510 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



application of an expensive fertilizer actually 

 cut down the yield. Now, I do not mean to 

 advise that you stop using chemical manures, 

 but I would stop buying 140.00 worth to start 

 with of something you have not tried. Make 

 some tests in your garden first. When you get 

 hold of something that does enough good to 

 pay the cost, try it on a little larger scale next 

 season, and so on. 



June 27 — just before going to press. — I have 

 just returned from a trip on my wheel to Mat- 

 thew Crawford. From my description of our 

 big strawberry bethinks iti§, without question, 

 the Great American. Mr. Crawford agrees sub- 

 stantially with the decision of our experiment 

 station in regard to strawberries. The Wm. 

 Belt and the Brandywine stand now at least 

 very near the head for perfect-blossoming late 

 strawberries. 



THE GAULT RASPBERRY, ONCE MORE. 



If you will excuse so many conflicting reports, 

 permit me to say that, at the present lime, the 

 Gault is ripening up fruit that in size, quality, 

 and firmness, is equal to any thing I have ever 

 seen, and you know I have just visited Dan 

 White, the experiment station, and Matthew 

 Crawford. Not only is the center one of the 

 cluster large and handsome, but there will be a 

 dozen or more berries on the stem ripening all 

 at once, pretty nearly all alike. The worst 

 trouble now is, that the great weight of the 

 immense berries brings the branch down to the 

 ground, so that a good many got muddy from 

 the recent rains. 



THE NEW EVERBEARING YELLOW RASPBERRY. 



We have just received a basket of these from 

 friend O. E. Hemenway, New London, O. (see 

 page 506). They are about the size of the Cuth- 

 bert, and very much in looks like the Golden 

 Queen. They are of a beautiful orange yellow, 

 with just enough reddish tint to make them 

 look fascinating. They are not as sweet, how- 

 ever, as some of the red raspberries, and alto- 

 gether too soft for shipment— at least, those 

 sent us were ; but for family use, a small patch 

 in the garden would be not only a " thing of 

 beauty" but a delicious dessert. If you want 

 to know any thing more about them, or how to 

 get the plants, etc., write to friend Hemenway. 



WHITE BLISS POTATOES FOR IMMEDIATE PLANT- 

 ING FOR EARLY CROP. 



We have had little or no experience in grow- 

 ing potatoes from a crop already grown the 

 same season; but the White Bliss is now ready 

 for planting; and we give place to the follow- 

 ing, at the end of a letter just received from 

 friend Swinson : 



I will sell White Bliss of the spring- crop at $3.00 

 per ojirrel. These are fully matured, aud will run 

 in size from a large hen's egg to t-\\ice the size of 

 goose egg-s. They can be planled for second crop 

 ')iorth up to August 1, and Sinith up to September 1, 

 If fertilized well so as to force rapid growth. 



Goldsboro, N. C, June 24. A. L. Swinson. 



Triumph potatoes are now advertised in the 

 Cleveland market at $1.50 per barrel. This is 

 the same thing as the Red Bliss, from which 

 the White Bliss was originated. We have to- 

 day. June ;39th, White Bliss grown on our own 

 grounds, planted about May 1st. weighing fully 

 half a pound; and on ''oui' experiment farm" it 

 stands today the earlif^st potato. They are 

 not only handsome, but of excellent quality. 



with one of tliera as with any other tool I can buy 

 or find advertised in any catalog. 



Windham, N. Y. O. R. COE. 



In the same mail with the above was a small 

 hand-weeder like the cut below on the right. 



The figure on the left, and the upper one, show 

 the construction. The long strip is galvanized 

 iron folded at a sharp corner, as marked, then 

 nailed securely into the wooden handle cut out 

 of an inch board. We made perhaps half a 

 dozen of these weeders; and where the metal is 

 kept sharp on the edges with a file, it seems to 

 answer about as well as any that cost three or 

 four times as much. You see, thfy work on 

 the principle of a scuffle- hoe, sliding under the 

 surface without disturbing the ground very 

 much or throwing it out of level, but killing all 

 the weeds. Another thing, you can go close up 

 to the plants without any danger of cutting 

 them, for there is no sharp point to come out 

 under the ground closer than you intended. 

 If you like the tool, thank friend Coe. 



This spring, while looking over our new 

 counter store, my eye rested on a little imple- 

 ment made of iron and steel, shown in the fig- 

 ures below. 



HAND-WEEDERS, ETC. 



Mr. Root:— 1 send you by this mHil a little tool 

 that we use in the garden with most satisfactory 

 results. Try it in beet, carrot, and turnip beds. 

 We have tliem all widths, and also with handles 

 three feet long. A man will do as much again work 



A TEN-CENT ALL-METAL GARDEN-WEEDER. 



These implements are made and sold for pot- 

 cleaners. By squeezing the handle, the thin 

 steel blade is curved any degree you wish. 

 Well, I stood and stared at the things several 

 times, and mentally scratched my head to 

 know why it was these things suggested some- 

 thing, I could not tell exactly what. After a 

 while, however. I " caught on." 



" Why. Charley, as sure as you live your pot- 

 cleaners there will make the best garden-weed- 

 ers in the world;" and we took a lot of them up 

 to the swamp garden and tried them among 

 onions, turnips, radishes, etc., and the boys all 

 call them the best thing out. Where you get 

 the plants too thick, and they have to be thin- 

 ned out by hand, I tell you this machine is the 

 thing. If the ground should be uneven, and 

 you want to get down into a hollow, just 

 squeeze the handle, and it makes a regular 

 spoon, as it were. The thin keen steel blade 

 operates like friend Coe's weeder, only it is so 

 small you can readily carry it in your pocket, 

 and it is so light it may be sent by mail for 

 only 4 cents for postage. We should have got- 

 ten it before our readers earlier in the season, 

 were it not that we had to wait some little 

 time for the cuts. 



HUMBUGS AND SWINDLES. 



Mr. Boot;— Is the inclosed an j' good ? If not. can 

 you give me any good process by which fruit that I 

 can not sell may be put up to sell at some future 



