200 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TURE. 



Mar. 15. 



|p5PEClAb^I^T 



CES 



BUSINE'SS MANAGER 



WATER-WHITE CALIFORNIA HONEY. 



We are entirely sold out of this beautiful honey, but 

 we expect, after three or four weeks, to have another 

 carload direct from the producer in California. In 

 view of the fact that they have had very little rain so 

 far in Southern California, and no prospect of a crop 

 of honey there this season, this car we are getting will 

 cost us more than we paid last fall, therefore we can 

 not take any more orders at the old price. We shall 

 have to have SI. 00 per gallon in one-gallon cans: 8c 

 per lb. for a single 60-lb. can; 2 cans in a case, at 7;4c; 

 5-case lots at 7c. It is a very superior grade of honey 

 — very white, very thick, and does not granulate, and 

 is well worth the extra price we a.sk It is likely to be 

 a scarce article till they have another crop again in 

 Southern California, which, from present indications, 

 will not be before 1S99. We still have some of the 

 light-amber California honey, which does granulate, 

 but which is very nice. Price Ic per lb. less than 

 above prices on water-white. We can also furnish 

 nice clover extracted honey at J^c less than water- 

 white. 



BUSINESS AT THE HOME OF THE HONEY-BEES. 



We are now running our wood-working department 

 full bla.st 22 hours out of 24, six days in each week. 

 The men in the shipping department are woiking 14 

 to 15 hours a day, and other departments are running 

 over time. We have over two hundred people now on 

 our pay-roll — more than we ever had before. We are 

 putting in additional machinery, and men to run it 

 wherever we can find room for them. Not with. stand- 

 ing all our efforts, we are losing ground and getting 

 farther behind on orders every week. We have turn- 

 ed away a good deal of business for special goods 

 which was offered to us, because we believe our first 

 obligation is to the bee-keepers. In making estimates 

 on goods we have discouraged the sending of more 

 orders here, by telling them we could not promi.se 

 shipment vmder two or three weeks from receipt of 

 order We have s letter from the The G. B. Lewis 

 Co., Watertown, Wis., which indicates that they can 

 handle more business, and we are going to try and 

 have them help us out for the present, and try, if pos- 

 sible, to catch closer up on orders. We are planning 

 to enlarge our capacity this summer by an addition to 

 our wood-working building, and will endeavor to get 

 ahead by beginning earlj- in the fall to stock up all 

 dealers and branches that can take on .stock so early. 

 If we should have unfavorable weather, orders may 

 slack up enough to enable us to catch up. We hope 

 we may be able in some way to get into position again 

 to take care of orders with greater promptness than 

 we find it possible to do at the present. At this date 

 we have a number of carload orders that were placed 

 before March l.st — in all. about twenty carloads — un- 

 filled. Very few less than carload orders, placed be- 

 fore March 1st, remain unfilled, and a good many re- 

 ceived since March 1st have been shipped. 



Cash orders, as a rule, filled first. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



On page 220 I fear I have left a chance open for mi.s- 

 under.standing. Please do not think I am more inter- 

 ested in letters that contain money, for it is really the 

 other way. It is true, I give more attention to letters 

 containing money, because there is a responsibility 

 attached to them. t,etters containing suggestions, or 

 even questions, may be laid on my table to answer 

 later; but it is a standing rule all over our establish- 

 ment that a letter containing money mu.st not be drop- 

 ped for a moment, nor laid down anywhere. First, 

 the money must be acknowledged; second, the goods 

 mu.st be sent in return for the money just as .soon as 

 they can possibly go. Sometimes, when many cares 

 press in different directions, I go over my mail hur- 

 riedly, sorting out the letters containing" money, or 

 orders from well-known people who.se name is as 

 good as cash, and I give the'^e latter a careful consid- 

 eration. Others can wait till I get over the press of 

 other duties. Printed tracts and printed matter are 

 often laid aside, to be thoroughly examined later on. 



BUNCH YAMS AND VINELESS SVl'EET POTATOES. 



While the reports of last .season have not all been 

 entirely favorable they are so nearly unanimous that 

 we shall offer both potatoes and plants for sale again 

 this season. Either kind, 20 cts, per pound by mail, 

 po.stpaid, or 10 cts. if sent by freight with other goods; 

 Vi peck, 40 cts.; peck, 60 cts.; bushel, .S2.00. There are 

 two distinct varieties — the cut-leaf, sometimes called 

 Gold Coin, and (he round-leaf, called vSpanish, or Gen- 

 eral Grant. Prices of plants will be the same as in 

 our seed catalog Yellow Jersey sweet potatoes, spe- 

 cially for seed, Y^ peck, 30 cts.; peck, 45 cts.; bushel, 

 SI. 50. - 



PRIZETAKER ONION-SETS. 



I have just had one of my "happy surprises " in 

 finding that our Prizetaker onion-sets have kept all 

 through the recent damp warm weather 'just as nice 

 and hard and firm as if they did not know how to 

 sprout at all. Our American Pearls, Yellow Danvers, 

 White Multipliers, and, in fact, almost every thing 

 else this spring except the top onion-sets mentioned 

 el.sewhere, bothered us more or less by sprouting. 

 The Prizetaker j-ets have al.so given vefj' nice large 

 onions quite early, so far as we have tested them or 

 have heard of their being tested. We still have sev- 

 eral bushels left at 20 cts. per quart; SI. 00 per peck; 

 S3. 50 per bushel. I,arge sets will be one-half the above 

 prices. 



TOBACCO DUST. 



We have just succeeded in getting a very large lot of 

 tobacco dust which we can offer in sacks of 100 pounds 

 each at the reduced price of SI. 50 per sack. The dead- 

 ly qualities of this narcotic seem to make it one of the 

 best remedies for almost all sorts of noxious insects; 

 besides, it is at the same time an excellent fertilizer. 



Since the above was in type, our boy Frank informs 

 me that tobacco dust will keep mice out of hot-beds, 

 cold-frames, and greenhouses better than any thing 

 else. We object to poison, because the cats, chickens, 

 etc., are liable to get hold of it. We do not like cats in 

 a greenhouse, because they have too little respect for 

 valuable plants. Traps are all right, providing you 

 can entice the vermin; but the tobacco dust is ever so 

 much less trouble, and does the business. Besides be- 

 ing worth all it costs as a fertilizer, it keeps off every 

 insect known, including snails, and last, but not least, 

 mice. 



TOP' ONION-^ETS — MORE ABOUT THEM. 



"Don't you want to buy some acorn onion-sets?" 

 said a man yesterday. 



"Acorn onion-sets? What in the world are they ?" 



I went and looked at them, and they are ju.st like 

 what I told you about on page 151, except that they are 

 red instead of yellow, and about the size of acorns. 

 They were hard and firm — not a sprouted one in the 

 lot, and none that showed any sign of sprouting. He 

 said he had just kept them in his cellar as he always 

 did ; that that kind never would .sprout until they were 

 planted ; that they made big hard onions, and that the 

 onions, too, would keep in any ordinary cellar, with- 

 out sprouting. 



Now, frieiids, this is very much like the onion-sets 

 my mother and I used to grow on top of the stalks 

 some fifty years ago ; and I remember we used to 

 make a good deal of money, too, with our onion-sets. 

 You plant out big onions in the spring, and each on- 

 ion will .send up three or four stalks, and each stalk 

 bears a bunch of sets. If you will take up your old 

 onions after the .sets are gathered, put them in the cel- 

 lar, and set them out next spring, the same old onions 

 will do the same thing over again year after year. 

 The sets make large nice firm good-keeping onions. 

 The only rea.son why these old-fashioned onion sets 

 have been dropped is because it is so much easier to 

 handle and plant the black .seed than to plant the sets 

 that usually cost so much money. I bought all my 

 friend had," and we will sell them to you, while th'e 

 supply lasts, at 10 cts. per pint, or 15 cts. per pint, post- 

 age paid, by mail ; or for 5 cts. we will send you one 

 dozen each of red and yellow, prepaid bj- mail. 



Now just one thing more. Mr. P., who .sold me these 

 sets, .said that one year, when onion-sets were scarce 

 and very high, he raised SIO.OO worth on one square 

 rod of ground. I for one have got tired of handling 

 onion-sets that will sprout before winter is half over, 

 in spite of any thing we can do, and I am going to 

 raise a lot of top onion-sets. 



Caution. — Do not get these confused with the winter 

 or Egyptian onion, which bears tops in the same way, 

 but these latter tops will not keep, so they must be 

 planted in the fall, as a rule ; and they do not make 

 large onions. They are just for bunch onions. 



