The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-19

private customers took nearly all that he
could make. Twice year he packed down
stone jars with butter ranging between ten
and fifteen pounds, and customers took
these regularly, preferring them to the
butter bought in the market. There was
great quantity OF waste from the dairy in
the shape OF buttermilk and milk Stops,
and this dictated the necessity OF swine to
use up these slops. After he had raised
dozen fine porkers from the dairy waste,
he felt that dalryman who did not keep
swine must either be fool or ignorant of
his business. The swine are necessary adj
juncts to the dairy, and pretty profitable
ones at that.
The land was used to raise food for the
COWS and swlne-primarily the cows-and
crops were cultivated only with this idea
in view. Grass, roots and grains have been
the chief articles raised, and these lhave
given excellent results in food way, and
also in improving the soil. The whole ten
acres now yield enormous crops of almost
anything placed on it.
Near the house a small vegetable garden
and fruit orchard were planted to supply the
table with fresh delicacies. None of these
are sold. A few chickens were purchased
to be turned loose in the orchard, and they
picked up such good living with very lit
tie or no expense that they turned in neat
profit The flock was increased from year
to year. until eggs are weekly shipped to
the markets at considerable gain. Bees
were added to the general stock of the
place, because of the vast quantities of
clover blossoms, fruit flowers and wild
flowers of the adjacent fields and woods.
There is now no waste on the place. Every
square foot of ground is utilized in some
way.
The kitchen garden keeps the house sup
Piled with green vegetables through the
growing season, and with potatoes, tur-
ca bbappS bpatS onions and similar
vegetables through the winter. The fruit
orchard supplies summer and winter fruits,
the swine pork and fresh meat, the bees
honey and the cows fresh milk and butter.
All, or nearly all, of the necessities and
some of the luxuries of the table, are thus
raised annually on the farm.
In addition to these the dairy proper
yields over and above all expense of feed
ing, care and interest on the money, an
average of $500; the swine give a clear
profit of 500; the poultry generally aver
age $3.50, and the bees from $50 to $75. Over
and above all living expenses, except
clothing and new articles purchased for
the house and farm, there is clear gain
OF about 500. The question often pro-
pounded, Does farming pay? cannot be
answered in better way than by such
1gures.-J. D. Morrow in American Gull
tivator.
I answer from my own experience, says
a writer in the Farmers Voice, and from
the observation and experiences of our
closest students of nature. Our domestic
hive bee does not iniure perfectly sound
and whole fruit of any kind, no matter
how ripe, tender or luscious. But stop,
says one objector; have myself seen them
by the thousand on my tender grapes and
peaches in dry, hot weather. admit that.
I have seen the same thing. But when
you examine tlosely you will find that
they are working exclusively on fruit that
is either cracked open, been bitten or is
decaying.
1t is almost an impossibility for the COM
mon hive bee to break the skin of fruit.
They are not built for that purpose; their
mandibles are made for working warm
wax in comb building, and are compare
lively as smooth and round at the ends as
the human fingers without nails, and as
incapable of tearing. As an evidence of
this, they are not capable of splitting or
tearing open the nectar cups of red clover
or any flower too deep for them to reach
the nectar. When honey Is scarce, bees
will collect any saccharine matter that
comes within their reach, such as maple
and sorghum sap, or the juice OF ripe fruit,
if the skin is broken, but when nectar is
plenty in the flowers, they seldom take
notice of anything but honey.
When a citizen of Illinois the writer had
an apiary of over 100 stands of bees, and
during hot, dry summer, when the flow
ers were yielding no honey, neighbor,
who had few dozen grapevines in bear
ing, complained that my bees were de-
stroying all his grapes, and when told that
bees did not injure sound fruit he was
incredulous and said he would prefer to
believe his own eyes, and invited me over
to see for myself. On our arrival we found
his grapevines swarming with bees, but in
all cases they were sucking about wounded
grapes, cut by birds, etc., cracked open or
rotting; but argument was of no avail; he
would have it that my bees were agrees
sors. So l told him that would put my
bees to very severe test, by placing few
punches of his ripest and sweetest but
sound grapes at the entrance of my popu-
lous colonies, which we accordingly did;
and although they remained there about
week not a grape was injured in any way,
although the bloom was all worn off by the
bees climbing over them and the grapes
considerably withered by the heat of the
sun. Bees are like all other living things
when pressed with hunger they will eat
anything accessible that will satisfy their
wants, whether it is legitimate food or not.