788 



GLEANINGS JN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



them grow. Havprlands and (Jandies com- 

 menced tlirowing out. runners riglit away, and 

 starting new plants. I want to ask you one 

 question: Will the mother-plant do to set out 

 in the spring with the young plants, and culti- 

 vate according to instructions (that is, will she 

 throw out I'unners) next summer ? 



Tatesville. Pa.. Sept. 18. G. H. Knisley. 



[Yes, but it is not considered as good.] 



THE STING OF THE RED ANT OF TEXAS 

 WOKSE THAN THOSE OF A DOZEN BEES. 



I notice in Glp:anings. of Sept. 15. that Mr. 

 Geo. E. Hailes, of Lytle. Tex., gives an account 

 of red ants attacking his liees. Now. remember 

 tliat was just after a rain, and in July, so the 

 ants were swarming. They always swarm just 

 after a rain. Red ants that live in the ground 

 never bother bees. I have four or five ant-beds 

 in my bee-yard. You seem surprised to hear that 

 an ant-sting is worse than a bee-sting. That is 

 because you are not acquainted with them. 

 They are not nearly so large as a bee, but are 

 all "pizen." I would rather be stung by a 

 dozen bees at one time than one red ant. Tliey 

 are nearly as bad at hurting as a scorpion. If 

 you have a remedy for exterminating red ants, 

 JDlease turn it loose in Texas. W. F. Elliott. 



Clio. Tex.. Oct. 4. IStK). 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOE A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



That art on which a thousand millions of men are dependent 

 for their sustenance, and two hundred millions of men expend 

 their daily toil, must be the most important of all— the parent 

 and precursor of all other arts. In every country, then, and at 

 every period, the investigation of the principles on which the 

 rational practice of this art is founded ought to have command- 

 ed the principal attention of the greatest minds. 



Jamks F. W. Johnston. 



OUK BEAUTIFUL FALL AVEATHER. 



At present writing, Oct. 25, we have not yet 

 had a frost to injure lima beans and tomatoes — 

 that is, up around the windmill they are unin- 

 jured. A frost injured some things a little on 

 the lower grounds a few nights ago. There is 

 something queer about the weather this fall. A 

 great many times it has cleared off cold, and 

 we have had every indication of a severe 

 freeze; but before morning the temperature 

 would let up, and the frost that started so 

 fiercely the night before did not amount to 

 much after all. We had the same state of 

 affairs a yeai- ago. Yesterday we had green 

 peas for breakfast, both Stratagem and Ameri- 

 can Wonder, and I never ate sweeter or nicer 

 peas in my life. For diniu^r we had Living- 

 ston's Gold Coin sweet corn. It is as yellow as 

 old gold, and almost as sweet as any sweet 

 corn, having at the same time a slight field- 

 corn flavor. There has been quite a little dis- 

 cussion about the propriety of putting it in our 

 forthcoming catalogue. The only difficulty is. 

 that it increases the number of varieties of corn 

 further than we want it. Tomatoes are still 

 ripening slowly. 



This year, whenever I put in a crop so late 

 that I thought it might possibly have a chance 

 to mature, we hit it just right; and so many 

 things often hold out longer than we expect, I 

 rather like the idea of sowing late crops, even 

 if there are a good many chances for them to 

 be a failure. We are still picking wax beans, 

 and have a fine crop of Eclipse beets, about as 

 large as hens' eggs. Cabbages are so plentiful 

 we are offering them at half a cent a pound. 

 Not so with cauliflower, however. There hap- 

 pens to be a scarcity, so we are getting 15 cents 



per lb. for the handsomest Snowball cauliflower 

 we ever raised. All insect enemies have van- 

 ished, and every thing in the caljbage and tur- 

 nip tribe is growing with great luxuriance, un- 

 liarmed by any insect foe. This is another ad- 

 vantage with late stuff. We have single stalks 

 of White Plume celery weighing 3 lbs., and we 

 are still getting 10 cts. per lb. for first class. 

 Just think of iti 30 cts. for a single root of cel- 

 ery! The New Rose is growing finely, but it 

 lias not matured enough to use yet. We are 

 now selling heads of Grand Rapids lettuce, 

 weighing two or three pounds, at the low price 

 of 5 cts. i)er lb. Beautiful parsnips bring 3 cts. 

 per lb. Chinese Rose winter radish now " takes 

 the cake " over every thing else. They are al- 

 most as mild as a very sweet turnip; and when 

 first washed and put on the wagon, the delicate 

 rose color makes them more attractive than 

 any thing else in tlie radish line. They bring 

 10 cents per dozen radishes. Spinach is large 

 enough to gather, but we have enough other 

 stuff so that we do not need it. Our Hubbard 

 squashes are all gathered, and stored in slatted 

 potato-boxes, out of the way of the frost. We 

 have beautiful Ignotum tomatoes on the table 

 every day, gathered right from the field. Served 

 with sugar and cream. I believe I like them 

 fully as well as yellow peaches; and when 

 peaches are so high that you have to pay 30 

 cents per lb. for evaporated ones, with the skins 

 on, I tell you it is quite an item to have plenty 

 of tomatoes out in the field. Every thing up 

 on the hill by the windmill is so far uninjured 

 by the frost; so you see that it pays a market- 

 gardener to have a hill for late supplies, as 

 well as to have a rich creek-bottom garden. 

 We have the handsomest turnips that I ever 

 saw or heard of. The Purple-top White Globe 

 is still our favorite. 



Now is the time to get ready your green- 

 houses or cold-frames. Lettuce, beets, spinach, 

 cabbage-plants for cold-frames, winter onions 

 for use when the ground is frozen, rhubarb, 

 radishes, etc., should be growing in beds, to be 

 covered with glass later. I am decidedly in 

 favor of movable glass of some shape or sort; 

 and then I would leave the glass off just as long 

 as possible without injury to the plants. 



RAISING STRAWBERRIES JTTST LIKE CORN. 



Friend Root: — I've just finished reading the 

 "A B C of Strawberry Growing." and it has 

 stirred me all up. It's a good book, isn't it? 

 How I wish the busy times of bees and straw- 

 berries didn't come together, that I might try 

 my hand at it again, and see how much better I 

 could do with the increased light! 



The proportionate prices of land and labor 

 make a good deal of difference as to the wisest 

 plan of raising strawberries. If land is very 

 high, and labor very cheap, then it may be best 

 to use the single-hill plan, and persistently keep 

 down all runners. On the contrary, if land is 

 cheap and labor dear, the very reverse may be 

 best. As this is the condition of things among 

 many of your readers in the far West, it may 

 be well to tell how I raised strawberries by the 

 acre, years ago, on land that cost *32 per acre, 

 near a village. The ground was prepared ex- 

 actly as for corn, and you must remember that, 

 in some new countries, we have very rich land 

 for corn. The land was marked as for corn, 

 marking both ways, one plant set at each cross- 

 mark, and then the ground was cultivated both 

 ways, and the runners allowed to run and set at 

 their own sweet will. As the runnei\s naturally 

 incline to spread in all directions, nothing bet- 

 ter could be done than to let them alone. In 

 addition to the cultivating, a little hoeing kept 

 down the weeds, and in some places this might 

 not be necessary on new ground. 



