1805 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



you havf left over from last year's supply. If there 

 is more tlian my check might cover, send it aloiiK 

 and send bill. Send by mail. I will send you quite 

 an order next spring- for seeds. I found them to be 

 as you represented. 

 Dundee Lake, N. J., Dec. 20. Hehman Hillman. 



Perhaps I may as well say that we are now 

 keeping a careful record of all the seed we pur- 

 chase (especially ivhom it cdvie from), and we 

 try make to at least a small sowing of every 

 thing ourselves. Then we watch carefully for 

 reports from others. The fact that a certain 

 kind of seed germinates all right is but a small 

 part of it: for really no one can tell whether 

 the seed is just what he wants until the crop is 

 iHdtxired. Our experience is, that a very large 

 part of the seeds used for market-gardening 

 germinate almost as well the second year as 

 the first. Eeans and corn— especially the lat- 

 ter — are liable to germinate, of course,' a 

 smaller per cent: but I have tested peas, pur- 

 posely kept four or five years, and found little 

 or no difference in germination, and none in the 

 maturing of the crop. This may not. however, 

 always be the case. Our experiment stations 

 have, however. I believe, made some experi- 

 ments in this line. I should like to have the 

 market-gardeners tell us the result of their 

 trials of different seeds tried the second year. 

 or even the third. Of course, you are well 

 aware of the great advantage in having some 

 seed that you have raised a crop from (and a 

 crop to your liking) the previous year. It is 

 most specially desirable with such a plant as 

 celerv. to be sure that the fault (such a fault as 

 sending up a seed-stalk, etc.). is in the soil, 

 weather, etc., and not the fault of the seed. 



THE CHEAP ONION-SEED. ETC. 



I bought a large lot last year in Iowa, at f)3cts. 

 per lb., while most seedsmen asked 90 at whole- 

 sale. The seed at 63 cts. was every bit as good 

 as any I could get. and everybody was pleased. 

 I find I can not get any as cheap this year, how- 

 ever, and do not like to buy anv seed in a pro- 

 miscuous way. I got a bag of Wardell's kidney 

 wax beans the past season that were about all 

 green-podded, and a source of a good deal of 

 disappointment and vexation. They tell me 

 that the stock was short, and they had to buy 

 some, and suppose someone deceived them. 



Sanborn, N.Y., Dec. 10. Chr. Weckessek. 



THE PARKER EART.E STRAWBERRY — A GOOD 

 REPORT FROM IT. 



Mr. Hoot: — Those Parker Earle strawberry- 

 plants I got of you a year ago last September 

 have done finely. We got .50 quarts from the 

 100 plants you sent. They did not make any 

 new plants the first fall. 



I have a nice lot of plants this year. Michel's 

 Early does not do anv thing for me: but one 

 mile from here, on different soil, it does nearly 

 as well as the Crescent. I have five of those 

 nine best kinds, and one better — a seedling that 

 my brother started nearly eighteen years ago. 

 He has never tried to introduce it. 



Parkman. O.. Dec. 31. F. P. Ct.ark. 



Friend C. I am a little astonished at the 

 above. I was getting somewhat out of conceit 

 with the Parker Earle after the way it " tum- 

 bled" during such a severe drouth as we had last 

 season; tind I am surprised to hear you say 

 that it made no plants. Perhaps this was the 

 secret of your great yield from it. I know Peter 

 Henderson talks about getting a quart from a 

 single plant: but I do not believe that I ever in 

 all my life had a pint per plant right through 

 from a row of loo plants. And I am glad of 

 what you say in regard to Michel's Early. This 

 shows how much difference there can be in lo- 

 calities only one mile apart. If you have got a 

 seedling better than the nine selected by our Ex- 



periment Station, perhaps you had better let us 

 try it. But, oh dear 1 it makes my back ache to 

 think of the numbers we have tried, and found 

 to be no better if as good. 



TOMATOES AND SWEET POTATOES. 



The " Buckeye State" tomatoes beat any 

 thing in size ever seen here, even the Ponderosa, 

 and in qiiality the Ponderosa is not to be com- 

 pared to it. The second picking was 22 toma- 

 toes (no thinning or selecting); weighed 17 lbs. 

 12 oz. It seems to me you would take hold of 

 the Bunch (or Vineless) sweet potato. We like 

 them better than the ordinary varieties, and 

 they don't run. E. A. BoAL. 



Hinchraan, Berrien Co., Mich., Dec. 12. 



Thanks forvour report. We have sold the 

 plants of the Vineless sweet potato for two years 

 past; but our soil is so poorly adapted to sweet 

 potatoes that we purchase most of those we sell, 

 in Baltimore. 



DIGGING POTATOES BEFORE THE VINES ARE 

 MATURED, DEAD, OR DRIED UP. 



There, now, A. I. Root, on page 31 you have 

 given a good pointer on growing potato-plants, 

 and I just want to tell how those potatoes turn- 

 ed out that you told me, when here last Octo- 

 ber, not to dig until the vines were dead. You 

 see. I had taken from thrifty plants 12 side- 

 shoots, each having a few roots, and I planted 

 them on the 3d of July. One plant died; the 

 11 gave 11 lbs. of potatoes; and the very hill 

 that I was about to dig up when you stopped 

 me gavej?/).s. Now. then, who will raise the 

 most side-shoot potatoes of the Craig seedling, 

 in 189.5? (i. J. YoDER. 



Garden City, Mo., Jan. 5. 



THE NEW CRAIG SEEDI.ING POTATO. 



As orders continue to come in, and the potato 

 seems to be receiving much favor, I begin to be 

 quite a little anxious about its outcome. You 

 see friend Craig, myself, and one of his neigh- 

 bors, are almost the only ones who have given it 

 atrial. Oh. yes ! here is this much from Wm. 

 Henry Maule. I take it with a letter from 

 friend Craig: 



I received Maule's report the day I mailed you my 

 last letter. He says: " Your potato is a g-ood one, 

 very similar to Vick's Mag-gy Murphy; table quali- 

 ties g-ood." The Magg-y Murphy is not given in anjr 

 catalog I have. I will try to get some, and test them 

 this year along with mine; but I am sure mine -wall 

 prove the best, on our soil at least. Mr. Maule does 

 not give the yield of eitlier variety. 



Zimmer, O., Dec. 33. Geo. E. Craig. 



In my description there is one thing I forgot 

 to mention. The boys dug the potatoes while I 

 was away, as vou know. When that heavy 

 frost came so early they covered them with 

 sheets and blankets: but the freeze was too se- 

 vere, and it killed the potatoes notwithstand- 

 ing. VVell. now. I should have waited until the 

 vines were entirely dry before digging. Per- 

 haps it would have made but little difference, 

 however. At any rate, the quality of the po- 

 tatoes was extra— I believe a little better than 

 those received from friend Craig himself; but 

 that may be only a notion. Well, one day when 

 we were down near where they grew, my good 

 German friend and helper, Ben, pointed to the 

 fence and asked me if I had seen that potato- 

 vine. The root was stuck in a crack in the top 

 of a fence, perhaps higher than my head, 

 while the top of the vines reached down to the 

 ground, with great spreading branches. As 

 quite a few have asked for a dollar's worth of 

 these potatoes by mail, we have decided to send 

 4M lbs. for $1.00. I should like to make it .5 lbs., 

 but we can not quite do it and get peck prices. 

 I omitted to say that one pound by freight or 

 express will be 1"> cts; 4 lbs., 50cts. 



