GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



need a storage battery to operate when the 

 wind does not blow. I do not know at present 

 who furnishes these storage batteries ; but I 

 think the Aermotor folks, of Chicago, can tell 

 you. 



the claims are false and the plants utterly 

 worthless. 





NOVELTIES IN THE WAY OF NEW FRUITS, ETC. 



Like all the rest of yon, I have been reading 

 the new catalogs with great interest. I have 

 been looking anxiously for reports in regard to 

 the new fruits, more especially the Strawbi rry- 

 raspberry. Golden Mayberry, and Logan berry. 

 These three wonderful new fruits have been 

 before the public for several years, and yet al- 

 most every catalog continues to repeat the ster- 

 eotyped extravagant description made by the 

 originator or introducer. The plants now are 

 offered at a very low price— say 10 or 15 cents 

 each. Some of the catalogs assure us that these 

 plants will bear fruit this year; but I have not 

 yet found one where the proprietor says he has 

 grown the fruit on his own ground, and that the 

 claims for it are true. Now. gentlemen, what 

 is the trouble? If they can be grown so easily, 

 and bear such loads, and even produce some 

 fruit the first year, why can't you tell us some- 

 thing about it from your own experience? Are 

 we to infer that the men who make the catalogs 

 never go out into the garden at all? or don't 

 they have any garden? I purchased all three 

 of the above when they first came out, and I 

 have been nursing them alons: ever since; but 

 I have never yet succeeded in getting one of 

 them to as much as blossom, neither have I 

 seen anybody who has succeeded any better 

 than I have. If any of the readers of Glean- 

 ings have got these plants in fruit, esoecially 

 this Golden Mayberry. that ripens ahead of 

 strawberries, will he pjease stand up and tell 

 us about ir? Just one thine more: 



You know what a stir Gleanings made three 

 years ago about the new forage plant sacaline. 

 Well, a great part of the catalogs still copy the 

 extravagant claims that were made for this 

 plant— ■' grows from ten to fourteen f'^et high 

 bvJune;" " stems or leaves, green or dry, rel- 

 ished by horses, cattle, or sheep;" " more nutri- 

 tious than clover, millet, corn, or any other for- 

 age plant." Now, all this has been paraded be- 

 fore us in our catalogs for three years. T pur- 

 chased some of the first plants sent out. I have 

 tried them in our rich plant-beds, and have put 

 them out in the fields; I have tried them on 

 various pieces of rich ground, both wet and dry, 

 and T nt ver yet have succeeded in getting a 

 stalk a vard high, to say nothing about doing 

 it by " June." The plant blossoms, bears seed, 

 and acts as if two or three feet were its normal 

 height. It is worth just as much for stock as 

 the common dock, which it so much resembles. 



Now. I was just going to cast some severe re- 

 flections on the man who sent it out at 3.5 cents 

 a plant, and the catalogs that still continue to 

 boom it at ever so many dollars a pound for 

 seed; but 1 think I will wait till somebody who 

 sees this has a chance to assure me that he has 

 succeeded better. It seems to me that our 

 practical working people, gardeners, and fruit- 

 growers should make a vigorous protest against 

 these things. Why. the catalog men are killing 

 themselves, so far as business is concerned, by 

 hanging to these humbugs when our experiment 

 stations have declared for the third season that 



At this season of the year, when all our space 

 under glass is crowded to its utmost, not only is 

 it desirable to have every foot of ground occu- 

 pied as soon as a crop is removed, but in plant- 

 ing seeds we can do still better. Let us lake 

 tomatoes for an example. We plant the seeds 

 in rows four or five inches apart. Now, as soon 

 as the plants get fairly up, make a little furrow 

 between the rows of plants, and put in some 

 more seed. By the time the older ones are 

 ready to be transplanted to another place where 

 there is more room, the second lot will be just 

 coming up. In this way we can have a growing 

 crop all the while on the same ground. At this 

 time of the year we cut a little strip of lettuce 

 every morning for the day's sales. This strip 

 is always cleaned off at once, the ground nicely 

 sifted and smoothed over, and seeds or plants 

 usually got right in the same day. and often 

 during the same hour the lettuce was taken off. 

 Where we go to the expense of having sub irri- 

 gated beds, with heat underneath, it is all the 

 more important that every foot of ground, as I 

 have said, should have a growing crop on it all 

 the while. When it gets warm enough so we 

 can plant stuflF in beds without heat, then it is 

 not so very important; but still it is an excel- 

 lent idea, after one goes to the expense of hav- 

 ing beds made, and providing sash, to keen both 

 beds and sash earning some money every day in 

 the weeli. 



THE CRANDALL currant; SOMETHING IN ITS I' AVOR. 



Friend Root :— In the Gleanings of Dee. 1. Mr. 

 Anderson, in spe;iking of the frauds in small fruits, 

 classes the Crandall currant Mmong- them. Now, I 

 have seen this currant fruiting for some years, and 

 I do tliink it has c place amonjr onr small fruits In 

 the first place, it is not the black current (R)?(c,s ni- 

 gnim), as Mr. Anderson says, but a fruiting- form of 

 the yellow or flowering- currant {Ribes KiDCiim). 

 The flowering- current is a well-known old-fasliioned 

 shrub which is planted quite larg-ely for its beauty, 

 blossoming very early in the spring, with yellow, 

 pendulous blossoms, very handsome and fragrant. 

 It is quite a honey-producer too; but the bumble- 

 bee seems to monopolize it. The corolla is very 

 long, and the flower very much unlike the black 

 and red currant Indira. The gooseberry flower is 

 much more like the red and black rurrant, I suc- 

 ceeded once in cros.sing the gooseberry and black 

 currant, but could do nothing with the yellow and 

 blaek currant. I always thought if I had a place of 

 my own I would plant a few of the Crandall cur- 

 rants for their beauty when in flower, and then for 

 the fruit, which is very good for pies, jf Hies, etc., 

 and it hangs on thp bushes quite awhile after ripen- 

 ing, and does not ripen up all at once; so the fruit 

 is in seasf)n for a month or so. 



Prof. Bailey, in Bulletin 15 of the Cornell Station, 

 says of it: "It represents a new type of small 

 fruits, which, when farther selected and improved, 

 will become a staple." 



This currant was introduced in 1888 by Frank 

 Ford, of Ravenna, O. It has no dount been over- 

 praised by word and picture in the ca'alog of those 

 dealers who make a business of doing such thirig^; 

 but its good qualities will give it a place among our 

 small fruits, for I certainly believe it deserves one, 



Columbus, O., Jan. 18. LE. C. Green. 



Friend G., I am very glad of what you say. 

 When the Crandall currant first came out I 

 paid a I'ig price for a single bush. It is now 

 higher than I can reach, but it has never given 

 us a handful of fruit; and, in fact, it looks 

 almost exactly like a bush of yellow flowering 

 currant in our gardpu. purchased some years 

 ago of Storrs A: Harrison. The fruit of the two 

 is exactly alike, only that of the Crandall is 

 considerably larger. The Crandall has our very 

 richest market ground, and it is a perfect mass 

 of bloom every spring; but there is only a cur- 

 rant here and there, and very few ever reach 



