GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



yocd deal has been said about chickens and 

 gardens in the saving of expense ; but where 

 anybody goes at it — man, woman, or child— 

 in the way the good doctor tells about in 

 the above, it wiU surely pay in the way of 

 better health, better eggs, and a profit be- 

 sides. 



THEY LAID IN SPITE OF THE SWEET POTATOES. 



In the Poultry Department, March 1, you mention 

 sweet potatoes as being the cause of the hens sus- 

 pending their laying. I have fed my hens sweet 

 potatoes, boiled and mixed with bran, for their 

 winter breakfast for some years, and had e?gs to 

 sell all winter. Of course I never fed them all they 

 would eat. Some folks will tell you that to feed 

 your hens peas will stop their laying; yet my daugh- 

 ter fed hers nothing but peas this past winter, and 

 had just as many eggs. Of course they had free 

 range. Mrs. Augusta Tremi-er. 



Linden, Texas. 



THE RECENT MILK WAR IN CHICAGO, AND 

 SOME OTHER THINGS. 



I clip the following from the Rural New- 

 Yorker: 



The question confronts us " What are we going to 

 do to avoid such conflicts in the future? " That we 

 are held in better repute than heretofore is sure ; but 

 whether we can get a living price for our milk is the 

 question. All over this country, milk is the one food 

 that is sold below its real value as food. Compare 

 it with any food you please, and it is, considering 

 its food value, sold cheaper. We have left the mar- 

 keting of our milk to others, only to find that its 

 food value is not known, and that not a dollar has 

 been spent by these distributors to inform the people 

 of the vital force contained in this, almost the only 

 uncooked food we have today. That the food elements 

 of milk have vital qualities in the maintenance of 

 life and growth is beyond question, and yet the city 

 of Chicago consumes $20 per capita of liquors to 

 $5.75 of milk. Our milk merchants, who should 

 have been telling this story, have failed, and we find 

 our market less than one-third what it should be. 

 They have had but one thouight, and that has been to 

 fatten on profit. They have had invested less than 

 $25,000,000 in their plants, and have employed but 

 4000 men to do their work, while we have had more 

 than $250,000,000 invested in production, and em- 

 ployed 10,000 to make the milk and feed. They have 

 sold the milk in Chicago at eight cents per quart and 

 five cents per pint, and paid us on an average for 

 the year tlu-ee cents per quart. Can we longer stand 

 such service, or nuist we undertake the marketing 

 of our product? 



There are three points made in the above 

 than I wish to consider. " Almost the only 

 uncooked food we have today." I did not 

 think of it till just now ; but milk certainly 

 is, as a rule, uncooked food, and I suppose 

 our readers all know there has been first 

 and last a good deal of talk and perhaps a 

 good deal of truth in the importance of 

 making one's diet, or at least to a great 

 extent, on uncooked food. At least one 

 good-sized book, and perhaps several books, 

 have been devoted to the matter. Well, 

 honey is also, as a rule, uncooked food, and 

 both milk and honey have the sanction of 



Holy Writ. " Butter and honey shall he 

 eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, 

 and choose the good." 



The second point made in the above is 

 that beer aiul other liquors cost on an aver- 

 age $20 per capita in Chicago, while milk 

 costs only $5.75. May God help Chicago if 

 this is indeed true ; and I think we may re- 

 joice to k'low that just now milk is rapidly 

 taking the place of beer. Grreat factories 

 and railroad companies are taking measures 

 to have their employees drink milk instead 

 of beer. 



Last, but not least, we are told that in 

 Chicago, where the consumer pays from 8 

 to 10 cents per quart, the producers, the 

 farming people, get now, or have been get- 

 ting, only tliree cents per quart. If this 

 recent war should end in giving the hard- 

 working farmer (who works, not only eight 

 hours a day, but close on to twice that 

 much) more than he is now getting, we 

 ■ shall all rejoice. The men, women, and 

 children who devote their lives to the pro- 

 duction of pure, clean, wholesome food for 

 mankind should have good pay; and any- 

 thing that can be done to shorten the dis- 

 tance and the difference in prices between 

 producer and consumer is real missionary 

 work. We expect that staple articles of 

 food are sold, as a rule, on a very small 

 margin of profit. Of course, it costs some- 

 thing to handle milk, keep it pure and clean 

 and unadulterated, and handle it quickly. 

 But I am sure there is no need of a profit 

 on it of 200 or 300 per cent. 



In our Florida home we pay 10 cents a 

 quart, and the money goes directly to the 

 producer. He gets the whole of the 10 cents. 

 He not only gives us the nicest Jersey milk 

 I ever tasted, but he gives such good meas- 

 ure Ave would willingly pay him more than 

 10 cents if he would take it. Perhaps I 

 might mention the fact that this good neigh- 

 bor is E. B. Rood, the strawberry man. He 

 keeps a tine grade of Jerseys which furnish 

 manure for his strawberry-beds, and en- 

 ables him to furnish his customers both milk 

 and strawberries. He used to furnish Jwn- 

 ey also; but he has now turned the honey 

 business over to another good neighbor, 

 Mr. A. E. Ault. 



THOSE PICTURES ON PAGES 485, 486, 487. 



Perhaps some of the friends who read Gleanings 

 may like fo know " who is who " in the pictures 

 mentioned above. Well, it is the family belonging to 

 " Blue Eyes." Mr. Arthur L. Boyden, her husband, 

 is coming from the express office, and their three 

 children, Ralph, Helen, and Wynne, are accompany- 

 ing him. On page 487 we get a glimpse also of 

 Alien I. Root, Ernest's youngest — the "A. I. R." of 

 the future, kind Providence permitting. I might re- 

 -mark that Wynne Boyden, sixteen years old, and a 

 little taller thaji lii.s father, is now teaching his 

 grandpa how to run his new automobile. — A. I. R. 



