1900 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



321 



sheet again. Follow this up without moving 

 the sash at all until your plants are well root- 

 ed and stand up straight. Now give air grad- 

 ually, but do not let them wilt, and do not let 

 the wind " w'hip " them. When you have a 

 still cloudy day, and the air is warm enough, 

 take off both cloth and sash ; and by all means 

 give them the benefit of an April shower when 

 a shower comes, and the weather is not too 

 cold. By this method you save almost all the 

 trouble of watering. If the plants are well 

 watered when they are put in the bed they 

 will have water enough until they are past the 

 danger period. It really rejoices my heart to 

 see hundreds and thousands of beautiful plants 

 without a failure. As one can easily roll up a 

 strip of sheeting 50 feet (or as much more as 

 you choose, almost), the labor of handling 

 the cloth is nothing compared with that of 

 handling sashes. One man can attend to a 

 large number of beds, without any assistance. 

 THAT LITTLE GREENHOUSE. 

 I can not take space to tell all about my new 

 plants, but I must mention one or two. In 

 looking over the list of cuttings of Mr. S. W. 

 Pike (St. Charles, 111.) I noticed he has pelar- 

 goniums, rooted cuttings, at 50 cents a dozen, 

 or 83.00 per 100. Now, I never saw a pelargo- 

 nium until within the last few days, that I re- 

 member ; but I ordered one-fourth dozen to 

 see what they are like. While Frank was 

 putting them in the little thumb pots I was 

 talking with some ladies. Pretty soon he held 

 up before me a little plant in a thumb pot, not 

 more than two inches high, with two little blos- 

 soms on it ; and these blossoms were to me 

 about the most exquisite productions of the 

 floral kingdom I ever saw. The plant looks 

 something like a geranium ; but the blossoms 

 resemble a sweet pea, except that the pencilings 

 and tints are more delicate and entrancing (I 

 do not know any other word that tells it so 

 well) than any other flower I know of. I car- 

 ried it all around the neighborhood, and then 

 as I was not yet ready to go back to the green- 

 house I set it on my desk in the office. A good 

 many busy cares oppressed me that day. Some 

 things had to be hunted up and investigated. 

 But again and again I would turn around sud- 

 denly and catch a glimpse of that little plant, 

 and, oh what an uplift it gave me ! It was 

 like bright sunshine coming through the dark 

 clouds. Then I would have the same story 

 over again. I would get down into business, 

 and forget all about the plant, and then my 

 eye would strike it unexpectedly. If it could 

 speak I imagine it would have said something 

 like this : " Here I am, Mr. Root. God sent 

 me to lighten your cares and to cheer you up. 

 Oh ! I am not a myth. I have been in this 

 world longer than you have ; and I have de- 

 lighted hundreds and thousands of people, 

 and, I hope, made them better men and wo- 

 men. I have been near you many times dur- 

 ing your life, but you would not look at me, 

 nor notice such a little bit of flower, until my 

 Maker touched your heart ; and now I am 

 glad to have you notice me, and introduce me 

 to your friends. Just give me a little of the 

 right kind of care and I will show you yet 

 greater wonders." 



The pelargonium is, if I am correct, one of 

 the geranium family ; and then there a-'e ever 

 so many different pelargoniums. The one 

 that delighted my heart so much is called the 

 "Bride." I wrote to friend Pike right off, 

 and ordered 25 more just like it. I told him 

 to send them all with buds or blossoms on, 

 and charge accordingly. By the way, we have 

 several other varieties that are not yet in 

 bloom. Perhaps some of them may be equal 

 to the B;ide ; but as yet I can hardly believe 

 it. If I could just carry this little plant 

 around and show it to all of the readers of 

 Gleanings who love flowers, it would be the 

 most fun of any thing I know of in the world. 

 The whole 25 plants are now in the green- 

 house, and I think half of them are in bloom. 

 One little plant that I have not had a week 

 yet has on it seven beautiful blossoms and 

 ever so many more buds. A friend told me 

 they are such persistent bloomers that if the 

 buds are not picked off they will blossom 

 themselves to death. Now, there may be a 

 prettier plant in the world than the pelargo- 

 nium ; but just now I feel as old Izaak Walton 

 did when he said, "Doubtless God might 

 have made a better berry than the strawberry, 

 but doubtless he never did." 



THE SOY BEAN ; A SUBSTITUTE FOR CLOVER. 



The Ohio Experiment Station has been for 

 several years past making quite a few experi- 

 ments on soy beans, even to the extent of 

 several acres, and they just announce in a 

 press bulletin, "As a crop to turn under for 

 green manuring, we do not know its equal." 

 Now, friends, this is an important matter to 

 all those who are bringing up their soil bv 

 turning under green crops. Below we give the 

 bulletin entire. 



The soy (or soja) bean is an upright, stiff-stemmed, 

 branching bean, introduced a few years ago from 

 Japan, which is rapidly coming to the front as a most 

 valuable forage-plaut. It has been grown for several 

 years by the Ohio E.^periment Station with very sat- 

 isfactory results. Planted on some of our poorest 

 soils, it has produced two to three tons of excellent 

 dry forage or hay per acre, which is eaten with relish 

 by all kinds of stock. As a crop to turn under for 

 green manuring we do not know its equal. 



As the soy bean is a warm-weather plant it should 

 not be planted before the last of May in Northern 

 Ohio, nor before the middle in the southern part of 

 the .State. When planted for forage it is sown at the 

 rate of a bushel and a half to the acre, on well-prepar- 

 ed land, sowing with the wheat-drill with all the runs 

 open. Thus sown it soon covers the ground, and there 

 is no trouble from weeds or foxtail. It should be har- 

 vested before frost, and cured as hay. 



The soy bean, like clover, adds nitrogen to the soil, 

 and it is therefore a renovating instead of an exhaust- 

 ing crop. It is especially suited to take the place of 

 clover in a systematic rotation where the clover has 

 been killed out by severe winters, as is the case at 

 present over a large part of Ohio, or where the spring 

 seeding of clover has failed to catch. The Ohio Ex- 

 periment Station has used it in such cases with such 

 good results that it feels ju-tified in urging the farm- 

 ers of the State to give it a careful trial. 



There are several varieties of soy beans, some of 

 which will mature seed in Ohio, while others will not. 

 As a rule, the latter class are more valuable for forage, 

 as they make larger growth. The beans, however, 

 which are produced at the rate of ten to twenty bush- 

 els per acre, are a valuable feeding stuff, as they are 

 quite high in protein, and to .some extent take the 

 place of such materials as linseed meal in the ration. 

 The Kan.sas Experiment Station has fed them to fat- 

 tening hogs with the result of effecting a large saving 

 in the quantity of food required to make a pound of 



