MAY, 1917 



G-LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



393 



grew and llncw out a couple of tendrils into the 

 pan and surkcd up all the milk. When the man 

 woke up lip accused the hired man of drinking the 

 milk; but a little later, when they came to take 

 the pumpkin off the vine and open it, they found 

 3 lbs. of butter inside the pumpkin where it had 

 absorbed the milk. 



I made a larger hit with that poem than I have 

 ever done with anything else, and for a time the 

 papers were well filled up with stories about it. One 

 man said he was going to get out a new variety of 

 the pumpkin, which would take care of milk and 

 cream and turn it into butter without the need of 

 any churn or separator. Others told all sorts of 

 stories. One man was going to try the same thing 

 with whisky. In a wet state he was going to 

 feed the pumpkins and watermelons on liquor, 

 and then sell them to go into prohibition terri- 

 tories, where all you had to do was to cut the melon 

 open and find a bottle of tine liquor inside. This 

 I think was what started all these fool stories 

 about feeding sugar and other materials to pump- 

 kins and melons, and having them absorb it. The 

 proposition has apparently gone all over the 

 country, and into all sorts of papers, wherever 

 there are people foolish enough to want this kind 

 of sensation. I don't think this game of feeding 

 sugar to a pumpkin in this way is a bit more 

 sensible than the story the man told me in 

 Colorado. 



He said that they had never had any use for 

 their stable manure, so they threw it out of the 

 windows until the manure pile got larger than the 

 barn. Now he found that he must move one or 

 the other, and he hated to do it. Finally he 

 dropped by mistake some pumpkin seed on the 

 manure-pile. Of course in such a situation the 

 vines made a rampant growth. They were very 

 sliong; and, as the story goes, the vines grew 

 around that barn, lifted it up, and carried it five 

 rods away from the manure-pile into a new place. 

 That did the work for the farmer, and proved to 

 him the great value of stable manure. 



Now, in my judgment that story is just as 

 plausible .<iiid just as probable as this proposition 

 (if feeding stuff to a pumpkin, as these articles men- 

 tion. I believe tlicre is nothing to it, and I agree 

 with you that it is a shame that some of these prom- 

 inent papers should give space to the matter. 



I am sorry to bother you with this long letter, 

 but I got going and talked it off. 



New York, Sept. 23. H. W. Collinowoop. 



Several things impressed me in reading 

 the above story, particularly the fact that 

 friend Collinwood has (like myself) a good 

 wife to throw cold water on some of his 

 hobbies when it seems to be needed. An- 

 other is, to be a little careful that some- 

 body in this great wide world does not take 

 for fact something you intended only for 

 pleasantly or as a joke.* 



THE NEW DIXIE HIGHWAY IN FLORIDA. 



The feat performed a few days ago by the drivers 

 of a Maxwell car in covering the East Coast section 

 of the Dixie highway from Jacksonville to Miami, a 

 distance of 376 miles, in 9 hours and 3 minutes, indi- 

 cates that road conditions have greatly improved, 

 and that the dream of a perfectly paved roadway is 

 about to be realized. — Tallahassee Democrat. 



The above indicates at least three things, 

 if not more. First, the Dixie highway here 

 in Florida must be in pretty fair shape; 

 second, the Maxwell car seems to be still 

 holding its well-earned reputation; third, 

 we have drivers who can make a speed of 

 over 40 miles an hour, and keep it up on an 

 average for close to 400 miles on a stretch. 

 Does this not beat the average locomotive? 



POULTRY 'NEWS 



RAISING CHICKENS IN FLORIDA; ALSO SOME- 

 THING ABOUT " THE HIGH COST OF " 

 — CHICKEN FEED. 



On p. 219, March, I told you about get- 

 ting only 18 chicks from six dozen eggs, 

 etc. Well, next time I got 59 fertile egg's 

 from 60; but as some of the 60 were 

 toward a month old (as I had only six lay- 

 ing pullets to furnish them, and they had 

 just been thru the " smash up " by ex- 

 press), I got only 48 chicks from the 59 

 fertile eggs. They were taken out of the 

 incubator right during the gTeat Florida 

 freeze; and the brooder stove I have men- 

 tioned just hit the spot. You may recall 

 that I have often said no artificial heat is 

 needed for chicks from an incubator down 

 here in Florida, in my opinion. Well, my 

 neighbor Abbott, who raises chicks by the 

 thousand, has never agi'eed with me; and 



since using the stove brooder I have changed 

 my opinion. If I am right, it has already 

 made a revolution in growing chicks. It is 

 even better than the mother hen. When we 

 have several days of cold rainy weather in 

 succession the hen is compelled to brood 

 the chicks so constantly they get little or 

 no exercise. Again, there are hens that 

 neglect to brood the chicks when they need 

 brooding, or when especial weak chicks 

 want brooding. 



Well, days when there was ice in the 

 drinking - dishes almost all day long, and 

 fierce north winds, the chicks around that 

 brooder stove just flopped their little wings 

 and chased all over that 8x8 room with 



* Some years ago the Scientific American printed 

 in good faith some fake potatoes as large as flour- 

 sacks which men were carrying on their shoulders. 

 The editor said afterward that he had been " come 

 over." 



