1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



931 



we cooked one mess of them, and they were 

 so delicious I told the boys to save some of 

 the ripest pods and plant them, and see if we 

 could not get a second crop. They did so, 

 with the lollowing result : First crop, 1% 

 quarts besides what we cooked. Second crop, 

 3 quarts. We might have planted a good 

 large patch of the lirst-crop beans, but I had 

 little faith they would ripen before frost. To 

 my surprise they ripened up dry almost a 

 month ahead of any killing frost ; but the 

 frost this year held off till the first week in 

 November. Well, now, these beans are not 

 only excellent in quality, but they are won- 

 derfully prolific. They are small in size, it is 

 true— not very much larger than a common 

 Navy or pea bean. They are dwarf in habit, 

 and might on that account be used for forcing 

 under glass. My impression is that we could 

 grow two crops on the same ground in any 

 ordinary season, and I think they would make 

 a prodigious yield per acre. Mr. Mills infornls 

 U3 the new bean has been named the Prize 

 Winner, and that they have already given a 

 crop of 40 bushels to the acre. 



While we are on the subject of beans, here 

 is a report from one of our employees : 



From one quart Davis wax beans planted, I picked 

 over 7 bushels of fine string beans From one quart 

 Burpee bush limas planted, I picked over 70 quarts of 

 shelled beans, besides several quarts dry, not vet shell- 

 ed. The above vyere never hoed — were cultivated 

 twice, and weeds hand-pulled near the plants. 



Medina, O., Nov. 13. Bert Washburn. 



The above is not only high pressure garden- 

 ing, but it is good crops with very little work. 

 Out experiment stations once made a test to 

 see how much difference there would be in a 

 crop by keeping the grotind mellow, or sim- 

 ply scraping off the weeds with a hoe to keep 

 the crops clean. They were surprised to find 

 very good results without so much cultivation. 

 But the outcome of such an experiment de- 

 pends very much on the amount of rain we 

 get. During the past season all kinds of beans 

 have made a remarkable showing in our local- 

 ity, because, with the exception of a short 

 time in the spring, we have had almost all the 

 rain needed all summer long. At such a time, 

 pttlling the weeds by hand would do almost as 

 well as hoeing. When it comes to a scarcity 

 of rain, however, a constant stirring of the 

 surface of the ground might make all the dif- 

 ference between a good crop and an entire 

 loss. 



MUSKMELONS AND CANTELOUPS. 



A. I. Root : — Can we grow as sweet and well-flavor- 

 ed cantaloups in the North as we get from the South ? 

 I grew some this year for the first time, and, even 

 when they were ripe, they did not taste likemuskmel- 

 ons. 



What variety is the best flavored? Please tell us 

 something about muskmelons in your talks on gar- 

 dening. John Major. 



Cokeville, Pa., Sept. 13. 



Nice sweet canteloups can be grown almost 

 anywhere if you can manage to avoid blight, 

 while a sandy soil or sandy loam is best, we 

 succeed in getting nice melons almost every 

 year in our Medina clay. I think yours must 

 have blighted before they were fully ripe. In 

 this case they would taste as you describe. 

 Make your soil rich with old well-rotted ma- 

 nure. Work it up deep. Get the melons in 



early ; and if they grow right along you will 

 be pretty sure to have good ones. Stirring 

 the soil so as to break up the crust after every 

 rain has very much to do with making a suc- 

 cess. Some of the finest melons I ever grew 

 are secured by stirring up the soil with a sharp 

 garden-rake clear down until I could see the 

 white roots. This was done every time a big 

 rain packed the soil again. It is hard telling 

 what the best varieties are. The variety nam- 

 ed Rocky Ford has a great reputation, and I 

 think it will be safe to plant the Rocky Ford 

 melons. The Fall Rose, which we have ad- 

 vertised lately, is also a very fine one. As 

 seasons vary, I would make plantings both 

 early and late. We have had fine cantaloups 

 some seasons from seed planted in June ; but 

 a good deal depends on having timely rains. 

 But don't give up, even though your soil is 

 not specially adapted to melons. We have 

 this season also produced nice watermelons, 

 even though they are not adapted to our clay 

 soil. The Miller's Cream cauteloup is very 

 sweet and very early, and will succeed in al- 

 most any soil ; but the Extra Early citron we 

 advertise is probably the earliest of all. 



coivEi, achyranThus, etc., in the fai,i<. 

 I think I said in June and July that I had 

 not seen any really fine coleus-beds this sea- 

 son. Our own, on our grounds, were dull in 

 color and slow in growth. When I visited 

 Chicago I did not see any fine ones in Lincoln 

 Park, and none on Vaughan's grounds. Not 

 long afterward, however, I discovered the rea- 

 son. The weather had not been warm enough, 

 and we had not had sufficient rain. In Cana- 

 da I saw some fine ones, and during August 

 and September I think we have had the most 

 beautiful golden bedders, and achyranthus for 

 contrast, that I ever saw anywhere. Under 

 the influence of abundant rain and exceeding- 

 ly warm weather the plants made an as- 

 tonishing growth, and in brilliancy of color 

 they eclipsed any thing I had ever seen. I 

 asked one of the florists when was the proper 

 time to make cuttings of our choicest plants 

 to be wintered over in the greenhouse. He 

 said we could make them any time in Septem- 

 ber ; that they usually cut their largest and 

 finest plants all into little bits just to make 

 cuttings. Well, one day we moved our little 

 cntting-bed (a frame with a glass sash hinged 

 to it) out in the open ground. It was set over 

 a bed with two or three inches of common 

 river sand ; then the cuttings, perhaps 100 in 

 number, were taken from our best plants, and 

 put about an inch apart all through the frame. 

 In three or four days every cutting had taken 

 root, and the little frameful, perhaps 15X30 

 inches, was just a thing of beauty. It gave me 

 a thrill every time I lifted up the lid to look at 

 the plants. We proceeded just as we did in 

 the winter time, to get cuttings. The coyer 

 to the box is just simply a pane of glass with 

 a frame around it. This shuts down tight so 

 as to preserve the moist atmosphere inside ; 

 and when the sun shines, a frame of cotton 

 cloth is laid over the glass so the heat will not 

 be strong enough to scorch the plants. Our 

 finest red or purple plant is the Achyranthus 



