1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



281 



would almost goto the pains of growing a bed 

 of Grand Rapids lettuce jnst to look at, even 

 if it had no value. The price has been down 

 during the past winter because others are 

 growing it ; but even now we get 15 cents a 

 pound retail and 10 at wholesale, and I think 

 this pays very well. I do not know just how 

 many pounds of lettuce can be grown on a 

 square yard ; but where it is managed just 

 right, I tell you one can get a big lot. 



CRIMSON CLOVER. 



Once more crimson clover has wintered 

 beautifully on our rich well-underdrained soil. 

 As this is the fourth or fifth winter, I think 

 we might call it a very sure thing in our local- 

 it}' and with our method of treatment. You 

 may remember I told you of the wheat that 

 lodged so badly last summer. There was 

 enough seed left on the ground to make a very 

 good stand. Well, the wheat grew so tall last 

 fall that it fell down, and we sowed crimson 

 clover right on it some time in the fore part of 

 August. The clover was shaded and mulch- 

 ed, and it looked beautiful all during the fall, 

 and looks just as handsome now ; in fact, I do 

 not believe I ever had any crimson clover that 

 came through the winter looking so bright 

 and green before. There are a few small spots 

 where there didn't happen to be any wheat, 

 and on these spots the severe weather has 

 pretty nearly used up the clover ; but the 

 stand all over is, with the exception of these 

 spots, just splendid. Of course, the wheat 

 will stand up and grow; but I propose to turn 

 the wheat, clover, and all, under just before 

 the crimson clover gets into full bloom ; and 

 although I never heard of turning under wheat 

 to grow potatoes, I am inclined to think it 

 will work all right. Perhaps it is not practi- 

 cable to furnish any sort of protection like 

 this for crimson clover during the winter — 

 that is, to do it profitably ; but I think the 

 clover would be a great deal better if it could 

 have just about the kind of mulch that my 

 lodged wheat gave it. 



RECOMMENDING NEW VARIETIES OF STRAW- 

 BERRIES, ETC. 



You may remember that, some little time 

 ago, in visiting Matthew Crawford, he showed 

 me a strawberry of such wonderful luxuriance 

 of foliage that, had he told me it was a new 

 variety, and very scarce and high-priced, I do 

 not know but I would have given him $5.00 

 for a single plant. But friend Crawford is not 

 that sort of man ; and then he explained to 

 me that the wonderful growth and luxuriance 

 were not altogether on account of the plant, 

 but in the way he prepared the soil in that 

 one bed. It was light sandy soil, made very 

 rich with old stable manure, and then the 

 ground was pounded as hard as he could make 

 it, with a stamper, something like what we 

 use in setting fence-posts I went home and 

 began to experiment on some of our plant- 

 beds that had been manured so heavily so 

 many years that they contained almost too 

 much humus. We have a pounder worked by 

 two men, that we use in making cement floors 

 and similar work. I had two of the boys 

 stamp the dirt in one of our plant-beds as 



hard as they could pound it. This was along 

 in the fall, when the ground was dry, and 

 would bear such pounding without injur}'. 



About this time friend Thompson sent me 

 half a dozen Darling strawberry-plants, and I 

 think as many of the Earliest ; also some Car- 

 rie As he called these varieties all valuable 

 I put them into that stamped bed. They all 

 did wonderfully well, especially the Darling. 

 In watching the new plants I fear I forgot 

 somewhat the stamped bed, and gave the 

 credit to the new varieties. At the same time 

 I began experimenting with plants potted in 

 jadoo fiber, and a great number of them weTe 

 sent as premiums to our subscribers. The 

 next spring these six Darling plants gave a 

 nice lot of beautiful berries, away ahead of 

 any thing else unless it was the Earliest ; and 

 without thinking much about it I helped to 

 boom the Darling, which the originator held 

 at a very high price. Now, I have been great- 

 ly disappointed because we have not had more 

 favorable reports of the Darling. In fact, on 

 that account I have dropped it from our list 

 of strawberries. Margaret and Nick Ohmer 

 were also set in a pounded bed, and they both 

 made an immense growth, and produced won- 

 derful berries. I have been putting all of my 

 new varieties in pounded beds, because, when 

 one is anxious to get as many plants as he 

 can, as soon as possible, he must furnish the 

 best of conditions; and not all plants will pay 

 him so much better in highly fertilized and 

 compact beds than they do in the open field. 

 After I put the Darling and Earliest in the 

 open field and gave them the same chance as 

 the other varieties they have been very di.- ap- 

 pointing in our locality. 1 learn from others, 

 though, further south, that in some places 

 they do well. 



From this I have been learning a lesson: We 

 should be careful, each and all of us, about 

 recommending a new plant before we have 

 given it field culture right along with the 

 others. Perhaps I might here speak of the 

 Gault raspberry. There has been a good deal 

 of complaint, and quite a few have called my 

 neighbor Gault a humbug and a swindler. 

 Now, this is very wrong. Mr. Gault did 

 grow, and I suppose even yet grows, Gault 

 raspberries by the acre. On his soil and with 

 his treatment they bear splendid crops away 

 along till frost; and I think they do year after 

 year. When I was regretting that I invested 

 so much in the Gault raspberry, and gave it so 

 much of a recommend one of my boys re- 

 marked that they had some plants at home 

 which they got of me, and they were doing 

 splendidly, and bore nice crops every year. 

 A second and third person in mv employ said 

 substantially the same thing. They declared 

 they did not consider this raspberry a humbug 

 at all; but the plants that we sent all over the 

 country, far and near, have, so far as I can 

 learn, been mostly failures. If our readers 

 will forgive me I am going to be more careful 

 in the future. I will tell }ou how things have 

 done on our grounds ; and if I deem them 

 worthy I will furnish you sample plants or 

 seeds at a very low price ; but we should all 

 learn better than to invest heavily in any 



