502 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



away In the dried-up potato-vines were in 

 beautiful shape. To get berries extra early 

 they should be in thin rows, or, better still, in 

 hills, and we should work the ground without 

 any mulching until just before the fruit ripens; 

 but for a very late berry, heavy mulching is 

 needed all through the spring to iceep them 

 back, and then the shade of a grapevine or of 

 trees will also help. This, with heavy matted 

 rows, will enable us to have fine large berries 

 after the others are gone: and my impression 

 is, that sub-irrigation, with the water let on 

 at just the right time, will also help to prolong 

 the crop. 



WIXTEK OATS— ONE OF MY FAILUKES. 



Perhaps I have been telling about some of 

 my successes a little too much, while I have 

 said little or nothing about recent failures. A 

 year ago I reported that our Pairal New-Yorker 

 winter oats came through all right, or with but 

 little injury. We saved the seed and put in 

 between two and three acres last fall. They 

 came up promptly and showed a good stand all 

 winter, although I remember of several times 

 thinking they looked a little queer for oats. 

 They wintered perfectly, and this spring we had 

 a magnificent stand. In some places they were 

 a little scattering; but they stooled out so they 

 just kept down the weeds and every thing else. 

 When they began to head out, my teamster 

 suggested that the cold winter had turned the 

 oats into chess. I told him what the experi- 

 ment stations and agricultural papers say about 

 it; but he said he knew all about that; but when 

 I saw a whole field of grain turn into chess he 

 thought I probably might have my faith shaken 

 a little, or something to that effect. 



My oats kept growing, and they kept looking 

 more peculiar. There was some real old-fash- 

 ioned chess among the oats, and I sent a man 

 over to the field to cut it out. Another friend 

 suggested there were two kinds of chess, and 

 that my winter oats looked very much like one 

 of the kinds. 



About a week ago, when the oats came into 

 bloom and there were going to be three or four 

 grains where there should be one of oats. I was 

 obliged to give up that something was the mat- 

 ter. I sent samples to our experiment station 

 and to the Bural New-Yorker folks I also 

 sent a sample of the oats I sowed, and told them 

 som'^thing like this: 



" We sowed oats such as we send you by this 

 mail, and we have a beautiful crop of green 

 stuflf such as I also send you by this mail. We 

 sowed oats, and shall we reap chess ? If not, 

 ' what shall the harvest be •?' " 



After my two samples and missives had gone 

 I began to feel still more uneasy. 1 v/ent down 

 to the seed-room and asked for a sample of our 

 winter oats. I showed them to the teamster, 

 to let him see that they were oats and nothing 

 else; but while we were looking them over he 

 said. " Why, there is some chess in this oats, as 

 sure as you live." Then I looked over the 

 handful, and, to my astonishment and dismay, 

 I found perhaps one grain in five or ten that 

 was a large kind of chess. We could easily 

 sort out the chess from the oats; and my pres- 

 ent explanation is that the cold winter killed 

 out every grain of oats and left the chess. In 

 fact, when we plowed it under we could not 

 find a single stalk of oats in the whole two or 

 three acres; but there w 's a nice even stand of 

 chess. It seems to me almost incredible that 

 the few chess grain* should have made so per- 

 fect a stand; and it seems also exceedingly 

 strange that not one grain of oats survived the 

 winter. 



As soon as I discovered the chess, of course I 



notified both the Rural New-Yorker and the 

 experiment station in regard to the matter. 

 Prof. Hickman replied, before he received my 

 second communication, as follows: 



Mr. Root:— I am sometimes mistaken, but I think 

 you will have sown oats and reaped chess. I tnink 

 I am entirely safe in arriving at the conclusion that 

 your experience with tlie winter oats will be like 

 ours at the station ; and that Is, that your oats have 

 frozen out, and in their place you have chess. This 

 is not oats turning- to chess, but simply history 

 repeating- itself. Cut the chess and make hay out 

 of it before it g-ets too hard, and before the seed 

 ripens or even matures sufHclently to reproduce 

 itself. I thank you for calling- our attention to this 

 matter. It is one of interest. 



Wooster, O., June 15. J. Fremont Hickman. 



Permit me to add further in conclusion, that 

 no such chess as this has ever been seen before 

 on our premises or in this neighborhood. The 

 stuff was promptly plowed under while in full 

 bloom, June 18, and the ground planted to 

 Thoroughbred and Freeman potatoes. 



Special Notices in the Line of Gardening, etc. 



By A. I. Root. 



NEW AND DESIRABLE VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES 

 FOR IMMEDIATE PLANTING. 



We have decided to furnish the following- kinds 

 by mail postpaid, at prices given, but can not 

 promise to ship promptly, for the demand may be 

 greater than the supply. All we cati do is to 

 promise to fill the oi-ders in rotation. If the 

 drought continues that is with us now, the only 

 way we can furnish plants will be to irrigate, and 

 this of course will make them more expensive. 

 The first three mentioned are offered by the origi- 

 nators only, and at from $3.00 to $3.00 per dozen. In 

 view of this we think our prices are moderate as 

 follows : 



Carrie. Darling, Earliest, and Nick Ohmer, 1.5 cts. 

 each, or $1.25 for 10 plants. You may have all of one 

 kind, or a mixed lot, of all these, as you choose. 



Margaret will be 10 cts. each, or 75 cts. for 10 

 plants. 



Brandy wine, Marshall, Wm. Belt, will be 5 cts. 

 each, or 40 cts. for 10. 



We shall not be able to furnish them in larger 

 quantities than the ten lots until later on. We will 

 let you know when we can make better prices. By 

 way of description we will say Carrie is a seedling 

 of the Haverland, but the berries are much larger 

 and firmer, and the plants seem to be stronger 

 growers. The Earliest is away ahead in point of 

 earliness of any thing I ever met before. During 

 the past spring we were obliged to cover the blos- 

 soms with glass to prevent them from being killed 

 by frost. For such an early berry it is fairly pro- 

 ductive. The Darling is much hke the Earliest, but 

 a little later. The berries have a wonderfully en- 

 ticing rose color when only partly ripe. One of our 

 six original plants bore a very large lot of berries. 

 Nick Ohmer gave us one berry as large as a small 

 lemon, and as faultless in shape as a lemon. As we 

 received the plants only last fall we can not as yet 

 say how productive they will be. 



Brandywiue, Marshall, and Wm. Belt have been 

 sufliciently described in this and previous issues. 

 We are going to try hard to mail the plants prompt- 

 ly, whether we have dry weather or not; and when 

 you get them we hope you will give them shade and 

 water, so that every plant shall live, whether you 

 have dry weather or not. 



A single strawberry-plant put out in July, water- 

 ed and shaded and cnred for, should make at least a 

 dozen before winter c^mes: and with such plants 

 as the Earliest, Michel's Early, Warfleld, and others, 

 that make plants rapidly, I think I could, in our 

 rich plant-beds, increase one plant to 60 or perhaps 

 100. Of course, this requires much care and pains. 

 During a drouth I would not only use water, but 

 shade the plants with cloth in the middle of the 

 day; so you see that, even though you do pay a 

 pretty good price for these choice new varieties to 

 start with, if they should continue to find favor you 



