S12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



is fast becoming' famous for her great and excel- 

 lent watermelons, there being hundreds of car- 

 loads shipped from this county yearly. We are be- 

 g-inning the raising of nutmeg melons. My man 

 and myself have gathered and shipped, from 5>2 

 acres of cantaloupes, 16,000 this year, and there are 

 about 4000 more yet to gather. There were two 

 carloads of them. We shipi)ed to Dwyer & N'hay, 

 Detroit, Mich., and they wired us that they were 

 selling at 5 and 6 cts. each for the first carload, and 

 the other car is on the way there now. Well, this 

 looks pretty big; but/if we had had pure seed we 

 could have done better, as some of the seed was 

 mixed with cucumber seed, and some was those 

 long banana melons which were worse than worth- 

 less to us. I estimate the loss by these seeds at 

 3000, which brings the total yield, average, over 

 5000 per acre. Now, I want you to furnish us with 

 good pure seed next year. The seed was not 

 bought of you, but of a seedman who deals world- 

 wide. Some of our seed was from Atlee Burpee, 

 and were pure. Their "New Market " is about the 

 proper size, and of excellent quality, but rather 

 smooth. What the trade wants is just such a mel- 

 on as Ihe above, only more netted. If you have 

 any improvement over the above we want it. 



Now, Mr. Root, I suppose that a great many will 

 embark in the business here and elsewhere, and 

 for a little time the business will be overdone; and 

 perhaps some would hesitate to publish the above 

 facts, for fear that his business would be ruined; 

 but as the information I have received from others 

 has benefited me more than I shall ever be able to 

 give in i-eturn, I very cheerfully give you the 

 above. 



We have 140 colonies, having started with 95 in 

 the spring. Bees began swarming in April, and 

 have swarmed at different times since, with very 

 little swarming in June. Tliey swarmed in July as 

 the result of ball-willow, and water and nutmeg 

 melon bloom, there being about 600 acres of mel- 

 ons in this vicinity this season. They made but 

 very little surplus— just enough to make a few of 

 them swarm. There is at present almost nothing 

 they can get, except the juice of broken melons in 

 the fields. They seize upon them in great numbers 

 as fast as they are broken open. I believe water- 

 melon juice (can you suggest a better name than 

 juice V) is perfectly wholesome for bees, as we had a 

 severe drouth here last here, and for two weeks the 

 bees in most colonies at my home yard had to sub- 

 sist on watermelons almost entirely, and then after- 

 ward gathered quite a crop of late fall honey, while 

 my out-apiary was without range of any melon 

 fields, and a great many young bees starved, and 

 some left the hives, so that they became very weak 

 before I became aware of their condition. Only 

 about half of them gathered any surplus in the 

 autumn, though they had the best late range. I be- 

 lieve bees will winter well on syrup made from 

 watermelons. There are always many which are 

 not fit to ship, which could be utilized in this way 

 if safe. I will say, that 1 lost only 3 colonies out of 

 !)8 last winter, and they were 3-frame nuclei, hav- 

 ing wintered five 3-frame successfully. 



Kmison, Ind., Aug. 15, 1888. A. Wittenmyeu. 

 Th.mk you, friend W. I, too, have found 

 out tlie importance of having true seed for 

 raising melons for market ; but I am sorry 

 to say that most of the melon seed we have 

 been able to get is not as true as it should 



be; and from what W. J. Green, of the 

 Ohio Experiment Station, tells us, 1 should 

 not dare to save melon seed from our own 

 raising. We not only have all kinds of 

 melons, cucumbers, and squashes in the 

 same field, but we have millions of bees go- 

 ing from one llower to another. It seems to 

 me that the only way to get melon seed true, 

 will be to raise one kind by itself, so far re- 

 mote from other sorts that the bees will not 

 mix tJiem ; and I confess I do not see how 

 it is going to be managed unless one farmer 

 raises one and only one kind of melons, and 

 another, further off than the range of 

 bees' flight, takes another kind. Our large 

 seedsmen might possibly have this done; 

 and when we come across a seedsman who 

 does do it, we had better hold fast to him. 

 I am glad to have you give us so good a re- 

 port of Atlee Burpee. 



WORK FOR OCTOBER, ETC. 



We have been very fortunate in the way 

 of frosts, in our locality. Our first killing 

 frost occurred on the night of the 10th ; Imt 

 reports at the Columbus convention brought 

 to light the fact that we are in a favored lo- 

 cality. Even on the Experimental Farm, 

 on tiie night of the 4th they not only had 

 a heavy frost, but a freeze as well, 

 while here in Medina we did not have frost 

 enough to hurt lima beans, tomatoes, pep- 

 pers, etc. I was surprised at this, for Co- 

 lumbus is toward 100 miles further south 

 than we are. At the above date, my wife 

 was in Lebanon, Laclede Co., Missouri 

 (200 miles or more south of St. Louis), and 

 she reports that the frost there killed 

 all the melon-vines, while ours here were 

 unharmed. I suppose this exemption from 

 frost is on account of our proximity to 

 Lake Erie. Well, even if the frost did ' not 

 come till Oct. 10th, it taught us some les- 

 sons. The frost was quite severe. Water 

 was frozen so it would hold up in little pud- 

 dles, and the ground in some places would 

 almost hold a horse. The lima beans were 

 finished, except some that, where the poles 

 were broken off, the vines were down on the 

 ground. Lay your vines on the ground 

 when a frost is expected, and they will 

 suffer but little harm. Tomatoes, where 

 the foliage was quite heavy, were unharm- 

 ed, and may ripen still if we have warm 

 sunshiny weather. Our worst blunder was 

 in leaving our Concord grapes over the bee- 

 hives. I had warning, though, but I told 

 these friends that frosts in October just made 

 grapes sweeter. They are not spoiled, but 

 next to the skin the flavor is impaired quite 

 a little. We had over 200 pounds of large 

 fine grapes, and only a very few of them 

 had been gathered. 



PLANTING STRAWBERRIES IN ()CTOBEI{. 



After the last evening of our bee-keepers' 

 convention, an invitation was sent us from 

 the Horticultural Society to meet with them 

 after their own society had adjourned. As 

 the subject under discussion was strawber- 

 ries. I was very much interested in it in- 

 deed ; especially that part pertaining to 

 putting out strawberries in October. Some 

 one present mentioned tbat, on the Experi^ 



