1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



507 



sufficieut to pay for these expensive fertilizers 

 depends enlirely on what the crops will bring 

 in the market. The experiments at our Ohio 

 station have shown most clearly, again and 

 again, that the farmer can not afford to buy 

 fertilizers at present prices for either corn, 

 wheat, or potato, s. unless thi'se crops bring 

 better prices than ihey do now. If you are 

 going to raise potatoes for seed, and expect to 

 get a dollar a bushel or more, you may use fer- 

 tilizers ai a very good protit, and the same with 

 wheat or corn. If you are a market-gardener, 

 and sell your corn green at so much a dozen 

 ears, it is also quite likely to give back the 

 money you have paid for fertilizers. 



A great many curious and unexpected results 

 are brought out by these experiments. For 

 instance, the amount of rainfall may change 

 the whole matter of using fertilizers from proBt 

 to loss or i)ice uersa. Again, where clover and 

 timothy are put in with the grain, the fertilizer 

 may, under some circumsttinces, stimulate the 

 clover and timothy to such an extent as to 

 choke the grain and cut off the crop. Again, 

 the chemicals may be used with no profit to the 

 crop to which they are applied. But the in- 

 creased growth of the crop on the ground the 

 year after may be enough to pay for the fer- 

 tilizer. 



At one point I saw a plot of oats showing 

 such beautiful dark green, and such luxuriant 

 growth, that I was just ready to ask the ques- 

 tion, " What fertilizer produced such a wonder- 

 ful result on this little plot?" Friends Thorn 

 and Hickman both laughed as they told me 

 that the piece of ground last year gave a large 

 crop of cow peas; and even after the crop was 

 taken off entirely, the nitrogen it gathered and 

 stored up in the soil produced the wonderful 

 result right before them. This gave us a bright 

 glimpse of the future that lies before us in the 

 line of clovers, beans, peas, etc. 



Crimson clover so far has been almost a fail- 

 ure on the experiment farm; but I believe they 

 are going to succeed with it even yet. With 

 American grown seed put in among early corn, 

 say during the last of J uly or first of August. I 

 think they will get a staod that will stay 

 through the winter. 



Inspeaking of Terry's bad luck with chem- 

 icals Prof. Thorn laughingly remarked some- 

 thing like this: 



" Mr. Root, I can make chemicals give a good 

 result right on that very same farm of T. B. 

 Terry's." 



" Why, how will you do it?" 



"Well, I would just stop raising clover — 

 that's all. 



Then we had a big laugh. The point is, 

 Terry gets his fertilizers in clover instead of 

 buying them in bags; and the clover produces 

 the same result so exactly that chemicals, when 

 applied to his clover-fertilized soil produce no 

 result whatever. 



Just one more point: In looking over the dif- 

 ferent plats, one plat showed a very good stand 

 of wheat, notwithstanding the white board in 

 front of it bore the inscription, '"Nothing." 

 When I said, •" How is this?" Prof. Green ex- 

 plained that the strip of wheat was grown on 

 ground that produced potatoes the year before. 

 Tne adjoining strips of wheat marked "' Noth- 

 ing." that were so poor, did not have any pota- 

 toes to go before them. " But," suggested 1, 

 "you put some chemicals on the potatoes did 

 you not? " 



"Nothing at all; and this experiment was 

 made expressly to show that a better crop of 

 wheat is secured where potatoes preceded the 

 wheat than where no potatoes were grown at 

 all." 



Now, this, you see, is another of Terry's 

 strong holds — having wheat follow potatoes in- 

 variably. 



By this time we had reached the fruit and 

 berry plantation away up on the summit of one 

 of the highest hills in the State of Ohio. Prof. 

 Thorn told me this point was fully :.'00 feet 

 above Killbuck River where it runs through 

 the town of VVooster. As we approached the 

 summit I was obliged to laugh to see how the 

 land was cut and gullied and washed right 

 through O'l our experiment farm. I did not 

 mean to laugh at anybody's misfortunes, mind 

 you: but it occurred tome that our professors 

 would be obliged now to solve one of the most 

 important problems before our State and many 

 others a little further south— preventing the 

 wash and cutting-down of some of our most 

 fertile soils as soon as the land is plowed and 

 worked up fine and loose. You may suggest 

 underdrains; but these are not sufficient. There 

 must be some special management; and, if I 

 am correct, our professors have not decided yet 

 just what course they will take. I am sure 

 they will master the difficulty in time, howev- 

 er. This sandy loam on the summit of this 

 high ground here seems to be the ideal soil for 

 all kinds of fruit, especially raspberries. 1 nev- 

 er before in my life saw such tremendous yields 

 exceedingly large fine berries are due much to 

 of massive fruit as I saw here. Doubtless the 

 the new and improved varieties. I will not 

 attempt to name all of them, because it will 

 soon be forthcoming in their report. Prof. 

 Green gave me on a slip of paper the name of 

 one of the best of the black-caps — the Eureka. 

 Among the novelties in the way of strange and 

 new fruits thure are a good many that amount 

 to little or nothing. There are, however, a few 

 that promise to pay for all the time and trouble 

 expended in getting them. Prominent among 

 them T want to speak of the Success June- 

 berry. These are certainly as luscious as huckle- 

 berries. They are borne in great profusion, and 

 the bushes may be grown as easily as currants. 

 This has been true on our grounds as well as at 

 ♦he Experiment Station. 



I wish I had space to tell you all about the 

 new varieties of strawberries. They had there 

 on the grounds almost every thing that has 

 been mentioned in print or in any catalog; and 

 while a great many of the new ones are grand 

 berries, there are only a very few, comparative- 

 ly, that Prof. Green thought sufficiently better 

 than the well-known ones to entitle them to a 

 place. By the way, he tells me the Great 

 American I have mentioned elsewhere is prob- 

 ably not, from my description, the genuine 

 Great American. He says there is very much 

 confusion indeed by having several varieties of 

 the «ame name, and also several names for the 

 same variety, or something so near it no one 

 can tell the difference. He suggested that the 

 big berry I got from my neighbor might have 

 been the Sharpless, after all. Its lateness may 

 be accounted lor by the difference in locality, 

 even though less than a quarter of a mile away; 

 and then he pointed out to me the fact that the 

 lower end of their trial strawberry-grounds was 

 almost a week later in ripening, although the 

 rows were only a few rods long. He could give 

 no reason for this; therefore, before you invest 

 in Great American, you had better wait for my 

 report another season. 



Among the valuable new sorts he gives the 

 Brandywine great prominence, as, I believe, 

 does almost everybody who has tried it. They 

 were picking and selling basketsof great berries 

 while I was there, for only S2.00 a bushel. 

 They would have brought almost twice that 

 on the Medina market. Perhaps the Wm. Belt 



