756 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



develop without failure. Cut the dry onion in 

 two midway between root and stem: and if you 

 do not see the future cluster clearly outlined in 

 the one bulb, your seed is mixed or some other 

 kind. If true, you can count the chickens he- 

 fore hatching as well as after. You can tell 

 just how many onions you will have next 

 season — i. e., in numbers. When we want 

 to make them grow larger we plant on better 

 ground and cultivate better. To make still 

 larger, pull out part of each cluster. I will 

 send a few by mail of the kind I am talking 

 about. They were raised on poor ground, and 

 crowded for setfi. We grow them by the 

 qua^ntity. This onion does not rot. 



D. D. FORMAN. 



Slatonville,'Ark., Aug. 28, 1893. 



[Thanks for your kind criticism, friend V. I 

 believe it is customary for seedsmen to excuse 

 themselves for sending out such onion seed 

 as you mention, by saying that the new va- 

 rieties are greatly inclined to sport, and also 

 to run back to the original variety; and the 

 fact that other people have had red onions and 

 white onions when they planted Prizetaker 

 seed, no matter where the seed was bought, 

 may lend countenance to this way of getting 

 out of it. But the Prizetaker seed that I men- 

 tion in this issue, raised from Spanish onions 

 bought In market, gave us onions all alike in 

 color, shape, and in every other way. There is 

 not a red onion or a white onion — not a single 

 one— to be seen anywhere among them. From 

 this and other similar experiences. I am satis- 

 fied that it i-v possible to have onion seed true 

 to name. Where seedsmen get it raised by the 

 ton, however, I am afraid we are not likely to 

 get that kind. It can not be afforded at the 

 price the seed is offered. Then comes the ques- 

 tion, " If we buy seed of somebody who asks a 

 good deal bigger price, shall we get it then?" 

 I have paid as high as $6.00 per lb. for Prize- 

 taker onion seed; but I am sorry to say it 

 was not a bit better than some that cost less 

 than half as much. I am greatly interest- 

 ed in those potato onions. The few you sent 

 me by mail are exactly as you sny. In the 

 middle of each onion is a division line, so that 

 we can really count our chickens before they 

 are hatched. It is not clear to me even yet, 

 however, how you manage to get big onions 

 and little onions. White Multipliers I have 

 raised seem to grow in a sort of haphazard way. 

 Some of them seem to split up into a multitude, 

 and others grew just one or two big ones. If 

 you have a strain of White Multipliers that 

 yields well, it is just what we are after.] 



ONI ON -SETS, ETC., ONCE MORE. 



You know, a year ago we had quite a con- 

 troversy about onion -sets. I said they were 

 too big, and would all go to seed, etc. Well, a 

 good many went to seed too. Last spring I 

 got another bushel of sets, which I thought a 

 good deal better: but on account of the 

 drought at least 90 per cent went* to seed; but 

 it happened that I did not have quite enough 

 to fill my patch, so I went to a store and got 

 two quarts to fill out with, and they were the 

 nicest sets I have seen— a good deal smaller 

 than yours, and not one sprouted. They were 

 planted on the same ground, the same day, and 

 had the same culture as yours; but I am sure 

 not over 10 per cent went to seed. They made 

 beautiful onions, only a little later than yours. 

 They came from L. L. Myer & Co., St. Paul, 

 Minn. This made me think about the boy in 

 your employ who had procured some onion 

 seed from the West, and raised such nice sets 

 that you gave him so much for them that you 

 sold them without a margin, for the mere fun 



of sending out nice sets. This brings me to 

 the belief that the western-grown seed is better 

 than the eastern for us. 



About the American Pearl. I got a quart 

 last fall. They grew immensely; but how dis- 

 appointed I was to find, with most of them, 

 from 5 to 10 little onion-sets. They must have 

 been "running" with Potato onions, like an 

 old box-hive keeper's queens with my Italian 

 drones. Said he, " Mr. J., since you have kent 

 bees here my bees change color. Is it pussible 

 that your drones run with my queens ?"' Well, 

 I think they must, and so with the onions. 

 They are mixing in. Julius Johannsen. 



Port Clinton, O., Sept. 18, 1893. 



[Friend J., I do not know but some of the 

 friends will think that this is an "onion" 

 number. The sets you speak of came from 

 Landreth, and he says he raises them and 

 ships them by the carload, and that no one 

 but you and me have any trouble. Now, with 

 the big prices they charge us — five and six dol- 

 lars a bushel — it does seem to me as though we 

 might have better sets. The boy who raised 

 such fine ones for us last season has mostly 

 failed this year on account of drouth. If pay- 

 ing high prices would be the means of getting 

 something extra we should feel better about it. 

 But the boy bought seed that was a great deal 

 cheaper than our own, and then beat us all to 

 pieces in raising sets. I have never noticed the 

 American Pearl doing as badly as you state. 

 Although a great many of ours have split up 

 into two or three onions instead of one, there 

 would usually be one pretty good-sized onion, 

 and the others small. I wonder whether any- 

 body else has had the same experience with the 

 American Pearl sets. We are just now waiting 

 for a rain so we can plant a big lot of them. 



A HOME-MADE GREENHOUSE. 



Under the heading of '"High-pressure Gar- 

 dening" I have been very much pleased to 

 learn in many ways about new plants and new 

 ways to garden, so as to have early vegetables, 

 and nice ones. We had never had any experi- 

 ence with greenhouses until we built one. Then 

 there was a new building, and also a new work 

 to run it; but, to tell the truth, the greenhouse 

 nearly ran itself; and. aside from watering the 

 beds to keep it moist, the plants grew them- 

 selves, and we looked on with joy; and I must 

 say that we never raised as nice radish and 

 lettuce as in the greenhouse. It beat outdoor 

 gardening in quantity and quality. Now, I 

 think that it is or was owing a great deal to the 

 way we heated it. Our greenhouse is 10x30 ft. 

 on the ground, with double roof, all glass, board 

 side up to plate of building, and sheeted with 

 paper between sheeting and siding. For our 

 furnace we took common hard red brick and 

 made it 20 inches by 24. grate surface. In order 

 to get very fine grates I made the pattern of 

 them and had them cast here at the Ballston 

 iron-foundry. I think a set of grates cost a 

 little over a dollar. We covered the smoke, or 

 gas and smoke, all around the greenhouse, in 

 under the beds through a common 6-in. glazed 

 tile, which gave a part of the heating surface. 

 There is another thing. I took a lli-\n. steam- 

 pipe and went to the blacksmith shop and had 

 it bent. The furnace was at the entrance of 

 the greenhouse, and at the other end was a 

 barrel with one head taken out. and stood on 

 end, top open, filled about half full of water; 

 and this coiled or bent pipe is placed in the top 

 of the furnace, and with another straight pipe 

 coupled on, and going to the barrel of water; 

 and from the other side of the barrel more 

 straight pipe back to the coil or furnace; and, 

 in fact, back to both coil and furnace. Now, 



