GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



1 to'.d you last winter when visiting you at Bra- 

 dentown about their melon crops; and from my 

 window as I write, just across, are their cold-frames 

 filled with pint berry-boxes set solid, Hnd two to 

 three melon-plants now up in each box, some start- 

 ing the second leaves. I was over at noon to inves- 

 tigate for this report, and took measurements of 

 their beds. I find there is 18,024 square feet under 

 gla .s, and all solidly filled with the small boxes with 

 plants and seeds, as a few of the latter are not up 

 yet. These boxes are to be transferred to hill spaces 

 in the field at the proper time. Their fields are 

 marked off one way eight feet, and the cross four 

 feet; then in placing the plant boxes each alternate 

 four-foot mark is missed in opposite rows, so that 

 in cultivating it makes rows- one way four feet apart 

 and eight the other. This plant is only a part of 

 their fields for this year. Bugs do not respect their 

 plants above their neighbors, so they would not use 

 a remedy that is not a sure thing. The lime is a 

 benefit to the plant life in the land. They now 

 have 120 acres under overhead irrigation, and work- 

 ing this dry weather. As you spoke of so doing, you 

 had better come over and see them this summer. 



Three Rivers, Mich., May 11. M. L. Brewer. 



My good friend Brewer, I have used 

 ' erosene on sawdust, and at first I thought 

 t was going to do ths business; but after a 

 while the bugs became so greedy, at least 

 here in Medina, that they did not pay much 

 attention to it. Then I tried strong tobacco 

 dust, and that did very well until we had a 

 rain. 1 finally saved my plants, but it was 

 only by eternal vigilance. I have in mind 

 this Kellogg in.stitution ; but here in Medina, 

 at this date, June 3, we have been having 

 such abundant rains that I cannot even get 

 out to try my new Ford automobile. 



PRICKIjy PEAR IN AUSTRALIA. 



Mr. Root: — For about a year I have been a sub- 

 scriber of Gleanings. I always read it carefully 

 from one end to the other, and never get tired of it. 

 You must not think I am a great beekeeper, for I 

 am only starting; but, beekeeper or not, and even 

 if it cost me my last penny, I must have Gleanings. 

 But now for the reason of this letter: 



Yesterday I received Gleanings for .Tune 1!^, and 

 on page 515 I read something about the food value 

 of the prickly pear. You must know that I am a 

 Dutchman, and left my own country five years ago. 

 When I came here I had some money and took up 

 some land — the piece where I live now. That land 

 WHS infested with prickly pear ; bi:t I thought it 

 was possible to clean that rubbish off. You should 

 know that I have to clean the pear or I lose my 

 land. But after five years I have cleaned only about 

 JO acres out of 130. We lived as carefully as 

 possible ; but, all the same, I lost every penny I had 

 on that stuff; and so it is. not only with me but 

 with all my neighbors ; and not only my surrounding 

 people are sufferina:, but hundreds and hundreds of 

 selectors who took up prickly-pear land. Some acres 

 cost up to $75 to $100 for the first cleaning. The 

 next year that same acre will be like a whcatfield, 

 so thick is the young pear coming up again from 

 seed. In a word, the prickly pear is the pest of 

 Queensland. 



1 would not have stopped here at all had not an 

 American, Mr. Roberts, come here to Queensland 

 with a new invention to clean pear with a gas. I 

 managed to buy an outfit for gas, and that is doing 

 good work. The densest pear can be treated now 

 for $3.60 an acre, so that is a blessing. 



This letter is to give a warning to people about 

 prickly pear. It is believed here generally that the 

 pear is practically good for nothing. It grows any- 

 where and everywhere on good and bad soil, in the 

 sun and in the shade, with rain and without rain, 

 even on rocks and on some stumps and trees. Birds, 

 cows, wallabys, kangaroos — in fact, all animals that 

 eat the fruit, spread the seed, and so, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that thousands of acres arc cleaned 

 evei'y year the pear in Queensland is increasing at 

 the rate of one million acres a year. 



There is an agricultural bank here from the 

 government for helping the new settler on the land 

 with some money to i arry him over the first few 

 dillicult years. But that bank decided a few months 

 ago not to lend a penny to prickly-pear selectors, 

 so frightened is even the government at this pest. 

 They have lost too heavily on prickly-pear selections : 

 therefore my question, " Must we not give warning 

 to other countries, or arc we all mistaken, and is 

 pear a valuable plant ? Then, again, is it paying to 

 make prickly pear into fodder ' Of course this has 

 much to do with prices of land and wages. Land 

 runs here from about $10 to $50 an acre, and 

 wages are about $2.00 a day. 



Perhaps you will be so kind as to give this a 

 thought ; and if you think it is a pest, please tell 

 your own folks through your paper; and if you 

 think it con be made into paying fodder, please be 

 so kind as to write me. 



I hope you will excuse me for my broken English; 

 but you must remember it is not my own language. 



W. Mertens. 



Gayndah, Queensland, Australia. 



Many thanks, my good friend, for your 

 kind letter. No doubt the variety of prick- 

 ly pear you have is a nuisance; but my im- 

 pression is that the spineless cactus we have 

 here, and which is selling as high as several 

 dollars a leaf, is quite a different thing 

 from your prickly pear. I have gone over 

 all of your letter most carefully, but do not 

 find a word in regard to the spineless va- 

 riety. The spineless now growing in my 

 ^aarden is perliaps a foot wide and a couple 

 of feet long — no spines whatever; in fact, 

 you might give them to the baby to play 

 with, and it lias been abundantlj' demon- 

 strated that cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and 

 even poultry, eat them with avidity. It 

 must be your \ariety is different from the 

 new kinds we have here, or that your soil 

 is in some way peculiar. 



After you eradicate this wild prickly 

 pear, could you not grow the spineless 

 kind? Has anything of that sort been tried 

 so far as you know? I should be glad to 

 hear from you further. 



SPINELBSS CACTUS IN OREGON. 



In regard to the spineless cactus, I got some 

 years ago. I paid a big price for them. I took 

 the best of care of them, and expected wonders; but 

 in return they only dragged along for a year or two, 

 and finally died. I think it is too wet and cold hero. 



You know Burbank sold out to a tiompany, and 

 they tried to get me to take shares; but T wanted to 

 see what the thing was worth before investing 

 money in it. "While they may do all right in a warm 

 dry climate I am satisfied they are not a success in 

 this part of the country. 



Laurel, Ore., Dec. 2. Mrs. Sarah Parr. 



