1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



499 



Industry. — Hotels, Clubs, and Restaurants which Buy 

 All They can Get at 50 Cents per Pound. — How any 

 Person can Grow Mushrooms in his Cellar or Back 

 Yard. — Profitable occupation for Ladies, Clerks, or 

 Old Men. — A Steady Demand Far in Excess of the 

 Supply.— Crops that Come up in the Night. 



1 will extract only two paragraphs from 

 the article. They are fair samples of the 

 whole: 



Victor Pinet, " the Rockefeller of the mushroom in- 

 dustry in St. Louis," cleared a small place in Uhrig's 

 cave recently, and set out a mushroom-bed. Then he 

 sat in his easy-chair, and in three months cut $3000 

 worth of mushrooms from the bed he had planted. 

 Monsieur Pinet is an unskilled laborer. He might, if 

 he had good luck, have earned $45 a month during the 

 three months he spent cutting $50 worth a day of fungi 

 from his mushroom-bed. 



One waiter studied chemistry, and, finding that the 

 ammonia in manure was the means of growing mush- 

 rooms quickly, simply bought five cents' worth of am- 

 monia, mixed it with water, and grew $5 worth of mush- 

 rooms over night. 



Their authority for announcing to the city 

 of St. Louis and the rest of the world in 

 general that you can always get 50 cts. per 

 lb. for all you can grow comes from a stew- 

 ard in one of the St. Louis hotels; but, if I 

 mistake not, one of our agricultural papers 

 has recently informed us that mushrooms 

 are at the present time only a drug in the 

 market in most of our large northern cities, 

 and that growers find it a hard matter to 

 get enough for them to pay cost. 



Now, 1 do not like to find fault; but if 

 you want reliable information do not expect 

 to find it in a Sunday daily. The people 

 who get up and sell Sunday papers have, as 

 a natural consequence, less conscience than 

 those who try to ' ' remember the sabbath 

 day to keep it holy." 



Before closing I want to say something 

 pleasant about mushroom-growing. While 

 m our Medina greenhouse a few days ago I 

 happened to look into the bin where the 

 owners keep their compost (old rotted sta- 

 ble manure) for mixing with potting soil. 

 It was full of mushrooms in all stages, from 

 little bits of ones not larger than a pinhead 

 up to those large enough to use; in fact, 

 they had been using them on the table for 

 some time. The spores that produced these 

 mushrooms had formed a kind of network 

 all through the compost. The strangest 

 part of it is, they had never procured any 

 mushroom spawn nor ever tried to grow 

 mushrooms in their greenhouse at all. No 

 doubt there is a good opening for the mush- 

 room industry; but you will have to learn 

 the trade, and you will probably also learn 

 that the market may be at times overstock- 

 ed the same as it is with every other com- 

 modity; and I think you will find that, in- 

 stead of "sitting in an easy-chair" and 

 raking in the dollars, you will have to get 

 up and dust, about as much as if you were 

 growing strawberries or any other crop. 



DUFFY'S WHISKY — LOOK OUT FOR YOUR 

 FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. 



At Muncie, Indiana, there are four quite 

 elderly people. The Duffy folks found out 



about it, and hired a photographer to go 

 there and get their pictures in a group. He 

 told them they were wanted for the accom- 

 modation of a number of their friends. 

 Then the Dulfy folks manufactured a letter 

 (attaching the signatures) reading thus: 



We have used Duffy's pure malt whisky, and feel it 

 has lengthened our lives It has imparted new strength 

 and vigor into our time-worn bodies, and we can truth- 

 fully say that, by the use of it as a medicine, we have 

 been able to live together as a family to a ripe old age. 

 Our ages range from 83 to 96 years. By its use we hope 

 to have our lives prolonged, and recommend this excel- 

 lent whisky to all who wish a stimulant of sterling 

 quality. Mrs. M'.ry Eiler, 



Peter Mutch, 

 Mrs. Catherine Mutch, 



Muncie, Ind., Jan. 20. Mrs. Margaret Ovinger. 



Besides these pictures and the above let- 

 ter they had a lot of advertising about how 

 their whisky prolonged the lives of old peo- 

 ple. I hardly need tell you that these old 

 people had never used Duffy's whisky nor 

 any other kind, and never heard of it. 

 When the photographer gave them some 

 bottles of it they supposed it was some kind 

 of liniment (they were rheumatic), and 

 never used it for any other purpose. As 

 soon as these honest old people heard of it, 

 of course they were highly indignant. In a 

 similar instance, after the man they were 

 using in their advertisement was dead his 

 daughter had so many intjuiries about the 

 way in which this whisky had prolonged his 

 life that she got the pastor of their church 

 to help her answer the letters, telling the 

 inquirers it was a fraud — that her father 

 had never used DuflFy's whisky at all. They 

 got hold of his photo by some hook or crook,, 

 and -wrote a letter, adding his signature 

 after he was dead. As the government wdl 

 do nothing, and as the lawyers say the 

 whisky people can not be arrested for this 

 business as long as they do not get money by 

 the attached names, we are pretty nearly 

 helpless by law. Now, if this is true shall 

 we not ail make a vigorous protest by de- 

 clining to subscribe for papers that accept 

 the advertising of Duffy's whisky ? How 

 many will help in exposing and putting down 

 this outrageous work on honest and innocent 

 people? 



The particulars in regard to the above 

 come from the New Voice. 



THE MAN WHO ADVERTISES SO BIG ABOUT 

 SELLING FARM PROPERTY. 



The Rural New-Yorker has something 

 further to say in this matter (see page 435, 

 last issue). A large number of farmers 

 have responded. Some of the letters are 

 published. They wind up by saying: 



It would be interesting to know if he has made any 

 sales of property. We should be glad to publish them. 

 Some of the letters intimate that he makes no effort to 

 sell, depending entirely upon the advance fee for his 

 profits. This we do not state as a fact. We do not 

 know that it is so. It would seem that his facilities are 

 good for making sales. We don't see how he could fail 

 to do so with any thing like an honest effort, because of 

 his extensive advertising. But does he make sales? 

 That is one of the questions people want to know. 



