364 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



number of people imagine that the "shipped" pota- 

 toes are the best; 2. The shipped potatoes have been 

 exposed to so much cold weather that they have be- 

 come somewhat off flavor; hence it does not require 

 much argument to dispose of the home product. 



I went to my grocer after storing and keeping my 

 first crop till January, and said, "' Ed, I have some 

 choice sweets I should like to have you handle for 

 me." 



" Well, Doc, I should like to help you out; but really 

 there isn't any call for home-grown sweets; in fact, I 

 can't give them away " 



"I'll bring you in a bushel, anyway, and let you try 

 them; and ifthere is no sale for them I will take them 

 back." 



In a few days I received a card stating that I could 

 bring in another bushel; and it wasn't long before my 

 entire crop was disposed of. 



ONE OF MY FAILURES. 



Being very busy during one fall, and having heard 

 so many writers claim that frost does not hurt sweet 

 potatoes if stored and sweat out, I concluded to give 

 it a trial. The potatoes were not dug till quite late; the 

 result was, they did not keep well, and a frosty one 

 now and then ruined them for eating. 



Shipping potatoes when I began growing plants, 

 I ordered five barrels from Cincinnati, and lost some 

 two barrels in getting them a distance of thirty miles. 

 Ivast spring I sent potatoes to Iowa that were en route 

 one month, with a loss of only six or eight in a barrel. 

 Before shipping, run the temperature up to eighty or 

 ninety degrees, and one will find that they will carry 

 safely. 



VARIETIES. 



There are perhaps some seventy varieties of sweet 

 potatoes, but only five or six are cultivated in the 

 North. 



1. The yel/ozi' Jersey stands at the head. 



2. The /?ed Jersey ' 



3. The yams, which are cultivated principally for 

 earliness. 



i. The General Grant (or Gold Coin), that is known 

 by its large round leaf and short vine. While it is a 

 good potato, though in no way superior to the Yellow 

 Jersey, it has the fault of not setting its potatoes close 

 to the plant; and for this reason it can never be plow- 

 ed out; and the color, white, does not make it a good 

 seller. 



5. The Gold Coin Prolific will never produce enough 

 potatoes to make it a profitable variety, although its 

 vine grows erect, something like the Irish potato. 



Running after the new vineless potatoes has cost 

 me something like twenty five dollars. This new 

 craze in sweet potatoes reminds one of the patent- 

 medicine advertisement. L,ast spring I ordered a peck 

 of "Chinese Thirty Days" from a well-known East- 

 ern firm, paying $'2.00 for it; and when they arrived I 

 found it to be the General Grant. I had already more 

 of the potatoes than I knew what to do with in my 

 cellar at the time. 



The same thing occurred in ordering " McKinley's 

 Choice" from an Indiana man. I bought these newer 

 varieties, expecting them to be better than our com- 

 mon ones, and thinking I should be repaid in selling 

 the plants; but after testing them I hadn't the heart 

 to deceive my neighbors, and did not try to push their 

 .sale. It was claimed for the new varieties that thej' 

 were easilj' cultivated; hut I find the lahor of digging 

 them costs more than the extra labor of cultivating 

 the red and yellow. They can not be plowed ovit with- 

 out injuring, as there are so many of the tubers. 



In conclusion let me suggest that you cautiously try 

 a feiv new potatoes, remembering that this is a gullible 

 age; and if you get duped at some one's scheming it 

 is perhaps a consolation to know that others are in 

 the " same boat." J. Q. Mulford. 



L,ebanon, Ohio. 



BERMUDA GRASS — A CAUTION. 



On p. 309 Mrs. Harrison calls attention to Bermuda 

 grass for lawns, and the sf nior editor strongly recom- 

 mends it. Will you kindly let me .sound a few words 

 of warning? There are two species of this grass in 

 Florida, known as Bermuda grass and St. L,ucie grass. 

 This la.st was so named because attention was first 

 called to its great value by some one here on the St. 

 I^ucie River — I think by Mr. John McNulty, an ex- 

 employee of Peter Henderson's. Bermuda grass prop- 

 agates itself bj' its rorits under ground, and, because of 

 that, is exceedingly difficult to be gotten rid of or kept 

 from spreading wheie it is not wanted. St. L,ucie 

 grass increases by runners on top of the ground, some- 

 thing like strawberries, only more prolific, and is, 

 therefore, much easier kept in subjection. It would 



take a great inducement indeed for me to allow Ber- 

 muda grass to get a .start on my place. 



The differences in appearance and value of the two 

 grasses are almost imperceptible; but for the reason I 

 have given, the St. lyucie gra' s is being used almost 

 exclusively in this part of the State for lawns, etc. 



Stuart, Fla., Apr. 23. O. O. Poppleton. 



PURE WATER. 

 During my childhood, until the age of about 

 twelve, I lived near the soft-water springs of 

 Summit Co., Ohio; and I can not remember 

 that I was ever troubled about water to drink 

 unless away from home. I remember that, 

 even when quite small, I made up a face when 

 asked to drink hard water from certain wells. 

 About the time I have mentioned, father 

 moved to our present locality, and on the old 

 farm there was a well of very hard lime water. 

 They all told me that, when I got used to it, 

 it would agree with me, and that I would like 

 it as well as the old spring water. But I never 

 got used to it. As we had no cistern at that 

 early time I used to set tin pans out in the 

 rain, and, by using all the utensils mother 

 could furnish, I used to get a crockful of pure 

 soft water. This crock I kept covered up and 

 shaded on the north side of the house, as we 

 had no cellar then. Oh how delicious that 

 pure soft water was to me after trying to drink 

 the hard water ! Some of the harvest hands 

 laughed at me; and when somebody tipped 

 over my crock with its precious contents I 

 was ready to wage war, even if my puny arms 

 were only pipestems compared with those of 

 other boys of my age. Well, from that time 

 to this I have loved soft water. It now occurs 

 to me that I have mentioned something about 

 it once or twice before. What brings the mat- 

 ter to mind just now is that I have for the 

 past two weeks been enjoying, immensely, 

 distilled hot water to drink; and it is more 

 delicious and satisfying than any water I have 

 ever found before. It comes from an ap- 

 paratus called the "Sanitary still," made by 

 the Cuprigraph Co., 108 North Green St., 

 Chicago. The apparatus cost, heavily nickel- 

 plated, $13. It is set right on top of an ordi- 

 nary cook-stove, and with almost no attention 

 it furnishes a gallon or more of distilled water 

 a day. The manufacturers say it will produce 

 from three to five gallons; but we have not 

 made it do so much. There has been a good 

 deal of talk about distilled water in our journal 

 before, and I have at different times used it 

 from the steam-pipes in our factory. But the 

 steam from an engine can not be condensed so 

 as to produce nice drinking-water in any way 

 that I know of. The trouble is, the oil used 

 in the cylinder of the engine gets into the 

 steam, and makes the water more or less 

 greasy. You can satisfy yourself of this by 

 the amount of grease found around the 

 exhaust-pipe of any steam-engine. Another 

 thing, I had supposed that rain water caught 

 on a slate roof, and stored in a good clean 



