648 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



POTATOES— BEING IN HASTE TO DIG THEM. 



Unless I wanted the land very much for some 

 Other crop I would not dig potatoes until the 

 vines wei'e entirely dead and dry. One season 

 I had a patch of Early Ohios;' and during a 

 severe drouth they were so near dead that I 

 gave them up. In fact. I began digging; but 

 the yield was so siuall that I stopped in disgnst. 

 Soon after, abundant rains came, and the vines 

 started a second growth. Now, eveT though 

 these were early potatoes this second growth 

 kept on until frost; and, to my astonishment, I 

 had an excellent yield of nice, smooth, good- 

 sized potatoes. Friend Terry, in his new book, 

 relates two similar experiences. If blight does 

 not set in. I think it will pay to irrigate pota- 

 toes, even herein Ohio, providing arrangements 

 are made so as to have water that is available. 



STIRRING THE SURFACE, VS. IRRIGATION. 



A good deal has been said on this matter, and 

 no doubt there is much in it. For instance, I 

 had five plum-trees that blossomed full; and, 

 under the influence of spraying, all five started 

 out loaded with fruit. Four of them were on 

 ground bearing a crop of rye, and, of course, 

 they did not get any surface cultivation. The 

 fifth, only a rod or two away from the other 

 four, was in the corner of a patch of corn, 

 therefore the surface was cultivated and hoed, 

 and the ground was kept soft and tolerably 

 loose. This last one held its fruit fairly, while 

 the others dropped the most of theirs. In fact, 

 two of them had lost all their fruit before my 

 attention was called to it. Then we dug up 

 the ground loose, and applied water to all of 

 them, as I have told you elsewhere. Keeping 

 the ground loose and mellow certainly answers 

 to a great extent in place of water; but with a 

 heavy crop of fruit, even this surface stirring 

 of the soil, no matter how well it is done, dur- 

 ing a very severe drouth, would probably be 

 insufficient to mature all the fruit. Of course, 

 if the tree contains more fruit than it ought to 

 bear, thinning out by hand should accompany 

 the stirring of the soil, and perhaps also the 

 watering. I am fully satisfied, however, that 

 many crops of fruit that are lost, even after the 

 fruit is almost matured, might be saved by 

 judicious care just before ripening. Where 

 fruit is scarce and high, as it is now, a little 

 labor will afford a tremendous reward. We 

 ourselves have lost a good deal by waiting for 

 rain that we felt sure was just going to come. 

 The barometer went down, and the Weather 

 Bureau gave notice of local showers: but the 

 showers were so small that they amounted to 

 only a sprinkle. It would have paid us better 

 to put on the water without waiting; for when 

 the ground gets so very dry, there is not much 

 danger of the possibility of getting on too vnuch 

 water. When the ground is only a little dry, I 

 have known a heavy application, just before a 

 series of soaking rains, to give the crop too 

 much wet for its good. But this can not very 

 well happen when the ground is as dry as it is 

 now. One thing more: Please remember that, 

 even if a crop does not pay the entire cost, it is 

 better to apply water when the fruit is almost 

 matured than it is to neglect it, and have it an 

 entire loss. In other words, it is better to add 

 a little more expense, and get half a crop, than 

 it is to go through all the motions of preparing 

 the ground, sowing the seed, and cultivating, 

 and then get nothing at all. It is better to have 

 half or three-fourths pay expenses than to have 

 nothing at all toward paying those expenses; 

 and a good many times, where there is a gen- 

 eral scarcity, the crop can be sold at a price so 

 much greater that it will cover all expenses 

 and give a profit. Have you carefully figured 

 this all out? When I first began riding the 



wheel, Ernest told me I fell a good many times 

 when I did not need to. I lost faith in myself 

 and in the wheel, and tumbled off. Said he, 

 " Just keep your seat, and keep trying to keep 

 up. and pretty soon you will be surprised to 

 find that there is almost no need of falling off 

 at all." It is just so in raising crops. While 

 there is life in the crop, there is hope; and a 

 great many times you may be surprised to find 

 yourself coming out ahead, when you are sorely 

 tempted to give it all up and let it go. 



Trade Notes. 



BEE -ESCAPES AN ASSURED SUCCESS. 



If there is any one implement, brought out in 

 the last two or three years, that is proving to 

 be a great boon to the bee-keeper, it is the bee- 

 escape. Reports show that there is little need 

 now of smoking or brushing the bees out of 

 section -crates. A dozen or so escapes placed 

 under well-filled supers toward night will show 

 as many supers the next morning with scarcely 

 a bee in them. These supers can be taken off, 

 and empty supers be put in their place, and no 

 time is lost to the bees. The old way of remov- 

 ing sections was to smoke the bees down 

 through the sections, following up the opera- 

 tion with brushing and shaking. Bees that 

 have been smoked and shaken up in this way 

 will not get into good working trim again for 

 some little time. Perhaps the bee-escape that 

 has given the best satisfaction is the Porter. 

 Our neighbor Burt is very much pleased with 

 its workings. We do not remember to have 

 ever read of more than one unfavorable report: 

 and even that bee-keeper later on acknowl- 

 edged his mistake and gave a big testimonial 

 as to the success of what he had once con- 

 demned. 



It seems that, over in England, they are ex- 

 perimenting with bee-escapes, or what our 

 English cousins call "super-clearers." We find 

 the following in a late issue of the British Bee 

 Journal: 



WEBSTER'S CHEAP SUPER-CLEARER. 



The clearer illustrated below is a very simple ar- 

 rangement. A thi-ee-quarter-inch board has tln-ee 

 circular holes, about one inch in diameter on the 

 upper, but " countersunk " on the under side; and 

 although the whole of the enlarged under surface 

 of the hole is covered with woven wire, two chan- 

 nels cut in opposite directions and deep enough to 

 allow passage for a single bee at a time effect a 

 clearance. Concerning the appliance the maker 

 says: 



NO. 1. 



"Tlie price is very low, and you get a 'clearer' 

 which I find, Mfter two seasons' trial, acts .iust as 

 effectively as the original ' Webster's super-clearer,' 

 or any otlier, up to a certain limit of time; but it 

 must not be left on the hive more tlian twelve hours, 

 as the bees commence to find tlieir way back after 

 that time; perhaps a dozen will get back during 

 the next six or seven hours." 



MEADOWS' "B-OFF" STTPER-CLEARER. 



This is neither more nor less than an'adaptation of 

 the American "Porter bee-escape," the difference 

 consisting of providing two exits for the bees 

 against one in the latter. Tlie illustration shows 

 only the escape proper; but it should be added that, 



