1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



369 



We have also two or three bushels of large-sized 

 Prizetaker; and even at this late date they are in nice 

 order, not sprouted at all. The regular Prizetakers 

 will be $3.50 per bushel. The large sizes we will close 

 out at SI. 50 per bushel. These latter will probably 

 make good onions if you pull off the seed-.'-talks as 

 fast as they appear. We have al.so three or four bush- 

 els of White Multiplier onions, medium sizes, which 

 we offer at S;1.50 per bushel to close them out. We 

 have three or four quarts of the top onion-.sets, men- 

 tioned several times heretofore, which we still offer 

 at 10 cts per pint. If wanted by mail, add at the rate 

 of 10 cts. per quart for postage on all onion-sets. 



STRAWBERRV-PLANTS FOR SALE MAY IST. 



Our Marshalls, under glass, are now giving us beau- 

 tiful berries every day, and 1 believe I should put the 

 Marshall ahead of any thing else I have tried for forc- 

 ing. You can get them two or three weeks ahead by 

 the use of sashes, no bottom heat at all. We have Ear- 

 liest with runners potted in jadoo fiber, and shall 

 have new potted plants ready to send out in about a 

 week. The Darling will come along a little later. 

 New potted plants put out in May might give quite a 

 crop of fruit this present season; but, of course, we 

 can tell better about it after we have tried it. At pres- 

 ent, the Earliest does not produce nearly as much 

 fruit under glass as the Marshall. We are pushing all 

 of our choice berries to get potted plants extra early — 

 not only those we have mentioned, but also Carrie, 

 Nick Ohmer, Margaret, Brandywine, and William 

 Belt. 



SEED POTATOES YET UN.SOLD. 



There has been a very great call for earlv and extra- 

 earh- seed potatoes. We have nothing left at present 

 in any quantity except Freemans grown by T. B. 

 Tern,-, Ui5 bushels, all in excellent condition: and, in 

 fact, there is hardly a potato in our cellar that is 

 sprouted enough to notice it. We have succeeded, dur- 

 ing the past winter, by closing the cellar nights and 

 opening it during the day, in keeping potatoes better 

 than we ever did before. We offer the above Free- 

 mans at SI .00 per bushel or S2..50 a barrel. We have 15 

 bushels of Carman No. 1, and 8 bushels of Carman No. 

 3, at 11.25 per bushel, or S^.OO per barrel. We have also 

 16 bushels of Monroe Seedlings, 36 bushels of Sir Wil- 

 liam, 25 bushels of Rural New Yorker, at SI. 00 per 

 bushel or S2..50 per barrel. We have 55 bushels of 

 Bovee at S2.00 a bushel or S5.00 a barrel. If these do 

 not sell I shall plant them all myself. White Bliss 

 Triumph is all gone, and I do not know where I can 

 get any more. But I have succeeded in getting 10 

 barrels from away down in Maine of the Red Bliss 

 Triumph. These 10 barrels are to come to me unas- 

 sorted, and they probably will be on hand before this 

 meets your eye. This Red Triumph, as you may 

 know. Is the Bermuda potato. There has always been 

 a great demand for Triumphs for seed ever .since the 

 potato was introduced, and somebody ought to raise a 

 good lot specially for seed. For this purpose they are 

 better planted late than early, and my 10 barrels are 

 to be all planted to grow seed for next year. If you 

 want some of them, however, I will divide with you. 

 After paying the freight I presume I shall be obliged 

 to charge about SI. 50 a bushel or S-'i. 50 a barrel, and 

 this price is for potatoes unassorted, including both 

 large and small. 



Perhaps you might like to know what kinds of po- 

 tatoes are going to be wanted next year. Well, ju.st 

 now there is an unsupplied demand for Manum's 

 Enormous. New Queen, Burpee's Extra Early, Early 

 Ohio, and Thoroughbred. If anj- of our readers have 

 any of the above for sale I wish they would let me 

 know how many they have and what they will take 

 for them. The principal part of our potato-planting 

 will be done in June, and considerable — that is, if we 

 can find seed in even tolerable order — in July. See 

 what is .said about .scabby potatoes on page 363. 



"CASH PRIZES" FOR "GOOD GUESSERS." 



The latest thing along this line is a picture of twelve 

 different kinds of farm and garden seeds. Five hun- 

 dred dollars in ca,<-h is offered to the lucky chap who 

 guesses the names of all the seeds; but if you can not 

 guess all, but succeed in guessing correctly on .six, 

 you get a S4.00 prize by return mail. To get this S4.00 

 prize you have a very good picture of a bean, a potato, 

 a grain of corn, buckwheat, oats, and beet. Besides 

 the pictures, which are very fair, the fir.'t letter of 

 each seed is placed by the picture — B for bean, P for 

 potato, etc. Now, any man, woman, or child, must be 

 an idiot indeed not to guess these six at the very first 



glance; and I suppose it is " idiots " who keep the 

 thing going, for you have to pay 25 cents cash down 

 before you can "enter the contest" The advertising 

 agent who sends it out is evidently a little suspicious, 

 for he .says in his letter: 



"This adverti.sement has been 'passed on' by the 

 authorities at Washington; and as Mr. is post- 

 master at his town he knows what he is talking al out 

 when he says that the department stales that the ad. 

 -is all right, and should not be refused the privilege of 

 the mails. We simply mention this, as one or two 

 papers have questioned their being allowed to run the 

 advertisement." 



We hereby call the authorities at Washington to or- 

 der. No matter if the seedsman is a po.stmaster, his 

 game is exactly the same, hut in a different form, that 

 the Postoffice Department has recently ruled out. I 

 allude to the "missing-letter" advertisements. But 

 even if the authorities do not immediately reject such 

 an adverti.sement, all honest people should giv-e it, 

 and the man who pushes it, a wide berth. 



A NEW SPRAY-PUMP. 



One evening, when I was 

 making my rounds among the 

 night men, one of them said 

 he wanted to call my attention 

 to the best apparatus for spray- 

 ing potatoes with Paris green 

 ever invented. I told him 

 about our dry - powder guns; 

 but he said that, if I would 

 take and use his little spray- 

 ing-machine that cost only a 

 dollar, I would give up that we 

 have something ahead of even 

 the dry Paris green; and then 

 he brought me the little ma- 

 chine, something like the cut. 

 This is on the principle of 

 the bicycle - pumps. Its ex- 

 treme length is about 18 inches, 

 and it holds a good big pint 

 of water, but weighs only a 

 pound. The spray produced 

 is so extremely fine that it 

 looks like steam from the nose 

 of a tea-kettle; and, no matter 

 how strong you have the solu- 

 tion, this fine spray never in- 

 jures the potatoes. For in- 

 stance, you can put a teaspoon- 

 ful of Paris green into the can, 

 or you can put in ten teaspoon- 

 fuls. Just fill it up with water 

 and go ahead. When you go 

 out to do an acre of potatoes, 

 carry along a bucket of water 

 and a quarter or half a pound 

 of Paris green, according to how bad the bugs are. 

 Have your Paris green wrapped up in papers say of a 

 good teaspoonful each. Do the papers up as a doctor 

 wraps up his medicines. When you want to fill your 

 machine, put a paperful into the can, then dip the can 

 into a pail of water until it is full Screw on the cap, 

 and go ahead with your spraying. You see, the plan 

 is a sort of compromise between the dry powder and 

 half a barrel of water. All who have used the dry 

 powder will notice that it works rather better if ap- 

 plied to the potato-tops when the dew is on. Now, 

 this small quantity of water makes an artificial dew. 

 You give one stroke of the pump at every hill of pota- 

 toes, and it is distributed nicely all over the leaves. 

 My friend who gave me the gun said he could go over 

 an acre in two hours: and if the bugs were not very 

 bad, two quarts of water and y^ lb. Paris green would 

 be enough. 



By purchasing the machines by the quantity we are 

 enable I to furnish them at only 75 cts. each; 3 for S2; 

 6 for 13 50. If wanted by mail, add 2;5 cts. extra for 

 postage and packing. I am a little afraid the pumps 

 would be liable to be bruised if sent by mail; but we 

 will try .sending them that way when our friends are 

 a good way off from an express office. Full in.struc- 

 tions for use are pasted on each machine. They will 

 answer for spraying melon-vine--, and, in short, al- 

 most every thing any spray-pump is used for; and it 

 will work with all sorts of in.secticides. You can use 

 them for spraying fruit-trees if the trees are small, or 

 if you get up into the tree with a step-ladder. Where 

 you have a good many trees, or where they are very 

 large, of course it will pay you to have a more expen- 

 sive apparatus. 



