324 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 15. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



ONION-SETS REMAINING ON HAND TO DATE. 



In the first place, we have about a bushel of Prize- 

 taker onion-sets; \'i, bushel white onion-sets. Kither 

 of the above at 20 cts. per quart, SI 00 a peck, or f;^..50 

 per bushel; 1^4 bushels of Yellow Danvers in very fair 

 order for the sea.son of the year, at half the above 

 prices; about 5 bushels Whittaker onions, large and 

 medium sizes, at 10 cts. a quart; 50 cts. a peck, or Sl."o 

 per bushel. All onion-.sets sent by mail, for 10 cts. per 

 quart extra. 



ADVANCE IN PARIS GREEN. 



Instead of the prices given in our seed catalog, in 

 con.sequence of the advance we shall be obliged to 

 make prices as follows; 14 -lb. package, 8 cts.; }4-lb. 

 package, 14 cts.; lib. tin can, 25 cts.; cans holding 

 either 2 or 5 lbs. each, 23 cts. per lb.; 14-lb. pails, 22 cts. 

 per lb.; 281b. pails. 21 14 cts. per lb.; .56-lb. pails, 20'/^ 

 cts. per lb.; 100 lbs. at an even 20 cts. per lb. This is 

 strictly pure Paris green, put up e.xpressly for us. 

 You can tell something of how small a profit we make 

 by asking for prices per pound at j'our drugstore. We 

 make the.se low prices, for it seems to us that a great 

 .staple like this, that our farmers and gardeners need, 

 should not be sold at regular drugstore profits. 



CAULIFLOWER SEED AND PLANTS. 



We have for years obtained our seed from H. A. 

 March, P'idalgo, Wash., as most of our readers are 

 aware, and hence we thought fit to copy the following 

 from Mr. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experiment Sta- 

 tion, in regard to March's seed ; 



H. A. March, Fidalgo, H'as//.: — Both varieties of 

 cauliflower seed received from you last spring were 

 entirely satisfactory. The seed has a high germinat- 

 ing power, and the plants are remarkably uniform, 

 and true to type. ' con.sider your cauliflower seed as 

 equal to the 'I'ciy best in the market; and as long as 

 you keep it up to the present .standard I shall not hes- 

 itate to recommend it 



I have tested nearly all of the best varieties and 

 strains; and if there is any better than yours I don't 

 know who has it. W. J. Green, Hoi ticulturist. 



TOBACCO DUST — ITS VALUE AS A FERTILIZER WHEN 



USED AS AN INSECHCIDE. 



In .Special Notices in our issue for March 15 I stated 

 that tobacco dust was nrt only valuable as an iu.secti- 

 cide, but that it was worth all it costs as a fertilizer. I 

 think I shou'd have said. and. in fact. I meant to sav. 

 it is worth about all it costs as a fertilizer ii'hen bought 

 by the ton. One of our correspondents has taken me to 

 task a little, and asks my authonty. I accordingly 

 wrote to our experiment station, and here is their 

 reply : 



Dea)- .SV;-.— Tobacco, according to analy.sis of the en- 

 tire leaf, contains about S20. 00 worth of fertilizing in- 

 gredients per ton. It contains a high per cent of 

 nitrogen and potash, and a low per cent of phosphor- 

 ic acid. To get the best results with tobacco dust as a 

 fertilizer, it would be necessary to add 500 pounds of 

 acid phosphate to a ton of the tobccco dust. We have 

 never used it or had any practical experience with it 

 as a fertilizer. W. J. Green. 



Ohio Ag. Exp. Sta., Wooster, O., Mar. 30. 



Permit me to add that we can furnish a ton of this 

 tobacco du.st for an even .if20.00. The purchaser would 

 have to pay freight from the factory where it is made. 



THE SEED POTATO TRADE AT THIS DATE. 



We started la.st fall with something like :W)0 bush- 

 els; but they are so nearly all .sold now that we shall 

 not be able to give away this jear a barrel of potatoes 

 to everybody who sends us a dollar for Gleanings. 

 In thinking it over I am both sorry and glad — sorry 

 for your .sake^^ and glad for myself Now, may be 

 you will say that does not .sound like Bro. Root's 

 teachings. That is true; for I try to rejoice when you 

 rejoice, and mouin when you mourn. But in this 

 ca.se we can all feel glad, who are engaged in the po- 

 tato business, because our entire product has been 

 taken off our hands (or at least nearly all ), at very 

 fair prices. 



We have on hand just now 3 bushels of White Bliss 

 Triumph, firsts, and 6 bushels of seconds. We have 

 two bushels of Red Triumphs, firsts, and six bushels 

 seconds of the same. As the above were all bought 

 from away down in the State of Maine, after we had 



.sold out, the be.st prices we can possibly make on 

 them are S2.00 a bushel for fir.sts and SI .50 for .seconds, 

 while they last. The Red Triumph is, as you may re- 

 member, the potato grown almost < xclusively on the 

 island of Bermuda, the one I have written about. We 

 have also (>(> bushels of Bovee potatoes at $2.00 a bush- 

 el, or S5.00 per barrel. 



About 200 bushels of F^reemans, grown .by T. B. Ter- 

 ry, extra nice, not sprouted a particle, at .#1.25 a bush- 

 el or S3. 00 a barrel. New Queens, 25 bushels, same 

 price as the Freemans. 



Al.so 20 bushels of Monroe Seedlings; 45 bushels of 

 Sir Williams; 50 bushels of Rural New-Yorker No 2; 

 5 bushels of Koshkonong All of the above four are 

 offered at the low price of SI. 00 a bushel or S2.50 per 

 barrel. Carman No. 1 we have 16 bushels. In addi- 

 tion to the above we have 8 bushels of Early Vaughns 

 and 5 bushels of Early Zehr. Price of last "three SI. 25 

 per bu•^hel, or .S^^.OO per barrel. 



THE NEW HIGH-PRICED STRAWBERRIES. 



I am under contract not to sell the Darling for less 

 than 2i5 cts. each; but, of course, I can give them away 

 if I want to; therefore everj' one who sends us SI. 00 

 for Gleanings may have a Dai ling plant if he a.sks 

 for it. These plants will be potted in jadoo if you will 

 wait till the potted-plant .sea.son. If you do not want 

 to wait, you can have the ordinary layer plants right 

 off now. If there is one already due you, send us a 

 postal card and we will send it at once — that is, ii you 

 prefer to have the layer plant now rather than to 

 wait, say, till June, fir a potted plant. The Ni k 

 Ohmer is offered on the same terms as the Darling. 

 " Earliest " we are permitted to sell at 10 ct*. per 

 plant. And, by the way, we have got a great lot of 

 runners out for the JCarliest already. .Some of them 

 are more than a foot long, and we hope to have plants 

 in May. In place of a D.irling or Nick Ohmer, you 

 may have /reo Earliest if you want them. Or you may 

 have Car.ie on the .same terms as the Earliest, or the 

 Margaret. Marshall, Brandywine, William Belt, you 

 may have on the same terms, only we will send four 

 plants for every dollar sent for Gleanings, if you ask 

 for them when vou send in the money. All the above 

 varieties, except the Carrie, are perfect, and I shall 

 feel happy every time I .send them out, because they 

 are all beautiful plants, and I feel sure they will give 

 you lots of pleasure. Strawberries are my hobby and 

 recreation jui-t now, especially nice .strawberries, and 

 I want the friends who subscribe for Gleanings to 

 share the pleasure I enjoy in takine good care of 

 them. At present I know of no fertilizer so good for 

 strawberries as old well-rolted horse and cow manure. 

 A mixture of the two works excellently. The jadoo 

 fiber seems to be a splendid thing for potted plants, 

 and for sendin? potted plants by mail: but it soon 

 loses its fertilizing property. You had bttter break 

 off most of the jadoo as soon as you get the plant, and 

 set the plant out in good rich garden .soil. Ground 

 that will give you tip-top potatoes will give you tiptop 

 strawberry- plants. 



a new portable electric lamp. 



I have been happy for several days with a bicj'cle 

 lamp made by the Acme Electuc Lamp Co., 10 South 

 Fifth St , Philadelphia, Pa. The retail price of the 

 apparatus is S5.00, and it weighs a little over two 

 pounds: but the greater part of the weight is the dry 

 battery that operates the light, and which slips into 

 the app.^ratus as quickly and easily as you would slip 

 a cartridge into a gun. This dry batte; y, or, rather, 

 series of four batteries, is all put into a paper tube 

 about a foot long, and \% inches in diameter. This 

 set of batteries cost<- only 10-3 cts. On the case is a 

 rubber stamp dating the time it was prepared. The 

 battery is guaranteed for si.xty days; but the propri- 

 etors say that, with care, they will often last four or 

 five months. This battery, however, during actual 

 work, when it is running the lamp, for in.stance, con- 

 tinuously, will last only from 10 to Hi hours. The cost 

 of running the lamp, as you see, is but a little over a 

 cent an hour; and if you u.se it for a flash-light, to see 

 the time at night, to look into your barrels of .seed 

 potatoes, to explore a cave, or any thing of that .sort, 

 it may last several weeks. The lamp itself weighs 

 only 6 ounces. As it is attached to the battery by flex- 

 ible wires you can turn it in any direction, and u.se it 

 for a single second, a minute, or an hour, as you 

 choose, and it costs nothing to keep when you are not 

 using it. What pleases me mo.st is, it is one of the 

 handsomest pieces of scientific apparatus I ever got 

 hold of. You can pull it all to pieces by just moving 

 springs. No screwdriver or wrench is needed at all. 



It is not often that I give such a frte advertisement 



