J5U 



OLEANING8 IN BEE CULTUKE 



Apr. 15 



lines of goods that are sold near the cost 

 price, on which the retailer can not advance 

 prices. 



Mr. Foster thinks that co-operative selling 

 might help the problem, but 1 do not be- 

 lieve so. Co-oi)eration is efifected for the 

 l)urpose of getting as big a price as possible. 

 We have good exami)les of what co-opera- 

 tion does in the large city department stores 

 in a retail way. They do not sell any cheap- 

 er than individual retailers, on an average, 

 but they do screw down the wages to a sin- 

 fully low standard, the surplus then going 

 into their pockets as additional profits. If 

 some individual retailers should get that 

 amount of work out of their help they would 

 willingly pay twice the wages i)aid by the 

 tlepartment stores. 



This economic problem will be solved in 

 time by evolution, but all of us will have to 

 work toward that end. In visiting farmers 

 I occasionally find cases of waste in a varie- 

 ty of forms, which, if guarded against, 

 would help to reduce the cost of some of the 

 things from the ranks of the producers. We 

 hear many encouraging words in the agri- 

 cultural press of the good prices that all prod- 

 uce is bringhig, which goes to show that 

 tlie producers ha\e also contributed their 

 share toward advanced prices. I do not be- 

 grudge them this, for they certainly work 

 hard enough to earn it. 



Men not fit for the retail trade soon find 

 out that it is best for them to retire (a nat- 

 ural law of business) ; but this hardly helps 

 to increase prices, for competition keeps 

 prices down to a central scale or level. 



Elizabeth, N. J. 



BUCKWHEAT-GROWING. 



The Ground Must be Plowed Six Weeks Before 

 Sowing, to Get the Best Results. 



BY PERCY ORTON. 



,1. H. McGcfwan's article, p. 151, on buck- 

 wheat-growing, interests me very much, as 

 I am a New York buckwheat farmer. Plow- 

 ing and preparing the land makes all the 

 difference between a good and a poor crop. 

 You who intend to raise any this year, paste 

 this in your hat: Plow at least six or eigM 

 weeks before you intend to sow and harrow, 

 or, better yet, disk with Clark's double-ac- 

 tion disk harrow once each week. If the 

 land was plowed the f^ll previous, so much 

 the better. If you don't think this early 

 plowing amounts to any thing, try early 

 and late plowing in the same field, and see 

 the difference. It will be one-third in favor 

 ■of the early plowing. I raised 20 acres last 

 ^season, which yielde<l 27 bushels per acre of 

 jsilverhull. This makes the most and whit- 

 est flour per bushel — ours this year 27 to 30 

 lbs. per bushel, selling wholesale at $3.00 

 ))er cwt. 



I never sow as much per acre of seed as 

 Mr. McGowan, and I don't wonder that he 

 gets an enormous growth of straw when l^ 

 bushels of Japanese is sown to the acre. 



With me that was always the variety that 

 branched the most, had the greatest amount 

 of false kernels, made the poorest Hour, and 

 the least honey. I ha\e had no use for it on 

 our farms for ten years. The old-fashioned 

 buckwheat is superior to .Iai)anese for flour 

 and honey. 



Mr. Alexander told me, three years ago 

 next August, when I wds there at his home, 

 that the farmers in his locality did not pro- 

 duce as much grain or flour while raising 

 •Japanese as they did with the old-fashioned 

 black or silverhull: that his bees would fly 

 right over .Japanese to get to the black or 

 silverhull. I mentioned this on p. 1504, Dec. 

 15, 1908. 



THE AMOUNT AND KIND OF FERTILIZER. 



I want to say that my best yields came 

 from i)lowing and harrowing the field six 

 weeks previous to sowing, using i)er acre )4 

 bushel silverhull, 30 lbs. nitrate of soda, 100 

 lbs. commercial fertilizer containing phos- 

 phoric acid 8 lbs., and potash 8 lbs., togeth- 

 er with one bushel of sifted wood ashes, all 

 mixed together and sown with a drill. This 

 field contained six acres, ■k}4 of which was 

 plowed early, and the other 1)4 acres 

 plowed and fitted two days before sow- 

 ing, which was done July 8, 1909, and gave 

 a yield of 165 bushels. The 1)4. acres plowed 

 last did not average half as much as the rest 

 of the field. One acre of this had been in 

 potatoes the year before, and was heavily 

 manured. I expected the largest yield on 

 that one acre, but was mistaken, as the sod 

 ground did the best. It is very hard work 

 to reduce the crystallized nitrate of soda st> 

 as to have it pass through the drill; there- 

 fore I shall use a commereial fertilizer con- 

 taining nitrogen, 3)4 lbs., phosphoric acid s 

 lbs., i)otash 8 lbs., in every 100-lb. sack; also 

 one bu.shel of miffed ashes. Set the drill to 

 run 200 lbs. of fertilizer to the acre. 



One of the "old granny" whims is the 

 time to sow buckwheat. I say, sow it any 

 time after all danger of frost is over in the 

 spring — here, any time from June 1 to July 

 1 — the earlier the better. If you ever plant- 

 ed potatoes on an old buckwheat-field some 

 seed from the old buckwheat will always 

 come up, and such always have the plump- 

 est grain, even if it started to grow in May; 

 therefore I don't take stock in late-sown 

 buckwheat to prevent its "blasting" in the 

 hottest weather, even if older persons say 

 so; for in this section we sometimes have 

 killing frosts as early as Aug. 27. I>ook out 

 and get in l)etween frosts. 



Northampton, N. Y., March 7. 



[One of the best crops of buckwheat we 

 ever had was sown in the spring as soon as 

 frost was out of the ground. 



We are interested in that statement to the 

 effect that .lapanese buckwheat is inferior, 

 both in point of honey and flour to the old- 

 fashioned kinds. If we are not mistaken, 

 we have had rejwrts before to the effect that, 

 although Jai)anese furnished more straw 

 and more bushels of grain, it actually fur- 

 nished less flour and less honey. H«v,- is 

 this, friends? — Ed.] 



