1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



709 



news that another friend has given up to- 

 bacco, washed his hands (and his mouth), 

 and taken a step a little higher up among 

 clean, pure people, even though it has cost 

 something to say, " Get thee behind me, Sa- 

 tan." 



HEC1PE FOR RAISING SPI11EK-PLANTS. 



Feed the seed to your poultry. Clean out the 

 fowl-house and sow the contents on the borders, 

 and you will probably have an unlimited supply of 

 strong- plants. I have never sown a seed except 

 the first packet I got from you. My fowls are fond 

 of the seed, and help themselves from the plants. 

 I could supply hundreds of plants any time all the 

 year round. It grows here equally well, both in 

 summer and winter time. I have always some 

 phiuts in bloom. The bees are particularly fond of 

 playing about it ; but so far as 1 can make out, they 

 do not get a large quantity of honey from it. This 

 has been an exceedingly poor season for honey all 

 over Australia. 



IGSOTUM TOMATO. 



1 duly received the packet of Ignotum tomato 

 ee< d from ,\ ou. I planted them and got a beautiful 

 row of plants, just ready lor transplanting, when a 

 most wretched goose got into the garden and nip- 

 ped off every solitary head of the Ignotum close to 

 the grourd, although there were hundreds of the 

 commoner sorts she might have feasted on. Will 

 you oblige me with another packet of seed, of 

 which I certainly will take greater care? 



.<Eneas Walker. 



Red land Bay, Queensland, Aus., May 13, 1889. 



Well done, friend W. I am provoked al- 

 most every season by failing to get spider- 

 plants in our greenhouses or hot-beds; but 

 a little later on, when the weather is warm, 

 they come up with astonishing rapidity 

 among the weeds in different parts of our 

 grounds, where they were cultivated per- 

 haps years before ; and of late we have sort 

 o' given up, and depended for what we 

 raise for our honey-garden, on the chance 

 of picking them up. The consequence is, 

 we do not get any bloom before August. It 

 seems a little singular how many mishaps 

 like the one you menti >n occur with the 

 Ignotum tomato-plants. We always keep 

 seed on hand to replace that destroyed by 

 such mishaps. 



TOP BARS 7s JN. SQUARE, AND NO BURR-COMBS. 



In corroboration of the experience of A. L. Kil- 

 dow, given on page 632 of Gleanings, I wish to say 

 that I am never troubled with burr-combs between 

 brood-frames and sections. The top-bar of my 

 brood frames is 7 « of an inch wide by % thick, and 

 there are ten of them in a hive 13 inches wide. The 

 sections are raised , 5 6 of an inch from the top-bar, 

 with no honey-board between, and I have never yet 

 found any brood in the sections. I can see no use 

 in compelling bees to squeeze through a perforated 

 honey-board in order to reach the sections. 

 1 Pontiac, Mich., Aug III, 1889. F. N. Hilton. 



The fact you uive is valuable — the more so 

 as it confirms the former statements of oth- 

 ers. Who else can give corroborating tes- 

 timonj V 



AN EVER-BEARING STRAWBERRY. 



In our advertising pages will be seen an 

 advertisement headed as above, coming 



from one of our friends in Oregon. At the 

 very low price they are offered, you can well 

 afford to try a few and see if they will bear 

 the year round in your localities. I believe 

 there has never been an ever bearing straw- 

 berry that obtained much favor ; but even if 

 it does not bear very many berries, many of 

 our strawberry amateurs may like to test it, 

 and possibly keep a few. Here is what our 

 friend says about it : 



Our strawberry patch of about one acre is now 

 bearing fine large berries, and we have now on our 

 peddling wagon, which goes to the Portland mar- 

 ket in the morning, over one hundred pounds of 

 strawberries, which retail at two bits a pound. 

 They bear from frost to frost. For our responsibil- 

 ity, see our record. Seth Winquist. 



Mount Tabor, Oregon, Aug. 14, 1889. 



We also give below a clipping from the 

 Portland Vindicator, of August 8 : 



FINE STRAWBERRIES. 



Seth Winquist, of Mount Tabor, called at The Vin- 

 ilicatur office Saturday morning and left a sample 

 box of delicious strawberries just picked from his 

 garden. He brought in over 1U0 boxes for the mar- 

 ket, and finds ready sale at twenty-five cents per 

 box. It seems incredible that strawberries should 

 be raised and sold iu the market at this season of 

 the year; but it is nevertheless true, and ihey are 

 of a tine quality too. Mr. Winquist informs us that 

 his is a continuous-bearing variety of plant, and 

 has been bearing berries from early in the spring, 

 and will continue until late in the fall. During this 

 unusually dry season the plants in Mr. Winquist's 

 garden do not yield largely, but from a patch of an 

 acre he informs us he gathers some 400 boxes per 

 week. '1 hese he has been able to dispose of at 

 twenty-five cents a box— a gross revenue of $100 

 per week for one acre of land. Who said there was 

 nothing in raising strawberries in Oregon? 



WHITE CLOVER VS. THE BUSH HONEY OF 

 AUSTRALIA. 



We extract the following from the Aus- 

 tralasian Bee Journal of July 1, page 5 : 



White-clover honey is undoubtedly the best, both 

 for consumption and as a marketable article. In 

 fact, the difference between clover and bush honey 

 is as great as could possibly be imagined. That 

 from clover is of a delicate, smooth, and enticing 

 flavor, which does not pall on the palate, whilst the 

 color is a rich amber, and the granules very fine. 

 On the other hand, most bush honeys have an ex- 

 tremely strong, coarse flavor, leaving a disagreea- 

 ble after-taste in the palate. There are, however, 

 one or two bush honeys that are not so objection- 

 able, but still even these are a long way inferior to 

 white-clover honey. The greatest difference also 

 exi6ts with regard to color, that of the latter being 

 very superior. The granules of bush honey are 

 usually very coarse, aud like the granules of 

 coarse sugar. Perhaps the point most concerning 

 bee keepers is, that clover honey will always meet 

 with a more ready sale and command a higher 

 price in the market. 



POISONOUS INSECTS AND SNAKES OF FLORIDA ; 

 INFORMATION WANTED. 



In the issue of Aug. 1st, p. 629, our good friend 

 Prof. Cook thanks Gleanings for having obtained 

 through it aflne specimen of a coppeihead snake, 

 and would like to have other Southern snakeB. I 

 plead for this little space in Gleanings to recall 

 this notice, and remind our Florida friends who 

 read Gleanings, that, when they are sending Prof. 

 Cook snakes, to be sure to send him a black "gram- 

 pus," the sting of which is said to be very fatal, so 

 we can have it described in Gleanings; or if Prof. 

 Cook is acquainted with this insect, he will confer a 

 great favor on us who anticipate going to Florida, 

 if he will give us a description of it. It will be very 



