784 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK 



Burbank's " Rainbow " corn. Indian corn as an 

 ornamental foliage plant. 



Well, just as soon as this ornamental corn 

 began to push out its tassels it reminded me 

 vividly of the beautiful women so gorgeous- 

 ly arrayed, almost rivaling the "lilies of the 

 field" as we read in the scriptures. I am 

 glad of an opportunity to give Burbank 

 full credit, if he did indeed create this 

 beautiful plant, and I think it is quite rea- 

 sonable to believe he might do so in a series 

 of years by making selections. This sum- 

 mer I have been testing toward a dozen 

 varieties of sweet corn; and in these tests 

 I find quite a few stalks showing, faintly, 

 striped leaves. If you go to the poultry 

 shows you will see what poultrymen have 

 done in working for pet feathers. Now, if 

 we should work corn in the same way for 

 foliage instead of grain, it is not at all 

 strange that the result is astonishing. 



In the two large pictures you get a 

 glimpse of the Burbank corn right under 

 the si^rinkling-pipes ; and in the smaller cut 

 you get a glimpse of the variegated leaves; 

 but, of course, the camera does not give the 

 colors.* 



Now a word about the three other pack- 

 ets of Burbank's stuff. The variegated-corn 

 packet costs 25 cents for, I think, about 25 

 grains. Another packet, labeled "Bur- 

 bank's Improved Early Bantam Corn," 

 costs 10 cents for 15 grains of corn. I 

 could not discover that there was a particle 

 of difference between this Early Bantam 

 and some that costs only 10 cents for half a 

 pint. There was also a packet of "Im- 

 proved Earlj^ Sweet Corn" at 10 cents for 

 25 grains. This, like the Bantam, is not 

 different from or better than (so far as I 

 could discover) common early sweet corn 

 at 20 cents a pint. The last was Burbank's 

 sweet sunberry (wonderberry) (a Burbank 

 creation). The above is, of course, an im- 

 proved variety, or at least it is so stated, of 

 Child's wonderberry, of which so much has 

 been said and written. Owing to the per- 

 sistent ravages of the little black flea beetle 

 I lost all my plants but one. That one is 

 now in bloom, and it looks exactly like a 

 plant growing wild down in Florida that 

 bears berries in the greatest profusion. This 

 improved berry, however, may be better in 

 quality. I am going to try to carry a plant 

 down to Florida if it does not mature fruit 

 here. 



Now a word about the pictures. In the 

 left-hand lower corner of the picture is an 

 improved Senator Dunlap strawberry sent 

 me to test. You see it is putting out a pile 

 of runners already. Next is ordinary sweet 

 corn; then comes a row of dasheens, but 

 they are hardly visibly in the picture. Then 

 we come to a little patch of ornamental 

 corn. Right above this, over toward the 

 evergreens, is the helianthus that has been 

 discussed quite a little. It now contains a 

 profusion of beautiful yellow sunflowers on 

 a smaller scale, and they produce little 

 seeds that look like sunflowers also. See 

 description of the Helianthi on page 318, 

 April 15. I will report further when it is 

 time to dig the tubers. A row of sesame- 

 plants is close by the helianthus, but hardly 

 \'isible. 



THE DASHEEN IN CANADA. 

 Just a line to renew old acquaintance. Wife and 

 I spent the winter in Lakeland, Florida, returning 

 April 1. Lakeland is a lovely spot, high and rolling, 

 with lots of lakes; three inside the corporation. You 

 will remember those small dasheen tubers I got from 

 you. Well, I have some fine plants, the stalks at the 

 ground as thick through as one's wrist or more, and 

 lots of little plants coming up all around them. I 

 might get a snapshot of them just to show you how 

 they can be grown in Ontario. Now, what I want 



* I think this variegated corn will soon be offered 

 for sale at a reasonable price, for I have seen it also 

 growing in Akron, O. At this date, Sept. 12, the 

 ears (some of them four on a single stalk) are 

 tasseled out with brilliant crimson silk which looks 

 like an ostrich plume. I cannot tell you how much 



seed I shall get ; but if every ear that is set pro- 

 duces a fair amount, I may be able to include two 

 or three grains with the dasheen tubers that are to 

 be given to paid-up subscribers. 



