1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



233 



and we have been busy making the beds f iff/it. 

 The frosts we have are pretty sure to pull to 

 pieces the beds, especially around the corners 

 and joints ; and if you want your stuff to stand 

 severe late freezes, j'ou want your beds snug 

 and close. A cold-frame made of inch boards 

 for the sides, covered with a close well-fitting 

 sash, will keep out almost any frost after the 

 middle of March. But there must be no cracks 

 nor crevices of any sort. The sash must lie 

 down tight on the smooth level surface of the 

 boards that inclose the bed. The corners 

 must be nailed up snug and tight ; all cracks 

 and knot-holes must be well battened. Our 

 beds where we put on tarred paper, and then 

 common shingles over the tarred paper, are 

 very efficient in keeping out frost. There 

 must be no broken glass. One hole in a sash 

 will let in frost enough to kill the plants for 

 several feet around it. We never use any mats 

 or outer covering, and very seldom a shutter 

 over the sashes. And, by the way, shutters 

 will do very well now in place of glass sash ; 

 but you must pull them off so as to give the 

 plants light whenever the weather is above 

 freezing. 



Our crimson clover has once more wintered 

 beautifully. In fact, on the ground where it 

 shelled out and seeded itself last summer there 

 is a heavy green sod of crimson clover. I do 

 not know what it will do when it comes to 

 blossoming, having so many plants crowded so 

 closely together. With me it is no longer an 

 experiment, wintering over crimson clover. 

 On our thorovighly underdrained rich clay soil, 

 if the seed is put in in July or August, and the 

 work is done properly, I am sure there is hard- 

 ly a chance for failure. We are going to plow 

 it under for potatoes when it is in full bloom, 

 or perhaps when well on toward seed. The 

 seed is offered so low now that I think it is 

 worth more as a fertilizer than to sell in the 

 market. 



You might think we have had no weather to 

 throw things out ; but the strawberry-plants 

 that were not mulched have been thrown out by 

 the frost badly, especially the potted plants in 

 the jadoo fiber. Those we put in late, some of 

 them came clear up on top of the ground — ja- 

 doo fiber, bushy roots, and all ; but before they 

 had sustained any injury we discovered it and 

 pushed them back into the ground again 

 where they belong. Of course, the next frost 

 may hoist them out again. That will depend 

 on the weather. But the plants that are set in 

 the jadoo fiber should be planted out early 

 enough in the season so the roots can get out 

 and get a firm hold in the clay soil, or else 

 they should be thoroughly mulched. We did 

 not mulch our plantation where we put the 

 plants two feet apart from center to center, be- 

 cause I wanted to give them good cultivation 

 right along ; and, in fact, we have gone over 

 them once with a hand cultivator already this 

 lltli day of March. Of course, at this close 

 distance runners must be kept off as fast as 

 they make their appearance. The plants put 

 out in August or September almost all hold 

 their places, or at least have so far. It was 

 those planted in October or later that came out 

 on top. Our strawberry -plants put out in beds 



that had a little steam heat are growing just 

 beautifully ; and the " Pearliest " is full of buds 

 and blossoms. Where they were kept still 

 warmer there is green fruit already. We have 

 branches of drain lile that carry our exhaust 

 steam quite long distances; the amount of heat 

 gradually grows less and less as the length of 

 the tiles gets away from the main branch that 

 carries the exhaust steam. In this way we 

 have beds containing all degrees of exhaust 

 steam heat, from so much as to be too warm 

 for most plants, clear down to where the heat 

 imperceptibly fades away into nothing at all. 

 Strawberries, onions, and such like hardy stuff 

 do best with just a little bottom heat. 



GOOD ROADS AND WIDE WAGON-TIRES. 



Our friends will notice an advertisement 

 of metal wheels, now running in our journal. 

 From the Electric Wheel Co.'s catalog we 

 clip the following : 



Elaborate tests of the draft of wide and narrow tired 

 wagons have just been completed by the Missouri 

 Agricultural College E.xperinient Station, Columbia, 

 extending over a period of a year and a half. These 

 tests have been made on macadam, gravel, and dirt 

 roads in all conditions, and also on the meadows and 

 plowed fields of the experiment farm. Contrary to 

 public expectation, in nearly all cases draft was 

 materially lighter when tires six inches wide were 

 used than with tires of standard width. The load 

 hauled was in all cases the .same, and the draft was 

 most carefully determined by means of a self-record- 

 ing dynamometer. The beneficial effect of the wide 

 tire on dirt roads is strikingly shown in some recent 

 tests at the station. A clay road, badly cut into ruts 

 by the narrow tires, was selected for the test, as pre- 

 senting conditions least favorable to the broad tire. 

 A number of tests of the draft of the mrrow tire were 

 made in these open rats, and immediately followed 

 by the broad tires running in the same ruts. The 

 fi'r.st run of the broad tires over the narrow ruts was 

 accompanied by an increa.sed draft; the second by a 

 draft materially less than the ©riginal narrow tire; 

 third by a still greater decline, and in the fourth trip 

 the rut was practically obliterated and filled. In an- 

 other trial, when a clay road was so badly cut into 

 ruts as to be almost impassable for light vehicles and 

 pi. asure carriages, after running the six inch tires 

 over this road twelve times the ruts were completely 

 filled and a first-class bicycle-path made. 



For several years I have been talking about 

 getting a set of steel wheels for our heavy 

 farmwork. To get a wheel as strong as our 

 wooden ones, we found they would have to be 

 very much heavier; and our teamsters objectr 

 ed, because they would have a heavier wagon 

 to draw around when the roads are hard and 

 solid. They also declared the wagon would 

 pull harder when the roads are soft and every- 

 body else uses narrow wheels. The reports 

 from the Missouri Experiment Station, of 

 which the extract above is a summary, seems 

 to indicate that there are very few conditions 

 under which the draft is harder on the team, 

 and their experiments were made with a self- 

 recording dynamometer, which seems as if it 

 must be conclusive. There is another objec- 

 tion: The wide steel wheels are much smaller 

 in diameter, and it takes m.ore power to run 

 over small stones or other obstructions, or 

 over a rough road, with a small truck-wheel 

 than with a large wheel. The dynamometer, 

 however, declares, notwithstanding this, that 

 the load pulled easier with the wide tires. 



I can say from practical experience that the 



