1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



609 



selected from the best varieties of strawberries 

 known. Each little plant is given a place, and 

 carefully watched until it bears fruit. Then 

 the fruit is examined critically. Nowadays, 

 while we have so many extra nice strawberries, 

 it is a pretty hard matter to get hold of one 

 really valuable. Perhaps not one of the new 

 plants in ten thousand is worth fussing with; 

 and it may also be true that a really valuable 

 berry is sometimes dropped and passed by for 

 many years before its good qualities are recog- 

 nized. Friend Crawford originated the Sterling 

 strawberry in just this way, a good many years 

 ago. He took samples of it to the city of Cleve- 

 land, and submitted them to men who make a 

 business of buying new varieties. Somebody 

 who was not quite at home in that business 

 was very much taken up with the Sterling, and 

 paid friend Crawford something like a thou- 

 sand dollars or two for his entire stock of plants 

 of that variety. The owner, however, did not 

 understand introducing a new berry. He 

 advertised it in the American Agriculturist 

 and some of the other papers; but people did 

 not seem to know him very well, and he did not 

 have a recommendation from anybody that the 

 berry folks did know; therefore he never got 

 any thing, scarcely, for the Sterling strawber- 

 ries. A good many people who probably 

 thought a strawberry must be sweet to be good, 

 pronounced this Sterling too acid, and but 

 little attention was paid to it until friend Terry 

 called attention to the fact that it was a strong 

 grower, late enough to be usually safe from the 

 frost, excellent color, nice shape, and of a 

 beautiful flavor after it had been sweetened 

 sufficiently. He also found it was very firm, 

 hard berry, and would bear shipment well; and 

 just now a great many people are beginning to 

 call for a berry that is tart, like ihe wild straw- 

 beiries that we used to gather in our childhood 

 days; and. all together, the Sterling, after all 

 these years of neglect, promises to be a standard 

 berry. Very likely friend Crawford saw all its 

 good qualities when it was his pet and the new 

 plant of his creation— that is, so far as we ever 

 create anything in this line; and it must be 

 refreshing to him to see it brought forth again, 

 after it was so many years dropped and passed by. 



Now, after I had been all over the grounds, 

 and had had a Icjng chat in regard to the new 

 berries, it was not near the usual breakfast 

 time; in fact. I rather think the people in the 

 neighborhood were not yet up; but I felt in 

 just the mood for a spin on my wheel before 

 breakfast; and friend Crawford showed that 

 he, like friend Terry, knew exactly how to 

 make a guest feel pleasant and happy. He 

 said that, if I really preferred to start out be- 

 fore breakfast, to do so by all means, although 

 it seemed a little uncourteons to send off a vis- 

 itor without any refreshment. How I did 

 enjoy that wheel-ride from Cuyahoga Falls to 

 Akron, in the early morning I Some of the 

 grandest scenery in the State of Ohio is right 

 along here where the Cuyahoga River cuts 

 itself a path through the sandstone, sometimes 

 200 feet below the surface of the ground. Just 

 as the clerks were hanging out their pretty 

 little card, •' Breakfast is now ready," at that 

 same "City Restaurant" in Akron. I sat down 

 and informed them that I wanted some straw- 

 berries. The waiter replied they hadn't any so 

 early in the morning. Said I. " Look here, my 

 fi lend. I just passed some beautiful strawber- 

 ries right above here. Will you please get 

 some, and charge me what you think proper 

 for the trouble? " 



Pretty soon she came back, looking a little 

 bit undecided. 



'• Did you wish the tvhole quart served up for 

 your breakfast?" 



I assured her that I wanted the whole quart. 

 I presume she had not read friend Terry's 

 strawberry book. But, wasn't that a nice 

 breakfast ! 



When I started out with my wheel, however, 

 it began to rain. I was so determined to go on, 

 that, for a time, I thought I would stick to the 

 wheel anyhow. But I soon decided that pru- 

 dence was the better part of valor, and, with a 

 long-drawn sigh as I gave my wheel to the bag- 

 gagemaster on the train, I came home on the 

 cars. When it slacked up and did not rain 

 much, I felt a good deal disappointed. Just 

 think of comparing a wheel-ride of 20 miles to 

 taking it on the cars, where you have to sit 

 still on a cushioned seat, and you yourself are 

 no '■ part and parcel " of the motive power that 

 sends you spinning across the country. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



PUI>VERIZING THE SOIL. 



How much has been said in regard to this 

 matter, especially by the manufacturers of the 

 various farming-tools for pulverizing the soil! 

 The manufacturers of the Acme harrows have 

 frequently told us that " tillage is manure.'" I 

 do not believe, however, that the truth has been 

 half told in this direction. However, we want 

 to be consistent, and use reason. Since Terry 

 and others have said so much about working 

 the ground until it is tine and soft, there have 

 been some — myself among the number — who 

 have carried to an extreme, under certain con- 

 ditions, this matter of continual working. Dur- 

 ing the wet springs we have had of late, I have 

 several times, I am well satislied, worked the 

 ground when it was too damp to pulverize nice- 

 ly, in a way that made it worse instead of bet- 

 ter; that is, the tramping of the horses and the 

 weight of the heavy implements compacted the 

 soil more than it made it light. The disk and 

 cutaway harrows have been a help in this di- 

 rection. But there- are times when even these 

 tools do more harm than good. When the soil 

 is dry euough, however, the more you harrow it 

 and roll it, the better. A great many times, 

 after we have got our ground in perfect order, a 

 long heavy rain comes on that compacts it so it 

 is almost as if it had not been worked at all. I 

 have told you how my relative, Mr. Wilbur 

 Fenn, of Tallmadge, O., managed in such an 

 event. He waited till the ground was dry 

 enough, and then plowed and harrowed it all 

 over again. One year I had a piece planted to 

 melons that had be(Mi started all right; but the 

 rains were so heavy that the ground was liter- 

 ally covered with water, and, of course, the 

 crop threatened to be a failure. I saved it by 

 taking a nice steel garden-rake, just to my no- 

 tion, and digging away the dirt around the hills 

 until I could see the white roots of the plants. 

 In fact, I dug so close and so deep that some of 

 the plants wilted a little after this severe treat- 

 ment. Then 1 made the ground fine and soft, 

 and pulled up a "dust blanket," heaping it up 

 in a hill about a yard wide, all around each hill 

 of melons. I have done the same thing with to- 

 matoes and other plants. When Terry raised 

 almost a carload of Freeman potatoes from one 

 barrel of seed, he said, in telling about it, that 

 they did an enormous amount of work on the 

 potatoes. During one of my recent visits I said 

 to him: 



" Friend Terry. I want to know what sort of 

 work it was that you gave tho«e potatoes with 

 the divided eyes, that produced such a tremen- 



