MAY 1. 1916 



379 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



SWEET cix)veb; a question, etc. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — I should like a little information 

 in regard to a piece of ground that I raised a crop 

 of sweet clover on two years ago. I let it go to seed 

 and plowed it under in the fall. I put corn on last 

 summer, and got a good crop. I want to plow it 

 this spring and put oats on it. I turned all the 

 seed down. Would it be safe to turn that seed up 

 again and sow oats and get a good stand of sweet 

 clover, or must I sow more seed? If so, how much 

 to the acre? This piece of land lies on a hill hard 

 to haul manure to, so I have put sweet clover on 

 as a fertilizer, and intend to sow oats this coming 

 summer, mow the sweet clover, and the next season 

 put corn on the same piece, using the clover as my 

 fertilizer, and put on about 8 bushels of lime to the 

 acre every third year. This is my plan, and T have 

 come to the conclusion that I can reap a crop every 

 year by sowing other clovers and vetch in the corn. 

 This has been a very poor field, but I got two loads 

 of soil of a lady about a mile from here, who had a 

 patch of sweet clover in her yard for a flower-bed. 

 The seed she gathered in the Wyoming Valley along 

 the Stisquehanna River, so she wanted me to rid her 

 of the clover by takins; the soil. I didn't quite rid 

 her of the clover, but I got a good stand, and my 

 bees worked it all summer. The clover grew as high 

 as seven feet in some places. Some of my neighbors 

 laughed at me when I told them about sweet clover ; 

 but I am getting the clover, and corn twice and even 

 three times over what they are getting, so I will still 

 stick to sweet clover. One of my neighbors likes to 

 hunt. He said that clover was the largest crop he 

 ever saw on that field, and he wanted to know what 

 I put on that corn to make such a good crop. I 

 told him sweet clover and a handful of hen manure 

 and ashes to every four hills. He said that was the 

 biggest crop he ever saw growing on that field. I 

 wish to show this section that sweet clover is their 

 best friend if they get acquainted with it right, and 

 give it only half a chance. 



Dallas, Pa. H. Headman. 



My good friend, I cannot answer posi- 

 tively, but my impression is you will get 

 plenty of clover without sowing any seed if 

 you let all the seed fall on the ground be- 

 fore plowing. 



SPINELESS CACTUS ; MISLEADING ADVERTISING 



We clip the following from the Florida 

 Grower of April 1 : 



Some time ago we were threatened with a lawsuit 

 because we refused to accept the advertisement of a 

 man who wanted to sell spineless-cactus slabs. We 

 refused this business because we believe that the 

 only man who will make money from spineless cac- 

 tus in Florida is the man who sells the slab seed at 

 $1.00 each. I had been thru the spineless-cactus 

 furore out in California ten or twelve years before, 

 at which time the promoters claimed that its pro- 

 duction would revolutionize the cattle business. If 

 there was any part of the United States where cac- 

 tus would grow it would be in the dry valleys and 

 on the desert, and it did indeed seem as tho it could 

 be grown without expense and in prodigious quanti- 

 ties there, and that if it was all its promoters claim- 

 ed for it that cattle could be fed for almost nothing. 

 However, we noticed that the agitation soon died 

 down, and at the time we were offered the spineless- 

 cactus advertising we wrote to Prof. Cook, Horticul- 

 tural Commissioner of California, asking him what 

 the results had been. His answer determined us 



that we were right in refusing to endorse spineless 

 cactus, and this attitude on the part of Prof. Cook 

 was also the attitude of the heads of our own State 

 College and Experiment Station. The suit was never 

 brought. A recent ruling of the Postoffice Depart- 

 ment is that papers have a right to refuse to publish 

 advertisements when, in the judgment of the editor, 

 it would not be for the best interests of the paper 

 or the community it represents. 



I have never doubted that a publisher had this 

 right, but it is just as well that this ruling settles 

 the question for all time. We have consistently re- 

 fused to accept advertisements offering liquor, patent 

 medicines, fake employment agencies, and the like, 

 and the land company that gets a permit to use our 

 columns had been closely scrutinized, tho we have 

 inadvertently carried advertising of this kind that 

 we would not carry again. Occasionally we are 

 fooled by parties who seem to be all right. 



We commend Die Grower in the stand it 

 has taken, and devoutly wisli there were 

 more such editors. The wild cactus is cer- 

 tainly a boon to cattlemen (see letter be- 

 low), but it may not pay to grow spineless 

 cactus. 



THAT gasoline-torch (SEE P. 253), AND SOME- 

 THING ELSE. 



We saw in Gleanings of March 15 where you 

 wanted to know about the gasoline-torch and where 

 made. I w^ould say they are sold in Pearsall, Texas, 

 by Beever & Hinds. The "'pear-burners " are used 

 quite extensively in southwest Texas to burn the 

 thorns off the pear so the stock can eat it. The pro- 

 longed drouth lately has brought many of them into 

 use. The stockmen employ Mexicans to run them, 

 and you can see a hundred head of cattle following 

 the Mexican as he singes the spines off. We would 

 send you a picture of one as the Mexican burns the 

 pear if we had the time to get it, but we are busy 

 with the bees now. The bees are gathering honey 

 from the mesquite ; and if the rain came now it would 

 spoil the bloom, so the beekeepers are not wishing 

 for rain while the stockmen are; and those that have 

 both cattle and bees are betwixt the devil and deep 

 sea. 



If it were not for the prickly pear in southwest 

 Texas the stock would die by the hundreds in 

 drouthy times, unless fed cottonseed and cottonmeal. 

 Before the pear-burner was invented, the people 

 used a stick or fork, and with a brush fire would 

 burn for cattle. The gasoline-torch is quite an ad- 

 vantage over the old way. 



Nueces County, a stronghold of the antis, went 

 dry. The Texas " pros " are gradually making Tex- 

 as a dry state. Some of the strongest " antis " are 

 coming over to the pros on account of the brewery 

 frauds that were exposed in Texas. 



We are somewhat apprehensive over the war situ- 

 ation between the United States and Mexico. We 

 live below our town about fifteen miles, and now 

 get the mail but once a week. We are about sixty 

 miles from the border, and feel somewhat uneasy. 

 I don't think a Mexican could catch us in some of 

 this brush ; and if you could see it you would think 

 we could never be found except by a dog. 



I think the gasoline torch costs $18.00, but since 

 all kinds of metals have advanced in price it may 

 be much more now. 



We look forward to the semi-montlily visits of 

 Gleanings, and turn to the Home Talks the first 

 thing. May you be spared to us and all the readers 

 of Gleanings many years. . 



