160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



weather is cool it is better for the plants ; for if the 

 sun is hot it will need a little care to keep from burn- 

 ing. 



TRANSPLANTING TO COLD-FRAMES. 



About the first of September is the time to prepare 

 the bed for iransplnming. Clear the ground ot all 

 trash, and get ihe soil the same as for sov\ iiig the seed, 

 and ihen take fi>h guano and broadcast over the >oil, 

 and then work the guano vi ell in the soil ; then leave 

 it until about the 10th of September. Tiansplant 

 your plants to this bed by setting the plants S iuches 

 each way. and then the plants d j nut need much care 

 except a little wntering if the wcother !-h .uld be dry, 

 until fro'^t. and then the sash must be put on at night 

 to keep the fro.st from fronting the plants. About the 

 10th of November it is ready lOr the market, and will 

 bring from 3 too cts. per head ; and to grow it nicely 

 it should grow? nearly natural. We can not grow hot- 

 house lettuce with us for it gets lousy, so that the lice 

 kill it. It is not a success. Gilbert M. Shdte. 



Clarksboro, N. J., Dec. 15. 



GINSENG CULTURE. 



Since I have invested quite a little money 

 in plants, and have utterly failed to make 

 even one plant grow, I have been criticised 

 rather severely because we have declined ad- 

 vertisements pertaining to the ginseng indus- 

 try. I have recently written to the people at 

 our experiment station in regard to it, and 

 here is what Prof. Green says : 



Mr. A. I. Root : — I do not know much about ginseng 

 cultuie, although there is a man not far fiom here 

 who is experimenting along that line. We have done 

 nothing with it, but have thoight we might commence 

 experiments with it next spring. The man referred 

 to has had more trouble with in.sects and diseases than 

 he has had in getting the plants to grow. It is cer- 

 tainly not the kind of business that every one can ex- 

 pect to succeed in. because the plants are not only dif- 

 licult to grow, but seem to be quite subject to disease. 

 W. J. GKEEN, Horticulturist. 



Wooster, O., Dec. 13. 



Now, friends, every thing of this sort should 

 be first tested and tried by the experiment 

 stations of our different States. When they 

 tfU us there is a reasonable prospect of suc- 

 cess in it, then is the time to invest, and not 

 t)2fore. The trouble mentioned is exactly the 

 one that I have found. Inse':ts and fungi 

 seem to finish up the plants, no matter what 

 kind of soil and treatment I gave them. 



TRAP NESTS, AND SOMETHING ABOUT POUL- 

 TRY IN GENERAL. 



Mr. A I. Root: — I have been a constant reader of 

 Gleanings for more than twenty years. I like your 

 Home P.ipers and believe that I am a better man to- 

 day from reading and trying to follow the precepts 

 given therein. I al.so like your high pressure garden- 

 ing ; but when I tell you th it 1 have been a " chicken 

 fancier " for more than forty years you will have .some 

 idea of the pleasure it gave me to read your article on 

 high p e-s\ire poultrv-raising in your Jan. 1st is^ue. 

 Now, can't you " walk around the stairs" and devise a 

 trap nest tnat anybody can make without payiug a 

 royalty ? I attended the poultry show in Philade phia, 

 and was quite surpri.'ed at the number of bee-keepers 

 I met— the same people I had been meeting for years 

 at bee keepers' conventions, and never dreamed that 

 they had the hen fever; but you know the old saw, 

 " bi'rds of a feather will flock together." I have been 

 called a fool with a big D becau-e I paid $3 00 for a 

 setting of eggs ; but my wife and ch Idren have sat 

 down to many a g od dinner of roast chicken, fried 

 chicken, broiled chicken, stewed chicken, chicken 

 potpie, and omelets, custards, eggs boiled, fried, etc.; 

 whereas the wife and children of the man who called 

 me a fool did not have either, because thetavern-keep- 

 er got more of his money than I paid for my fan^-y 

 eggs From one setting of eggs I once .'old ^0 worth 

 of chickens, and I sold only four and kept six for my- 

 self. Now don't forget the trap nest. Let the garden- 

 ers and bee-keepers rest for a while, and talk chicken. 



Ashbourne, Pa., Jan. 10. W. E. Flower. 



Over twenty years ago, in our first bee-hive 

 factory up on the street there used to be a cen- 

 tral stairway on the first floor. When I want- 

 ed to study up something on hives I used to 

 walk around this stairway while I worked out 

 the problem, and the readers of Gleanings 

 then got hold of the expression our friend 

 uses in his kind letter. When they wanted 

 me to help them out on something they had 

 been planning they used to say, " Bro. Root, 

 walk around the stairs and think it over." 



In response to the above kind invitation I 

 have sent for all the patent nests, and direc- 

 tions for making the same, that I could find 

 advertised. I have before expressed my opin- 

 ion in regard to selling secrets or plans for 

 making any thing for a certain amount of 

 money. I have advised the inventors and 

 manufacturers of trap nests to patent them if 

 they like, but, instead of selling rights, sell 

 the nes s for so much, set up or in the fiat. 

 The objection made to this by many of them 

 is that they can buy cheap pme boxes at the 

 groceries, that answer every purpose of a pat- 

 ent nest, with a little fixing over. To illus- 

 trate : One of the best patent nests I have yet 

 gotten hold of (and it cost me $2 00 fur the 

 right and patent directions to make) is some- 

 thing like this : Get any kind of box at the 

 grocery (for five or ten cents), big enough for 

 a hen's nest. Stand it on end — that is, so its 

 longest way is up and down ; then cut a round 

 or oval hole though one side of the box, with 

 its lower edge just a little above the bottom, 

 just right for the hen to step up a little as she 

 goes into the nest. Now put this where the 

 hen has been laying. Such a nest suits her 

 first rate, for it is inclosed all around, and tol- 

 erably dark. She has just room enough to 

 get in and out. The box should be large 

 enough so she can turn around comfortably on 

 the nest, but not too large. Of course, there 

 is nothing to patent on such a nest. Well, 

 the door is a swinging door. It is like the door 

 that shuts over a common padlock to keep 

 the rain and snow out. Suppose you cut a 

 piece of wood about the shape of a pumpkin 

 seed. Make a hole through where the point 

 is, and put in a screw. Hang this over the 

 hole of your hen's nest, and it makes a door. 

 But you do not want this door to close the 

 opening entirely. Cut away a little of one 

 side so the hen can put her head in and see 

 the nest she is familiar with. Yes, make the 

 opening large enough so if she crowds a little 

 it will swing off to one side. Well, now, this 

 is very simple. Nobody can claim a patent on 

 such a nest ; and the patented feature comes 

 in on the latch to fasten the door as it drops 

 back after she has got inside. 



Now, there is no end of door-latches, and 

 nobody could get a patent on the simple idea 

 of having the door fasten itself whenever it 

 swings down. But there might be a peculiar 

 latch for the special purpose, that would be 

 patentable. A very pretty pamphlet goes with 

 the nest I have described, which contains con- 

 siderable information in regard to the whole 

 business of making and using trap nests. You 

 can make a home-made nest, such as I have 

 described, without buying a patent from any- 



