GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



THE AVOCADO (OR ALLIGATOR) PEAK. 



On pages 170 and 171 of Gleanings for 

 Feb. 1, 1915, I gave you quite a little in 

 regard to the above fruit which is making so 

 much of a stir in California and Florida. 

 The tree in California that was valued at 

 $30,000 is still bearing fruit and buds. 

 From the Good Health Clinic I clip the 

 following statement from an address de- 

 livered by the Governor of New York. 



Flynn tells us that we would live forever if we 

 ate the avocado (alligator pear) every day, because 

 it gives us meat, vegetable, and fruit combined ; but 

 that is rather begging the question, because there 

 are not enough raised to supply one person in one 

 thousand, and in the Northland they retail for $6 

 to $8 a dozen. There would be just as much sense 

 in the Esquimaux telling us that we should all live 

 upon whale's blubber. 



From the quantity of fruit that had set 

 on the trees when I left Florida toward the 

 first of May, it looked to me as if the price 

 would soon come down from what it had 

 been. I hardly think our trees are large 

 enough to bear fruit this year. The trees 

 belonging to our neighbors, close by us, and 

 across the way, were literally loaded down 

 with fiTiit. FiVerybody seems to praise it. 

 It is very likely, however, as suggested in 

 the above, that nature provides, or at least 

 provides within easy reach, the food that is 

 l^articularly beneficial in any particular 

 climate. I have often thought of this, when 

 partaking of our delicious grape fruit that 

 grows in such abundance right before the 

 open door, that seems to be provided par- 

 ticularly to quench the thirst and give 

 health and enjoyment to the people who live 

 where frost and snow are almost entirely 

 unknown. 



SWEET CLOVER TAINTING MILK AND BUTTER. 



We clip the following from the Country 

 Gentleman : 



SWEET CLOVER AND MILK. 



We are learning new things about new and old 

 crops all the time. Many growers claim that sweet- 

 clovpr pasture will not affect the flavor of milk, but 

 the subscriber who wrote the following letter knows 

 that it did do it in at least one case: 



" A year ago we planted a patch to sweet clover. 

 As our winter oats froze out it was our earliest pas- 

 ture, so we put our cow in this field. The clover 

 tainted the milk, however, and I could not sell the 

 surplus butter, as the customers did not like the 

 sweet-clover flavor. We now have the cow in the 

 woods pasture, and there is no unpleasant odor or 

 taste to her milk or the butter. 



" We put her on the sweet-clover pasture in the 

 morning and kept her in the oats-field at night, and 

 there was a vast difference in the taste of the morn- 

 ing and evening milk; now the taste is the same at 

 both milkings. 



" We will plant sweet clover again this fall, but 

 not as a dairy feed." 



Tlic ahinc 's iiidind a surprise to us. Jn 

 all I ho reporls we have had for years past 



in regard to sweet clover for mih-h cows we 

 cannot now recall ever receiving a word in 

 regard to its tainting milk, and we must 

 think this report is an exception to the 

 general rule; and we are inclined to think, 

 also, that there is a possibility that this 

 sweet clover is peculiar, or that there is 

 some other explanation for it. Will our 

 readers report if they have ever had the 

 same experience? We ask this because we 

 have had so many reports favoring sweet- 

 clover hay and sweet-clover pasture for 

 both milk and butter. 



DANDELIONS AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



You say dandelion is a great honey-plant. I have 

 been looking it over of late years, but have seen 

 but one bee on it. You must have a different kind 

 of plant, or a different bee. Most of the bees about 

 here are blacks or hybrids, and they do not bother 

 dandelion at all. 



I like your journal. I too am getting to be an 

 old man. I am in my 70th year, and I have never 

 been under the influence of strong drink, and I do 

 not know what lager beer tastes like. I think any 

 man that gets drunk has nobody but himself to 

 blame. The saloon-keeper has no power to compel 

 any one to drink his stuff. 



I am a great-grandson of a private in the Revo- 

 lutionary War. His name was Henry Jamison. 

 Lemuel B. Jamison. 



Englishtown, N. J., May 8. 



My good friend, dandelion, like almost 

 all other sources of honey, has its off and 

 on years; and I suppose locality has much 

 to do with it. With us here, as it is about 

 the first thing that the bees can work on 

 most seasons, there is a gi-eat roar over the 

 fields of dandelion. Sometimes the bees get 

 only a little honey as well as pollen. 



You are right, perhaps, in saying that 

 " saloons have no power to compel," etc. ; 

 but the fact that they do by some means get 

 hold of our boys and lead them astray is 

 reason enough why they should be done 

 away witli. 



We are glad to hear from a descendant 

 of one of the heroes of the Revolutionary 

 War. 



ANARCHY, RIGHT HERE IN OUR UNITED 

 STATES OF AMERICA. 



We clip the following from the Youths' 

 Instructor : 



During 1915 there were in this country sixty-nine 

 lynchings, seventeen more than in 1914. In four 

 cases it was later proved that the victims were inno- 

 cent. Three of those lynched last year were women. 

 Leading universities of the Southern states are 

 starting a movement to put an end to this lawless- 

 ness, which is a disgrace to the country. 



God hasten (he time wlieii luir and order 

 shall rule, and not crazy mobs that defy 

 law. 



