GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUF.K 



outside, it will iirate them up very fast, and 

 the grated radish falls into a pan under- 

 neath. You had better have your machine 

 out in the open air, or the fumes of the 

 radish may choke you. 



Now, to put it up so it will keep, you 

 must have some of the best white-wine 

 vinegar. We tried eider vinegar, but it 

 would spoil unless used up very soon. We 

 put it up in 1-lb. honey -jars. If you go 

 into the marketplaces in almost any large 

 city you will see how horseradish-stands are 

 operated. It sells best to grate it up right 

 in sight of your customers, because then 

 they know it is fresh. The machine can be 

 turned with a crank, but it is slower work. 

 When properly managed it is a profitable 

 rural industry, and I believe horseradish is 

 considered a healthful and wholesome condi- 

 ment. 



BEES AND CHERRIES, ETC. 



On page 565 of our July 15th issue I 

 made mention that people in our locality 

 were wondering what agency brought about 

 such an enormous crop of beautiful large 

 fine cherries; but it did not occur to me 

 then that our eleven apiaries scattered over 

 this neighborhood, comprising toward one 

 thousand colonies of bees, had any thing to 

 do with it. Well, if you will read the fol- 

 lowing, which I clip from the Rural Home, 

 you will see the connection between plenty 

 of cherries and bee culture. 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



Honey-producing is only one of the missions of the 

 bees. Indeed, for actual profit the honey is but a 

 minor item. 



Some years ago I moved to a small place up the 

 Hudson River. I wanted a bee-farm, and selected 

 for that purpose a spot among apple, cherry, and 

 plum trees, some of which had never borne fruit, 

 others none for years past. My landlord told me I 

 might cut down certain trees, as they were worthless, 

 as he intended putting on some fine nursery stock. 



Being busy, I did not cut the trees down. They 

 blossomed freely, and, of course, we paid no further 

 heed to them than to break blossoms by the armfuls 

 wlien we wanted floral decorations. 



The cherry trees were, much to the owner's aston- 

 ishment, loaded with very large, perfect fruit. He 

 could not understand it. Such a thing had not hap- 

 I)ened for years. 



Early in the autumn, while waiting for a swarm 

 of bees to settle, I observed a number of fine apples 

 upon one of the smaller condemned trees. When the 

 landlord's attention was called to them he was com- 

 pletely mystified, and called in his neighbors to see 

 the wonder. Later we gathered from this tree near- 

 ly a barrel of finest fall pippins ever seen in that 

 vicinity. 



No argument would convince the man that " them 

 pesky bees " had any thing to do with the yield of 

 the fruit on the place. He insisted that some sort of 

 fertilizer must have been used. 



Since that time I have demonstrated by scores of 

 experiments that trees which had for many seasons 

 borne little good fruit, or possibly none at all, have 

 been brought up to a high standard of productive- 

 ness by the presence of bees. They carried the pol- 



len, fertilized the blossoms, and a beautiful harvest 

 was the result. 



Regardless of the honey crop, every fruit-grower 

 should have a few colonies of bees. If when the 

 blossom .season is past there is so little nectar in the 

 mid-season flowers that the bees must be fed, it is a 

 decided economy to feed them, as in cases where a 

 strict account has been kept the cash value of or- 

 chard products alone has been doubled by their 

 assistance. 



AN UNBIASED EXPERT'S OPINION ON SPRAYING. 



The enclosed clipping, taken from Green's Fruit 

 Grower, comes from Prof. Van Deman, a horticul- 

 turist who is well known in the United States as well 

 as in other countries as one of the best horticultur- 

 ists in any land. Stress should be put on what he 

 says about spraying during the blooming period 

 not only poisoning bees, but also because it injures 

 the delicate floral organs and destroys them; and to 

 spray the bloom is too early for the codling moth. 

 I have made a study of this subject for many years; 

 and from my observation, and from what all the 

 leading horticulturists have said to me on this sub- 

 ject, Prof. Van Deman confirms what all these have 

 said, and reiterates their experience. 



Mexico, Mo., May 21. J. W. Rouse. 



SPRAYING AND BEES. 



Prof. Van Deman:- — I have a place in the country, 

 and have put out about two acres of apples, and had 

 intended to put out about five acres more. But a 

 friend of mine in North Acton, who netted $6000 off 

 his apple orchard in 1911, writes me, " I had a fine 

 crop of apples that year. Since then the San Jose 

 scale has made its appearance on my trees and other 

 orchards in this neighborhood, and the necessary 

 spraying has killed off the bees to such an extent 

 that their work of fertilizing the apple-blossom is 

 sadly missed." 



This is a new one — to me. Can you tell me how 

 other orchardists circumvent this difficulty ? 



Albert W. Dennin. 



Reply : — -The facts about spraying for various in- 

 sects and fungus diseases are so poorly understood, 

 and so blunderingly carried out in the work that is 

 done, that harm rather than benefit sometimes is the 

 result. Honeybees and other such insects are very 

 useful or even essential in pollinating the bloom of 

 fruit-trees, plants, and vines, and it is both injurious 

 and needless to kill them by poisonous spraying, 

 except to a very limited extent. The lime-sulphur 

 spray is not poisonous to bees, for it is applied near- 

 ly always when the trees are in a dormant condition 

 and no bloom open. When arsenical preparations 

 are used it should not be while the flowers are open, 

 for two reasons. The delicate floral organs are in- 

 jured by the poison, and the bees, in seeking for 

 honey, get some of it and are killed. Moreover, the 

 object of the spraying is to kill insects that sting or 

 enter the fruit; and until it has set and begun to 

 grow it is useless to spray. Sensible, intelligent 

 spraying is all right, and rarely does much harm to 

 honeybees or other cross-pollinating insects; but use- 

 less and harmful spraying is folly. More intelligent 

 and faithful spraying is what is needed to make 

 more and better fruit and to save the bees. 



A HAND CULTIVATOR TO BE PULLED BY A 

 GASOLINE MOTOR, ETC. 



I have in my hand descriptive circulars 

 from the Parker Motor Plow Co., Bedford, 

 Va., with photographic illustrations of not 

 only a gasoline-cultivator but of gasoline- 

 plows as well. The machine that is designed 

 for plowing is rated as 2^2 horse power, 

 and Avill do the work of a team, and requires 

 no feed when it is not working. The com- 

 pany are not yet ready to put a pi-ice on the 

 machines and offer them for sale ; but they 

 write us that at an early date they will give 



