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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



happy hum — or happy roar, rather— is " like the 

 sound of many waters" — just the sound, in fact, 

 that ought to bring joy to the bee-keeper's 

 heart. Now. if we could have, say, 100 acres of 

 asparagus, where it is not cut for market at all, 

 I rather think we should have something inter- 

 esting to tell bee-keepers. 



This morning. May 13, it is amusing to see the 

 Italian bees humming disconsolately over the 

 plowed ground where the crimson clover stood 

 yesterday. We let it stand for bees till only the 

 trips of the heads were yielding honey. Now, if 

 a single stalk can be found anywhere that did 

 not get turned under, a great lot of bees are 

 pouncing on it. And this reminds me that the 

 potato-beetles are out in greater force, too, 

 than I ever knew before. We have just had to 

 fight for our Thoroughbreds; and wherever a 

 volunteer potato-stalk comes up in the fields, a 

 dozen bugs or more pounce on it at once, and 

 devour it in no time. 



LATHYRUS SII.VESTRIS. 



This is now fully three feet high, and is just 

 a tangled massof solid " feed." 1 am speaking, 

 however, of the little plot in our plant-beds. 

 That which is planted off in fields did not stand 

 the drouth so well last summer, nor has it stood 

 the terrible freezing and thawing so well this 

 spring ; but notwithstanding this, I think it 

 promises well. Why do not more people tell us 

 how it has turned out '? Two years ago we sold 

 certainly more than 1000 five-cent packets of 

 the seed. 



THE WHITTAKEK ONION — SEE PAGE 7.51, OCTO- 

 BER. 18!»5. 

 These are just proving to be immense. 

 There are at this date. May 13, beautiful on- 

 ions, almost as large as hens' eggs, and great 

 bright-green tops, with not a single seed -stalk 

 to be seen in the whole patch, and they win- 

 tered with almost as perfect a stand as the 

 Egyptian winter onion. I tell you, I would not 

 take a good lot of money for that patch of 

 Whittaker onions. In size they are ever so 

 much ahead of the White Multiplier or Ameri- 

 can Pearl at this season of the year; and the 

 large bulbs, when mature, are fully as large as 

 the average Globe Dan vers onion. 



THE breed's WEEDER. 



vSince printing our illustration on page 231 we 

 have had quite a little experience with weed- 

 ers; and we are surprised to find they can be 

 worked on our clay soil much better than we ex- 

 pected. For instance, we planted a piece of 

 land to peas, beans, and corn, all the same day. 

 The seeds were all put in with a common grain- 

 drill having part of the holes stopped up. Just 

 before the seed came through the ground we 

 went over it with the weeder lengthwise, level- 

 ing up the drill-marks. A little later we went 

 over it again crosswise, breaking every particle 

 of crust, and leveling all furrows and depres- 

 sions nicely. After the plants were well up we 

 went through it again lengthwise, and the 

 soil was stirred perfectly around each plant. It 

 is just as if you had taken your fingers or a rake 

 and pulverized and loosened the surface clear 

 up to the very plant itself. 



There is not any crust anywhere — not even 

 a piece an Inch square. No cultivator has 

 ever been put on to the soil as yet, and I hard- 

 ly think it will need one. I have just been told 

 that a neighbor of ours raised a fine crop of 

 corn last year from a ten-acre lot, taking no 

 other tool into the fipld after the corn was 

 planted than the Breed's weeder. 



Besides the one illustrated on page 231, we 

 have a hand weeder on wheels, made to work 

 especially among onion-plants, and this ma- 

 chine is also doing splendid work among all 



kinds of plants too close for a horse to go 

 through. It works a strip of ground 2)4 ft. wide; 

 but as it is rather hard work to make the fin- 

 gers go down to a good depth in our clay soil, 

 we have one boy to pull it with a piece of rope 

 while another does the pushing. Two boys, 14 

 or 15 years old, it strikes me, will do more weed- 

 ing, and do better work, than a gang of a dozen 

 in the ordinary way. Of course, you must keep 

 the weeder going, and never let any weeds get 

 big enough to slip by the steel fingers. The 

 question may arise. Is it not an advantage to 

 stir some kinds of soil down to a greater depth 

 than the weeder does it? I am not satisfied in 

 regard to this point as yet. Our Whittaker 

 onions are just now making bulbs. The ground 

 is so hard that it heaves up in little chunks 

 around the onion-bulbs. I am going to try a 

 part of the patch by running the single-tooth 

 wheel-hoe between the rows, say two or three 

 inches deep, so as to loosen the ground a little 

 deeper. You see these onions have stood all 

 winter. The ground has not been plowed or 

 harrowed except the surface-working we have 

 already given it. 



PLUMS AND CHICKENS. 



A neighbor of ours who grows plums and 

 raises chickens has jusi brought me a branch 

 of great beautiful green plums, without a cur- 

 culio sting on any one of them; and he says 

 every plum on thp whole tree is absolutely free 

 from damage. This tree stands in a little en- 

 closure where a dozen chickens are kept. Of 

 course, they keep the ground entirely bare, and 

 catch every insect which unluckily drops with- 

 in their reach. Other plum-trees of the same 

 kind, where the poultry are fenced away from 

 the trees, have scarcely a perfect plum — they 

 are all stung by the curculio. Now, this thing 

 is not exactly new; but why is it that chickens 

 are not more used to protect plums? The 

 plum-trees in the chicken -yard have never 

 been *' bumped " once, to shake off the insects. 



W^HEN IS THE BE.ST TIME TO PLANT POTATOES ? 



Much depends upon the season as well as 

 upon the locality. All things considered, for 

 our locality I should say now. We have had, 

 however, for years, excellent crops of potatoes 

 when planted all through the month of June. 

 We put them in as soon as some other crop is off 

 and a piece of ground is vacant. Certain varie- 

 ties of early potatoes have also done well when 

 planted the fore part of July. The very best 

 crop of Freeman we ever raised was planted in 

 July, after strawberries. Monroe Seedling also 

 does nicely for late planting providing the seed, 

 like our own. was raised from a late planting 

 the year before. Early Ohio. Freeman, Monroe 

 Seedling, and the New Craig, are all keeping 

 nicely so far in spite of the severe hot weather; 

 and each and all of them are in good condition 

 for planting. 



THE CRAIGS FOR A LATE SPRING TABLE POTATO. 



Mr. Root: — Those Craig potatoes in my cellar 

 are still in good conditiou— in much better stiape 

 than several other .sorts I have just planted for a 

 dealer; viz.. Carman No. 3, Great Divide, Pare Man- 

 or, Table King, Banner, Pride of the South, Brow- 

 nell's Winner, King of Early, Early Wisconsin, 

 Salzer Earliest, Cliampion of the World, Wisconsin 

 Beauty, Maule's Thoroughbred, Burpee's Extra 

 Early. Arizona, and others. C. N. Flansburgh. 



Leslie, Mich., May 4. 



I may explain to our readers that friend F. 

 grew quite a quantity of Craig potatoes for us 

 last season. His report agrees with ours exact- 

 ly. The Craig potatoes are firm, solid, and 

 have scarcely a perceptible sprout, while al- 

 most all other varieties have suffered more or 

 less from the recent hot weather in April; and 

 so far as quality is concerned, at this season of 



