370 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



road from the factory we have about 500 

 strong thrifty pie- plant roots. These roots 

 must be sold or else we must sell the product 

 for pies. Now, it is very much pleasanter to 

 have purchasers call on you than to be obliged 

 to call around on the purchasers. Sometimes 

 in gardening we can manage this; but at other 

 times we can not very well. I put a notice in 

 two of our Medina papers, something like 

 this: "Choice strong pie-plant roots for only 

 a nickel each if you will come and get them. 

 They are so big you will need to bring a 

 wheelbarrow or wagon, if you want several ; 

 and if put right out now, each one of these 

 great roots will furnish you material for pies 

 this season, that will be worth several times 

 the nickel the plant costs you." The papers 

 were hardly out before people came along 

 for the roots. In fact, Frank began to look 

 troubled at the number of customers just 

 when he was busy shipping potatoes, vegetable- 

 plants, etc. Another thing, most of the cus- 

 tomers seemed to think they could carry half 

 a dozen roots in a half-bushel basket. When 

 they found it needed a wheelbarrow to take 

 just one root, then there was a "happy sur- 

 prise " for the customer. 



Well, I have just been figuring up this 

 morning that it would be a pretty big invest- 

 ment to grow pie-plant roots for sale at the 

 above price. It is true, it takes two or three 

 years to grow good strong ones ; and it takes 

 a good pile of stable manure each year to 

 keep them booming. But how many plants 

 do you suppose you could grow on an acre 

 with rows three feet apart and the plants 18 

 inches apart in the row ? Why, there would 

 be almost ten thousand There need not be 

 any missing hills, for pie plants rarely die; 

 and when one is missing, just divide its neigh- 

 bor and fill up your ground. Well, ten thou- 

 sand plants at a nickel each would be $500 ; 

 and I think that on market gardeners' ground 

 you could get most of them so they would 

 bring this price in about two years. By cut- 

 ting the large roots in pieces, and transplant- 

 ing them, you can get large roots a little 

 quicker still ; but it is more work than to sow 

 the seed. With exceedingly rich ground, 

 well underdrained and trenched, you can get 

 nice stalks for pies the same year you sow the 

 seed, for I have done it. 



Now, my other happy surprise comes along 

 in the line of selling strawberry-plants. You 

 know I talked to you last year about my 

 handsome plantation of strawberries with the 

 plants only two feet apart from center to cen- 

 ter. These were cultivated three different 

 ways with -the wheel-hoe ; and the original 

 idea was to keep the runners cut off. There 

 was about half an acre of the patch. It was 

 well manured before the plants were put out 

 in the fall of 1897. Then old well-composted 

 manure, broken up fine, was scattered all 

 through the patch with wheelbarrows once or 

 twice last season. In consequence of the 

 strong manure and abundant rains last fall, 

 the plants put out runners and covered the 

 whole ground. It was not a matted rozv, ex- 

 actly, but it was a matted ha/f-icre. Well, 

 these plants all wintered without any mulch 



whatever, and not a plant was lifted out by 

 the frost. Why, the whole plantation looked 

 more like a thrifty field of clover than a 

 strawberry-patch. The problem this spring 

 was to provide paths for the pickers ; for the 

 berries will probably lie almost touching each 

 other all over the half-acre. More than half 

 the plants are Brandywine and Wm. Belt. 



Well, my pie-plant venture succeeded so 

 well that I decided to try the same thing on 

 strawberry-plants. I advertised in the county 

 papers that, if people would come with bas- 

 kets, and take the plants that were taken out 

 in order to make paths for the pickers, they 

 might have them at half the regular prices; 

 and the thing is going on just as I write, in a 

 way that makes it another happy surprise. 



Where a path was wanted we stretched two 

 stout cords. These cords are 18 inches apart. 

 Then a man takes a sharp spade and cuts 

 down along each cord. After this he takes a 

 spading-fork and spades up a block of dirt, 

 plants and all; then with a stout box to sit on 

 (open on one side, about 16 inches square and 

 6 inches high), he, sitting astride the path, 

 separates the plants from the dirt and puts 

 them in the customer's basket. These plants 

 are about the strongest and thriftiest I ever 

 grew. Where they are too near together, of 

 course there will be some small ones ; but 

 these small ones are thrown in without charge, 

 and our customer can use them or not as he 

 chooses. 



Now, if all the plants are sold at half the ad- 

 vertised prices, our half-acre of strawberries 

 will prodvice quite a round sum of money. 

 But there has been a good deal of labor be- 

 stowed on it in the way of weeding, cultiva- 

 tion, etc. After the berries are picked, the 

 whole patch will probably be plowed up 

 and planted to potatoes; and with the amount 

 of manuring it has had, I expect a wonderful 

 crop of potatoes. 



There has been a good deal of fault found 

 in regard to fall planting ; but this plantation 

 was all made in the fall. The plants were, 

 however, put in with a transplanter. They 

 were manured and cultivated and weeded dur- 

 ing one whole season — that is, last year. A 

 small crop of extra-nice berries was taken 

 from them last June. With this method of 

 working strawberries they occupy the ground 

 not quite two years. We would commence 

 planting them, if the ground were vacant, in 

 August, and in our locality the ground would 

 be ready to put in a crop of potatoes about 

 the first of July ; so it would lack about one 

 month of having the strawberries on the 

 ground two years. Of course, I do not know 

 what the crop before us is going to be. If the 

 frost holds off I think we shall see something 

 astonishing. 



ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES OF POTATOES, 

 STRAWBERRIES, ETC.; PROF. W. J GREEN, 

 OF THE OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION, 

 TELIvS US SOMETHING ABOUT IT. 

 Mr. Root: — In reply to yours of March 21. regarding 

 the statement which you made on page 238, I think 

 you have not stated the question too strongly. It is 

 true that on*" may sometimes produce a superior seed- 

 ling potato or strawberry, or any other kind of plant, 



