E11896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



273 



where the glass slides in grooves. Make up 

 your sash, give them one or more good coats of 

 paint, but be sure that the grooves are clear 

 before the paint dries. Running a soft stick 

 around the grooves the last thing will insure 

 this. Now slip in the glass; but instead of 

 using putty to make them tight so they will 

 not rattle or leak, use fine yellow clay mixed 

 up with water. The clay had better be dried, 

 pulverized, and sifted well to get out all the 

 coarse sand aud foreign matter. Now make it 

 into a smooth putty with water, and bed your 

 glass. The advantage is this: If a glass should 

 be broken, you can slide all of the lights below 

 it up so as to take the place of the broken one, 

 and put your new light in at the bottom. The 

 repairs can be made, you see, in less than a 

 minute. Where you have glass broken as much 

 as we do, I tell you the above is quite an item. 

 Of course, the glasses are to be butted together, 

 not lapped; and after using several hundred 

 sashes made both ways, for ten or fifteen years, 

 I am ready to say I never want any more lap- 

 ped glass on mv premises, either for green- 

 house, cold-frame, or hot-bed. For a green- 

 house where the glass is set in the rafters, I 

 would use liquid putty where the glasses abut 

 together. 



SPINACHDUNDER3GLASS. 



nWe are just now getting 20 cts. per pound for 

 Bloomsdale Extra Curled spinach grown under 

 sashes. Now. this is one of the easiest plants, 

 if not the very easiest, to grow under glass. 

 In fact, it almost winters over in the open air, 

 if it gets well rooted, and almost ready to send 

 up a seedstalk the fall before. Under glass it 

 will stand almost any amount of cold, and more 

 Tieat, even, than lettuce. It is almost entirely 

 exempt from insect-enemies and blight. It can 

 be grown under the sashes when they are not 

 used for any thing else; and a nice crop can be 

 grown without any bottom heat from manure 

 or steam, if it is started early enough in the 

 fall so as to be just right to go under glass when 

 severe freezing weather occurs. I think it will 

 winter safelv at 20 degrees, without any cover- 

 ing at all. That grown under glass is much 

 more tender, and brings a better price, than 

 that wintered in the open air. 



SACALINE, THE GREAT FORAGE-PLANT. 



Last year, if you remember, it did not amount 

 to very much. This spring, along in February, 

 one of the plants in the greenhouse waked up 

 and sent up two great lusty buds. It made me 

 think of that bamboo poem on page 814 of last 

 year. The plant stands now a couple of feet 

 high. Some of the leaves are nearly as large 

 as your hat. If it keeps on pushing up, we 

 shall have to take some of the sashes ofif the 

 greenhouse just above it in the course of two 

 or three weeks, c 



KAFFIR CORN.! 



So much interest has been lately expressed in 

 regard to this plant that I have taken pains to 

 read up reports in regard to it. It is one of the 

 non saccharine sorghums, and has been before 

 the people for quite a number of years; but of 

 late we seem to be getting at just the places 

 where it is valuable. In a good corn-erowing 

 locality there may be but little use for it; but 

 in the dry regions of Kansas and Missouri it 

 promises to be of considerable importance. 

 Below we give a report from one who has grown 

 it quite extensively. | 



pThe plant h;is g-iven ^eat satisfaction liere. It is 

 a grand forage-plHnt. and will produce a crop in soil 

 too poor for Indian corn. It slioukl not be planted 

 until the ground is i/'arm— about the season for 

 watermelon seed to go in. Its growth is rather slow 

 at first, and, if chilled, it is apt to be seriously set 



back. The red Kaffir is commonly considered to 

 yield heavier than the white. With us the yield was 

 about even of the two varieties. We had a remark- 

 ably fine crop of each. 



For poultry it is the finest kind of feed. It has a 

 good effect on tiie plumage, rendering it glossy and 

 abundant. It is likewise excellent for all kinds of 

 stock, especially when ground, as it then digests 

 more thoroughly. B. W. Holden. 



Emporia, Kan., March 6. 



THE BERT VARIETIES OF TOMATOES FOR CAN- 

 NING-FACTORIES. 



D. Cummins, proprietor of the Lakeshore 

 Canning Factory, Conneaut, O., in answer to an 

 inquiry, writes as follows: 



M): Rit<>t:—'We have tried some of the new varie- 

 ties of tomato seed, but consider our Trophy better. 

 We have endeavored to improve the latter by select- 

 ing each year tne finest specimens only, and from 

 this selection we grow annually about half a million 

 plants which are distributed among the farmers 

 growing tomatoes tor us. Also the farmers grow- 

 ing their own plants get seed from us. Under these 

 conditions it would not be possible to guarantee 

 every seed absolutely pure, as a few farmers some- 

 times experiment with other varieties, and without 

 taking extra precaution to prevent mixture; be- 

 sides, we have an idea that bees will help to mix 

 varieties, even if grown half a mile apart. We are 

 well satisfied with tomatoes grown from our seed, 

 and are quite sure the variety will please the grower 

 anywhere. D. Cummins. 



Conneaut, O., Mar. 20. 



SUB -IRRIGATION ON A SMALL SCALE. 



The following will enable you to test sub- 

 irrigation on a few plants, and see whether you 

 can make it work. If it does, you can have 

 tiles laid under ground so as to water a larger 

 tract by letting in the water at one place or 

 several places as you may think best. If I am 

 correct, plenty of water will control pretty 

 much if not entirely this whole trouble with 

 rot among tomatoes. 



SUB-IRRIGATION ON A SMALL SCALE. 



The above cut shows how I watered our tomato- 

 plants during drouth last summer. A represents a 

 plant; B, common drain-tile, 3X inches, inserted as 

 shown, on north side of a plant, at the angle shown. 

 We don't want the sun to shine in at the mouth of 

 the tile. Now pour in water, and see if they don't 

 grow. Our experience is, that tomatoes require a 

 great amount of water. I water plants each al- 

 ternate day, giving about two quarts to each plant. 

 This plan is not practicable for a large plat; but 

 for a small garden it is a success. I used it on both 

 tomatoes and cabbage; and, notwithstanding the 

 worst drouth I ever saw, I raised a fine crop of to- 

 matoes. I r.iise Fordhook Early and Matchless. 



CarroUton, O. Frank J. Ferrall. 



POINTERS ON RAISING HUBBARD SQUASH. ' 



Do not plant too early— from the 1st to the 10th of 

 June. The more you plant, the less the big black 

 bugs will trouble you : that is, have enough for you 

 and the bugs too. Do not be afraid to plant a five 

 or ten acre field, as they pay as well to feed as any 

 crop, and what you sell usually bring a good price. 



Newly cleared land is the best for them, as it does 

 not take so much manure, and the fresh land seems 

 to just suit them. F. S. Clarke. 



Hastings, Mich., Mar. 11. 



