188& 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



i2i 



the havoc that high winds make with the 

 frames. We have chased after them so 

 much, and wasted so much time in fasten- 

 ing them down, that we have about conclud- 

 ed the glass sash is cheaper in the end. 



CORN SALAD. 



You gave in Gleanings so excellent a plan for 

 raising lettuce, would you not have the kindness to 

 give advice for growing in cold-frames corn salad 

 (fetticus, or lamb's lettuce), through Gleanings? 

 It is much esteemed in the old country, but it 

 needs there no planting, as it grows in all corn- 

 fields spontaneously, and stands any weather and 

 winter. It is there called "corn." 



Sigel, III., Jan. 27, 1889. Dr. Wm. Heer. 



Friend A., we have some very fine corn 

 salad now growing in one of our cold green- 

 houses. We have raised it and sold it to 

 some extent here in Medina. I believe, 

 however, that but few people have learned 

 to use it, except the Germans. We are very 

 much obliged to you for the additional facts 

 you give us, and we should be glad to be 

 told more about it. 



JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT ; LIMA BEANS WITHOUT 

 POLES, KAFFIR CORN FOR HOT-CAKES. 



Here is my testimony regarding Japanese buck- 

 wheat : I sowed about a pecK, and got 17 bushels. 

 The seed came from Peter Henderson. We never 

 saw a single bee at work on the blossoms, except 

 the little wild " sweat " bees. The flour is equal to 

 any buckwheat, and we sold it at 4 cts. per lb., but 

 at the same price we sold 2 lbs. of the Kaffir-corn 

 flour to one of buckwheat, and used the latter in 

 our own family, most of the time. The garden 

 talk found in your paper is very refreshing to me. 

 The Henderson bush lima has caught the attention 

 of gardeners; and if it did not look so small I would 

 take more stock in it. Let me tell how 1 raise 

 Jersey lima beans without poles. I run a fence, 

 made of wires and lath, which can be had at 40 cts. 

 per rod (3 strands and plastering lath), right where 

 the row of limas is to stand. Plant the beans 6 

 inches apart, on the south side of the fence; and if 

 they come up at all right, your row of limas will be 

 the wonder of the neighborhood in September. I 

 have picked a bushel of pods in two rods of fence. 



Crete, Neb., Feb. 5, 1889. M. S. Benedict. 



The fact that you saw no bees on the blos- 

 soms, I do not think at all against the Jap- 

 anese for honey, for many such reports have 

 been made from common buckwheat. There 

 are two causes that bring this about : First, 

 the buckwheat may contain no honey, just 

 as many other kinds of blossoms may con 

 tain no honey during certain seasons. Sec- 

 ond, the bees may have found something 

 else so much more to their liking that they 

 would not notice the buckwheat. Some- 

 times, when this pasturage fails, they will 

 start for the buckwheat with a sudden rush. 

 — We have tasted the Kaffir-corn flour, for 

 miking cakes, in place of buckwheat, but 

 we rather give the buckwheat the prefer- 

 ence. The Kaffir corn, however, makes a 

 very nice light cake . 



WANTED, A SCHOOL FOR TEACHING GARDENING 

 AND AGRICULTURE. 



Dear Friend:— I received and read your book, 

 How to Be Happy, with pleasure. It held my at- 

 tention, though I know nothing about gardening. I 



have taken a great notion for farm life, and I 

 should like to know if you know of any schools 

 teaching farm methods, dairying, fruit - tending, 

 etc.— things you can not learn from books. I know 

 there are State agricultural schools, and I have 

 read of experimental and college farms, but noth- 

 ing further. Mary L. Bonner. 

 Davenport, Iowa, Jan. 17, 18£9. 



My good friend, our agricultural colleges, 

 I think, will fill the bill exactly. The one 

 at Lansing, Mich., has attained a world- 

 wide celebrity ; and the Experimental Sta- 

 tion at Columbus, O., is beginning to be- 

 come one of the institutions of which our 

 State may well be proud. We should 

 think that your own station in Iowa, 

 where Prof. Chamberlain presides, who, by 

 the way, has only recently left Ohio, would 

 furnish all the advantages you wish. 



FRIEND MARCH'S CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER 

 SEED— REPORTS THEREFROM. 



As far as my test is concerned, I can say I think 

 they are extra. I put out nearly a hundred cauli- 

 flower-plants, and they all headed to a plant. 



Wilsonville, Norfolk Co., Ont. Isaac Lundy. 



From a five-cent packet of March's Select Very 

 Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage seed bought of 

 you last spring we got 431 nice strong plants; and 

 after six kinds of bugs had satisfied their appe- 

 tites, we got about 400 of the nicest cabbages I 

 ever saw. We have just received a trial package of 

 Ignotum tomato seed, containing 26!4 seeds, which 

 we are going to plant in our little greenhouse, right 

 off this minute. B. L. Sage. 



New Haven, Conn., Jan. 24, 1889. 



March's Jersey Wakefield cabbage seed, of which 

 I bought of you one five-cent paper, gave me 340 

 strong, healthy plants. After I set them in the 

 open ground the cut-worms proved to be very bad; 

 and although I went over the patch every morning 

 for a month, and caught from a dozen to 75 cut- 

 worms a day, they destroyed half the plants; but 

 all that were left made beautiful large and solid 

 heads. S. L. Sherman. 



Oskaloosa, la., Jan. 9, 1889. 



THE ONE-PIECE SECTIONS. 



SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO THEIR BREAKING, 

 ETC. 



fRIBND ROOT:— My article in Gleanings, on 

 " Folding Sections," brought me quite a 

 number of letters and samples from differ- 

 ent manufacturers. From these letters I de- 

 duct the following: 1. Sections made from 

 old basswood are more liable to break than those 

 made from young wood (second growth). 2. Kiln- 

 drying destroys the elasticity of the wood, and 

 makes it brittle, while air-drying does not have that 

 effect. 



3. The grooving-saws should not be too sharp- 

 pointed on the edge, but rather a little rounding, so 

 as to leave more wood in the bottom of the V-groove 

 than is done by a sharp-pointed saw. 



I am going to try sliced sections this year as their 

 folding quality and rigidity after folding seems to 

 be much superior, although in appearance they are 

 not as " pretty " as sawed and sandpapered sections. 



