1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



583 



OUB WET AND RAINY JULY. 



Almost'every season gives us some peculiari- 

 ty or some new thing unlike any former season. 

 These present closing days of the month of 

 July, with thunder-showers almost daily, some 

 of them almost cloud-bursts,* are novel if not 

 refreshing in every sense of the word. Again 

 and again have we promised ourselves that to- 

 morrow we could get on to the grounds with 

 the cultivator; but to-morrow brought more 

 rain, and so the weeds as well as the crops are 

 growing rampant. Nobody knows as yet what 

 the effect will be, especially if it should con- 

 tinue on through August. We can rejoice in 

 at least, one thing — it is pushing the white clo- 

 ver forward in a way that has not happened 

 before in years. My impression is, there is 

 quite a prospect of a crop of fall honey wherev- 

 er these July freshets have prevailed. 



maule's thoroughbred potatoes. 



Tliere were two potatoes, 33 eyes, planted in a 

 patch with other potatoes, same cultivation, on 

 rather thin land. Planted last of February, and duR 

 on the 10th of July. There were 214 potatoes (57 

 lbs.), m(ist of them small, but probably a dozen that 

 would weigh from !4 to 1 lb. I am feeling pretty 

 good over beating T. B. Terry 12 lbs. in the yield of 

 two Thoroughbred potatoes. You will remember 

 he grew 45 lbs. from 2 potatoes last season. 



Hickman, Ky. D W. Dickman. 



Special Notices in tlie Line of Gardening, etc. 



By A. I. Root. 



WANTED— HOME-GHOWN CRIMSON-CLOVER SEED. 



If any of our readers have liarvested seed of the 

 crimson clover, we should be glad to know how 

 much they have and what they will take for it. The 

 greater part of the crimson-clover seed on the mar- 

 ket is imported. Several of the dealers are saying 

 there is not any home-grown seed. Of course, this 

 is not true; but Ihey offer it as an excuse for selling 

 the imported, which can be furnished at a much 

 lower price. We should like to buy our seed direct 

 from the grower, and hence this inquiry. 



SEEDS THAT MAY BE PLANTED THE FIRST C)F AU- 

 GUST, OFFERED AT EXCEEDINGLY LOW PRICES. 



All the wax beans will usually give a nice crop 

 for table use if planted now; and for immediate 

 orders we offer our well-known Wardwell's Kidney 

 Wax at 10 cts. per qt. ; 60 cts. a peck. Best of All 

 beans, green-podded, 5 cts. per qt. ; 40 cts. a peck; 

 $1.25 a bushel. We make these very low prices on 

 the last because we have a very large stock that we 

 do not wish to keep over. York State Marrow and 

 Navy beans will ordinarily ripen before frost. We 

 offer the former' at 8 cts. per qt. ; 50 cts. a peck; $1.50 

 a bushel. Navy beans, quart, 5 cts.; peck, 35 cts.; 

 bushel. $1.25. At these last prices these beans are 

 probably cheaper for table use than yon can get 

 them for in your own home market or almost any- 

 where else. We offer them thus low beeause we 

 have a very large stock on hand. They are clean 

 hand-picked beans of our own growing, and are 

 certainly a bargain. 



Sweet corn planted now will usually make green 

 ears, and is a splendid thing for fodder if planted 

 In hills or sown broadcast, at any time during Au- 

 gust. In consequence of a very large stock of 

 Stowell's Evergreen, Ford's Early, and Late Mam- 

 moth, we offer it at very low prices; viz., 40 cts. per 

 peck, or $1.25 per bushel. 



* During a tremendous rainstorm between six and 

 seven o'clock on the afternoon of the 27th, two or 

 three dozen little fish rained down in the northwest 

 part of our town. Tliey wei'e picked up by some of 

 our people, and are now here in the factory. They 

 seemed to be bass, about an inch long. Our theory 

 Is that a whirlwind must have pulled the water up 

 from some lake, and let it " spill" just in our local- 

 ity; and for a few minutes it really seemed to me 

 that it was not rain — it was water spilling some- 

 where from above. 



We offer the Green Prolific (or Boston pickle) cu- 

 cumbers for pickles for the rest of the season, at the 

 very low price of 25 cts per lb. 



Onion seed sown now will, if the season proves to 

 be dry, furnish nice sets; and if not sown too thick, 

 will give small onions for market, should the sea- 

 son prove to be wet, as it is now, so that they do not 

 ripen up, and the tops dry down ; they will usually, 

 in our locality, winter ovit in the open air, and 

 make excellent bunching onions for next spring. 

 Our seed is splendid stock, for it has by this time 

 been all tested; but because we have a large stock 

 on hand, botli Globe Danversand Red Wet hersHeld, 

 we otler it, till sold out, at only .50 cts. per lb. 



Onion-sets, multiplier and potato onions, radishes, 

 spinach, and turnips, may also be sown during this 

 month ; but we can make no better prices on these 

 than the very low rate given in our catalog. If you 

 do not have it, we shall be pleased to mail It to you. 

 On tlie Breadstone turnip that we have sold for so 

 many }' ears, we make a special price of 30 cts. per 

 lb. because we have a very large stock on hand. 



In regard to plants, we can still furnish late cab- 

 bage, caulitiower, and celery-plants. For prices on 

 these, see our catalog. 



In consequence of the recent very abundant rains 

 we have a tine stock of extra nice strawberry-plants 

 at our regular prices. Plants of the new Marshall, 

 10 plants for 30 cts. ; by mail, 35 cts.; 100 l)y express, 

 fl..50. 



Maule's Early Thoroughbred potatoes and White 

 Bliss Triumph, second crop, ready for planting 

 now, will be furnished at the prices given in our 

 last issue. Gleanings included at the rate of one 

 year for every dollar you send us for seed potatoes 

 of the above two varieties. 



For White Multiplier and Whittaker onions, see 

 prices given in our last issue. 



SENDING us BEESWAX WITHOUT PUTTING YOUR 

 NAME ON THE PACKAGES. 



Our book-keepers, and the man who goes to the 

 depot for packages of wax, are having no end of 

 trouble year in and year out because people will 

 send us wax without putting any name on the box, 

 and a good many times without even sending us a 

 postal card notifying us they have shipped us wax. 

 A long time afterward they usually say something 

 about it; but although we keep a careful record 

 and description of every lot of wax sent us, there is 

 all the while a perplexing jangle in regard to ship- 

 ments of wax. Sometimes it takes expensive de- 

 tective work— or it might almost be called that— to 

 find out the owner. Two or three times we have 

 paid the wrong man, and sometimes given him 

 credit for a good deal more than he sent. I wonder 

 if it is not the class of people who do business in 

 this way who say that farming doesn't pay. Why, 

 my dear friend, nothing in the world would pay if 

 you managed in this slipshod way. When you send 

 wax, mark your name on the box; give weight of 

 box alone, and weight of the whole package; then 

 send us a postal card telling us what you liave done, 

 and tell us it we shall send you cash or whether it 

 Is to be credited on account. You need not write 

 any long letter; but do, for pity's sake, tell us who 

 you are, where you live, how much wax you send, 

 and what you want for it. 



While I am about it. let me say again, I do not be- 

 lieve any of our readers or friends can afford to 

 send beeswax by c.rpre.«s. A great many times the 

 express charge from distant points is half the value 

 of the wax, and sometimes almost the whole value. 

 My attention has just been called to a case where a 

 man sent us 40 lbs. of wax by express. The charges 

 were $2.75 for bringing it. Now, this man was not 

 in a very gfeat hiory for his money, because he 

 waited almost a month before he told us he had 

 sent any. The box could have come by freight for 

 40 or .50 cents, and there was time enougli for it to 

 make two or three trips before he ever made in- 

 quiry about it. 



When you take a package to the express office, 

 make the agent tell you what it is going to cost. In 

 fact, I think it is a good plan to find out what it is 

 going to cost before you make anu investment, es- 

 pecially if you are working hard and find it difficult 

 to make both ends meet, as is the case with so many 

 just now. Please remember beeswax is coming to 

 us all the time, and your package may come in with 

 half a dozen others; the next train the same thing 

 happens over again, and so on. Then the question 

 is how we are to tell " which is which," if you do not 

 describe your shipment nor put your name on it. 



