1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1453 



have been having a good-sized handful of 

 roasted chestnuts after each meal (three 

 times a day), and it has just built me up 

 strong and well. Instead of getting tired of 

 them, as Mrs. Root thought I would. I enjoy 

 them more and more, and just now I feel 

 like saying, "Doubtless God might have 

 given us a more luscious food than the chest- 

 nut, but doubtless he never did." The rest 

 of the family eat them occasionally, but they 

 do not share my enthusiasm and keen enjoy- 

 ment for them.' I might be tempted to thiiik 

 I am peculiar in this respect. But look here, 

 friends. You go into any of the large cities 

 in this country at this season of the year and 

 you will find Italian venders of roasted chest- 

 nuts everywhere. They would not carry on 

 the business to such an extent if there were 

 not a universal demand for the nuts. 



A few days ago, in order to catch a car I 

 had to go without my supper. I had only 

 two minutes: but I looked up a vender of 

 roasted chestnuts and told him to pour ten 

 cents' worth into my pocket, and they made 

 a very good meal. i)o not chide me for mak- 

 ing so much ado over something to eat. 

 Chestnuts are my medicine; and i greatly 

 prefer medicine, when I have to take it, in 

 the shape of something good to eat — say 

 grains, fruits, and nuts; and I am sure it is 

 largely if not entirely due to chestnuts 

 three times a day that I am now strong 

 ami well, and Heshing up every day. With 

 chestnuts I als\'ays want a cup of cold milk. 

 Without the chestnuts I would not crave the 

 milk; and without the milk I would not crave 

 the chestnuts S(j much. One seems to sup- 

 plement the other, and they both digest per- 

 fectly. 



I now wish to give you another illustration 

 of the value of nuts; and please do not make 

 fun of me nor stick up your nose, any of 

 you, at my illustration. When my father 

 iirst moved into the woods. of Medina Co. 

 he chopped down the trees and cleared a 

 piece of land and built a log cabin for his 

 young wife and the children that came string- 

 ing along. I was the fourth one, and my 

 early recollections are all about that log 

 house and the forest trees around it. There 

 were great hickories with their wealth of 

 shellbark nuts; and there were beech-trees 

 that gave such crops of beechnuts that it was 

 a common thing to raise pigs to Ije fattened 

 on these same nuts. If I am not mistaken, 

 everybody used to call the pork produced 

 by fattening the pigs on nuts or '"shack" 

 the very best quality of pork — even better 

 than that where they were fattened on grain. 

 Now, do not protest when I tell you that I 

 am fattening up on the nut diet, just as the 

 domestic animals got fat on the nuts that 

 they rooted out of the leaves in the woods. 



I think we can call chestnuts and other 

 nuts God's medicines. He caused them to 

 ripen at just the time we need them, to make 

 a "balanced ration" with the fruits and 

 grains that ripen in autumn; and if you are 

 inclined toward a vegetarian diet the nuts 

 will take the place of animal food better than 

 any thing else I know of. 



Do you say that not everybody can afford 

 chestnuts when they are 30 cents a quart? 

 My good friend, it c"osts me about two cents 

 a meal for my chestnuts, and I use more than 

 most people cai-e to. May be the price is a 

 little greater than for some other kinds of 

 food, but not much if any more than eggs; 

 and if you can manage to have the nuts take 

 the place of the medicine you have been us- 

 ing. I am sure you will tind them cheaper 

 than medicine; and, oh how much nicer than 

 any medicine ever invented! The nuts are 

 not only God's medicine, but Hod's gift. If 

 you should get a fit of enthusiasm to plant 

 some chestnut-ti'ees, and grow your own 

 "medicine," then that would be better still. 

 A few days ago a nice young lady came into 

 our neighborhood with some chestnuts that 

 she had picked up under the trees on her 

 father's farm, only a few miles from Medina. 

 It gave me the "fever" to go chestnuting 

 just as soon as I found out that there is a 

 sandy ridge where chestnuts were growing 

 and in bearing in our own county. 



THE MUSHROOM BUSINESS. 



I have inquiries every little while about 

 the profits and particulars in i'egai"d to the 

 above industry, and think best to submit 

 the following from our old friend T. Greiner, 

 clipped from the Farm and Fireside: 



During a trip through New Jersey I came within 

 sight of the Shrewsbury catsup-factory, and there 

 saw what remained of three large greenhouses. I 

 was told that these greenhouses were put up by the 

 proprietors of this canning or preserving establish- 

 ment for the very purpose of growing mushrooms 

 needed for canning, for flavoring some of the canned 

 goods and catsups, etc.. and that thousands of dollars 

 had been expended in making the equipment of these 

 houses complete and best suited for the purpose of 

 producing mushrooms. Notwithstanding these facts, 

 and the other that skilled help was employed in the 

 undertaking, and that no expense was spared in the 

 purchase and careful preparaiion of the manure, the 

 results were so meager and uncertain that the under- 

 taking was entirely abandoned. 



Even the best "new-culture" spawn would give 

 only an occasional crop, never a full one, and at times 

 nothing worth mentioning. 



This, together with the recent experience of some 

 neighbors of mine who also engaged in mushroom- 

 growing on a somewhat more extensive scale, under 

 apparently very favorable conditions, and with a 

 complete equipment, but failed to produce even a 

 single basketful of mushrooms, again proves to me 

 that there is hardly a crop that has more chances of 

 disappointing the grower than mushrooms. The wise 

 reader of Farm and Fireside will not go wild over the 

 brilliant prospects of the immense profits to be found 

 in the mushroom-growing industry so often exploited 

 in the columns of some of the rural periodicals. 



I (confess the above is rather discouraging, 

 and it seems to me some of our experts ought 

 to learn how to make a success with liaush- 

 rooms every time; but my experience has 

 been just about like the above. When I took 

 the most pains to have every thing just right, 

 there was scarcely a mushroom; but after I 

 had given it up. and put on another crop, 

 they came stringing along for a year or two, 

 sornetimes so as to pay very well. If any of 

 our friends can tell us of a successful mush- 

 room cellar or cave, and one that continues 

 to succeed year after year, we should be glad 

 to know about it. 



