20v) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Mak. 1 



ing, where see \ propagation is necessary, though oc- 

 casionally a hybrid is so happily balanced that it 

 seems to become a new species, and may be grown on 

 indefinite Iv with reasonable care in selection. 



W. V. F. 



Friend W. V. F. has been at work for 

 ten years to produce an ideal radish; but 

 after he got it. like a wild colt out on the 

 plains it got away from him, and there is 

 very little hope that that same "colt" will 

 ever be caught. Somebody else, by work- 

 ing ten years more or less, may get some- 

 thing near to his ideal. It is just like the 

 strawberries. A strawberry having all 

 the good qualities that a dozen others have, 

 is not yet known. When we get it (if we 

 ever do) a single plant will be cheap at a 

 thousand dollars. Do you know why he 

 could not hold his radish? The reason is 

 this: Radishes must always be grown from 

 the seed. You can not take slips as you do 

 from a geranium, nor runners as you do 

 from a strawberry'; nor can you graft rad- 

 ishes as you would graft apple-trees, and 

 bud peach-trees. It was because of this 

 that our friend could not hold his beloved 

 "wild colt." 



Now, this work that has made me so hap- 

 py has been studying the "cutting" busi- 

 ness. That china dish of white sand has 

 been my favorite tool, only I have a lot of 

 dishes so I can start cuttings more or less 

 every day ; and then every morning and 

 sometimes every afternoon I am delighted 

 to find certain plants that had been behiiv- 

 ing contrary have got into line, and are 

 doing exactl}' what I wanted them to do. 

 When we get at the conditions, the thing is 

 easj'. Oh how manj^ times I have found 

 this to be true during my busy happy life! 

 I worked day and night trying to make 

 comb foundation — burned my fingers, spat- 

 tered my clothes, littered up the house, and 

 it seemed only continual defeat. But little 

 by little I began to " catch on," first to one 

 important condition and then another; and 

 now our 3'oung people down in our new wax- 

 room would look up in surprise to hear there 

 was ever trouble about it, the thing seems 

 so easy and so natural. 



Well, I could not make coleus-plants grow 

 to suit me. Oh! I forgot to tell you I have 

 been studj'ing the catalogs and sending a 

 few cents here, there, and yonder, for some 

 new plants. Then before I could make cut- 

 tings I had to study this new plant, get ac- 

 quainted with it, and find out how to make 

 it grow strong and vigorous. Well, I have 

 never succeeded with the coleus till this 

 winter; and now I find it is one of the pret- 

 tiest plants to make grow we have in the 

 greenhouse. The reason I did not succeed 

 was because I did not keep my forcing-bed 

 ivarm enough. I supposed 80 degrees would 

 kill every thing; but I was so stupid I did 

 not consider that we sometimes have 80 and 

 90 in the summer, and it does not kill things 

 either. With a bottom heat of 80 degrees, 

 and the heat above as much as 70 or 75, 

 with a confined moist air, the coleus grows 

 like a weed, and shows the most brilliant 

 colors I ever saw. 



Well, most of these new plants are ex- 

 pensive. I paid 35 cents for a single gera- 

 nium by mail. I had it in bloom in about 

 two days, and in two days more I had some 

 cuttings, .so my plants will not cost me very 

 much after all. PYom six golden-leaved 

 salvias I have now 30 beautiful plants. 

 That is about as many as I have room for. 



During former winters I have been much 

 troubled by the green fly, red spider, and 

 mealy bug in my greenhouse. This winter 

 I have had hardly a glimpse of insect foes. 

 I banished them with what is called "nico- 

 tine punk," which I bought of the Skab- 

 cura Dip Co., Chicago, at 60 c. a dozen rolls. 

 Four or live rolls have kept my greenhouse 

 absolutely free from insects all winter. 

 This one thing makes a vast difference with 

 a florist. Sometimes the stuff I order from 

 away off is infested with mealy bug; but it 

 is easily fixed by fumigation as above. 



Well, this winter for the first time I have 

 really got in touch with making plants 

 grow by starting them in the smallest size 

 of pot and giving them a larger one just as 

 fast as they needed it, and no faster. When 

 you learn the trade, and really get in touch 

 with the plants, it is just wonderful how 

 3'ou can make things grow. A friend gave 

 me a slip of Impafiens Sultani. I put it in 

 the white sand, and a few days afterward 

 something on the plant looked like a drop 

 of blood, only it was more brilliant. I put 

 on my "specs," carried it to the light, 

 and found it was a little bud unfolding. 

 The slip put out a beautiful blossom in that 

 wet sand before it had even a speck of root 

 of any sort. Surgeons are hard at work 

 on the problem, and have at least partly 

 succeeded, in having a human being live 

 with his stomach entirely removed. In the 

 same way we make a plant grow with vig- 

 or when its roots are all cut off — in fact, 

 when it has not any sign of a root of any 

 kind. Just get the temperature, moisture, 

 and other things all right. 



Well, about the time the blossom dropped 

 I discovered little roots on the slip. I put 

 it in the smallest-sized pot and put it back 

 in my cutting-bed. In ten days the pot was 

 full of roots, and it wanted more room. I 

 gave it one just a little larger'. In three or 

 four days it wanted more room still. I 

 bought some cinerarias. For two weeks 

 thej' did not grow, and I thought they were 

 going to die. I did not keep them warm 

 enough. I gave them a bed where the tem- 

 perature was from 60 to 70, bottom heat, 

 day and night. Then they commenced to 

 boom. I gave them larger pots, and larger 

 still. I got them on the run, as it were, 

 and it seemed to me they were really on the 

 "double quick." Some of the strongest are 

 now in eight-inch pots. The foliage is just 

 wonderful (almost as "big as a cabbage"), 

 and they are opening their brilliant glit- 

 tering flowers while I write. I dropped 

 the hose on one of them, and snapped off 

 the center of the plant, buds, and two or 

 three leaves. I felt as bad over it, almost, 

 as if I had hurt a living being. In a min- 



