May, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



299 



" PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN." 



For some time I have been astonished 

 to read about prize fighting- in a way tliat 

 would seem as if it were one of the regular 

 events of the daj' — perhaps nothing par- 

 ticularly good about it; and it has really 

 seemed as tho some periodicals seemed to 

 think tliese fights were of no particular 

 harm. There was a prize fight lately in 

 our neighborliood — that is, in the city of 

 Toledo. And, by the Avay, I believe the 

 Anti-Saloon League has considered Toledo 

 about the wettest spot in Ohio, according 

 to the population ; and, as is usual under 

 such circumstances, there was not very 

 much inclination on the part of the au- 

 tliorities to enforce our just laws in regai'd 

 to intemperance. Well, there was one thing 

 that pleased me about the Toledo prize 

 fight — the attendance was a disappoint- 

 ment. By the way, I supposed Ave had laws 

 forbidding things of that kind; and I sup- 

 posed, also, there were federal laws. It 

 seems to me that somebody explained it by 

 saying that this was not a real prize fight 

 — it was just a " span'ing-match.'' But 

 even if that is true, one of the combatants 

 was killed not very long ago in the neigh- 

 l)oring city of Akron. But I have never 

 been able to learn whether anybody was 

 arrested by law for murder or not. While 

 I was considering the matter, and wonder- 

 ing that our churches and religious periodi- 

 cals did not make more stir about it, I 

 came across the following in Dr. Bigelow's 

 magazine. Guide to Nature. The doctor 

 clips, as you will notice, from another pe- 

 riodical. 



IS THIS A CIVILIZED ERA? 



I^ast Monday nisht, in the Newark, N. J., Armory, 

 a couple of prize fighters, both of whom may perhaps 

 be able to read the English language and write and 

 speak it afteo- a fashion, stood up and mauled each 

 other before 12,000 people, including " statesmen, 

 judges, lawyers, actors, song writers, bankers, busi- 

 ness men — in fact, luminaries from tlie top rung of 

 the social ladder to the bottom," who paid $58,500 

 in admission fees to see the fight. 



Suppose that, instead of an exhibition of human 

 bulldog savagery, the occa.sion had been a debate 

 on a subject of the intensest interest, between two 

 of the most eminent educators in the country. Docs 

 anybody think the figures of attendance and receipts 

 would bear any comparison to those quoted above? 

 —Greenwich News and Graphic ? 



******** 



Fifty-eight thousand five hundred dollars, given 

 for one eivening's slugging between what is supposed 

 to be two civilized men, is more money than The 

 Agassiz .Association has received to carry on its work 

 in the whole 44 years of its existence. 



In what kind of a world are we living? and what 

 ia it that so appeals in a slugging match more than 

 in the plain common sense activities in the outdoor 

 world ? 



T want to put in a big amen to that con- 

 cluding sentence. Not only America but 

 the whole wide world is just now excited in 



regard to the League of Nations that will 

 do away with wars as a means of settling 

 difficulties. Wliat in the world is prize 

 fighting if it is not war? Then the shame- 

 ful part of it is not only that $58,500 was 

 paid for admission, but that statesmen, 

 judges, lawyei-s, etc., according to the 

 Greenwich News and Graphic, " from the 

 top rung of the social ladder to the bottom, 

 took part." But I do not quite agree with 

 them. There is no mention of ministers 

 of the gospel, nor even of our college pro- 

 fessors, and I hope that none such were 

 present. It occurs to me (but perhaps I 

 am wrong) that the class of people who 

 delight in this " bulldog savagery " are the 

 very ones that would be likely to lead a 

 lynching gang; and if they could not find 

 " the right nigger," as one of the crowd 

 said recently, " Give us any nigger." I hope 

 to live long enough to see not only prize 

 fighting but lynching taken in hand by the 

 strong arm of the law. Just a word more : 

 Horse racing used to be a great pastime, 

 and I am afraid it was a great excuse for 

 gambling; but since automobiles and, later, 

 flying-machines have left the poor horse 

 away in the wake, the whole wide world 

 begins to recognize that electricity and 

 gasoline are to relieve the poor horse, be- 

 cause he is not " anywhere " compared to 

 these other agencies. Well, it is a grand 

 thing to develop human muscle as well as 

 the muscles of animals; but can it not be 

 developed just as well and just as thoroly 

 in making a garden or doing something 

 that will tend to " reduce the high cost of 

 living," instead of beating up some fellow 

 man? May God help us. 



POTASH FOR POTATOES. 



In my experiments at my Florida home 

 in growing potatoes, I for several years 

 used a fertilizer with a pretty large per- 

 centage of potash. Wben the war opened 

 up and cut off the potash from Germany 

 the potash was largely omitted. In fact, I 

 bought one or two sacks of fertilizer con- 

 taining no potash. I wrote to Professor 

 Rolfe, of our Florida Experiment Station, 

 and he advised some potash, even if it did 

 cost extravagantly. After considering the 

 icatter I find the following in the Florida 

 Grower : 



POTATOES ON FLORIDA SOILS NEED POTASH. 



During the past two years B. P. Floyd, plant 

 physiologist to the agricultural experiment station, 

 has been conducting an extensive field experiment 

 with potash fertilizers on a potato plantation near 

 Hastings. The experiment included five acres. The 

 .soil was a sjindy loam underlain with clay at a depth 

 of about two feet and well drained. The land was 

 new and had never received any fertilizer previous 



