1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



467 



lo market their honey in that way. If it is 

 desired, the slats can be removed, and thin 

 jj boards be substituted in their place. These 

 boards should be of the length and width of 

 the inside dimensions, of the crate. Re- 

 move the sections en masse and let the bot- 

 tom-board down in the crate when it will 

 rgst upon the tin supports. Insert the sec- 

 tions, and afterward cover the whole with a 

 similar board. The bee-space on top will 

 leave ample room for the cover- board. 



Although the crate is made much more 

 valuable to the apiarist, we make no extra 

 chaise. The price for the combined crate 

 will be the same as formerly. 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOE A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



FIGHTING INSECT ENEMIES. 



flllS matter is at present occupying the 

 attention not only of the experiment 

 stations, but of intelligent and pro- 

 gressive people generally. Our valu- 

 ed magazine, Popular Gardening, de- 

 votes several pages to the matter ; but I 

 have felt a little surprised that almost all of 

 them seem to give but little space to protec- 

 tion by means of arrangements for fencing 

 the insects away. Of course, this remedy 

 can be applied only to small plants like mel- 

 ons, cucumbers, vines, etc. It is true, some 

 of them hint that boxes with mosquito-net- 

 ting tacked over the top will do ; but it 

 seems to me that mosquito netting is alto- 

 gether too frail ; besides, the Medina bugs 

 have learned the trick of crawling through 

 it. Nothing answers with us like the wire- 

 cloth protectors which we devised last year, 

 as mentioned in our seed catalogue. Grant- 

 ing that Paris green, pyrethrum, slugshot, 

 or things of this sort will kill the striped 

 melon-bug, you have got to apply it as soon 

 as the first plant is up. On our grounds, 

 the striped bug actually digs into the diit to 

 meet our choice melons as they begin to 

 push through the soil ; and very often the 

 first leaves are eaten off before they are ex- 

 panded ; and now to kill them with chemi- 

 cals or poison you have got to apply it as 

 each leaf comes out ; whereas the wire-cloth 

 bug protector can be put on before the 

 plants are up if you choose, and it makes a 

 dead sure thing of the whole business until 

 the plants are big enough to raise the cover- 

 ing so as to stand over them like an umbrel- 

 la. On our grounds we use altogether three 

 or four hundred of them. The sight of the 

 bright green fresh plants, with their first 

 leaves without scar or blemish, is to me a 

 real cause of rejoicing. We have frequently 

 put the wire covering over a part of the hills 

 and left some of the vines uncovered. The 

 result is, that the first real warm day we 

 have, those outside of the inclosure are eat- 

 en up in a few hours; and where a leaf 

 stretches up so as to touch the wire cover- 

 ing, a cluster of bugs station themselves on 

 the wire cloth and gnaw the leaf as fast as 

 it grows. I do like to have appliances that 

 are sure and absolute, even if they cost some 

 money, I notice that the Rural New-Yorker 



speaks of the flee beetle again at w r ork on 

 their potato - vines ; and they say that, 

 although they have tried every thing so far, 

 they are without a remedy that amounts to 

 any thing. This accords much with my ex- 

 perience, with the exception of the remedy 

 I have already given— lime and guano sifted 

 together and raked into the soil before the 

 seeds are planted. With this protection we 

 raise cabbages, radishes, and every thing in 

 that line, with perfect immunity ; but our 

 radishes in the open fields are this year an 

 utter failure. If the tops do manage to 

 struggle past their merciless foes, the roots, 

 when pulled, are found to be so full of 

 worm-holes they are of no account what- 

 ever. This satisfies me that it is the larva 

 of the striped beetle that produces the club- 

 root in cabbages and spoils our radishes. A 

 good dose of lime in the soil remedies the 

 club-root in cabbages ; but at present it 

 does not seem to save the radishes, or at 

 least it does not save them where the lime 

 was put on last fall. Fresh lime and fresh 

 guano, when the seed is sown, does the bus- 

 iness—at least it does in our plant-garden 

 close to the building. It may be that lime, 

 to be effective, must be applied freshly 

 slacked, just as the seeds are sown. These 

 flea-beetles have damaged our early cab- 

 bages in the fields very much. Paris green 

 and London purple do not seem to hurt 

 them a particle. Buhach troubles them 

 some, but it is too expensive. We can not 

 afford to dose all outdoors with a powder 

 that costs 75 cents a pound. Slugshot does 

 not seem to trouble them a particle. The 

 kerosene emulsion hinders them some ; but 

 the trouble meets us that I have mentioned 

 before— it has got to be applied as often as 

 the new leaves come out. 1 have been hop- 

 ing, with the Rural New-Yorker folks, that 

 these flea - beetles would soon get out of 

 fashion— at least for a year or two ; but we 

 now have more of them than ever before, 

 and they are on the foliage of our potatoes. 

 I have been watching them on the potatoes 

 for several seasons, and have supposed that 

 they did not do any very great harm ; but, 

 my friends, it seriously cripples any plant 

 to have the leaves all gnawed up and per- 

 forated with little holes. It has sometimes 

 seemed to me as if the plant got discourag- 

 ed and wouldn't try, after the beautiful 

 bright green leaves it had put forth had 

 been riddled by some greedy enemy. Of 

 course, we can not afford to put wire-cloth 

 coverings over potato-plants, even if we 

 could get some wire cloth fine enough to 

 shut out the flea-beetle. 



I now want to say a word about going to 

 extremes in the matter of chasing bugs. I 

 have known a, few people who would spend 

 valuable time with a magnifying-glass, and 

 different kinds of doses recommended in the 

 papers, to save a few plants, when the time 

 that was given to the subject was worth a 

 good deal more than the whole crop, even if 

 it did its very best. The one who raises 

 garden-stuff for market, and competes with 

 the prices on many products, needs judg- 

 ment and wisdom. .Many times he had bet- 

 ter let his crop all go, or plow it under and 

 try something else, than to waste time and. 



