1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



151 



and as for hardiness, we have had from S to 11 inches 

 of ice, and the stalks are perfectly healthy to the very 

 tips. I am delighted v?ith them. Oliver Neizkl. 

 Reading, Pa., Jan. 26. 



THE EVERCIREEN BLACKBERRY, ETC. 



I have grown the Oregon Evergreen blackberry for 

 a good many years, and I should not like to do without 

 them. Our native blackberry is the same as the Dew- 

 berry of York .State, and is a better berry than the 

 Evergreen; but here is the trouble with the native — 

 they are at their l)est while I am busy with the hay 

 crop, .so I do not get many to can. The Evergreen 

 comes in later, so I have enough and some to sell each 

 j'ear, as they bear well each year. For preserves I 

 prefer the Evergreen. With me they are a hardy, 

 rank grower. I have a frame extending 14 ft. each 

 way from the plant, north and .south, and clip the vine 

 at that length, and train three or four vines on each 

 frame. Vines of ISilT give me fruit in ISIIS, and are 

 cut away in the fall, and the frame is ready for ISiMI. 

 I have Ijeen giving away sets to any wlio came for 

 them. I shal! have a number this spring. I have 5S 

 qts. of fruit left yet (all for a bachelor). 



I have kept bees for hi year.s. My largest yield was 

 l.")0 lbs. comb houe^-. Mother Cotton hive and native 

 blacks Italianized. I increa.sed to 40; results, lots of 

 .s.warms and little honey. I bought sulphur last fall 

 and killed down to 8. 



The weather is like spring. Striped fence-squirrels 

 are out. Grouse are feeding on the ground. Snails 

 are crawling outdoors; snow gone. 



Goble, Ore., Jan. 31. G. W. Makinster. 



THE AMERICAN COFFEE-BERRY; HOW IT ANSWERS 

 FOR COFFEE, ETC. 



I planted three ten-cent packages of the American 

 coffee-berry last spring. The ground was cold and 

 wet, so the planting was not done until the fir.st of 

 June. It kept so cold and wet that only about two- 

 thirds of the beans came up. The crop matured early 

 in September, before we had ain' killing frost. Wheii 

 all was gathered I had just half a peck of .shelled 

 beans — color a light cream. The pods grow very thick 

 on the main stem and on branches, but do not branch 

 very much. They bear pods verj- close to the ground, 

 and set generally two beans in a pod, s'.metimes 

 three. I counted one stalk that had 214 p-ids, and an- 

 other 225. Thus far I am satisfied that they arc pro- 

 lific, and would mature in this climtte. 



Would people generally like them for ci.ffee, and 

 would they .sell for a drink' I first browned and 

 ground encjugh to make three pots of coffee, \ising one 

 drawing for two meals. At the end of tliat time, for 

 a week I missed that drink, when I sat down to a 

 meal, more than I ever did any tea or coffee before in 

 my life. I consider it as pleasant and agreeable a 

 drink as any thing I ever ttied, and prefer it to any 

 real coffee. But how would others like it, whose in- 

 terest extended only as far as taste and cost are con- 

 cerned ? 1 was anxious to find out, so I gave a small 

 drawing, ready grouiul, to five different families. In 

 the five families, about 2.5 per.sons drank of it. All 

 but two .said it was a pleasant and agreeable drink ; 

 tho.se two did not like the taste of it, but they admit- 

 ted they were cranks about their coffee, as they bought 

 onh' the best. 



Brooklyn, Ohio. X. 



The above is a very fair report, and we 

 should be glad to hear irom some of the other 

 readers of Gi^Eanings in regard to it. The 

 coffee-berry, you will notice, is very nitich 

 earlier than any of the larger varieties of the 

 soja beans. The strain of setd we are sending 

 out now will, I think, produce two crops in a 

 season here in Ohio. It will grow on the poor- 

 est kind of ground, and will assuredly he 

 worth as much as any of the clovers for plow- 

 ing \inder. Its value for seed for stock has 

 not yet been determined ; but the beans them- 

 selves are so exceedingl}' rich in nitrogen, I 

 am sure it must prove valuable for many pur- 

 poses. It is a common expression that cer- 

 tain kinds of soil are ' too poor to grow white 

 beans ; " but I believe this coffee-berry, and 

 probably other varieties of the soja bean. 



would grow with considerable luxuriance 

 where even the proverbial white bean would 

 fail to make a stand. Who knows but this 

 new coffee-berry that is now qtiite extensively 

 introduced has not been the means of bring- 

 ing down the price of real coffee ? If it should 

 take the place of real coffee largel}', a still bet- 

 ter result would be attained. 



TOP ONION-SETS. 



Some time last spring — I think it was in 

 May — a man brotight me a bushel of onions, 

 firm and hard, withottt a sprout visible in the 

 whole bvtshel, at a time when old onions were 

 all .so sprottted as to be comparatively worth- 

 less. He wanted a dollar for the bushel. I 

 took them at once, and then asked him to tell 

 me how he managed to keep them thus late 

 withottt any sprouting, and whether he sorted 

 out the sprouted ones before he brought them. 



" Why, I did not sort them at all, and I did 

 not manage at all. I just keep them where 

 they won't freeze. These onions never sprout, 

 that I know of. I have had them a good many 

 years, and tliej' keep just this way." 



"But, iny good friend, where did you get 

 the seed ? what is the name of it ? " 



" Didn't have any seed. These onions grow 

 from sets — don't know any name but 'onions.' 

 I brought you several btishels one spring, and 

 you wouldn't have them because you said you 

 did not know what they were." 



Now I will tell )'OU what I did. I jttst plant- 

 ed every onion in that bushel; and although 

 the ground was poor, and the weather was not 

 favorable, they gave us about two btishels of 

 nice firm hard onion-sets that have not at this 

 date, Feb. 4, showed any signs of sprouting 

 or becoming soft. In fact, I feel just as if I 

 should like to go into the business of growing 

 this kind of onion and onion-sets. Perhaps 

 they would not jneld as large as some of the 

 kinds that grow from black seed ; but I tell 

 3'ou it is worth something to me to have onions 

 that will keep, and oninn sc/s that v. ill keep. 



By the way, about fifty years ago my moth- 

 er and I made quite a little mone}' by growing 

 top onion sets; and, as nearly as I can remem- 

 ber, they looked like these. There never was 

 any trouble in keeping them at all, and we 

 could sell any amount of them at a good price 

 at an}' grocery. It is just a yellow, rather flat 

 onion that always grows from top s?ts. A 

 great many of the sets are no larger than peas, 

 so that a bushel would make a tremendous 

 lot of onions. I have looked over the seed 

 catalogs, but I do not see any thing mention- 

 ed that fully describes this onion. Our read- 

 ers will remember that we disseminated a 

 quantity of ic/i if e-io-p onion-sets three or four 

 years ago. Did anybody ever succeed with 

 them? We have been planthig these onions 

 and onion sets almost ever since, but for some 

 reason or other we never succeed in getting 

 any nice onions, or nice sets either, of any 

 account; but this top onion I have now, judg- 

 ing from one season's experience, and from 

 the way in which the large onions looked when 

 I bought them, will, I think, prove to be a 

 good thing. Who will tell me more about it? 



