The Throstle

1895

In his declining years it was one of Owen's favorite amusements to observe the habits of birds which frequented his garden. Of the throstle he says: There are a few old cherry trees in the garden, One of them a Bigarreau. This I netted in my first summer's possession to preserve the tempting fruit. When the dish came to table, I thought of the frequent pleasures which the morning and evening warblings of the little robbers had given me and felt ashamed at fencing off what I could cheaply get, as fresh and better, from neighboring market gardens. I never repeated the practice, but left the Bigarreaus with the other cherries as "salary of the orchestra." — Life of Richard Owen.

Lemonade a Microbe Destroyer

1895

Further researches by M. Girard, chief of the Paris municipal laboratory, concerning the bacilli of cholera and typhoid fever have confirmed the efficacy of acids in destroying microbes. He finds citric acid to be the most useful and powerful of all. One gram, be says, added to a quart of tainted water, will destroy all the microbes that may be in it. Consequently he recommends the use of natural lemonade as an excellent beverage at all times, and especially during epidemics. — Sanitary Era.

A New Insect Pest

New York, 1895

The San Jose Scale Threatens Destruction to Fruit Trees.

Special legislation may be required for the extermination of the San Jose scale, which has been found in nurseries on Long Island and in Columbia county. State Entomologist Lintner has been investigating the ravages of the pest for several months, and reports that unless active measures are soon taken the fruit-growers of New York will feel disastrous results.

The scale is a small insect no larger than the diameter of a common pin, and gets its name from being so well known in San Jose. It injures fruit trees in devitalizing the trees by boring through the bark with its proboscis, there being millions on a tree at one time.

The New York state experiment station at Geneva obtained an appropriation last year of $8,000 for the extermination of insect pests on the farms of the produce gardeners of Long Island, and will probably investigate the damage done by the scale in that part of the state. In case the fruit-growers neglect to interfere with the pest, as they have done thus far, the Legislature will be asked to pass a law allowing state employes free access to nurseries to spray infected trees with whaleoil soap which is fatal to the scale.

Professor Lintner will soon issue a cautionary circular on the scale to the fruit-growers of the state.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Fruit (advertisement)

New York, 1895

Fine supply of California, French, and Turkish prunes, evaporated apples, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, etc., at Beers & Cornell's.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, p. 2.

Dies On 70th Day of His Third Fast

1916

FAILS IN FIVE ATTEMPTS TO TAKE FOOD.

Fasting, Weapon With Which Doctor Fought Death, Finally Turns Against Him.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Dr. H. G. Huffman, faster, died at City Hospital on the seventieth day of his fast. He was unconscious before he died. His wife was at his bedside.

Dr. Huffman began his fast June 30. He tried to eat on August 9, but found food would not agree with him.

"Nature has not yet eliminated the poisons from my system," said Huffman. "When that is done, I will be able to eat."

Again on August 20 Huffman tried to break his fast with the same result. But Huffman was not worried. Then on August 22, September 1 and September 2, he tried to eat. Each time he found his stomach refused to take food.

Wife Shares His Confidence.

Dr. Huffman's wife, who was with him thruout his fast, shared her husband's confidence that he would recover. She respected his wishes that no doctor be called to treat him.

When Huffman lapsed into unconsciousness Mrs. Huffman began to fear for his life. She called his brother and they had the doctor removed to Dr. C. A. Davey's nature sanitarium at Youngstown. Davey was the only man Huffman would allow to treat him.

Later Huffman's brother had him removed to City Hospital. Doctors there tried to give him nourishment but failed.

Fasting, which killed Huffman, was the weapon with which he believed he was fighting death. Two years ago doctors told him he had not long to live. He went to a lonely spot on the Grand River, near Geneva, and set up his camp, which he named Camp Phoenix. There for 47 days he went without food.

When Dr. Huffman returned to his practice as an oculist in Youngstown he became apparently strong and well in a few months.

Doctor's Bride Fasts, Too.

The next year Huffman returned to Camp Phoenix and fasted 30 days. Again he came thru feeling "like a new man."

Then a few days after his fast Huffman was married under the spreading trees of Camp Phoenix, where he had won back health.

"I shall fast with my husband next year," the bride said after the wedding. "It has helped my husband and it will help me."

True to her promise, Mrs. Huffman joined her husband on his third fast. She went sixteen days without food. She broke her fast August 9, the day of her husband's first unsuccessful attempt to take food.

Mere Skeleton When He Dies.

Then while Dr. Huffman lay on a cot of pine boughs Mrs. Huffman busied herself about Camp Phoenix canning wild berries.

"My husband is not eating now, but he does in the winter," she merrily told visitors.

The Huffmans left Camp Phoenix as they had lived in it, with the rows of fruit jars arranged on shelves.

Huffman was a mere skeleton when he died. Doctors said that only remarkable strength and faith in his final recovery kept him alive for nearly seventy days.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

Buying Fruit

1901

The prudent man never buys the fruit which is marked with the highest prices, and his motive is not merely economy. He knows that the second grade fruit is riper than the most expensive, which in nine cases out of ten is too green to be eaten immediately. It is held at high prices because the dealer knows that it will keep, and as it ripens and grows better fit for human consumption its price will be reduced. That is the stage of the fruit when the price is lowered for the first time. It is then ripe and in condition to be eaten. And the prudent man who doesn't always feel that he has got the best article only when he pays the most for it buys his fruit at the marked down price. — New York Sun.

Your Baby's First Vegetables and Fruits - 1938 Booklet

Your Baby's First Vegetables and Fruits - 1938 Booklet

Published by Libby, McNeill & Libby, 1938. 24 pages. Baby's world is a changing world. Doctors now direct baby's upbringing, with earlier feeding of vegetables. Vintage health/nutrition and parenting guide (in advertising form) for families long ago.

Poisons Long In Use

1910

Some poisons have been known for ages. Prussic acid, then called "the poison of the peach," was used by the Egyptians before the pyramids were built. They were the first to distill the poison from peach pits.

Corrosive sublimate was one of the favorite poisons of Charles IX of France. He offered a large prize for any one who would find an antidote for it. A physician came to him one day to claim the reward. The king sent for his cook, who had burned the meat that day, and made him take a fatal dose of corrosive sublimate. The antidote was administered immediately, but the cook died, notwithstanding. The king had the doctor taken out and hanged, so his spirit followed the cook's in less than a quarter of an hour.

Banana Sandwiches

1910

Divide two medium-sized bananas into halves, then cut each piece lengthwise into slices. Prepare buttered bread the size of the banana slices. Mix six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar with one teaspoonful of lemon juice; spread on the bread, and put two strips together with a slice of banana between.


Apples and Apple Sauce

Those who are fortunate enough to have an early apple tree or two may have many appetizing dishes in this time of few berries. The acids and salts found in apples are very beneficial. There are endless ways of serving them from plain apple sauce to salads and combination dishes. — Nellie Maxwell.

Fig Culture

1916

Great Demand For Quick Bearing Varieties of These Fruit Trees

The fig is one of the oldest fruits known, and since it has become known that figs can be grown in pots and fruited in the conservatory or in the open ground, where there are three mouths warm summer weather, there has been a great demand for the quick bearing varieties by people anxious to grow fresh figs. These varieties begin to fruit by the time the young shoots are six inches long and form a fig at every leaf. Unlike apples, peaches and other fruits of the kind, the fig is more like the raspberry or blackberry in the respect that the fruit does not ripen all at one time. Figs continue to develop and ripen until checked by cold weather.

For pot culture the fig requires about the same treatment as a rubber plant, and if supplied with plenty of water the fruit will ripen. Vigorous plants will have fruit in all stages of development, from the smallest green fruit to the ripe figs ready for picking and eating.

Celeste bears rather small fruit of high quality, but is not very productive. Ischia has a green exterior, the inside of the fruit being blood red. Hirtu Japan is an abundant bearer, and Magnolia bears large pear shaped fruit.

One fig enthusiast writes that his figs stood zero weather last year, though when first set out freezing weather would kill them. As they become acclimated the plants stand colder weather. A gardener in Pennsylvania says her fig tree has withstood twenty winters with protection. The tree is bent over to the ground in winter and covered with straw and earth.

Where Pineapples Grow

1878

A letter from the island of Eleuthera, in the Bahama group, written to the New York Sun, thus describes the cultivation of the pineapple:

That the soil of Eleuthera should yield such an abundance of delicious pineapples, is a matter for wonder to a person who has been accustomed to the fertile lands of the United States. One who has never been on a coral island can form but the faintest notion of the exceeding roughness of the surface and the ungrateful aspect of the ground." The island of Eleuthera, which furnishes such vast numbers of pineapples, is indeed covered in the main by a wild vegetation, while the earth from which it springs is in great part of the roughest conceivable character of rock.

Holes of every size, form and description, some of them partly or wholly filled with dirt, the debris of decayed vegetation, loose fragments, large and small, round and angular, sharp and hard, everywhere abound. The rock sticks up its stinging points and cutting edges in the most irregular and provoking fashion. No plough, no spade, no hoe, can here be used. The only thing that can be done is to stick a sprout into one of the holes and let it take care of itself, which it almost invariably does right well; for it likes that kind of soil, and sips its sweet nourishment from the little dirt it may happen to find in the hollow of the rock.

The holes are very close together, the sprouts are placed scarcely a foot from each other, and as the plant grows up it spreads its long, sharp, hard leaf blades, with edges armed with little rasping, saw-like teeth, up from the ground and abroad in every direction. The plant has a thick supply of these outbending leaves, lapped closely one over the other near the ground, and out of the centre of which comes up the fruit, one pineapple only to each plant, which then perishes, but leaves behind a progeny of young sprouts, and these being stuck into the hollows insure a new crop for the succeeding year. This replenishing can be kept up for about six years, and then the whole field about exhausted, is left to itself, the plants die out, in the course of time the soil is renewed, and fresher fields now demand the care of the pine grower.

The only attention given to the plant is to keep the field clear of weeds, and that is almost daily work the year round. One negro man can attend to about two acres. The worst weeds to contend with are a species of bidens, a plant very well known in the United States, as Spanish needles, and a kind of crab grass. One object of placing the plants so close together is to give the pineapple possession of the soil, and the weeds little chance of usurping the ground. The first sight of a pine field is astonishing, for it presents a broad intricate jumble, of a vast mass of interlacing leafy sword blades, and the first impression is that such a jam of vegetation would be utterly incapable of producing any fruit whatever, whereas the fact is, the acre properly attended to yields the enormous number of ten to twelve thousand pineapples.

There is another enemy, no less formidable than the weeds that requires looking after very sharply, and that is the rat, which, attacks the fruit just as it is about to ripen. If no measures were taken to prevent the depredations of these troublesome creatures, very few pineapples indeed would escape their destructive jaws, The planter has a remedy. Sweet potatoes are cooked, and while they are yet hot, the sulphur ends of common matches are broken off and introduced into them. The phosphorus is diffused throughout the substance of the potatoes, and these being placed among the pineapple plants are eaten by the rats, which almost immediately fall dead from the effects of the poison.

A Salute Wasted — Was Old Negro Cook, Not the General

1900

The flag-ship Monongahela was anchored off the navy-yard at Pensacola Bay in 186—, and Admiral Farragut, who was then in command, was on board. He had been very busy the week before paying official calls on the mainland, and among those who had entertained him was General Canby. When, therefore, word was received that the general would visit the ship the next day, the admiral was determined to have everything ready to receive him in a style becoming his rank.

The old boat was scrubbed and holystoned from stem to stern, the bright work was given an extra rub, and things generally were put into the best of order. Captain Heywood, now brigadier-general commandant of the marine corps, had a special inspection of his company of marines, and not a spot of rust or a dull helmet spike escaped his notice. When night closed in, darkness settled down over a very clean ship and a very tired ship's company.

Bright and early the next morning the admiral's launch was sent off to bring the general aboard. At the last moment it was discovered that there was no fruit for luncheon, and Pompey, the admiral's cook, was sent in the dingy to get some.

Pompey was a character in his way, and had been with the admiral for many years. He was very proud of what he called his military bearing, and wore his beard carefully trimmed to a point. His hair and beard were nearly white, and although he was sixty years old, he ruled the other negroes with a rod of iron.

By ten o'clock every one was standing by in full dress, when the quartermaster came aft and reported that the admiral's launch was returning.

The officer of the deck walked to the rail and took a squint at the boat through his glasses. A man clad in a blue uniform was seated in the admiral's cane chair in the stern, but as the gunwale struck him just below the shoulder and the awning hid his head, the officer of the deck was not certain that it was General Canby until, as the wind lifted the edge of the awning, he caught a glimpse of a gray beard.

Word was passed that the general was coming off. The crew were beat to quarters, the marine guard paraded, and the gun squad, detailed to fire the salutes took their stations.

Everything was in readiness, and the admiral and his staff stood at the head of the gangway to receive the guest. A hush of expectancy settled over the ship.

The boat drew nearer. Just as the launch scraped alongside, boom! boom!! came the salute from the guns.

"Present arms!" came the command to the guard, and at a sign from the flag officer the band struck up "Hail to the Chief."

Amid all this military pomp and splendor the occupant of the launch was slowly clambering out, feet foremost, and just as the last gun was fired he stood erect at the top of the gangway.

Merciful heavens! It was Pompey, with a bag of fruit in each hand!

Confusion! The honors intended for a general had been rendered a negro cook! As the situation dawned on the men, even discipline could not check a general shout of laughter. The old admiral himself laughed until he could laugh no more.

It seemed that in some way the dingy had gone off and left the old negro, and that he had managed to convince the coxswain that "Marse Farragut was jes' bound to have dat fruit befo' the general came."

Pompey wanted to land at the port gangway, but the coxswain insisted that the admiral's launch never went to the port side, and that the old man would have to land on the starboard side, aft.

Had the awning been a little higher, the mistake in identification would not have occurred. As things were, no one could be blamed, and the affair was treated as a joke, while Pompey was nicknamed the "General."

When, an hour later, General Canby did come off, he was received with all due ceremony, and on being told the story, laughed till the tears rolled down his cheek; and demanded to see the man who had stolen his salute. — Youth's Companion.

Marches Well at 95

1900

The oldest veteran who marched in the G. A. R. parade at Chicago recently was William Taylor of the Fourteenth Wisconsin infantry. He marched over the entire route without facing any ill effects from the exercise. He is 95 years old and a veteran of three wars, having, taking part in the war with the Blackfoot Indians, the Mexican war and the civil war. He is a member of the La Crosse post and is as lively as some of the young boys of 60.


Bees and Peaches

One of the most peculiar suits at law ever brought before any court is soon to be tried in Van Buren county, Michigan, between two neighbors and old friends. One of the men, H. D. Burrell of South Haven, keeps about sixty colonies of bees. The other is a peach grower. A few months ago the latter complained of the former's bees destroying the early Crawford peaches, claming that the bees came into his orchard in large numbers, bit holes in the fruit and rendered it unmarketable for which he demanded $200. Prof. J M. Rankin of the agricultural college and the entomologist of the Agricultural department at Washington will be called as expert witnesses by the defense in a suit for damages.


Galveston Relief

Little has been said, and probably as little thought, of the beneficent work done by the railroads in aiding and promoting the measures set on foot for the relief of stricken Galveston. Thousands of refugees from that city received free transportation to any part of the country, and immense quantities of supplies were rushed forward without charge. This ready response to the cry of human needs characterized all the great railway systems of the country, the express, telegraph and telephone companies. The cash value of the services thus rendered is as impossible to estimate as the amount of human suffering and misery they helped to alleviate.

Five Hens Lay Eggs in Deep Snow Nests

Feb. 1920

Fowls Dig Their Own Snug Roosts on Roof of Barn

HILERTON, New York — It being the warmest day of the winter, Chester Wasselton, a poultryman of this village, opened the door of his hen house to allow his hens to come out and enjoy the sunshine. Late in the afternoon Wasselton went to the hen house and seeing the hens were on the roosts closed the door.

Next morning the poultryman heard a loud cackling which came from the roof of the hen house. He secured a ladder, placed it against the structure and climbed to the roof, which was covered with three feet of snow. Wasselton says that when he reached nearly to the peak of the roof he was surprised to find five of his white leghorns buried in the snow. Furthermore, he says that when he removed the hens he was dumbfounded to find that each hen had laid an egg.

Wasselton placed the eggs in his coat pocket and threw the hens from the roof. He expresses the opinion that the hens flew to the roof the night before, dug their way down to the shingles through the snow and, as it was warm, made no effort to leave.


Cake 14 Years Old, Served At Wedding

First in Family to Marry Won the Fruity Confection

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A wedding cake made fourteen years ago was served as a breakfast following the wedding her of Miss Geraldine Isabelle Buchanan, of California, Mo., to Lieut. Austin Smith Parker of Greenville, S.C.

The cake was made from a recipe for Chinese fruit cake and preserved in brandy to be served at the first wedding in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Buchanan, parents of the bride.

Steamer Leaving Hawaii Orders More Bananas

1897

HAD A GOOD EYE

Sam Parker Bowls a Bunch of Bananas

There was an amusing incident on the Pacific Mail wharf Saturday afternoon, just as the O. & O. S. S. Belgic was hauling away from the Pacific Mail wharf. In this Sam Parker, Clarence Crabbe and a Chinese fruit vendor were concerned.

Just a few minutes before the steamer departed for the Orient Mr. Crabbe thought that he would like to see some bananas aboard. He called a Chinaman and told him to get three bunches from up town as quickly as possible. The fellow demurred, thinking it too late, but finally ran up town and brought down three bunches.

He arrived on the wharf just as the steamer was hauling away from the wharf. Grasping one of the bunches he threw it up toward the lower deck. It fell short and into the water. The second bunch met with the same fate. Just then Sam Parker went to the rescue, and, grasping the third and largest bunch, gave it a swing and sent it aboard without trouble. While the Chinaman was mourning the loss of the two bunches in the water, native boy swimmers were tying a rope to these, and in a short time they were hauled aboard. The shouts of the people on the wharf when Sam Parker threw the third bunch aboard were heard uptown.

—Hawaiian Gazette, Honolulu, June 8, 1897, p. 5.

Grafting In a New Root — Renew Your Old Life, Do Something New

1921

By DR. WM. E. BARTON

IF THE top of a tree dies down, or does not bear a satisfactory kind of fruit, new branches can be grafted in. But what if it be the root that dies? Is there any way of grafting in a new root?

In Riverside, California, stand the two parent navel orange trees. If I have the information correctly, the entire navel orange industry on the Pacific coast began with the successful propagation of that kind of orange from these two trees.

One of them stands on Magnolia avenue, and the other was transplanted by President Theodore Roosevelt, and stands in front of the Mission Inn.

Both these trees are very old and manifestly dying. But they are trying the experiment of creating a new root for one of them. If that succeeds, I presume they will do the same for the other.

They take a vigorous young tree, cut off its top, plant it as close to the old tree as possible and at an angle, and graft the top into the side of the old tree a little above the root.

They have grafted in several such young roots, and they appear to be growing and to be saving the life of the old tree.

Such an undertaking lends itself to reflection. There are men who are dying at the top because they have not sufficient root. Why not dig down near the root, and put in a new one?

You can learn Greek at forty, or study Browning at fifty, or become an expert on psychoanalysis at sixty, or make yourself either a learned man or a fool at seventy.

Maybe you do not care for those particular studies — in that case there are others.

Why should not a man who lacked opportunities, in his youth for higher education, set about it in middle life, and pursue a course of good reading? Why not study astronomy, or botany, or literature?

Many men die a good many years before the undertaker carts them away. A man begins to die when he ceases to grow. Why not graft in a new root?

Farm, Orchard, and Garden - 1903

March 8, 1903

By J.S. Trigg, Rockford, Iowa

Rice feeds ten persons, taking the world at large, where wheat feeds one.

The losses by reason of hog cholera last year in the state of Indiana are placed at near $6,000,000.

The American farmer is getting the daily paper habit as a result of rural delivery, and it is a good thing for him.

Steam transports having a capacity of 900,000 bushels of wheat each will soon be plying between the Pacific coast and Japan.

The modern harvesting machines are now in use by twenty-nine different nations of the earth and represent in their ability to harvest the crops of the world the labor of 20,000,000 men.

We do not know that the time will ever come when the lion shall eat straw like the ox, but the time has come when the hog will eat hay — alfalfa hay — like an old cow. It is a staple winter ration for Kansas hogs.

An export dealer in butter stated recently that he would rather handle butter which scored 92 and which would remain at that scoring until disposed of than to handle an extra grade at 93 and have it drop to 92 before it could be sold.

A second cutting of timber land — oak, hickory, maple and basswood — of twenty-eight years' growth yields about eighteen cords to the acre, worth net to the owner about $72. This fact explains why forestry is not profitable in a commercial sense.

A farmers' mutual insurance company of a county in a Western state paid $2,375 on thirty-nine losses during the year. Of this amount $2,284.84 was for losses caused by lightning, stock killed, while only $129.75 was paid out for fire losses. This goes to show that lightning in these days of barbed wire fences is a very destructive agent.

The stockmen of the West are bitterly opposed to the proposed packing house trust, believing such a combination will have the cattlemen completely at its mercy in the matter of fixing prices. This opposition is so marked and emphatic that with its threats to establish packing houses of its own it may defeat the proposed packing house merger.

Years ago when black walnut was plentiful and cheap it was used largely for the construction of the wooden bridges by the pioneers because of the ease with which it could be worked and its well-known durability. Such a bridge built fifty years ago in the state of Indiana, 150 feet long, contains timber valued at present at $15,000, which would more than twice pay for a steel bridge to take its place.

We are asked whether the production of cucumbers for pickles is a profitable business, what the yield is and what the profits. In such cases as we have known the crop will yield a gross return of from $40 to $70 per acre. There are two difficulties in the way of this crop — one to protect the vines from insect pests, the other to secure necessary help to gather the crop, which has to be done every two or three days during the season.

If one starts out as a breeder of registered cattle of any breed, he must produce animals of such a grade of excellence that his yearling males will bring him at least $100 each. If he cannot do this, he had better confine his efforts to the production of beef or milk and let others breed for the market. Not every man is cut out for a breeder. There must be individual excellence as well as pedigree, and some men cannot combine these qualities.

A large purchase of Belgian hares by an Eastern canning factory was logically followed by a large shipment of choice selected boned turkey from the cannery soon after. After all, it's what you think you are eating rather than what you really eat, evidenced by the serving of fried cat for squirrel as a joke at a party, the participants at the feast pleased and satisfied, only to undergo a serious digestive disturbance later when informed of what they had really eaten.

With the exception of the peach, orange, grape, nectarine and apricot, it may be said that nearly all our other fruits thrive best where there are the least extremes of temperature, where neither excessive heat, cold, moisture nor aridity prevails. The climatic conditions which prevail in Nova Scotia, lower Canada, northern New York, northern Michigan, Washington and Oregon, whore it would be difficult to mature a crop of corn, furnish the apple its very best conditions, also the pear, cherry and all the small fruits.

Press Comments: With the Advent of Spring...

March 7, 1903

PRESS COMMENT

Boston Transcript: This week has started running the sap of the maple; also, that of spring poetry.

Atchison Globe: Some young men think they are so sweet that they expect a girl to hold their hands all the time.

Denver News: After all, Mr. Carnegie is liable to die poor — that is, if the physicians' bills are paid before his death.

St Louis Globe-Democrat: With the advent of spring the Rock Island railroad is putting out some new shoots.

San Antonio Express: The get-rich- quick schemes appear to be about as great failures as Mr. Carnegie's get-poor plans.

Cincinnati Enquirer: "Old Bill Sewell," the Maine guide, got away from Washington without having a cabinet position thrust upon him.

Denver Post: President Roosevelt's expressed belief in large families may or may not exert considerable influence on Utah's presidential Vote in 1904.

New York Press: When a man gets the grip he can drink a quart of whiskey to cure it, but all a woman can do is to cry because blowing her nose makes it red.

Washington Post: King Edward is aboard the St. Louis exposition band wagon all right. It's a graceful recognition of the service rendered by the Missouri mule in South Africa.

St. Paul Globe: Let's see — It's too early for the Kansas wheat crop to be destroyed by drought, and too late for the Florida orange crop to be ruined by frost. What is there to complain of at the present time?

Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune: Astronomer Sir John Mitchell of Greenwich estimates that the tail of the biggest comet of them all doesn't weigh a pound. This may be taken as evidence of the weighwardness of scientific men.

Oklahoma State Capital: It is not announced why the Kansas woman who is being sued for divorce only kissed her husband three times in thirteen months. It may have been because they were the only times she found him in a joint boozeless condition.

Man's Tomato Vines Resemble Jack's Bean Stalk

Irvington, Indiana, 1918

WHAT MIGHT HE HAVE DONE HAD HE KNOWN TOMATOES?

Although a Novice, W. M. Young Declares Vines Resembled "Jack's Bean Stalk"

W. M. Young, 28 Colorado avenue, Irvington, is wondering how large a tomato crop in the rear of his home would have been last summer had he been an expert agriculturist rather than a novice at the game.

Young, who is a busy man as traffic manager for the Nordyke & Marmon automobile and milling machine plant, sought some pastime as a relief from his "grind" at the office — a regular "nightmare" of less than car loads, differentials, freight tariffs, lost shipments and overcharges.

A kind neighbor found a solution. It was gardening. Tomato seeds were supplied and early last spring Young got busy with the spade. He kept busy and cared for the tender plants in the same gentle manner that an experienced farmer does his crops.

The vines continued to grow until they took on astounding proportions. Some of the vines climbed to a height of six feet, and Young says some of the tomatoes were "nearly" as large as red toy balloons. The season's yield from twenty-one vines was six bushels.

Young is planning to establish even a better record next summer and his entire back yard will be transformed into a garden for the exclusive development of a tomato crop.

—The Indianapolis Sunday Star, Indianapolis, November 23, 1918, page 4.

Bee-Culture Hobby Is Bulwark Against Evil Fortune of Paralytic

1917

McGREGOR, Iowa.— (Special.)—John Clark of North McGregor, Iowa, is a paralytic and yet earns a living for his wife, little children and himself. Until a year ago when stricken by apoplexy he was a plasterer. He was skilled at the trade, had plenty of work and made good money. Meanwhile he had a hobby. It was bees. He can't remember when he wasn't interested in bees and wouldn't rather be fussing with them than doing anything else. After marriage his wife became interested, too.

They bought a small piece of land on the outskirts of town where lots of sweet clover and basswood grows. Reserving part of the land for the bee hives, Mr. Clark set most of the rest of it to fruit. Apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, raspberry, blackberry, currant and gooseberry bushes were planted. The fruit blossoms would provide nectar for the bees and the bees would pollenize the blossoms, he figured.

The fruit farm was nicely started, the bees were busy in half a hundred stands and the husband and wife had the plans drawn for a pretty bungalow at "Sunnyside Apiary," as they had named their little farm. Then Mr. Clark was stricken with apoplexy and the problem of obtaining money for food, clothing, doctor bills and fuel drove away the dream of the bungalow among the apple blossoms and the honey bees.

When the basswood blooms the first two weeks in July, if there is no wind and the weather is fair the bees in Sunnyside Apiary will store twenty-five pounds per colony in ten days. The honey they make is so good that the proprietor has no trouble at all in marketing it. In fact, buyers this year came to the house for almost all of the crop.

"Do you like the work?" the invalid was asked and his face lighted as he answered:

"It's the most interesting business anybody can have. You never get tired of bees. There is always something new turning up."

The wife answered:

"I love to work with them. Do you know, I have about decided beekeeping an ideal job for women. Success in it depends upon looking after the little things and I believe women naturally do that better than men."

It was then Mr. Clark gave thanks for his hobby. His wife said:

"If you will direct me from your bed, I'll do the work and we'll see if we can't make our bees earn a living for the family."

That was a year ago. November 15 this year they had sold 3,600 pounds of extracted honey and had 500 pounds of comb honey stored in the cellar.

Compete for His Honey

Others are keeping bees in the country nearby, but with nothing like as good results. Mr. Clark attributes his success to good management and to their location near an abundance of sweet clover and basswood. Everybody knows the finest honey is "basswood honey" and nobody knows it as well as the bees.

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 22, 1917, page 10.