My good friend, basswood trees will begin to bloom, usually, in four or five years from the seed-sometimes even three years; but, like all other plants, or at least like almost all others, it is only occasionally that we get a great yield of honey. There is as yet, I am pretty sure, no government bulletin in regard to basswood trees. I can not answer your question about suitable soil, further than to say that bass wood thrives best near a stream of running water. In fact, we often see great trees overhanging water, and it does best on any low and rather moist land. But there must be drainage, for the basswood will not grow in standing water. Wherever you find it growing wild in the woods it is pretty sure to thrive under cultivation. In fact, with proper care, drainage, moisture, etc., it can be made to grow almost anywhere. Poultry Department My good friend, are you not a little rough on our old friend Stoddard? While there is a good deal of truth in what you say, I believe it is also true that Stoddard's first little book, "An Egg-farm," in which he first, so far as I know, advocated colony houses, was a very valuable contribution to our poultry literature. If you have been a reader of GLEANINGS you may be aware that I afterward severely criticised his larger book because it had so much impractical machinery. Now, in regard to the convergent-poultry-yards idea: A few days ago I visited the city of Cleveland expressly to get a competent architect to make plans for our proposed bungalow cottage. He said it was out of the question for him to do it at once as I desired, and he finally gave his reasons. He and all his force of several clerks were working almost day and night on a great dairy barn or dairy farm. It was exactly like the convergent poultryyard that I described in GLEANINGS. The cows were all on a circle with their heads toward the center, and the care was all given from that inner circle, the feed being dropped by gravity from the loft overhead. The architect, Mr. Herbert B. Briggs, informed us that such a dairy farm is already in working order at the Agricultural University of Illinois. Now, friend Stoddard in his youth did give us a good idea through the American Agriculturist, and later in his 30-cent book, of which we sold over 1000 copies; and if he gives as in his old age another good idea, in the convergent yard, shall we not give him credit? Very likely it is true that friend Stoddard, like many other inventors and geniuses. never had the faculty for "making money," as does friend Philo to whom you allude, and others who may not be half as deserving. "MORAL DEGENERATES" IN THE CHICKEN-YARD. 15 In your issue for Aug. you ask, "Will chickens eat bees?" I take the usual amateur's delight in volunteering what I know to be a fact. Not all chickens will. I don't believe some could even be induced to eat even dead ones; but you know, or ought to, that in every poultry-yard there is apt to be one or more "moral degenerates" that will persist in eating unwholesome food, catching wasps, centipedes, etc., and any filthy offal they can get to. For two years I had chickens and bees. The first year I had two that just haunted the runway before the hives till I killed them. The second year I had one that took it up, so I made away with him. They were fair-sized broilers before I ever caught them at it. They may have begun by picking up dead bees around the entrances, though I frequently poured crude petroleum over them and all around the hives to keep down ants and grass. They didn't seem to mind being stung. I would throw cobs at the hives to stir the bees up, hoping they would rally and drive them off. They would just dance and flutter a little, and then pick off the adhering bees and eat them, and deliberately go back to picking them off the alighting-board. I have seen a hen pick them off the alightingboard of a hive in an old negro's front yard. He said she ate a few every day "for pepper.' A bee-sting hurts a little chick, and swells it up as tight as a tick. I had one killed by one sting on the neck. Bee-eaters are like egg-eaters, feather-pullers, and those that get to pecking each other's heads to pieces. Feeding meat scrap is sometimes supposed to induce these habits; by others, the absence of meat in the rations is charged to the fault; but it is just a depraved appetite that will show up in some individuals of every flock, whatever the plan of management. Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 1. JERRY HUMPHREY. My experience indicates that the above is exactly right. Here is something more along the same line: Chickens will eat bees when they have no large run. I was trying out a pen of White Leghorns for record, and confined them near where bees would fly out in early spring and get chilled, and others would fly near by. The chickens would catch them first, kill them, and then eat them. I lost many before I "got wise." I have been keeping bees about 20 years. Astoria, N. Y. C. L. The books listed below ought to be of interest to every one who has a small patch of ground to cultive or a wish to develop some-thing in this line. These books are all in stock, and orders can go out by first mail. The A B C of Potato Culture BY T. B. TERRY AND A. I. ROOT. Mr. A. I. Root devoted a large part of his time during the summer of 1911 to revising the Potato Book which he wrote in collaboration with Mr. Terry 25 years ago. During the winter the 8th edition of 10,000 copies has been printed. Speaking of this valuable book, and of Mr, Terry, Mr. Root recently had to say: "It will pay almost every man, woman, and child to read Terry's potato-book, no matter whether you ever did or ever will grow any potatoes or not. If you have read Terry's recent book, "How to Keep Well and Live Long," you will know that he is a student of nature, and a delver after God's gifts and God's secrets; and this potato-book, on every page, shows his remarkable gift. He is a philosopher of modern date; and his love for God's gifts, as well as his love for his fellowmen, shines out on every page. His studies of potatoes, it occurs to me, paved the way in his explorations in his later work in regard to how we should live, and keep our health." Contains nearly 400 pages, well illustrated, paper bound, 57c each postpaid. Cloth bound, 85c each, postpaid. (Deduct 7c if ordered sent with freight or express shipment. How to Keep Well and Live Long BY T. B. TERRY. I am still gaining. That is what T. B. Terry says to-day, when he is 67 years old, after being so broken in health at 40 years of age that all the doctors who saw him and tried to help him gave him up to die. But Mr. Terry got well by working out his own cure. He tells all about it in his great health book, How to Keep Well and Live Long. There is no other book like it in the world. You don't need to know medical words or medicines to understand it. It is written clearly and simply and has back of it the personal experience which tried and proved every step of the way to a long and healthy life. You can follow the same way. The book is only one year old, but over 5150 copies of it to date are making men and women healthier and happier because they have read and followed the teachings of its pages. Nearly a thousand copies of this helpful book have been distributed through the publishers of GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE," and not a single reader has expressed regret at his bargain. Mr. A. I. Root heartily endorses Mr. Terry's writings on health subjects. Contains 220 pages, substantially bound in cloth; $1.00 per copy postpaid. The Dollar Hen "Every few days the friends write me, asking what poultry-book they had better purchase-which one I would recommend above all others, etc. Well, to get right down to it there is no best poultry-book. There are many good ones, but no one book contains all that is good. The one that is most emphatic against humbugs and frauds, especially costly medicines for dosing chickens, etc., is the one I have frequently referred to. "The Dollar Hen," by Milo M. Hastings. The Dollar Hen is a real book, substantially bound-not a paper-bound pamphlet of "System," "Secrets," or "Methods," but a book worth several dollars of any poultryman's money. "The Dollar Hen" is a vast fund of valuable information that required much time, expense, and effort. Contains more than 200 pages; price postpaid $1.00 per copy. A B C of Strawberry Culture Fully illustrated, 235 pages: Price 45c; by mall, 5c extra; cloth, 68c: by mail, 75c. New edition, revised and enlarged. This is also one of Terry's and has received some very high words of praise. Who that keeps honey bees does not also have a little garden patch? If you would learn to raise in it that most luscious of all fruits, the strawberry, with the best results, you can not be without this little book. Even if you don't grow strawberries you will be the better for reading it. Tomato Culture In three parts. By J. W. Day, D. Cummins, and A. I. Root; a most valuable treatise, embracing field culture, forcing under glass, and raising plants for market. Valuable to any one raising garden stuff of any kind aside from tomatoes. 150 pages illustrated. Price 35c; by mail 40c. Tile Drainage By W. I. Chamberlain. This is a valuable companion to our other rural books. It embraces the experience of 40 years of one of our foremost practical agriculturists, who has laid with his own hands over 15 miles of tile. Price 35c; mail, 40c. Our Farming By T. B. Terry. In which he tells "how we have made a run-down farm bring both profit and pleasure. This is a large book, 6x9 inches, 367 pages. quite fully illustrated. It is Terry's first large book; and while it touches on the topics treated in his smaller handbooks, it is sufficiently different so that no one will complain of repetition, even if he has read all of Terry's little books. We are so sure it will be worth many times its cost that we are not afraid to offer to take it back if any one feels he has not got his money's worth after he has read it. Price 75c; postage 10c. Same in paper covers, postpaid, 50c; by express or freight with other goods, 10c less. What to Do, and How to be Happy while Doing It The above book, by A. I. Root, is a compilation of papers published in GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, in 1886, 1887, and 1888. The suggestions are principally about finding employment about your own homes. The book is mainly upon market-gardening. fruit culture, poultry-raising, etc. Price in paper covers, 50c: cloth, 75c. If ordered by freight or express, deduct 8 and 10c respectively. Celery for Profit The first really full and complete book on celery culture, at a moderate price, that we have had. It is full of pictures, and the whole thing is made so plain that a schoolboy ought to be able to grow paying crops at once without any assistance except from the book. 90 pages, paper bound. 27 cts. per copy postpaid. Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush BY A. J. COOK. Author of the Beekeeper's Guide. This practical book, written several years ago, remains the most popular treatise on procedure in the sugar-bush. Contains 40 pages size of this one-paper bound and illustrated. Price per copy, 28c postpaid. A B C of Carp Culture This is a work of 70 pages 7x10 written by Geo. Finley and A. I. Root, and the best authority on the subject of carp culture yet in print. The rearing of carp is a pleasant and profitable amusement. This book will tell you all about it. In paper covPrice 25 cts.; by mail 5 cts. extra. ers. Winter Care of Horses and Cattle This is T. B. Terry's second book in regard to farm matters: but it is so intimately connected with his potato book that it reads almost like a sequel to it. If you have only one horse or cow it will surely pay you to invest in this book. Fortyfour pages; four illustrations. Price 25 cts.; by mail, 30 cts. The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. ity, power and strength. Mounted on skids. All sizes, 2 to 20 h. p., in stock ready to ship. Engine tested before crating. Comes all ready to run. Pumps, saws, threshes. churns, separates milk, grinds feed, shells corn. runs home electric lighting plant. Prices (stripped), $29.50 up. Sent any place on 15 days' Free Trial. Don't buy an engine till you investigate money-saving, power-saving "DETROIT." Thousands in use. Costs only postal to find out. If you are first in your neighborhood to write, you get Special ExtraLow Introductory price. Write Detroit Engine Works, 373 Bellevue Ave., Detroit, Mich. THE BEST LIGHT One burner will give as much light as ten ordinary oil lampay six 16 candle power electric bulbs six 16 candle power gas jets or 5 acetylene gas Jets. Costs 2 cts. per week. Produces a pure, white, steady, safe light. Over 200 styles. Every lamp warranted. Agents want ed. Write for catalog. THE BEST LIGHT CO. 306 E. 5th St., Canton, 0. ELECTRIC Fit all running gears. Get a new wagon Just by buying wheels. Unbreakable, almost everlasting. All heights and tire widths. Also new Electric Handy Wagons. Write for book on "How to Make Old Wagons New." Free. ELECTRIC WHEEL CO., Box 23, Quincy, IL Make Hens Lay more eggs; larger, more vigorous chicks; heavier fowls, by feeding cut bone. These Remarkable Books Practically FREE We have now completed arrangements by which we offer all readers, in connection with special subscription offers, any of this great series of booklets called "MONEY-MAKING SECRETS" POULTRY SECRETS: First published in 1908, this collection of the carefully-guarded secrets of famous poultrymen created a sensation in poultry circles. Every secret is valuable and every one has passed severe tests of its usefulness. 64 pages, illustrated. 15th Edition, 110th thousand. Che Millio £33 Farm HORSE SECRETS: Compiled and written by DR. A. S. ALEXANDER, of Wisconsin, the eminent veterinarian. Exposes the swindling methods of "gyps" and crooked dealers. Also many feeding and fattening secrets. Invaluable to horse buyers and owners. 64 pages, illustrated. 9th Edition, 85th thousand. THE MILLION EGG FARM: Describing the enormous business and plant of J. M. Foster's Rancocas Farm, where 18,000 laying hens produced last year the amazing total of 1,121,478 eggs. Written 'specially for beginners. 80 pages. profusely illustrated. 4th Edition. 35th thousand. THE CURTISS POULTRY BOOK: The story of the Curtiss brothers and their great Niagara Farm, built up from nothing to an annual business approximating $100,000 per year. Ducks, eggs, broilers, and cut clover are their staples. A remarkable story. 56 pages, illustrated. 3rd Edition, 30th thousand. DRESSMAKING SELF-TAUGHT: For girls and women who wish to learn dressmaking quickly and thoroughly, either for making their own clothes or as a business. Twenty lessons by an expert. Clear, comprehensive, practical, new. 64 pages with diagrams. DUCK DOLLARS: There is money in ducks. The Weber brothers market about 40,000 ducklings each year, and make a clear net profit of 50 cents on each one. This new booklet tells exactly how, with valuable advice for beginners as to operation and markets. 88 pages, illustrated. FALL-BEARING STRAWBERRY SECRETS: The first complete hand-book covering the culture of this wonderful new fruit. Any one who can raise June strawberries can raise the Fallbearers, but culture is different. Those who started first are reaping the high market profits. 64 pages, illustrated. TURKEY SECRETS: The way to make turkeys a profitable farm crop. as demonstrated by HORACE VOSE of Rhode Island, the veteran turkey raiser who supplies the turkey for the President's Thanksgiving dinner each year. Instructive and enlightening. 64 pages, freely illustrated. GARDEN GOLD: A new booklet written for people with small gardens. showing how to raise your own vegetables in these days of high prices, and SAVE money. And how to MAKE money by selling your surplus. Splendid for people with back yards only. 64 pages, illustrated. SHALL I FARM? For city people trying to decide whether or not to go to the country. No golden promises, but a clear. impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced weighing of the subject. All the advantages and disadvantages of all kinds of farming plainly set forth. Nothing like it ever before printed. 64 pages. So popular are these booklets, and so valuable their contents, that nearly 400,000 COPIES HAVE BEEN SOLD during the last three years. Each is the very latest word in its own particular field-together they cover new discoveries, secret methods, exposures, new systems, little known information, and astonishing achievements in many lines. We Offer Any one of these booklets, postpaid } All three for $1.00 $1.50 to subscribers in Canada, Philadelphia, and foreign countries, on account of extra postage. Extra booklets, 20c. each. Booklet and papers may go to different addresses if necessary, but these BOOKLETS CANNOT BE OBTAINED SEPAR- THIS PAPER is well known to you, and requires no description or praise here. The FARM JOURNAL is the standard farm and home paper-foremost in the world. It has more than 750,000 subscribers. It is up-to-date, clean. boiled-down, honest. It knows what to say, and can stop when it has said it. It is for the poultryman, gardener. horse owner. dairy man, grain grower. fruitman, the farmer, the villager, the suburbanite, the man who lives in the country, and those who would like to, the women folks, the boys and girls. In short, it is for YOU. Cheerful, entertaining, intensely practical, absolutely clean. When the time is up it will stop. GL CUT OUT AND SEND THIS COUPON - GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, Medina, Ohio For the enclosed $1.00 send me your paper one year, FARM JOURNAL till Dec. 1915, and the booklet My Name..... Street.. P.O..... R. F. D......... State...... For extra booklets, add 20 cents each. FOR SALE.-Spanish needle honey. Clear light color. Fully ripe, quality superb. F. B. CAVANAGH, Hebron, Ind. Very fine quality of raspberry-milkweed honey in new 60-lb. cans at 9 cts. P. W. SOWINSKI, Bellaire, Mich. FOR SALE.-White-clover honey of best quality in 60-lb. cans, at 9 cts. CLIFTON WEAVER, Richmond, Ky. Fine white and light amber alfalfa honey put up in any size of tin package, any quantity. DADANT & SONS, Hamilton, Ills. FOR SALE. Catclaw honey. Fine body and flavor; $5.00 per 5-gallon can, f. o. b. Prescott, Ariz. Sample, 5 cts. L. B. BELL, Camp Verde, Ariz. FOR SALE. New buckwheat extracted honey in 60-lb. and 200-lb. kegs. B. B. COGGSHALL, Rt. 12, Groton, N. Y. FOR SALE. Honey in 60-lb. cans, two in case: white, 8 cts.; amber, 72; buckwheat, 7, f. o. b. here. Sample, 10 cts. ROBT. CONN, Roaring Branch, Pa. Comb honey capped white in shallow frames, 121⁄2 cts. per lb., f. o. b. here crated. Extracted amber in 60-lb. cans, $6.00. Samples, 5 cts. JOHN W. CASH, Bogart, Ga. FOR SALE. Two carloads of choice sage honey by the can or case. Sample of honey and desirable California souvenir free for a stamp. C. W. DAYTON, Chatsworth, Cal. case Our fall crop of comb honey at $3 per of 24 sections, well filled, six cases to carrier; extracted, 8 cts. to 9 cts.; two sixty-pound cans to case. QUIRIN THE QUEEN BREEDER, Bellevue, Ohio. FOR SALE.-Extra fine quality of clover and basswood honey in new 60-lb. cans, two in a case, at 10 cts. per lb. Large sample, 8 cts., which may apply on first order sent in. EDW. A. REDDOUT, Box 43, Lysander, N. Y. FOR SALE.-22 tons of honey, finest quality; raspberry, and a blend of raspberry and milkweed, raspberry and basswood, in new 60-lb. cans, two in case, at 9 cts.; whole lot 81⁄2 cts. J. N. HARRIS, Mancelona, Mich. FOR SALE. Our 1912 crop of white extracted honey in new 60-lb. tin cans, two in a case. It consists of raspberry, raspberry and basswood mixed, clover and basswood mixed. A very fine article. Some not quite as good, at a less price. Say how much you can use, the kind preferred, and we shall be pleased to quote you our lowest price. E. D. TOWNSEND & SONS, Remus, Mich. Finest clover honey, extra thick and ripe, 60 lbs., 12 cts.; 120 lbs. 112; more than two five-gallon cans at 11. The kind that brings repeat orders. Sample mailed for 8 cts. E. W. BROWN, Box 17, Willow Springs, Illinois. FOR SALE.-White-clover and basswood extracted honey, blended in the extractor; put up in brandnew 60-lb. cans, 2 cans per case, at $12 per case of 2 cans or more, F. O. B. Flint. Cash with order. This honey is the finest I have ever produced. L. S. GRIGGS, 711 Avon St., Flint, Mich. RASPBERRY HONEY.-Our crop of raspberry honey this season is very fine the best in quality I ever saw. It was left on the hives until it was all sealed, and thoroughly ripened by the bees. Thick, rich, and delicious. It is put up in new 60-lb. tin cans. Price $6.00 per can. Large-sized sample by mail, 10 cts. Said 10 cts. may be deducted from any order sent for honey. ELMER HUTCHINSON, Pioneer, Mich. HONEY AND WAX WANTED WANTED. Comb, extracted honey, and beeswax. R. A. BURNETT & Co., 173 S. Water St., Chicago. WANTED. No. 1 white-clover comb honey. Give quantity, description, and price wanted. Will pay cash or exchange bee-supplies. E. W. PEIRCE, Zanesville, Ohio. WANTED.-Honey wholesale. Would like to hear from those having comb honey in car lots to market. Heretofore we have at times sustained the market by buying heavily and holding, on one occasion carrying some 40 carloads three months. If you need us let us hear from you with particulars. THOS J. STANLEY, Manzanola, Otero Co., Col. FOR SALE A full line of Root's goods at Root's prices. A. L. HEALY, Mayaguez, Porto Rico. FOR SALE. Root or Falconer bee supplies. Free catalog. Save freight. G. F. STANTON, Buckingham, Fla. For section extractors and entrance feeders, ask for circulars. A. H. OPPER, 6259 Patterson Ave., Chicago. ALUMINUM HIVE NUMBERS (1% in. high), 2 cts. (each fig.); 50 or more 11⁄2 cts. postpaid incl. brass nails. HENRY BENKE, Pleasantville Sta., N. Y. For sale or exchange for income-bearing property, our entire business, 1500 colonies of bees and fixtures. Reason for selling, poor health. OGDEN BEE AND HONEY Co., Ogden, Utah. FOR SALE. A full line of beekeepers' supplies; also Italian bees and honey a specialty. Write for catalog and particulars. THE PENN Co., Penn, Miss. (Successor to J. M. Jenkins.) New crop white-sweet-clover seed, 4 lbs. by mail, prepaid, $1.12; 50 to 100 lbs., 15c per lb., hulled; unhulled, 3c. less. Alfalfa seed, same price. R. L. SNODGRASS, Rt. 4, Augusta, Kan. SEED WHEAT.-Improved Poole seed wheat-one of the highest yielders at the Ohio Experiment Station, where this seed originated. Guaranteed free from all foul seeds. Recleaned ready for drilling. Write for prices. L. H. RANDALL, Medina, 0. |