GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



is said in regard to tlie objection made by the 

 Ohio Experiment Station; viz.. the peculiar 

 blotches of white when the berry is fully lipened. 

 Of course, tlie originator does not have very 

 much to say in regard to the (ippamntce of the 

 berry; but is it fair to give a new bnrry such a 

 recommendation as the above, after the decision 

 that has just come out from the Experiment 

 Station? I really hope tlie plant u'i// have all 

 the good qualities claimed for it in the above. 

 The introducer of any new fruit, who mentions 

 all of its good qualities and entirely omits the 

 objectionable, will certainly hurthimself in the 

 end a good deal more than he will gain, even 

 should he succeed in disposing of his stock of 

 plants at a good figure; and the latter is to be 

 doubted. 



TOMATOES FROM THE SEED IN 2G DAYS. 



Last April I mentioned purchasing a package 

 of seed of F. B. Mills. These were given the 

 same attention that we give our other tomatoes, 

 but they were little if any earlier than those 

 we have already in the tnaiket. If any of our 

 readers have had a difterent experience, we 

 should be glad to hear from them; but it strikes 

 me that any seedsman who advertises exten- 

 sively that he has a strain of tomatoes that 

 has given ripe fruit in 2(3 days after planting, 

 will do himself an injury that it will take him 

 many years to get over. 



•CRIMSON CLOVER SOWN THE LAST OF SEPTEMBER. 



Our stand at this date, about the middle of 

 January, is almost perfect. On the creek-bottom 

 ground the clover is as green as if it were 

 spring, and not a plant has been disturbed, al- 

 though we have had several freezes almost 

 down to zero when the ground was bare. I con- 

 fess it is a great surprise to me. But the roots, 

 after the fall rains, went away down deep, and 

 spread out through the soil, if it goes through 

 until April like this, crimson clover will cer- 

 tainly be one of the greatest boons that has ever 

 come to the cause of agriculture. Just think of 

 it! if, after taking oft' a crop in the fall, we can 

 sow clover and get a good stand to be cut or 

 turned under in time for potatoes or corn the 

 following spring, we shall be almost a year 

 ahead. Reports seem to indicate that this 

 clover started in the fall, and turned under in 

 the spring, is almost if not quite as good as a 

 crop of red clover that has had over a whole 

 year to grow. 



GREENHOUSES, HOTBEnS. AND COLD-FRAMES 

 FOR FLORIDA. 



Friend Selser tells us they do not have anv 

 such thing down there; but he says, also, he 

 savv two carloads of garden-seeds from Chicago, 

 going to Florida to plant new stuff where the 

 other was killed. Now look here: AboutChrist- 

 mastime they were selling ripe tomatoes; but 

 before the new year had dawned, everv tomato- 

 plant was killed, root and branch. Are these 

 Florida folks going to plant tomato-.seef/.s, and 

 wait through the very best of the season for 

 more plants to grow? Are there no reserved 

 plants kept under glass, or even under cotton 

 sheeting, to plant out in the fields, and to come 

 into hearing in a few weeks, instead of waiting 

 for the slow process of growing things from the 

 seed itself? If so, then I think Florida is just 

 where A. I. Root is wanted, and perhaps just 

 now is the very time they need him most. 



THE WEATHER BUREAU AND THE FLORIDA 

 ORANGES, ETC. 



I suppose most of our readers know, as a mat- 

 of course, of the millions of dollars' worth of 

 oranges, fruits, and vegetables lost by the re- 

 cent cold wave in Florida. The clerk of the 

 Weather Bureau says that telegrams were sent 



all over; cold-wave flags were up on Eriday 

 morning. Dec. 2S, announcing the blizzard that 

 came on ilie 29ih. The telegrams and daily pa- 

 pers show that full warning was given of the 

 approaching cold wave 24 hours in advance: but 

 notwiilistaiiding this, little or no provision was 

 made for the coming storm. It really gives me 

 pain to notice how indifferent and stupid many 

 seem to be in making use of this wonderful in- 

 vention of modern times. I often talk with 

 pefiple in regard to important business trans- 

 actions; but when the weather question comes 

 in. it really pains me to hear them say, again 

 and again, that they have not even looked at 

 the weather-signals floating almost above their 

 heads. Worse than this, tliere is a sort of fool- 

 ish skepticism in regard to the ability of the 

 department to predict the weather. But few 

 seem to know that we can now tell about an ap- 

 proaching cold wave or storm almost as well as 

 we can predict the coming of a train that 

 starts, say, from Chicago and will reach Cleve- 

 land or New York at a certain time. It is our 

 business (as displaymen for Medina) to keep a 

 record every day of the weather-predictions 

 and the actual weather as it turns out. In the 

 month of December our clerk recorded only 

 two noes. All the rest of the predictions, both 

 in regard to the ttJcat/ier and the tenipernture, 

 were "yes." "yes," from the beginning of the 

 month to the end. 



In a recent copy of the Runil New-Yorker 

 the editor asks how much the Weather Bureau 

 was worth to farmers. The only response I 

 have noticed was something like this: A man 

 said it was worth a good deal to him; because, 

 when the signal said " storm,'' he always ex- 

 pected fair weather, and ince versa. Now, this 

 might have been well enough for a joke, but it 

 was an absolute falsehood; and I protest 

 against such falsehoods having a place in a 

 good paper. If the editor's sanctum is where 

 he can get his eyes on the weather-signals as 

 they are run up. he can, with a pencil and pa- 

 per, verify the predictions himself. In a recent 

 storm on the lakes, millions of money and hun- 

 dreds of lives were saved because the sailing 

 crafts all stayed in the harbor on account of 

 the predictions of the Weather Bureau. One 

 vessel decided to disregard the storm-signal, 

 and was lost, crew and cargo. Now to go back 

 to the oranges. 



FTad our good friends in Florida gone to work 

 picking their fruit on Friday morning, they 

 might have saved millions of dollars; and 

 thousands of people who ar^ now almost bank- 

 rupt might have been getting the big prices 

 that oranaes are bringing at the present time. 

 T know what I am talking about, for a bee- 

 Kr'pping friend, Mr. W. A. Sesler, is with us 

 lure to-day. and he has been all over Florida 

 purchasing fruit, both before the terrible freeze 

 and after it. and he was right in the heart of 

 the orange regions when the freeze came. 



USING SEEDS ONE YEAR OLD, ETC. 



I have said before, that there are a good 

 many times when I would give more for old 

 seed that gave me a good crop the preceding 

 year, of just what I wanted, than for any thing 

 i could buy in the way of new seed. The fol- 

 lowing, on a postal, illustrates the point: 



Mr. Ro(((:- Have you any of tlie Golden Self- 

 blancliing' celery seed left over from last spring', of 

 the lot that I got that 1 lb. from in my seed order of 

 Feb. 33d? I should like to get some of the same 

 stock and lot. Herman Hii^i>.man. 



Dundee Lake, N. J., Dec. 14. 



As soon as we heard from him we told him 

 how much we had left of that very same stock. 

 Here is his reply: 



Find inclosed a check for $3 worth of tliat seed 



