1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



?55 



to preserve her as long as possible, and in 

 the mean time will give her an ample op- 

 portunity to raise drones, so that the latter 

 will infuse their blood into some of our own 

 home-bred queens. We shall also commence 

 rearing queens from her. Although not an 

 imported queen, she is a daughter of one. 

 She is not very light-colored and her work- 

 ers are not extra yellow, although having 

 the three characteristic yellow bands. 



OUR MlNORCANS. 



A couple of months ago, Mr. F. C. An- 

 dreu, of Port Mahon, Spain, editor of Revis- 

 ta Apicola, sent us a Minorcan queen. The 

 bees have hatched out, and some of them 

 are now a month old, so that we have an 

 opportunity of judging somewhat of their 

 disposition. They are nervous, and rather 

 more vindictive than Italians. The queen 

 is exceedingly prolific. The Minorcan bees 

 themselves are black, and look very much 

 like the common blacks of this country. 

 They might also be easily taken for Carnio- 

 lans, both in color and in general disposi- 

 tion, although I think the Carniolans are 

 not quite so nervous. I will report further 

 in regard to them later. 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOR A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



MAKING GARDEN IN SEPTEMBER. 



cTUST as soon as it begins to be cool 

 cJP weather, I begin to feel an unusual in- 

 |U terest in all sorts of gardening that 

 ^ cau be done in the fall. Some way or 

 other— I can not exactly tell why — the 

 mellow soil has a wonderful fascination for 

 me just before frost comes, or perhaps a 

 little after frost. At this season of the year, 

 ground that has been tilled is usually in 

 fine nice order ; and it has always seemed to 

 me too bad to let it lie idle. Then the ques- 

 tion comes up, What is there that we can 

 plant and nurse and care for in the months 

 of September, October, and November? 

 What is there to look fresh and green and 

 thrifty, that frost won't harm? Well, so 

 far as planting seeds is concerned— that is, 

 planting to do any good— our list is a rather 

 small one. Just as soon as any crop is fin- 

 ished and clone for, I want to see the ground 

 cleared off, and have something take its 

 place. What can we plant, as one crop 

 after another disappears. At first I was go- 

 ing to say there are only two things that will 

 stand the severest weather here in Ohio. 

 These two are rye and spinach. Spinach, 

 with us, stands just about as severe freez- 

 ing as does rye. The first is a profitable 

 crop to raise, and can be sold in the winter 

 at any time when there is a thaw ; there- 

 fore I would have plantings of spinach ev- 

 ery week or ten days. Just now is perhaps 

 a good time to start spinach to be wintered 

 over. Rye is sown only to be turned under 

 in the spring, for no one presumes a mar- 

 ket-gardener is going to make it pay to 

 raise rye. Well/there is another thing. 

 The winter onions may be planted this 

 month or next, and they will come right up 



and grow, and seem to do all the better 

 when the weather gets colder. 



Oh, yes ! there is still another thing that 

 you can plant, and plant largely, during 

 this month and next, and you can manure 

 the ground and fertilize it, and work it up 

 fine to your hearts content, and with a 

 pretty good prospect of making it pay too. 

 Shall I tell you what it is? Why, strawber- 

 ries. They will grow and send out runners 

 for two months yet, and the frost just 

 makes them handsomer, until it gets to be 

 severely coin; and even then, if there is a 

 tolerable covering of snow, they do not 

 seem to be hurt any. Strawberries are my 

 special favorites in these fall months. You 

 have plenty of time to pick off the runners 

 as fast as they appear, and loosen the dirt 

 around the plants, and give them liquid 

 manure. I know some writers say you 

 should not encourage a rank, strong growth 

 late in the fall ; but I have never seen a bit 

 of bad effect from it. The plants that I 

 fairly covered up with little chunks of ma- 

 nure, so that when a shower came, the wa- 

 ter all around them looked like green ink, 

 gave the biggest crop the next season, of the 

 biggest berries. I do not believe you can 

 hurt a strawberry by excessive stimulating, 

 no matter when you do it. In getting 

 plants for sale, our boys have been in the 

 habit of laying a little lump of dirt or a 

 stone on the runner, to keep it where they 

 wanted it. 1 saw them at it, and said, 

 " Why, bless your hearts, boys, don't use 

 stones or lumps of dirt. Just get a wheel- 

 barrow full of chunks of rich manure, and 

 lay a lump of manure over each runner, 

 close to the embryo plant." 



GARDENING UNDER GLASS 



The one who learns to- love to see plants 

 grow, will, as frost approaches and in- 

 creases, very soon begin to feel a longing 

 for some sort of protection. Cucumbers, to- 

 matoes, and ever so many other things, run 

 up in price very quickly when frost appears. 

 Something to keep the frost away will often 

 prove a good investment. Cloth frames an- 

 swer very well until snow comes. When 

 you begin to get snow on top of your cloth, 

 it is a nuisance. Then you must have wood- 

 en shutters, or, better still, glass. Just 

 now thousands are turning their attention 

 to cold-frames, or cold-frame greenhouses to 

 be wanned in different ways. A cold-frame 

 greenhouse is one so made that one can go 

 inside of it. Now a word in regard to set- 

 ting glass. For the past year we have been 

 using the Iv?s putty-machine, advertised in 

 our floral and gardening periodicals. With 

 this the putty is diluted with good white 

 paint until it can be forced out in a liquid 

 form, where the glass touches the sash. 

 Dry sand is then blown on the sticky paint 

 as long as the. paint will hold it. When dry 

 it is as hard as stone. Now, the Ives putty- 

 machine costs $1.50* but we decided it was 

 well worth four times the price, because of 

 the saving of labor in setting the glass. One 

 of our boys happened to be in the counter 

 store, and picked off from the lo-ceut coun- 

 ter what is called the Atlas insect-powder 

 gun. This is made for blowing pyrethrum 

 or any other powder on the insects. It is 



