572 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



was as straight as a line. A man could go in 

 with a horse (and, in fact, did go in with a 

 horse), and keep the space between the rows 

 beautifully fined up and keep down all weeds. 



Well, we are just now doing the same thing 

 out in the field. A string is stretched each side 

 of the row just as close as the stage of growth 

 will allow. The plants were all made to go 

 inside of this string. Vacancies that can not 

 well be filled otherwise are fixed with the 

 transplanter. 



You may say it is lots of trouble to put every 

 runner down by hand where you want a plant 

 to grow; but I believe it is less trouble than to 

 have your rows in certain places so wide that 

 scarcely a path is left. A man who has any 

 taste and skill at all will go into a nice straw- 

 berry-patch made as I have directed, and run 

 his fine-toothed cultivator clear up to the point 

 where the string was stretched, and will do 

 you a handsome job. If you are selling plants, 

 you get ever so much better roots to have the 

 ground evenly occupied. Now try it, and see 

 if my invention in strawberry -growing is not 

 worth something, even if said invention is not 

 (when you come right down to it) any thing 

 more than a ball of string that costs only a 

 nickel. 



THE GAULT RASPBERRY. 



Several have inquired why we have had so 

 little" to say of late about the everbearing rasp- 

 berry. Well, we stopped selling plants some 

 time ago because there was so much difficulty 

 in getting them to grow. We have in some 

 cases sent them the second or third time, and 

 even then failed. Another thing, all of the 

 blackcap raspberries on our grounds are aiTect- 

 ed more or less with anthracnose. Either of 

 these reasons would be sufficient, perhaps, to 

 explain why we no longer offer them for sale. 

 One or two have been unkind enough to pro- 

 nounce them a humbug. One of our clerks, 

 while dictating a letter to one of these friends, 

 remarked that, if the man- could see the Gault 

 raspberries in her mother's garden, he would 

 never think of calling it a swindle. Our two 

 boys, Frank and Fred, have just informed me 

 that they have succeeded excellently with 

 them at their homes. One or two have com- 

 plained that they do not bear a second crop, 

 and I believe this second crop sometimes fails 

 to show up until the plant gets to be strong 

 and vigorous. I think it is true, however, 

 that, like many other new things, it does not 

 seem adapted to all soils and all locations. 

 This we find true with all sorts of berries, es- 

 pecially strawberries. The Jessie does wonders 

 with one person, and wth the next it does not 

 seem to amount to any thing. Don't be in 

 haste to claim you have been swindled because 

 certain new fruits do not always do well on 

 your grounds. 



THE CRANDAI^I^ CURRANT. 

 We have just received from H. L. Wise, 

 Berklc}' Springs, W. Va., some twdgs by mail, 

 loaded with Crandall currants, so large they 

 look more like cherries than any thing in the 

 currant line; and yet, from my own experience 

 with a single plant which I have in my gar- 

 den, I might claim / had been humbugged. 



THE LOGAN BERRY. 

 This blackberry-raspberry has given us a 

 few berries this year about as large as a good- 

 sized blackberry, and as luscious, I should say, 

 as any red raspberry. It is a very strong grow- 

 er, and promises to be a desirable acquisition. 

 The strawberry -raspberry, however, has not 

 yet amounted to any thing in the way of fruit. 

 Our June-berries have this season given us a 

 good crop of most luscious berries. The birds 

 take such a shine to them, however, that we 

 had to fight for them after the birds discovered 

 where our group of bushes was. 



POTATO-BUGS, PARIS GREEN, ETC. 



During the severe hot weather along the 

 fore part of July, potato-bugs started out with 

 almost unprecedented vigor. Hundreds of 

 potato-growers found their vines almost strip- 

 ped before they knew there was a bug in the 

 fields. In fact, so great was the demand for 

 Paris green that we received the following let- 

 ter from one of the largest wholesale drug- 

 stores in Cleveland: 



Gentlemen: — As \ve are sold out of Paris green, and 

 unable to procure in this city, and failed in our efforts 

 to get a portion from Buffalo, Detroit, Columbus, and 

 Toledo, we are in no po.sition to serve our friends for 

 this commodity. Strong, Cobb & Co. 



Cleveland, July 18, 1897. 



We at once sent our order to New York, and 

 got it filled promptly. Now, there is pretty 

 sure to be a chance to learn something useful 

 during all these extremes of temperature — or, 

 if you choose, unexpected happenings. When 

 we were sold otit of Paris green we tested a 

 great variety of "bug-powders," inchtding 

 slug-shot, buhach, hellebore, mineral ash, etc. 

 While each and all of them do some good, 

 there is nothing that approaches pure Paris 

 green applied with the bellows made for that 

 purpose; and there is nothing so sure and 

 quick-acting, and nothing so cheap. That is 

 my decision. A good many of these things 

 kill by contact, and, for that matter, common 

 road dust I have sometimes thought almost as 

 good for the potato-bug larvce, or slugs, as 

 many of the expensive remedies. When they 

 are greasy and shining, and covered with a 

 sort of sticky liquid, anj- sort of dust, if there 

 is enough of it to put on, is death to them. If 

 this is alkaline, like mineral ash, or pungent, 

 like slacked lime, perhaps it is somewhat bet- 

 ter; but I do not believe potatoes make good 

 progress when their foliage is covered with 

 dust. A dusting of Paris green so slight that 

 it can not be seen by the naked eye is death to 

 the bugs; and if it does not rain, this same fo- 

 liage is death to every insect that begins to 

 gnaw the leaves. 



Now just a word about prices on Paris green. 

 It is all right for druggists to charge 10 cts. an 

 ounce for things that cost them only 10 cts. a 

 pound, where the article is called for only 

 once in a while, or where they have to furnish 

 a bottle and cork, or something of that sort; 

 but to charge 35 and 40 cts. a pound for Paris 

 green, when it may be had wholesale for 14 or 

 15 cts., is not Christianlike nor businesslike, 

 in my opinion. Paris green has come to be a 

 great staple. Farmers must have it, and they 

 can not afford to pay great j^rices. My 100-lb. 



