1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



841 



beautiful rich mWk — twice a day. The neigh- 

 bors told us that butter made from this kind 

 of milk does not need any coloring, and 1 

 can well believe it. Now, the surprising 

 thing to me is that, while people have been 

 talking about waging war on the dandelion 

 pest, nobody has said a word, so far as I can 

 remember, about its value for milch cows. 

 It makes a big feed quicker than any other 

 plant I know of — away ahead of the clovei's 

 and grass. Along near the path of the steam- 

 pipe that goes under ground from the factory 



LARGE SPE( IMENS OF DANDELION BLOSSOM, BUDS, AND LEAVES, FULL 

 SIZE, AS THEY GKOW AKOUND :\1EDINA. 



[This blossom measures, as will be sf ea. 2k' inches across, and we have found many 

 as large as 2^4. inches, and. once in a great while, 3 inches in diameter. The standard 

 size of blossom is from I M to 1^4 inches.— Ed.] 



to the house we have dandelions in bloom in 

 Mai'ch. Why have not dairymen and milk- 

 men said something about this before, and 

 utilized for early feed for cows this plant 

 that has been called only a pest, so far as I 

 can learn? 



I have been expecting somebody would 

 object to the quality of the milk; but in Root- 

 ville every individual, including grandpa 

 and the babies, declares the milk is ' ' without 

 spot or blemish. ' ' I told Mr. Calvert I would 

 take back all my objections to the cow. Our 



poultry- journals 

 are talking about 

 egg - machines — 

 hensthatarebred 

 so particularly 

 for eggs that they 

 are literally a 

 machine to con- 

 vert all kinds of 

 food into mar- 

 ketable eggs. 



Well, this cow 

 of ours in this 

 little dandelion- 

 oi'chard is the 

 best "milk -ma- 

 chine" I ever saw 

 or dreamed of. 

 While the dande- 

 lions last, a very 

 limited area of 

 the plants we 

 have in that or- 

 chard would 

 keep the cowgiv- 

 ing more than a 

 pailful twice a 

 day. I have been 

 watching these 

 things, and the 

 places where she 

 was staked one 

 month ago now 

 furnish us once 

 more a pretty 

 good feed of ap- 

 petizing "dande- 

 lion greens." 



Well, this or- 

 chard is not the 

 only place where 

 we have that tre- 

 mendous crop of 

 dandelions. Up 

 on the hill where 

 I succeeded in 

 getting 375 bush- 

 els of potatoes to 

 the acre, the dan- 

 delions stand 

 more than knee- 

 high, so thickly 

 that it seems to 

 me as if there 

 would not be any 

 chance for the 

 grass. Mr. Bow- 

 man, our team- 

 ster, informs me 



