1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



27' 



porous soil, well underdrained, conies the 

 nearest to it. Plant-beds that are raised up so 

 the soil is, say, six inches above the paths, 

 answer the purpose pretty well. We took oflF 

 all our sashes two weeks ago, stored them 

 under the painted boxes where we keep them 

 in the summer, and the most of them have 

 not been out from under the boxes since. A 

 few times we have covered the tomatoes and 

 other kinds of plants just transplanted. 



It should be borne in mind that cabbage, 

 cauliflower, celery, lettuce-plants, and other 

 hardy stuflF, need protection from frost almost 

 as much as tomatoes, when they are first 

 transplanted out in the open air. After they 

 have got rooted and to growing, you can 

 gradually harden them off so they will stand 

 a frost that will freeze the ground hard enough 

 to bear up a person. It is rather better, how- 

 ever, to have glass over them whenever the 

 ground freezes. 



To-day is March 25. Last night we had the 

 hardest freeze in the past two weeks. In fact, 

 the muddy roads were almost hard enough to 

 hold up a man's weight; but I do not think it 

 has hurt the strawberry-plants materially by 

 lifting them out. 



Our buflfalo-berry bushes were just loaded 

 with bloom; and in order not to lose the fruit 

 again we covered them with cotton sheets, the 

 kind we use for spreading over our wagons 

 when we gather seeds. Our early strawberries 

 under glass are now loaded with fruit. Of 

 course, we cover them whenever there is a 

 frosty night. I am watching every day to see 

 runners start, so that we can have potted 

 plants as early in the spring as possible. 



SWEET CLOVER ONCE MORE. 

 We copy the following from the Agricultu- 

 ral Epitomist for January : 



At the North, McUlotus alba is considered a weed 

 and a pest — not looked upon with any degree of favor 

 except as a valuable plant for bee pasture. In the 

 South, it is one of the most valuable fertilizing and 

 hay plants we have; also highly appreciated for its 

 eaflv spring and late fall pasturage. Stock are not 

 fond of the plant at first, but .soon acquire a taste for 

 it. For dairy cows the hay is specially valuable, very 

 largely increasing the flow of milk and the yield of 

 butter, improving the quality of both, in fact. None 

 of the clovers are superior to it as a fertilizer. It 

 grows satisfactorily only on land well supplied with 

 lime. It is distinctively a lime plant, and if there is 

 but a very .small per cent of lime in the soil it will not 

 thrive well, and we advise against sowing on such 

 lands. On our lime prairie .soils of Ea-st Mississippi 

 and Central Alabama this plant is largely grown. It 

 thrives admirably with Johnson gra.ss — in fact, the 

 two supplement each other nicely. The strong, deep- 

 penetrating roots of the melilotus loosen up the hard 

 sub.soil and enable the John.son grass to grow off to 

 better advantage. 



It matters not how .severe the drouth or excessive 

 the rainfall, melilotus is a certain crop — a sure crop, 

 independent of any variation of the sea.sons — a plant 

 that can be depended on. 



As a fertilizing crop, it can not be excelled, if equal- 

 ed, by any of the leguminous soil-recuperating plants. 

 On soils where the highest limit of corn pr )duction 

 did not exceed eight bushels per acre, a few years of 

 melilotus-growing on the land so enriched the soil 

 that thirty bushels of corn per acre was easily raised. 



Melilotus is a biennial, and reseeds itself every two 

 years It stands cold as well as alfalfa and red clover. 



We have no seed for .sale. We have no personal mo- 

 tive in speaking so highly of the merits of this plant. 

 Recognizing these merits that characterize this plant, 

 having per.sonally witnessed the practical values of 



the plant on our own farm as a fertilizer, hay, and 

 pasture plant, we feel in a humor to do it justice by 

 giving greater publicity to its virtues. 



Is it not strange that a plant that has proven itself 

 so meritorious at the South, and growing steadily and 

 continuously in favor here, has no friend in the North 

 to sing its prai.ses or accord it any worth whatever, 

 save the apiarist — the owner and lover of the honey- 

 bee ? Edwin Montgomery. 



Starkville, Mi.ss. 



Please notice the writer is not a bee-keeper, 

 does not sell seed, and has no interest in any 

 shape in the matter. I would call special at- 

 tention to what he says about its value in the 

 South, and I want to add that we very much 

 doubt whether there is a place in the North 

 where cows can not be taught to eat sweet 

 clover when it is pastured or cut at the right 

 stage of growth. I am sure there is not a lo- 

 cality anywhere where it will not prove to be 

 one of the best plants known to enrich impov- 

 erished soil by plovdng it under. Our experi- 

 ment stations are pronounced in its favor 

 wherever a test has been made. Since the 

 matter has been suggested in regard to li)ne 

 for its best growth, I am inclined to think our 

 friend is right about it. This thing, at. least, 

 is true : It will grow on ground so poor that 

 no other plant can be made to make a stand. 

 In fact, it grows with rank luxuriance on soil 

 thrown out from deep railroad cuts ; and such 

 land can be made productive by plowing under 

 a heavy growth of sweet clover, without add- 

 ing any thing else ; and, astonishing as it may- 

 seem, where the ground is rich, and will grow 

 all sorts of weeds, we oftentimes fail to get a 

 good stand of sweet clover. 



PRIZETAKER ONION-SETS GOOD KEEPERS. 



I learn from a neighbor that his Prizetaker sets have 

 also kept well (unfortunately he has none for sale), 

 and that the green Prizetaker grown from sets makes 

 a very salable bunch onion. T. Greiner. 



I,a Salle, N. Y., March 21. 



I am very glad to know that somebody else 

 has made the same discovery I have. Now, 

 friends, here is the point : Sow a lot of Prize- 

 taker onion seed in a broad drill. Put them 

 in very thickly. Get them in just as soon as 

 the ground can be worked nicely ; then put 

 up a notice in your dooryard, "'Prizetaker 

 onion-plants for sale — hi cts. per 100; $!1.00 

 per 1000." Sell all you can, just before it is 

 time to transplant; let the rest grow. If they 

 are planted thickly enough they will make 

 nice onion-sets which ought to sell readily at 

 $1.00 a peck. If your ground is very rich, 

 and they grow too large for sets, sell the 

 largest ones for table use, medium size for 

 pickles. The great nuisance with all kinds of 

 onion-sets is the tendency to sprout before 

 people get ready to make garden — especially 

 tardy people. I confess I am a little surprised 

 that the sels keep so well when the Prizetaker 

 onion itself is not, as a rule, a good onion to 

 keep over. 



ACORN ONION-SETS, ETC. 



What you .say in Gleanings, March 15, about the 

 acorn oriion-sets (taking up the parent onions in the 

 fall and planting them again in the spring year after 

 year for sets) will do for some three or four years; but 

 after that new bottoms ought to be planted, or else 

 they become too much exhausted to produce fine 

 onions. M. D. Wenger. 



Elkhart, Ind., March 21. 



