1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



765 



GINSENG. 



For some time I have been wondering why 

 we received so many inquiries in regard to the 

 root ginseng. Mr. Calvert suggests that the 

 brokers who buy up beeswax throughout the 

 country are also in the habit of purchasing this 

 root for the Chinese trade; and as we handle 

 beeswax in large quantities they naturally take 

 it for granted that we buy the ginseng also. 

 Just now I am reminded that it has been my 

 impression for some time that there was a 

 swindle somewhere connected with this gin- 

 seng business. There are items going about the 

 newspapers, and several have been sent here 

 with the request that we publish them. In re- 

 gard to growing ginseng for the market, my 

 impression is somebody expects to make a lot 

 of money by selling seed or may be roots. I 

 have wondered for some time that the market 

 continues to hold out at such prices for the 

 root. If the Chinese would use their money in- 

 stead to buy the cheap corn and wheat we have 

 on our shores for their starving multitudes, it 

 would be more sensible and Ciiristianlike. Gin- 

 seng is hardly recognized as a medicine In our 

 country. The Chinese are ransacking the earth 

 in search of it, and expending thousands of dol- 

 lars, so far as I can learn, just because of a su- 

 perstition of their own in regard to it. 



Special Notices in the Line of Gardening, etc. 



By A. I. Root. 



maule's thorodghbred potatoes. 

 Prices of potatoes will remain as given on page 

 739 of our previous issue, with tlie exception of 

 Miiule's Tliorouglibred. This has been advertised 

 in one of the agricultural papers at a lower price 

 than ours; therefore we make the price as follows: 

 1/2 peck, 60 cts.; peek, $1.00; '■> bushel, $1.75; bushel, 

 $.3.00; barrel of 11 pecks. $7.00. If anybody has paid 

 a higher price this fall, if he will mention it we will 

 give him the proper rebate. On the White Bliss 

 Triumph potato I think I gave the price rather too 

 low. I am told tliat it can not be had anywhere 

 else for the money Our second size Is all gone, and 

 the firsts are going rapidly Thoroughbreds will 

 still be offered as premiums for subscilblng. One 

 pound will be presented to everybody who sends us 

 $1.00 for Gleanings, past, present, or future; and 

 $1.00 worth (one peck) will be given to every present 

 subscriber who gels us a new name; that is, to 

 every present subscriber who gets Gleanings in- 

 troduced into some home or locality where it has 

 not been going before, and who sends us $1.00 for 

 same. The premium potatoes are given with the 

 understanding that the recipient pays postage if 

 wanted by mail. 



THE WHITTAKER ONIONS AND WHITTAKER ONION- 

 SETS. 



We are entirely sold out of the sets, but have a 

 few large onions left. As we are obliged to buy the 

 sets and pay a larger price, we can not furnish any 

 more of the small size or sets at less than 18 cts. a 

 quart; $1.2.5 per peck, or $1.00 per bushel. We can, 

 however, make a lower price on the large onions 

 than we have ever ottered; namely, 10 cts. per 

 quart, 75 cts. per peck, or $3. .50 per bushel. Please 

 bear in mind, friends, that these and the multipliers 

 do not make sets or seed. They are simply large 

 onions or small onions, or intermediate. If you 

 plant the small ones, tliey grow big: if you plant 

 the big ones ihey grow liitle. They grow little by 

 bur.sting apart and dividing into a large number of 

 small ones. I presume the Whittaker onions will 

 winter safely if planted any time before the ground 

 freezes; although It is better to plant them soon 

 enough so they get well rooted before freezing 

 weather. If they should not get rooted, some sort 

 of mulch will probably be needed. I can not tell 

 very much about that. We consider them very 

 valuable because they are so exceedingly hardy, 

 make great large nice onions, and nev'er bother by 

 sending up a seed-stalk. 



KIND WORDS FROM OUR CUSTOMERS. 



Dear Bm. Roof ."—Your wheelrides no doubt are 

 healthful to you; your sermons are beneficial to me, 

 and I hope they are to all your readers. 



Canova, S. D., Aug. 30. L. R. Hillman. 



About half of the 80O shipping-cases you sent me 

 are now made up, and they're beauties. I thank 

 you for the very exact workmanship on them. 



Marengo, 111., Sept. 31. C. C. Miller. 



After one year's trial of the Crane smoker in a 

 large apiary I find it the best one I have got hold of. 

 The valves and bellows proper are entirely free 

 from creosote, and no repairs yet. 



Clinton, Me., Sept. 6. John Reynolds. 



I wish to assure you that I appreciate Gleanings 

 greatly, and have done so for years— formerly for 

 the sake of its bee-literature, but lately mostly for 

 what you have to say about the kingdom of God 

 and his righteousness. Chas. Wohlenberg. 



Hartshorn, Ind. Ter., Sept. 33. 



We never have a season a complete failure here. 

 Last year was reckoned a bad one, yet bee-keepers 

 with 100 colonies got about 10,000 lbs. extracted. For 

 all that, some of us would like to see the Home of 

 the Honey-bee. In writing to Atlee Burpee & Co., 

 of Philadelphia, last week, I saifl I often wished 

 Burpee & Co. and A. I. Root were nearer to us. May 

 A. I. R. be long spared to write for Gleanings. 



T. M. Hewitt. 



Lismore, N. S. W., Australia, July 6. 



Friend Boot:— The strawberry-plants arrived in 

 good shape. I don't think I shall lose 10 plants out 

 of 300. They were the best plants I ever received. 

 Thanks for the extra ones. 



We are thinking more of the A. I. Root Co. every 

 year, and the way they do business. We think it is 

 simply perfect; in fact, you are getting to be an old 

 friend of ours, and you may be sure of our order 

 for every thing we need in your line. 



Thos. Meyers & Son. 



Carsonville, Mich., Sept. 1. 



The 300 strawberry-plants came all right, and are 

 doing nicely. I do not expect to lose more than 

 half a dozen in spite of the dry spell. I planted 

 thum by lantern light the same night they came. 



Richmond, Ky. J. Louis Schlegel. 



[There, friends, here is one of the secrets of suc- 

 cess. It is very much better to put out any kind of 

 plant in the evening than in the morning. They 

 get a little bit of start over night. Our friend, rec- 

 ognizing" this, came out with a lantern rather than 

 hold the plants over 34 hours to wait for another 

 evening. This makes a vast ditfer-ence between 

 letting the plants lie three or four days, and may 

 be a week, because some other business is on hand 

 or something of that sort.] 



Your travel on the wheel from New Philadelphia 

 to Newcomerstown was interesting to me, as I was 

 born about half way between said towns, in an early 

 day when the wolves could be heard to howl, and 

 the deer could be seen to trot around up the south 

 branch of Fry's Creek, in Clay Township, 3 miles 

 from Lock No. 17. and 4 miles from Port Washiiag- 

 ton. I have been in that town scores of times; and 

 to see peaches at 10 cts. a bushel calls to mind when 

 they/'ould scarcely be sold or even given away (and 

 here $3.00 or $4 00 a brtsnel)— a very big change there 

 since the fall of 1831, when I first squealed. 



Limerick, 111., Aug. 34. E. Pickup. 



OLD HYMNS— shall WE NOT KEEP GREEN THE MEM- 

 ORY OF THEM ? 



Mr. Root:— A specimen i-opy of Gleanings has 

 been sent to me. It is dated Mar'ch 15, 1896, and on 

 page 335 a writer 1 whom I take to be yourself) quotes 

 four lines of a hymn, saying that he lias not yet 

 found the book containing it. One verse, as I recol- 

 lect it, runs: 



There is no name so sweet on ear'th. 



No name so dear in heaven; 

 The name before his wondrous bitth 



To Christ the Savior given. 

 We love to sing around our King, etc. 



