1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



675 



THE COMB-HONEY LIES, AND A PARALLEL 

 CASE IN REGARD TO CABBAGES. 



I suppose all our readers have seen more 

 or less in the papers about poisonous snakes 

 or worms in cabbages. The agricultural pe- 

 riodicals have been exceedingly busy in try- 

 ing to put down the lie, ever since it start- 

 ed ; but it turned out very much like the lies 

 about manufactured comb honey. The false- 

 hood was copied, and traveled a thousand 

 leagues ere the truth was able to overtake 

 it, providing it did finally overtake it at all. 

 On the 6th of June the Department of Ag- 

 riculture issued a leaflet relative to the cab- 

 bage hair-worm. No person has ever been 

 killed or injured by eating worms in cab- 

 bages. The Department finally succeeded, 

 however, in tracing the statement down to 

 town, county, and State; but the postmaster 

 in that locality said no such thing had oc- 

 curred there, neither did any such people 

 live in that place. The hair-worm that is 

 often found in cabbages is no more poison- 

 ous than angleworms, or skippers in cheese. 

 Most thorough tests were made by feeding 

 these "cabbage-snakes," both cooked and 

 uncooked, to rabbits, guinea pigs, etc., and 

 they were not harmed in the least. Not- 

 withstanding this, so many people have got- 

 ten the notion it is not safe to eat cabbage 

 that thousands of dollars' worth of good cab- 

 bages were allowed to rot. The bulletin in 

 question says, " From data at hand it can 

 be truthfully said that thousands of cabbage- 

 growers incurred severe losses on account of 

 the unfortunate ' scare ' due to the unwise 

 circulation of the veriest rumors. ' ' All this 

 is on account of a senseless scare. I won- 

 der if we can not have a law passed making 

 editors responsible for the propagation of 

 damaging slanders like the two before us. 



ALFALFA IN OHIO. 



Inasmuch as alfalfa is now getting to be 

 one of the main sources of honey, and of a 

 honey, too, that in quality is almost equal to 

 that from white clover, if not quite, it 

 behooves us to give the matter considerable 

 space. Accordingly I take pleasure in clip- 

 ping the following from the Rural New- 

 Yorker: 



There are many farmers who can not understand yet 

 why we keep talking about alfalfa. Not having- grown 

 the crop or seen it growing they do not realize what it 

 would mean to them. We felt indifferent about it at 

 one time; but since seeing the small field at the New 

 Jersey Experiment Station and the large fields around 

 Syracuse, N. Y., we realize the great possibilities of 

 this plant. The best way to convert a man is to take 

 him right into the field where the last crop of alfalfa is 

 growing, and then into the barn, where the two previous 

 crops are bulging the boards off the sides. The next 

 best argument is to have some reliable farmer tell 

 what alfalfa has done for him. John M. Jamison, of 

 Ohio, is a good farmer, and conservative in his state- 

 ments. This is what he says: 



"Last year here the clover crop was poor, and most of 

 it saved in poor condition, while alfalfa did finely. I har- 



vested mine in good shape, cutting it four times. There 

 was no clover on the farm to cut. I have eleven acres 

 of alfalfa. It would have taken three or four times the 

 same area of the best clover in this section to give the 

 same amount of hay; clover grown on the same kind of 

 land. I had an abundance of corn and good fodder, but 

 without the alfalfa or its equivalent in clover hay or 

 bran, I could not fill my lots with feeding lambs. The 

 clover hay could not have been bought, and to buy the 

 equivalent of the alfalfa in bran would have cost at 

 least $500, which would have taken a share in the profits 

 of the lamb-feeding. Where the clover has one chance 

 to make a crop, alfalfa has three." 



Mr. Jamison is putting extra tile into his land at an 

 expense of .$7.00 an acre in oi-der to fit it for alfalfa. A 

 fruit-grower or gardener may say: "This may be all 

 very well for a stock-grower or large farmer, but alfalfa 

 is not for me." There is where he makes his mistake. 

 We must all keep some stock, and the more manure we 

 can make without too great an expense the better off 

 we are. With two or three acres well set in alfalfa we 

 can cut hay enough for all our stock, cut down the feed 

 bills, and save a large amount of land which would be 

 needed if we attempted to grow any other fodder crop. 

 By all means hang to alfalfa until you get it. 



You can get a stand of alfalfa almost any- 

 where if you take sufficient pains; and the 

 first thing to do is to have it well under- 

 drained, as the Rural hints; then get your 

 ground in good condition with stable manure, 

 turning under red clover, and possibly by 

 the use of commercial fertilizer. In order 

 to get a good clear stand free from weeds, I 

 think I would put the alfalfa in drills. It is 

 much easier to get out the weeds when sown 

 in this way. Be sure you get rid of docks 

 and every thing of that sort before you start 

 in. Our folks put in a piece of alfalfa when 

 I was up in Michigan, and they made a bad 

 choice; first, because they took creek-bottom 

 land where in some places there was only a 

 foot of soil above the shale. In the second 

 place, the piece is badly infested with docks. 

 We tried digging them out, but afterward 

 decided we had better try again by putting 

 our alfalfa on well-drained upland of good 

 quality, and fairly free from bad weeds. 



REPAIRING RUBBER TIRES. 



Some of the friends may think this out of 

 place in a bee journal ; but knowing how 

 many bee-keepers use a bicycle in their 

 work, I think it will not be much out of 

 place here: 



Some time ago I noticed in Gleanings that you were 

 anxious to learn of some quick and satisfactory method 

 for repairing the tires on your automobile. I can tell 

 you how I repair my bicycle tires, which, after years of 

 experimenting, I find to be quite satisfactoi-y. I use 

 the Dunlop. and for a hole in the casing I take a piece 

 of old Dunlop tire, fit it over the hole, and sew it (with 

 awl and waxed thread) along the edge on each side near 

 the wire. If the hole is large, fill it with cotton batting 

 before inserting the inner tube. It is best to put the 

 patch on the outside rather than inside the casing, as it 

 runs smoother, and when worn can be replaced; and if 

 on inside, the hole will soon wear larger. Closed tires 

 can also be fixed the same way by slitting the casing 

 enough to allow for sevinng. J. H. Burns. 



St. Marys, Ont., Can., May 10. 



We have also used leather sewed over a 

 break in the tire. But the best arrange- 

 ment for a quick repair with an automobile 

 is a patch of prepared rawhide fastened with 

 a rawhide lacer. This can be put on in a 

 few minutes, and will last for several weeks 

 if used with care. 



