84 



ULeANJXUS in lii^E CULTURE. 



t'EiJ. 



ey, of value to both consignee and consign- 

 or. These points I propose to take up at 

 some future time. 



AN OLD TRANSPLANTING-TUBE. 



ROBIN REDBREAST AND THE CUT-WORM. 



fRIEND ROOT:— About forty-five years ago, 

 in Greenfleia, Mass., I used very successfully 

 a transphmting-tube invented by Hooker 

 Leavitt, Esq., then clerk of the courts, and 

 well known for his skill in gardening and 

 horticulture. It was made of tin, with the top edge 

 turned over so that it could be more easily pushed 

 into the ground. It was conical in shape, being 

 wider at the top than bottom, the better to hold In 

 the earth when a plant was taken up. The up- 

 right edges of the cone were not close fitting, but 

 could be sprung together and kept in place by a 

 wire rod. It was used as follows: A hole being 

 made to receive the tube with its plant, the earth 

 was gathered loosely around it; and the wire being 

 pulled out, the tube would spring apart enough for 

 easy removal, without injuring the tender roots of 

 the plants. 



Your remarks upon the letter of Mr. O. I. Miller 

 brought to my mind this old device, and with it the 

 remembrance of the happy hours I used to give to 

 the care of ray hotbed and garden. What Mr. 

 Miller said about the cut-worm, reminds me to 

 speak a good word for our friendly robin redbreast. 

 If any one will get up at break of day, when the 

 cut-worms are doing their worst in our gardens and 

 corn-fields, he will find the robin up too, and hunt- 

 ing for them while many are yet on the surface of 

 the ground. He may be seen to cram his mouth so 

 full, that now and then one will drop out before he 

 can carry his prey to his young. As the cut-worm 

 finds what it destroys by traveling over the top of 

 the soil, I protected my plants by inclosing them in 

 a cone made of old w riting-paper, the smaller end 

 of the cone being pushed about an inch into the 

 ground to hold it in place. Simply covering the 

 plants before sunset with old flower-pots, pans, 

 etc., to be removed after sunrise, is also found to 

 answer a good purpose. 



The cleanci- a garden is kept while the cut-worm 

 works, unless some special devices are used to cur- 

 tail its ravages, the worse. Having no weeds to prey 

 upon, and not being willing to starve, this verita- 

 ble pest has all the less trouble in finding and de- 

 stroying the fruits of our patient industry. For 

 this reason, when the hoe was almost our sole de- 

 pendence for keeping down the weeds, I set mere 

 looks at defiance, and allowed the weeds to have 

 their will during the season of the cut-worm, only 

 taking care that they did not encroach upon the 

 plants 80 as to hinder their growth. It was a much 

 easier task to destroy these weeds than to make the 

 extensive replantings which their temporary en- 

 durance prevented. 



Even now I almost shudder at the recollection of 

 ruining visits paid to my garden, when the wily 

 worm was my master, and when my choice cauli- 

 flower, cabbage, cucumber, melon, and tomato 

 plants hung their drooping heads, or, cut in twain, 

 lay upon the ground. L. L. Langstroth. 



Dayton, O., Jan. .5, 1888. 



Many thanks, friend L., for the impor- 

 tant facts you give us. It well illustrates 



the old adage, that there is nothing new 

 under the sun. I do think, however, that 

 my plain tins are much cheaper and sim- 

 pler than those that have to be unhooked to 

 get the plant out. I am glad, too, to see 

 you defend robin redbreast. We shall take 

 more pains hereafter, to encourage them in 

 building nests. The evergreens that sur- 

 rouixi our apiary are so full of robins' nests 

 that I have been afraid they would make 

 a serious inroad on our strawberries and 

 raspberries; but if ihey catch the cut- 

 worms, I tliiuk we can afford to have some- 

 body get up early and keep them off the 

 berries until the pickers come on the 

 ground. 



FOUL BROOD. 



DOES IT EVER START IN AN APIARY WHEN NOT 



introduced V 



HAT causes foul brood to start in an apiary, 

 when not introduced from another that 

 has it? M. A. Kelley. 



Milton, W. Va., Dec. 31, 1887. 



Friend K., I am sure I am right 

 when I tell you that foul brood never starts 

 in an apiary unless there has already been 

 some of it in the vicinity, or some honey in 

 some shape or other has by some means 

 brought it into the locality, and the bees 

 have been permitted to get a taste of it. 

 Foul brood can no more originate itself than 

 can a hill of corn originate itself. Chilled 

 brood, suffocated brood, or dead brood, can 

 in no wise or manner originate foul brood. 

 I have conversed in regard to the matter 

 with our l)est professors of entomology, and 

 with scientific men familiar with all the 

 problems of spontaneous generation and 

 vegetable life. There is no such thing as any 

 plant or animal starting up without a seed 

 or germ. Varieties may grow and develop, 

 and new species may be originated by natu- 

 ral or artificial selection ; but no plant 

 starts up unless the seed was planted by 

 nature or by man. Sometimes it is a little 

 difficult to tell just where the disease did 

 come from ; but let an expert look the 

 matter over, and I think he will tell you 

 generally wliere it was contracted. At the 

 recent convention at Utica, a young man 

 mentioned a colony of bees that died in the 

 cellar, without any apparent cause. As he 

 stated it, no one could tell why they should 

 die. 1, however, went home with him, and 

 went into the cellar. In just one minute_ I 

 showed him where the 

 bees were wintered in 

 frames. The cluster of 

 large, and his cellar was rather cold — be- 

 tween 80 and 40^. They consumed all their 

 stores up to one frame completely filled with 

 comb, without a single passage through it— 

 probably built from a sheet of foundation. 

 Well, the bees were clustered on one side of 

 the comb, and had consumed every drop of 

 honey, while the opposite side of the comb 

 was filled with nice solid stores of clover 

 honey. The bees could not get through the 

 comb, and the cellar was so cold they could 

 not go around to the other side, and hence 

 they starved to death. A hole cut through 



trouble lay. His 

 pretty large deep 

 bees was not very 



