1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



509 



and I think you had better put a little adver- 

 tisement in our journal ; for we (that is, the 

 readers of Gleanings) want the genuine Great 

 American, such as I have described. 



Next time you take a good long wheel-ride, if 

 you can get hold of them just take a great 

 heaping quart of Great Americans and sit down 

 in the shade and enjoy yourself, and thank 

 A. I. R. for having told you where to find at 

 least one of God's most luscious gifts. 



I think I shall have to own up that I am not 

 a very good hand at raspberries, nor blackber- 

 ries either; but when you come to gooseberries 

 — this year, at least — I am a grand success. 

 Down on the side hill, this side of the creek 

 garden, there is a row of gooseberries 200 or 300 

 feet long; and every bush is not only loaded 

 with fruit but it is actually lying down on the 

 ground with loads of berries. Before our recent 

 abundant rains I feared the berries were going 

 to be rather small in size on account of the 

 excessive quantity. I wrote to several com- 

 mission houses to know what they would give 

 for green gooseberries provided I thinned off 

 about half of them. They replied that the 

 market was already overstocked; but now since 

 the rains, they are fully as large as I ever saw 

 them, and there are bushels and bushels of 

 them. We commenced selling them at 5 cts. a 

 quart; hut now we are letting people have 

 them atSil.OO a bushel provided they will come 

 and pick them for themselves. Our Mr. Turner 

 just gave me a hint in regard to gathering this 

 fruit. Ask your wife to lend you her apron (if 

 you are so unfortunate as not to have a wife, 

 borrow an apron of some other good woman). 

 Get a little box just the right height to sit on 

 comfortably, and'seat yourself beside the goose- 

 berry-bush. Lift up the branches and get 

 them over your apron. Strip off fruit, leaves, 

 and all. When you get through, winnow out 

 the leaves in a light breeze. If there are 

 enough, put them through a fanning-raill. Our 

 boy " Fred " says he thinks he can pick a peck 

 in 15 minutes, but I think he had better say 

 twice that time. Now, if some of the bushes 

 were full and others not. I might think it was 

 the variety; but that row contains almost all 

 kinds of gooseberries that have been adver- 

 tised in the catalogs, and they are loaded just 

 the same, unless I exceut some of the new vari- 

 eties that cost 2.5 or ,50 cts. a plant. Some of 

 these bear great whopping berries, but they 

 have never been loaded down on our grounds. 

 If you are going to put your gooseberries 

 through a fanning-mill. and carry them home 

 in a bag. on your bicycle, you want to pick 

 them before thev are dead ripe. 



Later, June 2').— I said I could not raise rasp- 

 berries; but I can. after all. We have made 

 our first picking of the Gaults. There is going 

 to be a great lot of them, first crop; and the 

 first picking, at least, are the largest raspber- 

 ries I ever saw. I think the Gault this year 

 will give us more berries than any other rasp- 

 berry on our grounds; and that is the first crop, 

 mind you. The buds and blossoms are already 

 out for those tremendous clusters of the sec- 

 ond crop. 



Ehmgyuis lonqipes has given us a crop 

 of splendid berries— perhaps I had better say 

 cherries— this year, and I regard the plants as 

 an acquisition. They are as large as fair-sized 

 cherries. The stone, or seed, is a great deal 

 smaller than that of any cherry, and 'they have 

 a sprightly acid flavor that is very refreshing 

 to me. It also makes just the nicest kind of 

 pies, according to my notion. My half-dozen 

 plants are fully equal to the catalog picture. 

 They are bending with fruit just as the catalog 

 said they would, the second year after planting. 



They do not seem to have any insect-enemies. 

 The bushes are strong rank growers, and I 

 wonder the world has been so long ignorant of 

 so beautiful a fruit. I must tell you, however, 

 that there are a few people who stick up their 

 noses and make a face at this fruit. Every- 

 body admires the plant and the beautiful fruit, 

 but not everybody likes its peculiar tartness. 

 On the experiment farm they had not borne 

 fruit yet, and it was my pleasure to express 

 them a sample basket. 



THE EARLIEST POTATO IN THE WOULD. 



It is now June 17, and we have just been 

 sampling some of our earliest potatoes. The 

 White Bliss Triumph is certainly ahead. Bur- 

 pee's Early, Six Weeks, Early Ohio, and Thor- 

 oughbred, would come next. So far as quality 

 is concerned, while they are so immature there 

 is not very much difference. The Thorough- 

 bred, to bring out its best table qualities, 

 needs to be fully ripe, and I suppose this is the 

 case with almost any other potato. By the 

 way, I have told you several times of the Thor- 

 oughbreds that I started in the greenhouse, 

 afterward planted out in the cold-frame — the 

 ones that stood three feet high until a heavy 

 storm blew them down. Well, the vines now 

 are beginning to look yellow, and show some 

 signs of maturity. A few minutes ago, while 

 looking them over I saw the ground heaving up 

 in various spots, so I put my finger down, and 

 without any trouble at all I picked out half a 

 dozen potatoes averaging ^X lb. each. This, as 

 you know, is pretty large for table use; in fact, 

 I brieve the general market would prefer them 

 smaller rather than larger. Three of these 

 great fellows came from a single stalk, the pro- 

 duce of a single eye. It was somewhat of a 

 question whether we could get a good yield of 

 potatoes planted only one foot apart from cen- 

 ter to center; but the Thoroughbred will do it, 

 and no mistake. I fairly ached to dig up the 

 whole patch, to see how many bushels per acre 

 the yield was going to be; but I know by past 

 experience we can not get a full yield unless 

 the vines are permitted to become dry and dead. 

 The potatoes are certainly the smoothest, fair- 

 est, and handsomest-shaped of any thing it has 

 ever been my lot to grow. When the seed gets 

 cheap enough with the Thoroughbred, I shall 

 be quite willing to grow early potatoes for table 

 use by starting them under glass. Just think 

 of it — a big yield of large potatoes by the mid- 

 dle of June ! 



CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS; INVESTING MONEY IN 



THEM WITHOUT MAKING EXPERIMENTS 



FIRST ON A SMALL SCALE. 



Mr. F. B. Chamberlain, of Penfield, O., paid 

 us a visit yesterday; and while looking over 

 our potatoes he told me in substance as follows: 

 Last year he bought S40.00 worth of a specially 

 prepared potato fertilizer, and left alternate 

 strips, as they do at the experiment station, 

 with phosphate, and the other strips with 

 nothing. At digging-time the strips with noth- 

 ing applied gave 10 bushels per acre more than 

 where he put on the high-priced fertilizer. He 

 submitted the matter to the agent who sold it 

 to him, and he said it was on account of the dry 

 weather; but, mind you, the potatoes with 

 nothinci applied had to stand the dry weather 

 also. They claimed, however, that this yea 

 this heavy application of fertilizer would make 

 a showing clear and plain on the present crop. 

 At this date, however, June 25, no benefit can 

 be discovered. You may say the brand of fer- 

 tilizer was a spurious one; but I think not. 

 Friend C. can tell you what make it was, if you 

 wish. At our experiment station they have 

 had several cases of a like nature, where the 



