to a consid- 

 erable extent. The good brother who sends 

 us the article below recommends " garden- 

 ing " with a four-horse team and an appro- 

 priate cultivator, and he rather makes light 

 of " gardening with a hoe." When he gets 

 to he seventy or eighty years old he may 

 have more respect for the humble occupa- 

 tion of gardening with a hoe. 



BliEWSTEK FLAT, THE ONLY PPOT IN WASHINGTO.V 

 WHERE WE TAKE SWEKPSTAKE PRIZES ON APPLES. 



Dear Mr. Root :--XxiOi\\er year has rolled around, 

 and it still finds us ou good mother Earth, and still 

 living in the land of plenty and peace, the United 

 States of America. You, undoubtedly, would thank 

 God for this peace blessing, while I would thank 

 also our President for his kind but forcible answers 

 that " turn away wrath." 



We are a long distance from each other — you in 

 the South, where it must be warm, while I am in 

 the great Northwest \\liere it ought to be cold, and 

 is cold. This morning it was two below zero, with 

 about a foot of snow. In the mountains, eight miles 

 away, it was ten below. This at this time is not 

 much difference; but later it is generally twenty to 

 thirty degrees colder in the mountains than here. 



, This is certainly an apple country, and the only 

 .p.est we have to bother us i.s the ticks. If they once 

 get on us, and begin to set in their prongs, they 

 slay; and if pulled off they le-ive these prongs in the 

 Hesh. making a .spot that itches awfully. But when 

 we begin to feel one starting in on us a little tur- 

 pentine, kerosene, or grease rubbed on the spot will 

 kill the tick; and when dead it will let loose. They 

 get on the horses; and if let alone until they develop 

 they become as large as half an inch in diameter, 

 tilled with blood that they suck from the body. I 

 understand that California has us beat "forty ways" 

 in the abundance of ticks. 



Over on the other side of the mountains, at Seat- 

 tle and on, it seldom freezes, so by going some 70 

 or 80 miles west we must have nearly as warm and 

 pleasant weather as you do in Florida. Here we 

 have abundance of snow in winter, and rather dry 

 in July and August; but at other times we have 

 r.iin enough to grow an abundance of crops. 



The great cry here is for irrigation-ditches, and 

 we have them too. Millions of money are spent to 



get water on to the land, and, of course, it is fine 

 to be able to water when needed. But the land and 

 crops are abused by use of tco much water. This 

 is because of people not using good judgment in 

 irrigating. The overhead system is going to be the 

 popular one, because then all parts of the land get 

 tihe same quantity of water, and the land does not 

 have to be leveled. 



I noticed a letter in Gleanings .some time ago 

 from a Socialist. I thought he was very ungeutle- 

 inunly and was lacking the gentle spirit now char- 

 acteristic of tiie greatest nation on earth. Covetous- 

 ness is the desire of the ignorant and indolent. The 

 men who want nothing but what they earn are the 

 very bone and sinew of this natitai. Tliey see op- 

 portunities on every hand, and simply say to them- 

 selves, '■ We do not want our neighbors' house or 

 v^ealth, but are able to go out and earn a house or 

 wealth just like my neighbor's or better." This 

 principle shows equality, and a generosity that is 

 progressive. But the man who advocates division of 

 wealth and its comforts does not understand the true 

 principles of manhood, and is drifting into the par- 

 asite stage; and if we aU would drift along that 

 line we should become more helpless than our next 

 best associates, the animals. The true American 

 type of man will never call for a division of wealth, 

 but will assert hiaiself and take another spot on the 

 broad acres of the United States, and there dig out 

 a comfortable fortune too. The true American type 

 of manhood would scorn a division of wealth as an 

 insult. But the man M'ho would lake a division of 

 a neighbor's goods would set an example that, if all 

 indulged in, would make us a beggar nation. 



You, Mr. Root, are setting one of the best exam- 

 ples of industry. You at the age of 75 are doing 

 more good hard work than all the great army of 

 hoboes in this nation. You dig in the garden, sup- 

 plying nob only yourself with luscious fruit, but 

 hand them around to the neighbors. You keep huny. 

 You find plenty of work, and you always will as 

 long as you live. Industry is the making of this 

 nation. Let every hol)0, those that would call for a 

 division of wealth, look to you in jour industry and 

 be inspired both of God and for the good of human- 

 ity. With the example you are setting, if followed 

 out by every one in our land of plenty, not one 

 person in this peaceful nation of ours would be in 

 want. They would all be in comfortable homes, and 

 plenty to eat and to wear. They would all be lau- 

 abiding citizens, and not be in the way of others. 

 The man that would suggest a division of such in- 

 dustry should begin to think how they could most 

 humhily apologize. 



Tiie few members of our human family are not 

 gi'eat because of their religion or wealth, but be- 

 cause of good and wise deeds done for humanity. 



To keep well depends on how we treat ourselves. 

 \\c are really our own doctor. Eating the right 

 kind of food and the right quantity with variations 

 will keep us well all the time. Working or' playing 



