18'.»4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



343 



an advantage. It is the san)e with the onion- 

 plants, and quite a lew other things. We util- 

 ized every tiling in tlie shape of sash and 

 sliutters, and tlien used cotton eloth and blan- 

 kets; but I thought tliat surely those hardy 

 cold-frame cabbage-plants would stand any 

 weather we should get so near April 1. Here 

 is wliere anoilier warning conies in. I think 

 tliat. during every previous spring, we have 

 found the beds heated by exhaust steam would 

 stand the hardest freeze without injury. Hut 

 tliis spring they really suffered worse. I pre- 

 sume the reason was, the bottom heat, together 

 with tlie tine weather, iiad induced a ranlc ten- 

 der growth; and 1 tliink the bottom heat 

 would have warded off any ordinary frost. But 

 only 1.1 degrees above zero every night for 

 almost a week was more than they could stand. 

 VVe had peas up in the open air, two inches 

 high. It did not kill them, but it scorched 

 some of the top leaves. I think it was the first 

 lime I ever saw peas that had come up in the 

 open air in the spiing, hurt by a frost or freeze. 

 The lilacs near our house were showing the 

 blossom - buds. The freeze killed the new 

 growth, and I do not know but it pretty nearly 

 killed the bushes. Some peach-trees were be- 

 ginning to show the pink of the blossoms buds; 

 but. to my surprise, these at present seem to be 

 unharmed. I presume that, a little further 

 south, where fruit and other things were still 

 further advanced, the damage is greater than 

 In our locality: at least, the following letter 

 seems to point that way: 



Every thing' gone up witli the Easter freeze. Alas- 

 ka peas, 4 inches hig-h; potato-onions, 10-inch; seed 

 onit)iis; lettu(;e, radishes, etc., well up, all destroy- 

 ed, except tlie large onions, which are starting 

 again. Frost and ice last night. 



Kugby, Teun., April 3. Mrs. M. S. Percival. 



Let us not be in haste, however, to borrow 

 troulJle. After almost all such cases of severe 

 weather in spring we do not find things after 

 all as bad as many imagined they were. It is 

 not such a great calamity, after all. to have our 

 fruit thinned off a little so as to prevent a glut 

 in the market. The only trouble is. this thin- 

 ning does not come on all alike. Some have 

 nothing left, and others are uninjured. I be- 

 lieve, however, this is true, generally speaking: 

 The wide-awake, energetic gardener or fruit- 

 grower gets ahead of the frost by some hook or 

 crook when other people do not. During all 

 tills spring we have been getting 20 cts. per lb. 

 for spinach and beet gn^ens. I put the price 

 up so people would not insist on having tluiin 

 when they were only half grown. IJut they 

 would have them nevertheless. We sold lettuce 

 all winter for 20 cts. per lb., but now we can 

 not supply the demand at 30 cts. Green onions 

 do not seem to sell as they usually have. 



ABOUT HAVING MOKE SASHKS TO MEP:T CON- 

 TINGENCIES. 



I think there is an extreme both ways. It 

 doesHiot pay to have a great lot of sashes that 

 are not earning you any thing; and it doss not 

 pay. either, to have stuff' killed for want of 

 sashes. But witli us. somehow or other it seems 

 impossible to manage so that each one of our 

 I'lO sashes may be earning as much money as it 

 ought to. I presume some of our saslies earn 

 two or three dollars in a season; but tli(n'e jirci 

 a good many raon- that do not earn a quarter 

 as much. It wants a better manager, or a 

 manager who has not so many other things to 

 look after. And, by the way. what a chance 

 tiiere is for keen headwork and intelligence in 

 this matter of handling sash I It is. liowever, 

 work that I really love, and I can hardly im- 

 agine any thing nicer than watching tlie 

 clouds, the winds, the rain, the snow, and the 



frost, keeping all the while in touch with the 

 Weather Bureau, and managing so as to avoid 

 moving sash uselessly, and yc^t giving your 

 stuff' all th(5 air it needs, ami at the samc^ time 

 avoiding losses. Like almost every thing else, 

 however, this ninst be hiarned by degrees. 

 Commence with half a dozen sash; or. if you 

 are a boy in your teens; get two sashes. Plan 

 and figure to make th(i most of the half-dozen; 

 then goon up to two dozen, then .'iO. then 1(X), 

 and work just as wisely with the large number 

 as you did with the smaller. 



SPKAYING TO K1I>T. THE INSKCT-ENE.MIES OF 

 OUR FRUITS AND PLANTS. 



The Ohio Experiment Station comes out with 

 newspaper Bulletin No. 13(), with such high 

 recommends for the above, that one might al- 

 most think they had spraying-pumps or med- 

 icines, or something of that sort, to sell. For 

 instance, in their heading they say: 



"Spraying profitable; several hundred per 

 cent sometimes realized." 



Somehow it gives me a feeling of pleasure 

 and satisfactien every time I see one of these 

 experiment-station reports, l^ecause we know 

 they come from disinterested parties, and from 

 our best and most careful students and think- 

 ers, who have no object before them except an 

 unselfish desire to benefit the farmers and hor- 

 ticulturists of our land. May God speed them 

 and give them wisdom ! In this bulletin they 

 have simplified and cut down the directions so 

 that it gives the latest knowledge in regard to 

 the subject, in the very fewest words; and I 

 would advise our readers who want light on 

 this matter, and who have not seen this bulle- 

 tin in print, to send for it. Address Experiment 

 Station, Wooster, O.. and ask for "newspaper 

 Bulletin No. 136." 



RASPBERRIES AND STRAWBERRIES — SOMETHING 

 VALUABLE IN REGARD TO THE CUL- 

 TIVATION OF RASPBERRIES. 



I have " Root and Terry's ABC of Straw- 

 berry Culture." Perhaps some can raise larger 

 crops of strawberries than I; but it is said ours 

 are the finest berries in the Cooperstown mar- 

 ket. They averaged us 14c per qt. Our best 

 did not sell for less than 15. when others were 

 selling for 8 and 10. I should like to tell you 

 about our raspberries. We have 141 rods, from 

 which we picked 100 bushels of large fine ber- 

 ries last summer. It was said by people who 

 visited our raspberry- field to be the finest fruit 

 th(>y ever saw. I could sell when others had to 

 take their berries home. I grow them in thin 

 matted rows. 6 feet apart, with good strong 

 posts driven on each side the row. about 40 feet 

 apart, leaving the row one foot wide, then run 

 a No. 12 or 14 annealed wire around the row, 

 about 3 feet from the ground, drawn as tight 

 as I can draw it. and then fastened to each 

 post with a good staple. I hoed and cultivated 

 them thoroughly until they were in full bear- 

 ins. I manure heavily every fall with any 

 kind of stable manure. The canes grow strong; 

 and, by leaving in the old canes till spring to 

 support the new ones, the ground is so shaded 

 that onc(i cultivating is all that is needed. In 

 the spring we cultivate once, break out the 

 old canes, pick the berries, manure in the fall; 

 no hoeing is now needed. Part of our field has 

 not been hoed in five years, and is free from 

 weeds. 



In footnotes on page 753, Oct.. 1893. you say 

 the only drawback is the expense of straw 

 sufficient to keep down the weeds, and keep the 

 soil damp. You need not pay out one cent, nor 

 use any straw for muk-hine to kill the weeds 

 or keep the soil danni. Our raspberry-canes 

 are set on the driest ground we have, and we 



