780 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



Niven plan, equal to any celery banked up. If 

 this should be a success it will be a wonderful 

 advance in celery-growing. We shall have re- 

 ports, doubtless, before winter sets in. from a 

 great many experimenters. The people at our 

 Ohio Experiment Station have been for some 

 vears raising nice celery on a plan somewhat 

 similar. The plants are a foot or more apart, 

 and dirt is worked in between them. In order 

 to get them out of the dirt you make a row of 

 celery, say six feet wide, and then you have a 

 road or alley six feet wide. The dirt needed is 

 to be shoveled out of this road. The little book 

 entitled "'The New Celery Culture '" also dis- 

 cusses other methods, and is, without question, 

 worth the small price asked for it— 20 cents— to 

 any celery-grower. We can furnish it by mail 

 at the above price. 



OTHER NEW KURAI. BOOKS. 



The Rural Publishing Co. are giving us some 

 quite valuable hand-books on rural matters, 

 besides " The New Celery Culture," which I 

 have already mentioned. A companion to this 

 is " Chemicals and Clover," price 20 cts. Now, I 

 should be very glad indeed to give this book a 

 recommendation; but it makes me feel bad, and 

 it troubles me exceedingly, to think that, on our 

 soil, whether on low creek bottom or on upland, 

 chemicals seem to have almost no effect what- 

 ever on our crops. I should very much prefer 

 to use fertilizers than to get so much manure 

 from the livery-stables, for then I could escape 

 the great host of weed seeds that are sure to 

 come with stable manure. 



We have already given a notice of " How to 

 Rid Buildings of Rats," etc. This " rat-book " 

 is of especial value. The book is written in 

 such a happy vein that almost every one who 

 takes It up will read it through: and after they 

 have read it they will, all their lives, be better 

 prepared to fight rats and mice successfully. 

 The price of the book is 20 cts. 



" Spraying Crops " is another little book, by 

 Clarence M. Weed.. It seems to cover the whole 

 ground (of course rather briefly) up to the 

 pi-esent time, and the price is only 25 cts. 



Another book is the " New Po'ato Culture." 

 This is written with the especial view of rais- 

 ing potatoes by the use of chemical fertilizers, 

 and, of course, like my good friend Terry, I can 

 not understand how anybody can raise potatoes 

 with chemicalsalone— that is, judging from the 

 experience we have had. When they talk about 

 guano, that is all very clear arid plain sailing, 

 for that is animal manure; but the statements 

 in regard to nitrate of soda and such like chem- 

 icals are, to me, a stumbling-block. Why don't 

 such things produce any result whatever in any 

 experiments that I make? The price of this 

 book is 40 cts. in paper. or T.^ cts. bound in cloth. 

 oThe next book is "The Horticulturist's Rule 

 Book." written by Prof. Bailey. This 4s a very 

 valuable reference-book indeed; in fact, it is 

 wonderful to see how much real knowledge 

 and information is given briefly in a few words, 

 and it covers almost the whole ground of horti- 

 culture. The price is 60 cts. in paper covers, or 

 ai.OO bound. 



We can forward any of the books mentioned 

 above, on receipt of the price given. I would 

 especially recommend the "New Celery Cul- 

 ture.'" This will b(! particularly valuable to 

 those who grow only a little celery in their own 

 garden, for by this new process we can get al- 

 most a wagonload of celery on a piece of ground 

 not much bigger than the wagon-box itself; 

 but, oh dear me 1 you have got to give it ma- 

 nure and io((ter. Celery is one of the few plants 

 that are so accommodating as to grow almost 

 as well (or sometimes it .seems even better) in 

 the shade of buildings. On this account many 



people can have a little celery-garden where 

 they could not have a garden of any sort very 

 well. 



THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FARM. 



Inasmuch as we have had frequent contribu- 

 tions from our Ohio State Experiment Farm, 

 and have also published the results of many of 

 their experiments, we think it quite likely our 

 readers will be interested in the following an- 

 nouncement: 



The management of the Ohio State University 

 Farm, which has been conducted by the Ohio Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station during the past five 

 years, has been again undertaken by the Board of 

 Trustees of tlie University. The farm has beeTi 

 placed in tlie direct cliarge of the professor of agri- 

 culture, wlille the horticultural work Is In the 

 hands of tlie professor of horticulture. Mr. Frank- 

 lin P. Stump, a recent graduate of the Course in 

 Agriculture, has been appointed Foreman of the 

 Farm. Mr. W. S. Turner, formerly with the horti- 

 cultural department of the Experiment Station, 

 has been ap])oluted Foreman of the Gardens. 



The re-occupatlon of these grounds by the Uni- 

 versity will enable the instructors of the Depart- 

 ments of Agriculture and Horticulture to use the 

 farm and gardens for class illustration and instruc- 

 tion, andtfius make possible a considerable enlarge- 

 ment of the practical work in agriculture and lior- 

 ticulture. It is not the purpose of these depart- 

 ments to make money, but to make men. 



A large portion of the work on the farm, and in 

 the gardens and orchards, is done by students, pi-ef- 

 erence being given to tlioseintlie Scliool of Agri- 

 culture. During the past week 39 students have 

 been on the i>ay-ron of the Departments of Agri- 

 culture and Hni liculture. Five other men were 

 employed, thvw of them for less than three days. 



The "members of tiie faculty composing the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture will undertake such experi- 

 mental work as their time and tlie funds at their 

 disposal will allow. Thos. F. Hunt. 



I would call particular attention to one sen- 

 tence in the above: "It is not the purpose of 

 these departiuents to make money, but to make 

 men;'" and in these days when .so much is said 

 about bribery and corruption generally in pub- 

 lic places, it is pleasant to know that no such 

 charge has been made against the students and 

 managers of our various experiment stations 

 belonging to the ditt'erent States. In some 

 cases they have been accused of stupidity, but 

 never, to my knowledge, of dishonesty; and 

 when it comes to the former, the man in the.se 

 days who has not had occasion again and again 

 to call himself stupid is surely not a progressive 

 man. The stations are, by their tests, giving 

 us a glimpse, for almost the first time in the 

 history of the world, of the real stupidity and 

 superstition the world has for ages been groan- 

 ing und(>r— that is, the agricultural world. I 

 have often wished that other departments of 

 science and industry might be weighed in the 

 balance in about the same way that our agri- 

 cultural colleges are now weighing and testing 

 every thing in their line. 



THE BORDEAUX MIXTURE FOR (JUINCE-TREES. 



Some five or six years ago I purchased fifty 

 quince-trees, and have been trying ever since to 

 get some quince's. They are on very rich ground, 

 and. we thought, had the best of care: yet the 

 fruit was so knotty and gnarly, and the foliage 

 looked so spotted and twisted, that I began to 

 accuse the friend who sold me the trees of hav- 

 ing ?iven me some inferior kinds. In fact. Mrs. 

 Root vvould scarcely consent to waste her time 

 in cutting over any quinces of our own raising. 

 Last spring I sprayed them three times with 

 the Bordeaux mixture ; and notwithstanding 

 almost every time the solution was washed off 

 right away by drenching rains, the trees have 

 put on a better appearance than ever before, 

 and I have succeeded in showing some of the 

 finest quinces that anybody ever saw around 



