870 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



If the ashes are heaped up around the trees the 

 borers will simply enter higher up, and soil will 

 have the same effect as ashes. 1 am quite sure 

 thHt there is nothing in the remedy. 

 Wooster, O., Nov. 17. W. J. Green. 



I may add that I have been carefully t-can- 

 ning our agricullural periodicals for several 

 years back, and have also carefully noted what 

 our great teachers in horticulture have to say 

 in regard to the matter; but, if I am correct, 

 there is at the present time nothing known 

 that will kill the bor< rs that will not at the 

 same time endanger the life of the tree. The 

 only thing that can be recommended is the la- 

 borious iriethnd of getting down on your knees 

 and removing the soil from around the roots of 

 the tree atid digging out the oflPenders, with a 

 sharp pointed knife and an assortment of slen- 

 der wires. The reason why so many people 

 make a mistake is along the line of faith in 

 medicines for human ailments. All these trou- 

 bles come by fits and starts. Sometimes they 

 go away and stay away for years when you do 

 not do any thing. Again, when every thing is 

 favorable they will get a going and ruin your 

 orchard almost in spite of every thing you can 

 do. I presume the fruit-growers of the world 

 could afford to pay thousands of dollars for 

 some easier and cheaper way than digging the 

 borers out, if such a way could be found. 



MTI.I.S' EARTIFST IN THE WOKI.D TOMATO. 



Our good friend Greiner, after referring to 

 what 1 said about this tomato nn page 6.55, 

 Sept. 1. writes in Farm mid Fireside as follows: 



Now. a year or two ago I tried this Mill's wonder 

 (with Fordhook and a large number of others) and 

 failed to find any tiling remark;ible about it. Pos- 

 sibly I was disgusted with it from the very start by 

 the extravagant claims m;ide for its earliness; be- 

 sides, I had only a few plants, simply 1 ecause I 

 lacked faith from the begiiming. After this experi- 

 ence, however, I would have taken Mr. Rcot's 

 words, with a large dose of salt, if I hiid not just re- 

 ceived an irdorsement from an unexpected quarter. 

 A brother of mine writes me that he lias grown this 

 Earliest in the World tomato this season, and finds 

 it so good that he advises me to throw all others 

 away. A neighbor also has had it for three years, 

 and this year has a fine patch of plants, all trained 

 to single stalk on stake, and doing remarkably well. 

 While I am not going to abandon all other varieties 

 for this new phenomenon. I think I shall have to 

 give it nnother and more thorough tiial. If it 

 proves all that these men now say it is, we will even 

 forgive Mr. Mills for having burdened his new to- 

 mato with a name long enough and heavy enough 

 to draff it down. We shall call it simply Mills. 



A few days ago we were favored with a visit 

 from two of tiie members of the Lakeshore 

 Canning Co., Conneaut. O. They were in search 

 of a small-sized good shaped tomato that could 

 be canned whole. 1 told them that Mill's 

 Earliest would till the bill exactly. The toma- 

 toes never grow very large, but they are, with 

 scarcely an exception, of beautiful shape, and 

 perfectly smooth, and they are produced In 

 enormous quantities. Were it not for its small 

 size I should call it one of the most productive 

 we have. One thing that surprised me was 

 that, although we must have had 30 or 40 plants, 

 there seemed to be no sporting. Each plant 

 produced great numbers of beautiful tomatoes, 

 just like its neighbor, all of a size, and all ex- 

 actly alike. 



HOW TO PI>ANT STRAWBERRIES AT ANY TIME 

 DURING THE FALL AND WINTER WHEN THE 

 GROUND IS NOT FROZEN, AND HAVE 

 THEM LIVE.. HIS' 



A. I. R. says in Gardening for November, you can 

 also set out strawberry- plants, etc. Will he please 

 give " the trick " in next issue ? 

 North Middletown, Ky. A Dettw.lTjEr. 



Friend D., this, like a great many other 

 things, must be learned, even after you have 

 been told how it may be done. A strawberry- 

 plant in our climate can not very well take 

 root in new soil in the month of November or 

 later; therefore we must take a lump of dirt 

 with the plant. Do this with any of the trans- 

 planters 1 have described. Put them in good 

 rich soil; and if there should be enough warm 

 weather so they make some growth they will 

 probably stand all right. If this warm weath- 

 er does not occur, the ground must be thor- 

 oughly mulched. Besides this mulching, as 

 freezing weather comes on, enough loose straw 

 should be put over the plants themselves so 

 you can just get a glimpse of the foliage down 

 through the straw. When this is properly 

 done there is not very much danger of the frost 

 throwing them out. This mulching must be 

 gradually taken off in the spring. If a severe 

 spell should occur so as to freeze the ground 

 hard after your mulching has been partly re- 

 moved, it may be necessary to put it back again. 

 Let me add that, when the plant is taken up 

 with the trrtnsplanter, the ground should be 

 most thoroughly soaked after it is put where it 

 is to grow. With the bottomless tin tubes I 

 have described so many times, we are obliged to 

 soak the ball of earth around the plant until it 

 is so/t mitfZ, in order to have it slip out of the 

 tube. This thorough soaking seems to insure 

 the plant a successful catch to the new soil. 

 In fact, the plants won't take hold so late in 

 the fall without it. Try a few plants first. 

 W^hen you have succeeded, try a few more. 

 Some varieties of strawberries are much easier 

 to succeed with than others. Our late plant- 

 ings of the new Marshall, for instance, have 

 been almost all failures. Where you are grow- 

 ing strawberries under glass, of course mulch- 

 ing will not be needed; and you can put them 

 out and make them grow at any time in the 

 winter when the weather is mild enough to re- 

 move the sashes and work in tlie open air. 



FRAUDS IN SMAt.L, FRUITS. 



I think Gleanings to me is worth all it costs, in 

 exposing frauds, to say nothing of all the valuable 

 information on a|iiculture. In reading about the 

 Rocky Mountain clierry, from the description I 

 think it only the wild sand cherry growing here in 

 the sand hills of Nebraska. Some eat them, but 

 thf y are too bitter for any use for me. The Cran- 

 dall tree currant is only the wild black currant 

 growing in the canyon here, very little better than 

 the cherry— another fake to deceive people. "The 

 Buffalo berry" is .some better; but you can get 

 thousands growing on the north side of the bluffs. 

 All of the ;ibove trees and shrubs are "blowed up" 

 .just to deceive the people and get their money. I 

 think the law of the United States should be that 

 all fruits of new origin should be registered. 



Very few bee-keepers in my neighboihood, and 

 they manage poorly, hence say poor seasons. I 

 started with 3 colonies, have increased to 13. and 

 think about 30 lbs. sui-pius. Have run for increase 

 only. This T think would be a fair season. 



Miller, Neb. P. L. Anderson. 



FROM THE MICHIGAN POTATO REGIONS. 



Potatoes are selling from 11 to 13 cts. here now; 

 but I was luckv enough to get from 17 to 25 cts. for 

 10.50 bushels. The rest I have in the cellar. There 

 are hundreds of carloads in this country, as pota- 

 toes and "bagas" are a great crop here, and we 

 have good potato land, mostly sand. We have 40O 

 bushels of Rural New-Yorkers; they are fine. The 

 rest are Green Mountain. J. J. Thurstin. 



Orion, Mich., Nov. 7. 



30 LBS. OF POTATOES FROM 1 LB. PLANTED, SECOND- 

 CR OP THOROUGHBRED, IN MICHIGAN. Mli 



r Friend A. I. Boot:—l got one pound of Maule's 

 Thoroughbred potatoes (second crop) of you in 

 June. I exposed tliem to the sun 8 days. They 



