876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK 



eiGM=PMES§UKE GAEDENING 



GARDEN-MAKING IN FLORIDA ; SEED PEAS, ETC. 



I am sure the friends here in the North 

 will excuse me if, during the next few 

 months, I devote quite a little space to gar- 

 dening in Florida and other southern lo- 

 calities. Just now 1 want to speak of peas. 

 Every gardener knows that peas do not 

 stand hot weather. If you grow them to 

 advantage in Florida it must be done dur- 

 ing the cooler part of the winter. On this 

 account they should be planted some time 

 in November. If you wait until later so 

 they begin to ripen for hot weather in 

 February, March, and April, you will often 

 waste your time and seed. Now, during the 

 last seven years I have made so many 

 failures in growing peas that Mrs. Root 

 says it is no use to try any more. I will 

 tell you some of the diificulties. The seeds 

 that you purchase at this season of the 

 year are mostly old, and probably not true 

 to name. Besides, you will not get it 

 promptly. May be you will now; but in 

 years past my orders for seed peas would 

 be acknowledged, but dealers would say 

 they had not yet received their seed peas; 

 and when I did get the seed it was too late. 

 Besides, the price is often excessive. Just 

 now I notice that the Kilgore Seed Co., of 

 Plant City, Fla., makes a specialty of the 

 popular varieties of seed peas, and their 

 prices are only from 25 to 30 cts. a quart. 

 To demonstrate that their seeds are fresh, 

 and true to name, they have sent me sam- 

 ples with a request that I plant them and 

 report. Our gardening friends will take 

 notice that since parcel post was in force 

 there is quite a saving in postage (as well 

 as getting the seeds promptly) by purchas- 

 ing of some near-by seed firm. 



CANTALOUP MELONS, ETC. 



I have so greatly enjoyed home-grown 

 cantaloups in place of apples or with my 

 apples for my five-o'clock supper that I 

 have decided to try hard to grow some 

 cantaloup melons in Florida during the 

 winter. Therefore I am interested in the 

 inclosed advertisement which I saw in the 

 Florida Grower, especially as there seemed 

 to be a chance of having melons, more or 

 less, for Christmas or a little later. 



Casaba Melon. — Plant now for Christmas mar- 

 ket. Excellent shipper. Seeds 25 cts. 



Box 55, Bradon, Fla. 



For 25 cents I received a little over an 

 ounce of melon seeds, which I thought 

 rather expensive; but the directions on the 

 package in order to grow them for Christ- 

 mas are what I value most. Here they are : 



CASABA MELON ; DIRECTIONS FOR GROWINO IN 

 FLORIDA. 



Plant in the fall, just at the end of the rainy 

 season, in hills eight feet apart. Put four to eight 

 seeds to the hill, and thin out to two plants when 

 started. Plant the seeds % of an inch deep, and 

 firm the earth well. Cultivate and fertilize the same 

 as for watermelons or cantaloups. They do hest if 

 a shovelful of stable manure is placed in each hill, 

 this covered with about four inches of earth, and 

 the seed planted in this. They will stand about as 

 much frost as cabbage ; but if the vines are killed 

 by frost, pull all of the melons, even the half-grown 

 ones, and put them under shelter. They will ripen 

 gradually through the winter. They are ripe when 

 they give easily under pressure. 



THE DASHEEN, AND WHAT TO DO JUST BEFORE 



YOU HAVE REASON TO THINK THERE 



WILL BE A KILLING FROST. 



Mr. Hoot : — I am taking this opportunity to thank 

 you for the pleasure which I had from the dasheen 

 tubers which you so kindly sent me last spring. 

 They all came up nicely, and had large be'iutifiil 

 leaves, and were about 2 feet high when they were 

 killed by a heavy frost early in September. How- 

 ever, I am going to plant the tubers again next 

 spring. 



Gloversville, N. Y., Oct. 12. Albert Milleb. 



My good friend, I am glad you are 

 pleased with them; but I think you would 

 have been more pleased if you had cut the 

 tops all off the tubers before the damaging 

 frost, and used them for soup. You see 

 every bit of the plant is edible — that is, if 

 you cut them before they get frosted. The 

 tubers under ground are not harmed until 

 there is quite a severe frost ; but they shoUid 

 be dug and dried soon after the tops are 

 killed. 



MOSQUITO-HAWKS; CLEANING DUCK EGGS, ETC. 



I am a man old in years, but in spirit I am young 

 like yourself. By reading Gleanings I see that you 

 take pleasure in doing many of the same things I 

 do ; Iiut I am not a millionaire, and, like yourself, 

 don't want to be nor do I hope to be. I worship and 

 praise the good Lord from day to day ; am a strict 

 Prohibitionist and i,n ardent advocate of woman's 

 rights, including suffrage. I keep chickens and 

 waterfowl, golden Italian bees, and read Gleanings 

 all through, cover to cover, and am glad when the 

 number is extra largo. Now you know me. 



I have discovered that the curved end of your 

 hive-tool is a handy thing for scraping the dirt off 

 eggs before wiping them off with the damp cloth, 

 especially Indian Runner eggs, which are very dirty 

 sometimes. You can try this quite easily. 



My next suggestion: In last Gleanings it is said 

 that the " devil's darning-needle " or mosquito-hawk 

 causes great damage to your bees in Florida. Last 

 summer they came at my bees; and a yonug doctor, 

 an expert rifle shot, took his 22 Winchester and sat 

 down by the hives and just " popped away " at them. 

 He killed many, and they quit coming. There are 

 probably more in your beo localities; but I think if 

 you take a shot gun with smallest shot called "mus- 

 tard seed," and shoot it into them many would be 

 killed, and the rest would be scared away. I shall 

 try this way if they bother me this summer. 



W. H. SiSSON. 



Magnolia Springs, Ala., July 5. 



