188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



I realize the promise, " In due time ye shall 

 reap if ye faint not." Our pie-plant is bring- 

 ing 30 cts. per lb., and our lettuce nearly twice 

 that, and we have not a sufficient supply of 

 either. 



Feb. 22. — Since the above was written we 

 have had a week or ten days of very cold weath- 

 er; in fact, the thermometer has, a good deal 

 of the time, been between 5 and 10 degrees be- 

 low zero; and, to tell the truth, there has been 

 a little more anxiety than real enjoyment in 

 getting the plants through the blizzard. The 

 Thoroughbred potatoes were, a good many of 

 them, "scorched." My two Tonga beans were 

 killed dead because I forgot lo put something 

 over them; and the greater part of our extra 

 early tomato-plants were lost. As this happen- 

 ed, however, as early as the 1.5th or 30th of 

 February, by getting in a lot more seed prompt- 

 ly we shall probably not suffer very much loss. 

 I am happy to say, however, that the straw- 

 berry-plants in that sub-irrigation bed described 

 on p. 39, Jan. 1. came through almost without 

 injury. They are full of buds and blossoms, 

 and are doing just splendidly. The bed is 

 working beautifully. In fact, whenever I go 

 near it I have one of my " pleasant surprises." 

 Our other beds, even with exhaust steam under 

 them, suffered more or less; and a great part of 

 the damage was caused just because the boys 

 who put on sashes did not shovp them up tight 

 together: and I allowed this to pass unnoticed, 

 even after my emphatic directions in regard to 

 putting sash "tight up." I wonder how old a 

 body has to be in order to learn to look after 

 things, and to do things as well as he knows 

 they ought to be done. 



About the 5th of February the ground thawed 

 up enough so that we went out in the field and 

 dug quite a lot of winter onions. The best of 

 them were bunched up and sold. The smaller 

 ones were separated and planted in one of the 

 greenhouses, 3 inches apart. They were put 

 close up to onp of the sashes that come down so 

 near the bed that the onion-tops now touch the 

 glass. I put them in this place because almost 

 every thing else was liable to be frozen in that 

 particular corner. But in just two weeks these 

 onions were just handsome. The light freezing 

 they had been getting almost every night seem- 

 ed to do them good rather than harm, and they 

 are now the finest lot of bunch onions I think I 

 ever raised under glass. In my former experi- 

 ments I had always kept them too warm. They 

 do not seem to need any bottom heat, and only 

 a little overhead. These were old onions that 

 had borne a crop of top sets for several years. 

 We took the large bunches and separated them, 

 putting one in a place. 



maule's early thoroughbred potato at 

 the ohio experiment station. 



We copy the following from a recent issue of 

 the Practical Farmer: 



Prof. W. J. Green, of the Oliio Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, writes: We received last spring- a 

 small quantity of Maule's Early Thoroug-libred po- 

 tato, and we are glad to report that it has done well 

 here: 14 hills yielded 24% pounds, or at the rate of 

 357 bushels per acre. This was on new ground, 

 cleared one year, but the season was unfavorable, 

 and it may be considered a good yield. Of course 

 this is a calculated yield per acre, and I should feel 

 more confldence in the result if we had at least two 

 rows across the field, which is our usual practice. 

 I believe this Is a good variety, however, and will 

 stand well up to the head of the list in productive- 

 ness. The plants are vigorous, and the potatoes 

 are all that can be desired as regards the size and 

 appearance. 



I wish friend Green would tell us something 

 about the comparative earliness of this potato. 

 I believe friend Terry said he did not think it 



quite as early as the Early Ohio; but as he had 

 no Early Ohios side by side he had no means of 

 telling very accurately. It is an early potato, a 

 wonderful yielder, of most excellent quality. 

 On these three points, with the testimony we 

 have had, we feel at least tolerably certain. 



We find the following at the head of Mr. 

 Terry's article in thQ Practical Farmer for Feb. 

 15: 



I hear that Mr. Everitt, in his seed catalog, has 

 made use of what I wrote in P. F., and what Mr. A. 

 I. Root said in Gleanings about Mr. Wm. Henry 

 Maule's new potato, since named "Maule's Early 

 Thoroughbred," applying it to a potato of his own. 

 Mr. Everitt had no authority whatever for using 

 my name or Mr. Root's in his catalog. I have never 

 seen his potato, and never before heard of it. 



THE CRAIG SEEDLING AT THE OHIO EXPERIMENT 

 STATION. 



Frie?id Roof .'—There seems to be a difference in 

 opinion about the Craig in what I wrote in Glean- 

 ings of Nov. 1, and which the newspaper bulletin 

 of the Experiment Station published later. Now, if 

 I were in the wrong I would try to make it right; 

 but when I saw the bulletin I was as much surpris- 

 ed as any one, for I had no hand in making it. I 

 went to Prof. Green, and told him I thought he had 

 not made a correct report of the Craig. After talk- 

 ing the matter ovtr, and telling him what I thought 

 was the cause of the small yield, he said he thought 

 I was right, and was sorry that it was put as It was 

 in the bulletin. 



It is true, the Craig made a small yield here at the 

 Station, but not because of its susceptibility to the 

 blight, but because, being a late potato, and not be- 

 ing far along in its growth, it was hurt far worse by 

 the blight. I believe the blight to be a contagious 

 disease. We had a good illustration of this the past 

 season, on the early potatoes. The blight started 

 first, then spread to the variety patch ; from there 

 to the three late-planted patches, first to the one the 

 nearest, then the one next nearest, and, last, to the 

 one farthest away. 



The Craig, being in the variety patch, was sur- 

 rounded by a hundred other kinds that were blight- 

 ing, and I do not believe it possible for uny variety 

 to escape the blight under such circumstances, and 

 not be killed by blight. 



When I was at the Medina Co. Fair, about Sept. 1, 

 Iwas in your field of Craigs several times, and could 

 not find any blight on tliem. although the Rural 

 New-Yorker and Banner, wliich I have always con- 

 sidered as free from blight as any kinds I know of, 

 were badly blighted. On the Station grounds the 

 Craig stood up as long as these kinds, which is just 

 what I said in the Nov. 1st Gleanings; but Its 

 small yield was owing to the fact that it was a very 

 late potato in a field where it could no^ escape the 

 blight, and not because of " its susceptibility to the 

 blight." 1 will also say that the seed potato from 

 your field, where there is no blight, is worth a great 

 denl more than from where they were blighted. 



Wooster, O., Feb. 15. Edwin C. Green. 



Many thanks, friend G., for giving the Craig 

 its just dues, and also for the facts you give us 

 in regard to blight in potatoes generally. I 

 may add that our Craigs were just as bi-ight 

 and green, and free from any symptom what- 

 ever of blight or any other disease, until the 

 ti me the frost put an end to their growth, so our 

 friends can rest assured that the seed we offer 

 was grown entirely free from this troublesome 

 malady. 



THE SOJA BEAN: EROM THE OHIO EXPERIMENT 

 STATION. 



Friend Boot;— Of all the forage crops that have 

 been tried on the Experiment Farm, I know of none 

 that seems more promising than these beans from 

 Japan. While they may never take the place of 

 corn, yet they have one point in their favor above 

 corn: and that is, they belong to the clover family, 

 and have the power of collecting the nitrogen from 

 the air by the tubercles that grow on their roots; 

 and so when you cut a crop and feed it, the land is 

 better off for nitrogen than it was before. 



The seed is good size, and comes up quickly, and 

 soon covers the ground, keeping the weeds down al- 



