693 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



single berry. It is all well enough to grow 

 these things for ornament: but the catalogs 

 should state distinctly that the fruit is only 

 ornamental, and not fit to be eaten. There is 

 quite a lot of other new small fruits just coming 

 out, mentioned in the new catalogs. Are we to 

 spend two or three years in caring for these 

 until fruiting time, and then find it is only an- 

 other swindle? Why don't our experiment 

 stations buy these high-priced things first and 

 then speak out without fear or favor? I know 

 we have some seedsmen who refuse to give 

 place to these horticultural wonders until they 

 have tested and tasted the fruit. If anybody 

 else has a Rocky Mountain cherry or a tree 

 cranberry, and finds it any different from what 

 I have stated, I should be glad to give place to 

 his report. 



STRAWBERRIES BY THE BARREL; BEEF DIET 

 IN SUMMER. 



Mr. Root: — Have you tried raising strawber- 

 ries by the barrel ? The plan is becoming quite 

 popular around here. Procure a large barrel; 

 bore as many 13^-inch holes, equal distances 

 apart, in the staves as you wish to set plants. 

 Out of rough lumber make a box 3 inches 

 square inside, and as long as the barrel is deep. 

 In the sides of this box bore a number of % or 

 K in. holes. Bore a few small holes in the 

 bottom of the barrel, and fill in six or eight 

 inches of rich soil. Place the wooden box on 

 this in the center of the barrel, in an upright 

 position. Set plants in the holes in staves as 

 you fill the barrel with the richest garden soil 

 or compost to be had. Fill the box with water 

 as often as necessary, and the plants will fairly 

 boom. It is some work to fix it up, but it has a 

 few advantages. Strawberries, and fine ones 

 too, can be grown by it where the ground is full 

 of stones, tree roots, weeds, etc. ; ease of cut- 

 ting runners and gathering the fruit. A lazy 

 man might want it hung on pivots; then with 

 a seat the right height he could sit and turn 

 the plants to him to do the work. 



To protect the plants in winter, a little rye 

 straw is set up around the barrel, and tied. 



I live out in the country, away from butcher- 

 shops; and, wishing to use the "meat diet" 

 during the warm weather, I devised the fol- 

 lowing: The latter part of last winter I cured 

 and dried a large quantity of lean steak from a 

 young and well-fatted animal. To prepare it 

 for use I took one of my jack-planes and made 

 the bit as sharp as a razor. Then I placed it 

 upside down in my vise and screwed it fast, 

 and set a dish under the bit. By having the 

 bit set properly I can easily shave the dried 

 steak as thin as the paper I am writing on. It 

 is twice as palatable, and just as beneficial, as 

 fresh steak prepared by the Salisbury method, 

 and less trouble. Enough for a whole family 

 can be sliced in a few minutes. This jack- 

 plane, when sharp, is the best cabbage-cutter 

 and cucumber-slicer I ever saw. ' 



Arlington, Pa. W.C.Simons. 



Strawberries and dried beef seem to be a 

 rather strange combination, friend S. ; but that 

 reminds me that, while I am on a pretty clean 

 beef diet. I can eat strawberries and other ripe 

 fruits much better than almost any other sort 

 of vegetables. Nice ripe fruit, taken in moder- 

 ation, and fresh from the tree or bushes, seems 

 to agree very well with the beef diet. But 

 green corn and beans, cabbage, squash, and 

 suchlike, do not answer so well, at least for me. 

 Your plan of raising strawberries is not alto- 

 gether new, but you have given us some modi- 

 fication. I think I would mix in quite a lot of 

 old well-rotted manure in filling up that barrel; 

 and it would be an easy matter to apply liquid 



manure through the tube if desired. Dried 

 beef, sliced very thin, has for years been a 

 wholesome and favorite article of food in our 

 household. 



THOROUGHBRED POTATOES. 



To-daj' I dug- my Thoroughbred potatoes. From 

 the one pound I got of you last spring 1 got 63V^ 

 pounds. The largest weighed one pound five ounc- 

 es. The vines were not dead yet. They were plant- 

 ed the last of May I am ashamed to tell the cultiva- 

 tion they got (or lack of it, rather). They received 

 no manure, and were cultivated with a horse but 

 twice, and hoed three times. A. W. Porter. 



Baraboo, Wis., Aug. 29. 



Friend P., I would never dig potatoes before 

 they are ripe and the vines thorughly dry — 

 that is, if I wanted to get the largest possible 

 yield. If you want the potatoes to eat or to sell, 

 that is a different matter; but if you are going 

 to save them for seed next year, by all means 

 let them get thoroughly ripe. T. B. Terry told 

 me at my last visit, where potatoes are to be 

 dug by a potato digger they should remain in 

 the ground until some time after the vines are 

 dead and dry; otherwise they are more likely 

 to be bruised, and some varieties of potatoes 

 are likely to rot after being bruised or cut. I 

 should think your yield was a big one, especial- 

 ly with the care you gave them. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



In a recent number of this paper, Mr. J. L. 

 Gandy, of Nebraska, made this remark about 

 sweet clover: 



Since it has been demonstrated that sweet clover 

 makes good hay and pasture, many of our farmers, 

 instead of tryingto exterminate it, as has hitherto 

 heen the custom, are encouraging its growth. 



Editor Root offers the following comment up- 

 on the above, in Gleanings: 



This is a good point. Let us keep them circulat- 

 ing. I expect to say, and keep on saying, until I 

 do not have to say it any more, that sweet clo- 

 ver Is not a noxious weed, but is one of the best 

 honey-plants in the world; that it yields nectar 

 everywhere, and that its flow is prolonged, not days, 

 but weeks and weeks; that if it grows anywhere it 

 grows in waste places; is easily exterminated; that 

 cattle learn to eat it in preference to many other 

 kinds of green forage, and it makes a fairly good 

 hay. I have said these same things before; but it 

 seems it must be repeated in different ways in or- 

 der to make people believe it. 



This is a subject upon which we are in entire 

 agreement with Mr. Root, for we reside right 

 in the midst of a sweet-clover region. Does it 

 yield honey? Well, we should think so. It 

 yields for a long time. and. to our taste, its hon- 

 ey is the finest of &]\.— Editorial in American 

 Bee Journal. 



LOOK OUT FOR HIM! 



Mr. Root: — We find in going over the towns of 

 Wilkinshurg and Braddock that there has been a 

 man tliere selling honey to the people. He repre- 

 sents he is a member of your firm, and tells some 

 people he is a son of A. I. Root. We rather think this 

 party is a fraud. He is misrepresenting us, and we 

 should like to know if he is your agent. 



J. A. Buchanan & Sons. 



HoUiday's Cove, W. Va., Sept. 14. 



We hardly need say that no member of our 

 firm has ver been out through the country 

 selling honey or any thing else. A. I. Root has 

 only two sons. One of them is editor of this jour- 

 nal, and has his hands full pretty much all the 

 time, day and night. The other one is a school- 

 boy thirteen years old. who manages to keep 

 about as busy as the older one; but it is not 

 always strictly Misiness he is busy about. If 

 the man mentioned above comes your way, just 

 show him this item. 



