1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



315 



liberal application of toliacco dust laid them 

 out at once. By the way, we have suffered 

 much lo>s for several years past by snails eat- 

 ing our wax beans; and we have only recently 

 discovered the cause of our trouble. Plenty of 

 tobacco dust makes an excellent fertilizer, and 

 also does up at once any such enemy. Right 

 over the six-inch tile that carries the exhaust 

 steam to the greenhouse, we have a plant-bed 

 about 7.5 feet long. This was filled with onion- 

 plants growing nicely; but I thought we would 

 put some wax beans between eveiy other row, 

 thinking they would be about ready to take the 

 place of the onions when they weie sold off for 

 onion-plants. To my surprise, however, the 

 waoc beans came up — or it seems as if they came 

 up almost as soon as I turned my back after 

 planting them: and in a few days more they 

 put out great broad hnives. so large they shaded 

 the onions and every thing else; and, all to- 

 gether, we have the most promising lot of wax 

 beans under glass I ever saw. We have made 

 tremendously heavy plantings of Jersey Wake- 

 field cabbage seed this season; but so many of 

 the orders have been away up in the thousands 

 that at presentwe have not a plant lit to send 

 out. and it is the same way with Early Summer. 

 With our rich plant-beds and plenty of sash, 

 however, it is an easy matter to push cabbage- 

 plants, and we have got thousands on the way. 



The orders have not been so strong for celery- 

 plants as yet. so we are in hopes to have lots of 

 nice ones before the demand comes. 



The weather has been, perhaps, the finest I 

 ever saw for the fore part of April. We have 

 had sunshine almost every day, and frequent 

 " April showers." and no very .severe frosts. 



The demand for lettuce-plants has been ratl\- 

 er greater than usual. To-day. April 11, we are 

 putting up an order for 3000 Grand Rapids, to 

 go away off to Colorado. As they are cold- 

 frame plants, with large bushy roots, I think 

 we shall be able to get them through in good 

 order. By the way. a cold-frame plant that 

 has had its foliage pretty severely pinched by 

 the frost, after it once gets vigorous in the 

 spring has a more stocky and bushy root than 

 we can get very well from greenhouse plants. 

 I suppose we might do it by cutting back the 

 foliage; and, by the way, our American Pearl 

 onion-plants raised in that new greenhouse are 

 getting to be just beauties. They grow so fast 

 we, cut back the tops twice. The last time, one 

 of the men sheared them so closely I feared he 

 had done them harm. The bed looked like a 

 small boy after he has been to the barber shop 

 in the month of June. There was hardly any 

 thing left but stumps and roots. We gave them 

 a good cultivating, however; and, by the way, 

 this cultivating in plant-beds we do mostly 

 with the head of a nice steel rake. Sometimes 

 a garden-rake breaks off at the shank. Do not 

 try to mend it, but take the head and use it for 

 a weeder. If it has a (Jozen sharp tempered 

 teeth, or more, all the better. After cultivat- 

 ing the ground up very nice and loose, and then 

 giving the plants plenty of water quite fre- 

 quently, they started up and made an astonish- 

 ing growth. I am sure this method will pay, 

 for we do not want to take onion-plants out into 

 the field with a great long slender top that 

 would just droop down in the dirt. They should 

 be sheared off a week or ten days before trans- 

 planting. We doit with common shears; and by 

 holding a large square tin pan close to the row of 

 plants, the tops may be readily saved. In fact, 

 W(> have been selling them on the wagon. After 

 they were gone, the boys said several customers 

 wanted some more of those " chives." That 

 reminds me that we used to have chives in our 

 garden when I was a boy; and if there is a de- 

 mand for them, we certainly should be glad to 



furnish them. They look like onions, only they 

 grow in great clumps, and only the foliage is 

 eaten. When the plant gets fairly rooted, you 

 may shear off the tops almost every other day; 

 and it will keep growing and spreading and in- 

 creasing in area. 



Our American Pearl onions that wintered 

 over can now be said to be safely out of the 

 woods. There is a good stand, and we shall 

 doubtless have quite a crop of big handsome 

 onions about strawberry time. The peas we 

 planted in the open field about the first of April 

 are now up nicely, and large enough to culti- 

 vate; the same way with beets. 



We have iiad bad luck in getting pepper- 

 plants. Although we have sown the seed again 

 and again, even in the new greenhouse, we have 

 but a small supply of plants. We think it can 

 not be the seed, because we have tried seed from 

 three or four of the best seed-merchants, but 

 very likely because they require a higher tem- 

 perature than almost any other plant. 



The Freeman seems to promise to be the com- 

 ing potato. When I told you I had six barrels, 

 I had no idea that so many of you were going 

 to want a barrel apiece. VVe are trying to get 

 some more at some price, but I fear we shall not 

 succeed. 



A year ago Peter Henderson advertised the 

 St. Martin rhubarb roots and plants. On their 

 recommendation I bought half a dozen roots 

 and half a pound of seed. The roots we re- 

 ceived were rather small, and I did not think 

 best to make a test last year. This morning, 

 however, I had a sauce-dish of the St. Martin 

 rhubarb, and also one of the ordinary kinds. 

 Sure enough, the St. Martin has a very distinct 

 and pleasing berry flavor. If your eyes were 

 shut you would think it wei'e something be- 

 tween a gooseberry and a huckleberry. Come 

 to think of it, I do not know but it is more like 

 the Sterling strawberry, after all — that is. there 

 is a peculiar tartness about it that reminds one 

 of the strawberry. I think it is going to be an 

 acquisition. So far as vigorous growth is con- 

 cerned, I do not see that it is any difTennt from 

 the common. The leaf-stalks, perhaps, have a 

 brighter scarlet tint than we ordinarily see in 

 the common rhubarb. 



My experiments with fertilizer furnished by 

 the Mapes people begin to promise better. At 

 first I used rather too much, and the onion- 

 plants were set back a little; but after they re- 

 covered they showed a darker green, indicating 

 strength and vigor. When 1 raked it into the 

 seed-bed for cabbage- plants, and then followed 

 It with lime, just as we are in the habit of us- 

 ing guano, it seems to have almost the good ef- 

 fect of guano; but as it contains some guano, 

 this may in part account for it. We will make 

 further tests, and report. 



We are having excellent spinach now right 

 along, that wintered over without any protec- 

 tion. 



Is it not strange that something often hap- 

 pens to a plant that we value particularly, and 

 take unusual pains with? We gave our Tira- 

 brell strawberry-plants the best place in the 

 new greenhouse, and did every thing we knew 

 how. to make them grow. They started with 

 wonderful promise. But a few days ago I no- 

 ticed that a leaf would be missing here and 

 there. Finally one plant had lost all of its 

 leaves; and this morning only two were left 

 having any leaves on at all. As nearly as I can 

 make out, it was the work of mice. What does 

 possess such vermin to go and pick out the most 

 valuable thing you have on the premises? If I 

 had put my strawbci lies in the open ground, 

 and given them the same treatment as the or- 

 dinary kinds, I should have been very much fur- 

 ther along. 



