1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



871 



where the tall women could not g'et them 

 conveniently ; and the other child, with a 

 ladder, gathered the plums that were rath- 

 er too hig-h up for the long- arms of the tall- 

 est woman. How long- does it take to pick 

 a tree, with such an "outfit"? Well, I 

 looked at mj^ watch and judg-ed it took 

 about ten minutes to pick a tree that g-ave 

 two bushels; and, say, fifteen minutes for 

 a three-bushel tree. How is that, friends — 

 $6.00 for the fruit on a tree only four j'ears 

 planted, and the crop sold before it is 

 picked? Mr. Berg- keeps off curculio and 

 rot by spraying — no bumping at all. I do 

 not think one plum in a hundred was rot- 

 ten. Even those on the ground were free 

 from rot. The Grand Duke will average 

 the size of small hens' eggs, and they hung 

 on the limbs touching each other, like 

 bunches of grapes. Mr. Berg trains and 

 prunes all his trees low down, so the fruit 

 is easily gathered, and the limbs often 

 touch the ground, so there is very little 

 breaking down. He has also a great crop 

 of peaches, but scarcelj' a broken-down 

 limb. One reason why fruit-buyers come 

 to his place and buy his fruit is his near- 

 ness (only three miles) to Traverse City. 



On our way home I met Mr. Dobson, 

 whose plum-orchard I wrote up two years 

 ago. He gave us an important item in re- 

 gard to the value of spraying. On account 

 of the excessive rain last spring he could 

 not spray as much as usual. On one occa- 

 sion they got at it for just half a day, dur- 

 ing a critical time. They sprayed just one 

 side of two rows of cherry-trees, and then 

 rain came, so the other side of these trees 

 was never sprayed at all. All these trees 

 gave a fine crop on one side — none at all on 

 the other. The cherries where he sprayed 

 sold for $25.00. So much for what can be 

 done bj' spraying in half a day. 



It was nearly night when Mr. Berg's 

 eighteen-year-old son got me home, and I 

 insisted that the horse should have a little 

 rest and refreshment; but as he was going 

 to be out after night the boy said he could 

 stop only a few minutes. 



Now, I know by experience that boys of 

 eighteen also need refreshment when it gets 

 to be about supper time. I ate the last of 

 my bread in the morning, there wasn't a 

 thing cooked, and my young friend could 

 not wait, especially for any of my cooking. 

 I happened to look up on a high shelf at 

 the north side of the cabin, and spied a 

 strange covered, basket. It contained a loaf 

 of nice bread, a nice pie, and a good-sized 

 chunk of gingerbread. This, with some 

 bologna I had just brought from the mar- 

 ket, made us a nice "picnic" after our 

 long ride. Our nearest neighbor. Mrs. 

 Heimforth, sent the basket; and her boy, 

 finding the house locked, set the basket, up 

 on the shelf. My good friend, what is it 

 worth to 3'ou to have the good will of all 

 your neighbors? 



I should have said, in the proper place, 

 the plums are shipped in bushel baskets 

 with slatted covers, the same that are used 



for peaches. A large factory (now running 

 over hours) in Traverse City makes these 

 bushel fruit-baskets for only $1.00 per doz- 

 en; covers, where wanted, 2 cts. each addi- 

 tional. Mrs. Berg does the sorting, and 

 she takes the responsibility of seeing that 

 nothing is put in a basket before it is nail- 

 ed up that isn't first-class. Just now there 

 are in Traverse City buyers for all the 

 peaches that maybe brought in. The price 

 is from 75 cts. to $1.25 per bushel. A bas- 

 ket is taken from each load, at random, 

 poured out, and the price offered from the 

 looks of this sample. There are a few 

 growers, however, who have gained such a 

 reputation that their load commands the 

 top price, without examination. Friend 

 Berg did not exactly say so, but I judge he 

 is one of that few. When we get right down 

 to the bottom of it all (we might sa3', I sup- 

 pose, to the bottom of the basket); Mrs. 

 Berg's careful and faithful inspection is 

 the explanation, and Mr. Berg gets 0.11 the 

 credit. Even if she is the mother of sever- 

 al nice grown-up daughters, she is about as 

 bright and nice-looking as any one of the 

 entire lot. 



Just one thing more: You may think it a 

 very easy matter to grow trees bending be- 

 neath loads of plums as large as hens' 

 eggs; but I questioned my 3'oung friend, 

 Samuel Berg, on our way home (Samuel 

 belongs to that church I am trying to build 

 up), and I found his father is drawing ma- 

 nure from the stables in the city, winter 

 and summer. The trees are spraj'ed and 

 cultivalted according to the latest and most 

 approved modern methods, and the whole 

 family help. Mr. B. has only about seven- 

 teen acres (less than a dozen in trees), and 

 he can take care of all his land, and do it 

 right, and at the proper time. If you are 

 going to grow fine fruit you donH want a 

 big farm, but you do want a wife and chil- 

 dren (a good lot .of the latter) who know 

 how and like to ivork with fruit. 



Storrs & Harrison's catalog (Painesville, 

 Ohio, describes the Grand Duke plum as 

 follows: " Fruit verj'^ large, of fine quality, 

 free from rot, very productive. Ripens last 

 of September." 



^^^^^^-T^^^^^^^^f^:: 



5PECIAb^N0T,icEs BY I 



*'• ^^"^ BUSINESS MANAGER ^ 



THE DANZENBAKER Sl'PER. 



During the past three months we have shipped sev- 

 eral thousand Danz supers with equipment for raising 

 and shipping comb honey in the Danz. 1x5x1^ plain 

 section. One producer in California ha.s loOO in use, 

 and proposes to get 1500 more. He is getting 15 cts. a 

 pound tor his honey right at home in California. 

 These facts are an indication of the growing popular- 

 ity of this arrangement for comb honey. 



SECOND-HAND HONEY-CANS. 



We have on hand something over one hundred cases 

 of two t)0-lb. cans, second hand, but in good condition. 

 The most of them are bright, having been used but 



