1897 



<^LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



463 



carry enough of this compost out to the field to 

 give your plants a big start, oven If the ground 

 Is comparatively poor. We have noi yet tried 

 shipping plants by express, taken up In this 

 way; but by breaking off a part of the ball of 

 earth, so as to decrease the weight as much as 

 possible, and yet have enough left to keep the 

 roots perfectly, then packing these balls of 

 earth with sphagnum moss, I think valuable 

 plants could be sent this way with profit. The 

 weight of the adhering soil would, of course, be 

 a serious objection to sending any plants in this 

 way unless it were a small number of somo- 

 thlngexceedingly valuable. Sometimes Itseems 

 desirable to swap places with certain valuable 

 plants. With the above machine this can be 

 done in a twinkling; and even the plants that 

 have been transplanted do not seem to know 

 they have been swapped. Although we have 

 never used more than the one machine, I think 

 it would be quite desirable to have another 

 size a little larger; or two sizes might be found 

 convenient. The one we use has a cylinder 3 

 inches in diameter and 5 inches in length. The 

 whole thing amounts to the same thing as our 

 transplanting-tubes; but you have no tin tubes 

 at all to pick up and put away. The machine 

 itself does the whole business. 



Perhaps I should explain that cylinder No. 1 

 is made of the very best crucible steel; and 

 while in use it is as bright as a dollar, and as 

 smooth as a polished saw-blade. 



And now we come to the unfortunate part of 

 it. I have lost the letter from the man who 

 sent the machine. I wrote him once, asking 

 his permission to have an engraving made and 

 have it published. He replied (I think it was 

 about a year ago) that he was just about get- 

 ting out an improved machine, ani asked me 

 to hold on a little. I have held on until I feel 

 as if it would be wrong to keep people, who love 

 gardening, any longer In ignorance in regard to 

 this wonderful invention. It has now been 

 tested by manv competent men. and there Is 

 butone verdict In regard to it— it is away ahead 

 of any other transplanting-arrangement of the 

 kind that has ever been brought before the 

 public. When our good friend gives me per- 

 mission I want to make them and offer them at 

 a reasonable price. 



The little plant you see in the picture is a 

 basswnod-seedling. One day when one of our 

 small boys was out of a job I told him to mark 

 out one of our plant-beds with one of our mark- 

 ers (several times described), then pick up the 

 basswood-seedlings all over the garden, wher- 

 ever be could find them, and put them in the 

 bed. No. '.* shows one of the basswood-seed- 

 lings just as we picked them up. In a little 

 while he had a bed of .300 nice one»J. And this 

 reminds me that we have pretty much failed in 

 getting basswoods to grow where we planted 

 seeds; but wherever we are making up beds 

 near the basswood-trees. these little seedlings 

 come up plentifully. Under one small bass- 

 wood-tree we picked out over forty plants. A 

 friend sugeests that perhaps the basswood- 

 seeds should lie on the top of the ground, and 

 endure the freezing and thawing throueh the 

 winter ; and he thinks that If. after this, we 

 were to plant them in the spring, they would 

 germinate successfully. Last fall, as you may 

 remember, we planted something like a peck of 

 seeds, but not more than a dozen plants came 

 up out of all that quantity. 



Will the friend who sent us the above ma- 

 chine, when this meets his eye, please let us 

 know about it? I do not know whether it is 

 patented or not ; but the owner can, without 

 question (In my opinion), procure a patent on it 

 if he chooses. 



FlUMING THK SOU. FOK .STKAWBEHHIKS. 



On page C/.tl. Sept. 15, 18%, I spoke about the 

 wonderful luxuriance of some strawberries at 

 Matthew Crawford's. They were planted In a 

 bed where the soil had liern pounded down with 

 a stamper, as you would pound the dirt around 

 a post. Of course, the soil was first made fine 

 and light, and plenty of manure was mixed 

 with It. When I got home I had one of my 

 plant-bods prepared in the same mannc^r. It 

 was spad(^d up very fine and soft, with plenty 

 of manure mixed in. The ground was very 

 rich, for plants had been grown on it for sever- 

 al years. After the fining-up it was pounded 

 down as hard as the boys could stamp and 

 pound it. It was so late in the fall that I did 

 not see very much difference, and had rather 

 forgotten about the matter. But it occurred to 

 me a few days ago that each one of the four va- 

 rieties on this bed was doing wonderfully. We 

 have a new berry, the " Carrie ; " anoth(;r one 

 called " Darling," and the " Earliest," the last 

 of which I have been talking about. Each of 

 the three is putting out runners that are just 

 wonderful. A single strawberry-leaf will cov- 

 er a teacup, and the stems stand up all of a foot 

 high. The one called " Darling " has this morn- 

 ing, June 4th, the prettiest heap of fruit, ripe 

 and partially ripe. I think I ever saw around a 

 strawberry -plant.* I began to think all three 

 varieties were something wonderful in the way 

 of luxuriance; and then it occurred to me about 

 stamping the ground. P>iend Criwford's soil 

 is somewhat sandy, and I was thinking that 

 perhaps it would do better on such ground than 

 on our own. Where our plant-beds have been 

 manured heavily for so v^eral years the ground 

 has a tendency to get light so it dries out easi- 

 ly. I believe this stamping will correct this 

 trouble to a great extent. Remember, howev- 

 er, that all the stamping and pounding must be 

 done when the ground is dry and fine. Mash 

 all the lumps; have the soil soft and fine for a 

 foot deep or more; then pound it down as hard 

 as you choose. Of course, out in the field we 

 would roll it with a heavy roller and some 

 heavy horses to pull it, and also to stamp it 

 with their big heavy feet. But you can test 

 the matter on a small bed, to show what com- 

 pacting will do. 



Our bed of Nick Ohmers and Margarets is 

 just beginning to ripen, and they are little 

 "peaches." without question. Mrs. Root was 

 looking at them to-day, and she asked if almost 

 any sitrawberry would not do wonders in a sim- 

 ilar manner if I were to give it such rich soil 

 and so much petting. Of course, we must al- 

 low for this. In the open fioH Michel's Early 

 are just beginning to ripen. We shall probably 

 make our first picking to-morrow morning, 

 June 4. I do not think there is any other vari- 

 ety on our grounds that shows any ripe berries 

 in the open field. In the plant-beds, where we 

 kept off the frost by the use of glass, we are 

 getting Marshalls. and have been getting them 

 for two weeks past. The Jessies are also be- 



• This new kind has another peculiarity that 

 makes It wonde'ful'.y attractive. When it hegins 

 to color it is a light rose pink — almost exactly like 

 the blush on a peach; and the strawberry, when 

 ripe, is of a pinkish red instead of a brick red; the 

 shape is also almost perfect, and. taking it all in 

 all. I do not wonder that the originator named it 

 "Darling." To be fair, however, I must tell you 

 that, out of six plants we obtained last fall for trial, 

 one of them has not borne a berry: four of them 

 produced fruit fairly; and it was only the fifth that 

 gave us these little beautiful handsome berries that 

 made me feel like saying, "O you precious little 

 darlingof a strawberry-plant!" In point of earli- 

 ness I think it will be fully as early as the Michel, 

 and next to the one called the " Earliest." 



