828 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



over it, exactly as I have tried to describe 

 to you in the Home Papers for this issue. 



CATCHING DESTRUCTIVE MOTHS BY BURNING A 



LAMP IN A TUB OF WATER AT NIGHT— SEE 



PAGE 790. 



Prof. Cook replies to the matter as below: 



The cut-worm moths and the cabbage plusia 

 could be caught by a light over a tub of water: but 

 the remedy is hardly practical, as the moths fly at 

 night, and the time varies, so no one would be on 

 the lookout, and ready. The worst pests, the cab- 

 bage-buttertly larvae, fly by day, and would not be 

 killed at all. Buhach (California pyrethrum) kills 

 all, is cheap, easy to apply, and practical. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



GETTING SEEDS OF SPIDER-PLANTS AND ROCKY 

 MOUNTAIN PLANTS TO GERMINATE. 



Looking over Sept. 1st Gleanings, page 709, com- 

 ments on iEneas Walker, you say you can't make 

 the spider-plant seed start in the greenhouses and 

 hot-beds. The Bible teaches you your religion, and 

 why don't you let natu re teach you her laws? Have 

 your gardener mix a quart of seed in a bushel of 

 dirt, in a box. Let it freeze till wanted; then thaw 

 it, and sow where wanted in the house or beds, and 

 you will wish it in some other place. To some one 

 who could not start any, I gave a pint of dirt from 

 where they grew two years ago, to scatter in the 

 plant-pot; and on inquiring about it he said he had 

 more plants than he wanted. H. L. Jeffrey. 



New Milford, Conn., Sept. 11, 1889. 



HOW TO MAKE AND KEEP SOUR-KRAUT— INFORMA- 

 TION WANTED. 



Can't you give an article on making and keeping 

 of sour-kraut? 1 have more or less difficulty in get- 

 ting the stuff to keep. It spoils before half the win- 

 ter is past. Some of my neighbors say, to keep 

 sour-kraut I must freeze it solid during a cold snap; 

 others say it is spoiled after being frozen. How is 

 this? Another thing I should like to ask: Have 

 you tried the Crandall currant, sent out by Frank 

 Ford & Son? If it is as good as the introducers 

 claim it to be, I must try it, even if a single bush 

 costs more than a dozen of White Grape currants. 



W. G. Brainard. 



Gouverneur, N. Y., Sept. 27, 1889. 



We have had a good deal the same trou- 

 ble you mention. When we put our sour- 

 kraut in clean crocks, however— say crocks 

 holding toward a quarter of a barrel— we 

 had no trouble. Perhaps some of our read- 

 ers can help us a little.— We have Ford's 

 Crandall currant on our place. It has fruit- 

 ed this year ; but the berries are very few 

 in number (although the bush is large and 

 strong, being two years old), small in size, 

 none of them being much larger than our 

 largest cherry-currants ; and last, but not 

 least, we did not find them very good. 

 Another thing that troubled me, the bush 

 and fruit look almost exactly like an orna- 

 mental flowering currant bought some years 

 ago of Storrs & Harrison, Painesville, O. I 

 notice, however, that our neighbors, Ford 

 & Son, write to one of our periodicals on 

 gardening that the bushes seldom bear pro- 

 fusely until they are several years old ; and, 

 if I am correct, the yield of fruit does not 

 seem to be uniform on different bushes. 



Ours was on very rich ground, and has made 

 a very rank growth. Perhaps it will do 

 better when it gets older. Let us not be in 

 haste to condemn new things. 



HOW TO TELL WHEN WATERMELONS ARE RIPE. 



I see in Gleanings for September 15 that Mr. M. 

 L. Benedict, of Crete, Neb., wishes some one to tell 

 how to know a ripe watermelon by sight; and as I 

 consider myself an expert at this 1 will try to do so. 

 My first crop was in 1874, when I had two acres of 

 melons, weighing from 20 to 60 lbs., that lay so 

 close together that a man could have walked in 

 any direction and stepped only on melons. I then 

 knew of noway of telliDg a ripe melon but by 

 thumping, so 1 thumped till I wore the nails off all 

 my fingers to the "quick," and was compelled to 

 stop that method. I then had recourse to sight; 

 and, either from instructions from others or my 

 own observations, I have found the following indi- 

 cations good in the order named: 



1. There grows on the vine at the joint, where the 

 stem of the melon joins it, a tendril. When this 

 dies it indicates ripeness. 



2. There also grows at the same point a little 

 rounded leaf that we call the "ear." When this 

 dies, it more certainly indicates ripeness. 



3. Turn the melon up and notice if any change 

 has taken place in the shade of the part next to 

 the ground. A slight yellowness indicates ripe- 

 ness. 



4. The upper surface becomes a little rusty, and 

 changes its shade a little, just a little, about the 

 difference there is between milk that has "set" 

 and that which is fresh, when the melon ripens. 



This is the indication upon which I mostly rely; 

 and so expert have I become in its use that I can go 

 into a field with three or four assistants and point 

 out ripe melons faster than they can pull them. I 

 can also tell pretty closely the degree of ripeness, 

 so as to be able to pull them a day or two before 

 they are ripe, and get them to market at just the 

 right time. 



Of course, there are variations, such as differ- 

 ence in varieties, soils, seasons, climate, and dis- 

 eases of the vine, that experience alone can make 

 us understand. W. H. Greer. 



Paris, Tenn., Sept. 23, 1889. 



Thanks, friend G. I think you are about 

 correct in the m atter. 



THE JESSIE STRAWBERRY, AND ITS 



ADAPTABILITY TO GREENHOUSE 



CULTURE, ETC. 



The Experiment Station, Columbus, O., 

 in their July report, state as follows : 



Jessie— (perfect). The present season is the 

 first in which the Jessie has not been entirely satis- 

 factory here. It seemed to be less vigorous and less 

 fruitful than in former seasons. It is much more 

 fruitful than Cumberland and Sharpless, but less 

 so than Bubach. It takes first rank in appearance 

 and quality of fruit, hence is valuable for amateurs 

 and those who grow for home use only. As a 

 market variety it is not without value, and is es- 

 pecially useful to plant with pistillate sorts. Mr. 

 Farnsworth says: "Jessie is not a success with us— 

 not productive enough." It proved to be the best 

 for forcing of any variety tested, maturing quite as 

 fine berries under glass as out of doors. 



The last sentence is quite an interesting 

 one to us here : for while we have not much 

 ambition to produce strawberries in the win- 

 ter time, if we can, by the use of sash in the 

 spring, get them a few weeks earlier, it may 



