574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



It is shipped out by the carload, and hauled 

 to the farms where it is used. I confess I 

 can not see any reason why the mushroom 

 houses or caves can not be located near a 

 railroad station to save transportation of the 

 manure. The soil needed to grow the mush- 

 rooms that is placed over the manure is taken 

 from the surface of the farming land near by. 

 Any soil that will grow good crops of corn 

 and potatoes seems to answer for mushrooms; 

 and, if I am correct, a well-rotted clover sod 

 answers about the best of any thing. 



THE STARVING PEOPLE IN CHINA AND TUR- 

 KEY. 



In our issue for March 15, by an accident 

 the closing paragraph of my Home talk was 

 omitted. It read: 



"President Roosevelt has given $100 to 

 the starving Chinese. How many in our 

 United States of America are there who can 

 do as well? The A. I. Root Co. has given 

 $50.00. Why do not Rockefeller and Carne- 

 gie do something for the starving people? 

 Does not that part of our text, ' Are ye not 

 much better than they?' include the Chinese? 

 Address all contributions to The China Fam- 

 ine Relief Fund under the direction of The 

 Christian Herald, 402 to 409 Bible House, 

 New York." 



Since that time great sums of money have 

 been forwarded in the care of careful mission- 

 aries; but we are told that the distress is still 

 just as great as and perhaps even greater 

 than before. Dear friends, if you wish to 

 lay up for yourselves "treasures in heaven," 

 I do not Know of any better way. Please 

 consider that, in a very brief time, we must 

 all give up and lay down the wealth we have 

 accumulated. Is there any better investment 

 open to humanity than to relieve the starv- 

 ing? Few of us here in this land of ours have 

 ever had even a taste or a touch of the pangs 

 of hunger. Is it not high time, dear friends, 

 that, with the great abundance there is all 

 around most of us, there should not be a spot 

 on the face of the earth where people can be 

 found dying of starvation — especially inno- 

 cent and helpless women and children? If 

 you read the papers that are right before 

 you, you can have an opportunity of know- 

 ing something about the terrible things that 

 are constantly going on in these foreign 

 climes, and through no fault of the people 

 themselves who are the greatest suffei-ers. 

 May God help us to be ready to give or deny 

 ourselves, and that, too, with alacrity, that 

 which we do not need, and that which we 

 can not take with us when our mission in 

 this world is finished. 



Almost immediately after the above was 

 dictated the following was put in my hands 

 with the request that we give it a place in 

 our first issue: 



HOMELESS IN TWENTY-FIVE FEET OF SNOW. 



An earthquake has left homeless the people and 

 missionaries of Bitlis, Turkey. The poor people had 

 not recovered from the massacre, and now, oppressed 

 by the Turk, laden with unjust taxation, suffering 

 famine through prices four times higher than usual, 

 they are encamped in twenty-flve feet of snow which 

 will not melt before summer gives a chilly welcome to 



the poor. Immediate assistance is urgently requested 

 by cable from Mr. W. W. Peet, of Constantinople, the 

 treasurer of the American Mission. Those who have 

 known of the heroic missionary and relief work of 

 Rev. and Mrs. R. M. Cole, Miss Nellie Cole, and the 

 Misses Charlotte and Mary Ely, will need no urging 

 to lend a helping hand. Mr. Cole, a partial invalid 

 from a fall received last year while on a tour to suc- 

 cor refugees in the Moush region, has bravely remain- 

 ed at his post waiting for reinforcements before leav- 

 ing for America. 



The Misses Ely, graduates of Mt. Holyoke, have 

 built up a Mt. Holyoke in Bitlis amid the mountains 

 of Kurdistan, often touring in the winter on snow- 

 sleds among the villages where their pupils are work- 

 ing as teachers, Bible-readers, and pastors' wives. 

 With their buildings and industries destroyed, what 

 shall these missionaries do with tte pupils and or- 

 phans whom they have sheltered and trained? How 

 shall they aid the refugees crowding upon them for 

 succor? Funds may be sent to Messrs. Brown Broth- 

 ers & Co., 59 Wall St., New York, treasurers of the 

 National Armenia and India Relief Association, and 

 will be cabled. 



In behalf of the suffering, 



Miss Emily C. Wheeleh, Sec. 



765 Main St., Worcester, Mass., April 4, 1907. 



Permit me to add that we are well acquaint- 

 ed with the Brown Brothers mentioned in 

 the above. They have for years past been 

 forwarding sums to starving people in foreign 

 lands by cable, and they are absolutely trust- 

 worthy in every respect. 



BASSWOOD SEEDS — GETTING THEM TO GER- 

 MINATE. 



In spite of all the suggestions we have 

 been having in regard to this matter, there 

 still seems to be much difficulty. Several 

 times I thought I had succeeded; but before 

 I got the trees to growing nicely in nursery 

 rows I had troubles of different kinds. At 

 the present writing, my plan is to take up 

 the seedlings that come up under the trees 

 of their own accord, and plant them in very 

 rich soil, using dirt that is made rich with 

 old well-rotted manure. Under favorable 

 cii'cumstances we get trees three feet high 

 the first season— that is, where the seeds 

 come up in very rich ground and grow right 

 along. Our old friend E. E. Hasty gives us 

 some valuable suggestions as follows: 



Friend A. I. Root:—\ note in a recent Gleanings 

 that you are trying to make basswood seeds come up. 

 The government folks don't seem to be any too well 

 posted themselves, though what they tell you is excel- 

 lent so far as it goes. 



The trouble seems to be that basswood appears de- 

 liberately to set about having its seeds come up the 

 second year— at least a part of them. In the forest it 

 would likely be an advantage to the species to have 

 part of the seeds come up the first year and part the 

 second. But when man undertakes to plant them (in 

 his usual way) they all hold back. Then what with 

 the weeds, and what with pulling the weeds, and what 

 with careless hoeing, and what with the burrowing 

 mice, the seeds all disappear — else perish altogether. 

 I contrived a kink to get on nature's blind side, and it 

 worked with me. Plant the seeds before they are ripe. 

 Fully ripened seeds are ash gray in color, and, earlier, 

 they are a lively green. Watch out right sharp. Let 

 the contents of the seed get pretty well formed, but 

 pick it ofl and plant it quite a bit before it begins to 

 turn gray. It wouldn't be a bad plan to make two 

 plantings a week apart. 



I got about 40 per cent to come the first year by this 

 method. Allowed to get fully ripe, seeds from the 

 same tree, treated in the same way (except as above( 

 none of them came — in fact, none of them ever came. 

 I drenched the soil on planting, but did not shade the 

 ground. No doubt partial shade would be a very 

 great help, and additional waterings also. 



E. E. Hasty. 



Station B, Rural, Toledo, Ohio, Jan. 12 



