GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



the brooder stove in the center. If any 

 chick felt chilly it just went up near the 

 stove; and if others were too warm they 

 went off into the corners of the room. At 

 night they made a circle clear around the 

 stove, and stretched themselves out on the 

 warm sand that forms the floor of the 

 brooder-house. Not one of the 48 has 

 shown any symptom of any trouble. 

 Thirty-two hatched under three hens a 

 little later were put with them, and not 

 one of the 32 has been lost. As we had 

 only about ten days of the " cold wave," 

 the stove was used only about that long; 

 and, by the way, this stove brooder is not 

 an entirely netv idea after all. Mrs. Jennie 

 Reed, of Holland, Mich, (who afterward be- 

 came my brother's wife), raised chickens 

 years ago in the winter by having a coal- 

 stove in the center of a room having only 

 a gri'ound floor, and she made quite a 

 success of it. Of course she did not have 

 the large galvanized hover to deflect the heat 

 down on the backs of the chicks, saving 

 fuel and making the stove much more 

 effective. 



Now a word about the " high cost of " 

 chicken feed down liere in Florida. Corn 

 is $2.60 a hundred ; " chick feed " contain- 

 ing a very little poor wheat, $2.75 ; and 

 other grain in proportion. Wheat is not 

 on sale at any price. The chickens, old 

 and young, " got tired " of corn, and 

 begged for something else. When the 

 freeze came Ave had quite a lot of potatoes 

 almost ready to dig. Some that Avere only 

 a few inches high started up again ; but a 

 lot had to be dug, even if they were only 

 about the size of marbles. When not too 

 small we baked tliem in a wii'e-cloth pan, 

 as I explained a year ago ; but the rest were 

 boiled for the cliickens. A visitor said 

 such new potatoes as we were giving the 

 chicks were selling in St. Petersburg at 

 15 cts. a quart berry-basket full. Well, 

 tlie diickens, old and young, liked the 

 potatoes when made into a mash with 

 middlings, and it started the Rhode Island 

 Reds to laying that had been " loafing " 

 ail winter; but the potatoes gave out 

 after I had sold about ten bushels at $3.20, 

 and tliere were no more for the chickens. 

 I had been ti'ying to make them eat more 

 cassava, giving it to them just as dug; but 

 they didn't seem to care for it. I think 

 T told you last year about getting a cliea]) 

 loot-cutter to grind up the cassava. Well, 

 when the potatoes were gone I tried pour- 

 ing boiling water on a pail of ground cas- 

 sava roots, ch()p]iing them up and then 

 stirring in enough middlings to make a 

 masli and the whole tribe are now callinu 



for it every day. The hens are laying fine, 

 and the little chicks are satisfied and hai)py, 

 and the corn is comparatively untouched. 

 As the cassava here grows almost of itself, 

 even on unfertilized ground, its cost is only 

 trifling. By the way, you may care to 

 knoAv that I sent a root of cassava to the 

 recent State Fair at Tampa, and got the 

 first premium. I regret I forgot to weigh 

 the big root ; but I remember it was al- 

 most all 1 wanted to carry. It was as 

 big as mv leg (pants and all), and almost 

 as''long. On p. 282, March 15, 1916, you 

 can see a picture of some of the cassava 

 roots. 



Now, cassava is not only a good food 

 for chickens but is good for people, and 

 furnishes the tajjioca of commerce. Who 

 knows but that it may help to reduce "■ th'^ 

 high cost of living " all around when po- 

 tatoes threaten to be $5.00 a buahelf 



FOR A. I. ROOT ON THK MILK GOAT QUESTION. 



About two years aso I got interested in the milk- 

 iToat question. I did a great deal of looking around 

 before I found where to buy one or two. I finally 

 found them and bought two. They came fresh last 

 spring in April. One of these goat.s is a half-blood 

 Toggenburg. The other is a scrub, I think. The 

 mtin I bought her from said she was a Spanish 

 Maltese. She looks more scrub than anything else 

 to me. The grade Toggenburg gave three quarts 

 of milk till along in Aiigust when she dropped to 

 about two quarts, which she is still giving now, 

 Nov. 11. The scrub gave, when fresh, a little 

 over a quart per day at first, tlien dropped to al>out 

 tliree-fourths of a quart which she still gives. The 

 milk from the Toggenburg grade tests three and 

 nine-tenths butter fat, while the scrub's milk tests 

 four and nine-tenths. The milk is as good as any 

 milk I ever ta.sted, and I think a little better than 

 cows' milk. There is absolutely no difference in the 

 taste of goats' milk and cows' milk that I can de- 

 tect — no goat taste whatever. It agrees with me 

 much better than does cows' milk. It has no 

 tendency to make me costive as does cows' milk. I 

 have not yet detected the least goat odor from the 

 does, and I now have five. The buck I have is a 

 young fellow; and as now is the rutting season he 

 iias the goat odor, but not very strong. It likely 

 will get stronger with age. Out of the rutting sea- 

 sou I have found little if any odor on the buck, and 

 none at all on the does at any time. I am getting 

 to be enthusiastic on the milk-goat question. I have 

 found two publications published in the interests of 

 milk-goat breeders. I learn there are thousands of 

 them on the Pacific coast. There they sell goats' 

 milk at 25 cents per quart, and cheese up to $1 per 

 uound, and seem to find all the market they need. 

 T also found that a pure-bred milk goat of anv 

 breed was hard to buy and very high in price. I 

 have been trying to buy a pure-bred female. Tliev 

 have been priced to me from $75 for a spring kid 

 up to $200 for a doe three years old. A pure-bred 

 buck can be had at a much lower price. I have the 

 buck, and intend having the doe. Good grades that 

 will give two to four quarts of milk can be bought 

 for $20 to $50. It looks to me like a nice side line 

 for a beeman. I have a little land, 5 1/^ acres. It 

 costs little to keep a goat or two. Eight can be kept 

 witli the same money that one cow can be kept. 

 They are ])!easant to Irive around. They are great 

 jiets, and very intelligent. T believe tlie milk to be 

 very beneficial to me, and T enjoy the goats them- 

 selves. T intend giving them a good trial any way. 



Pure-bred and nearly i)ure Toggenburgs have 

 give'i more than G quarts per day. 



Sabethu, Kau. Frank Hill. 



