1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



453 



Olimer. Michel's Early, that we used to call 

 ahead of all the others, is not anywhere near 

 ripening at the present time, May 30 ; but, to 

 tell the truth, Michel's Early has not been 

 fussed with quite as much as these newer 

 kinds — at least, not this season. You see, I 

 want to be honest about it. 



Now, none of these varieties mentioned is 

 likely to bear the great quantity of berries 

 that some of the later ones do — say Haverland, 

 Warfield, Parker Earle, and last, but not 

 least, the Clyde. I do not believe there is 

 another berry on our grounds containing such 

 great heaps of green ones at the present time 

 as the Clyde; and I notice the reports are now 

 grt atly in favor of the Clyde as a tremendous 

 bearer. We have potted plants now to fill all 

 orders for Earliest and Darling ; and we have 

 runners already in the pots, of almost all other 

 kinds we advertise, potted in jadoo fiber. 



ANOTHER SURPRISE. 



Yes, and this is a happy one too, even if it 

 does run against the one above somewhat. 

 On page 407 I gave you a glimpse of my plan 

 of hill culture for strawberries. Well, in 

 order to test all the different varieties worked 

 in this way we have to put in one or more 

 rows of all the kinds we could get hold of ; 

 and I am watching with very much interest 

 the behavior of the diiferent plants, with run- 

 ners kept off, and constant cultivation in 

 spring as well as fall. Well, yesterday, after 

 speaking of the Nick Ohmer's earliness, I 

 went up through that hill-culture patch to see 

 how the others were behaving. All at once I 

 was startled by seeing a great big strawberry, 

 ripened all over, then another and another, 

 until I noticed there were six rows of berries 

 with quite a good many ripe ones right out in 

 the open field. Now, there were a few other 

 kinds that had begun to turn just a little, but 

 nothing like the six rows. What were they ? 

 Why, as sure as you live it was our old friend 

 Rio. Michel's Early was near by in another 

 patch in a matted row, but there was not one 

 berry colored in the lot. The Earliest and 

 Darling had just begun to color, but they were 

 planted rather later than the Rio in the same 

 patch. I really do not know vrhy the Rio 

 should be ahead of every thing else in hill 

 culture, unless such constant stirring of the 

 ground suited the Rio better than it did any 

 of the other kinds. That is not quite it either, 

 for the other kinds are making most tremen- 

 dous growths of foliage and runners. Yes, 

 the greater part of them are putting out run- 

 ners, even before the fruit has colored. But 

 this constant cultivation seems to have hurried 

 the Rio forward, and did not the others — not 

 even the Earliest and Darling. The Rios are 

 great strong thrifty plants, with stout runners 

 already out, besides a very fair crop of fruit it 

 is going to bear. Now, this thing illustrates 

 a point : Under a special system of cultivation 

 the Rio is the earliest good-sized berry we 

 know of. And by the way, friends, there is 

 going to be an enormous crop of berries on 

 that little plantation put out last fall. They 

 were all potted plants, however ; or if not pot- 

 ted they were set out with our new strawberry- 



transplanter that I have described and illus- 

 trated ; and this experiment demonstrates one 

 thing to my satisfaction : With the right kind 

 of culture you can grow an enormous crop of 

 berries from potted plants in only nine or ten 

 months after they occupy the ground. 



DAMAGE TO THE FLORIDA ORANGE CROP DURING THE 

 PAST WINTER. 



The freezes of the past winter hurt us a good deal 

 worse than at first appeared. Since I wrote you we 

 have had cold that cut off the bloom of orange-trees, 

 and reduced the crop to one-fourth what was expected. 

 We now propose to adopt methods that will make us 

 ab.solutely secure against injury to our groves from 

 cold, and thereby make orange-growing more profit- 

 able than ever before. W. S. Hart. 



Hawks Park, Fla., May 10. 



Friend Hart, we are very sorry for your 

 losses by frost ; but I am greatly interested in 

 the method you propose, to get ahead of the 

 frost. You may remember that I saw a grape- 

 fruit tree that once bore a crop that sold for 

 $50 as it stood on the tree. Now, a half, a 

 fourth, or even a tenth of that amount would 

 pay for some sort of protection of canvas that 

 would render a tree safe for a whole winter or 

 several winters. If it were not for the fact that 

 you people have orange trees of such tremen- 

 dous height and breadth of expanse we might 

 talk of a high fence with a canvas covering to 

 the whole orchard. Has any one yet ever 

 ventured on such an experiment ? The cloth 

 can be rolled up and unrolled according to the 

 plan given in our book on tomatoes, with 

 comparatively little expense, even if it cov- 

 ered a whole acre of trees ; and then how 

 happy the proud owner would feel ( under that 

 canopy ) during a frosty night ! You see he 

 would have nice fruit when everybody else 

 was short, and this would help to pay the 

 expense of his plant. 



Mr. Root, if you want to raise celery come to Florida. 

 A gentleman in Hawthorn planted a plot of ground 

 (i0x200 feet, and shipped two solid carloads of celery 

 from the 'ame, netting at the rate of $4000 per acre. 



Mannville, Fla., May 10. M. W. Shepherd. 



That is right, friend S. Let us know what 

 can be done in Florida. The gentleman prob- 

 ably had water unlimited, and some excellent 

 brand of fertilizer, with perhaps good ground 

 to start with. I wish you could tell us more 

 about it, and especially what sort of manure 

 was used. I would travel quite a piece to see 

 such a block of celery. 



THE farmers' handy WAGON. 



We have now in use one of the wagons pictured on 

 page 319 in our April 15th issue; and I am glad to say 

 that it is proving to be f xtremely handy. We are be- 

 ginning to appreciate all the points mentioned in the 

 letters on the page referred to above, and your humble 

 •servant appreciates the bicycle-path it makes wher- 

 ever it goes on the highway or around on our own pri- 

 vate grounds. When our big team broke off the 

 tongue (which was made of a piece of cross-grained 

 timber) there was quite a murmur while we were 

 obliged to let the wagon lie still two days because our 

 wood-working people could not stop to put in a new 

 tongue made of good hard straight-grained timber. I 

 would advise the manufacturers to hunt up some nice 

 sticks on purpo.se for wagon-tongues, even if they do 

 sell the whole thing at a low price. See advertisement 

 in another column. 



