GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1917 



By putting on the rake attachment you can 

 hang a basket or two on the teeth of the 

 rake, or lay your hoe across the rake teeth 

 in a like manner. 



T>y the waj^, we had such a late and cold 

 spring that much of my gardien stuff was too 

 late to mature ; but we suceGeded in growing 

 quite a few dasheens, even if the frost did 

 catch them early in October. This is the 

 fourth season we have gi'own them here in 

 Ohio, and I still think that a soup made of 

 dashcen tubers, eaten Avith ci-acke*'s, is 

 about as good as an oyster stew. 



THE BADY'S delight WATERMELON. 



We have grown this luscious little melon 

 again this season. There are three things 

 that, in my mind, put them ahead of any 

 other watermelon. First, the seeds are so 

 small that you do not have to bother with 

 them at all. Just go right ahead as if there 

 were no seeds. Second, the little melons 

 are delicious, even if they are not ripe. 

 Third, they are so veiy early that they are 

 ready for use before any of the big melons 

 get anywliere near it. T do not thirk that 

 any of them this year got really ripe. 

 When I saw that the seeds and the flesli 

 were not even coloured at all when frost 

 came, I thought they were no good until I 

 tasted. Mrs. Root said, " Now, look here. 

 If you eat all of that unripe melon for sut^- 

 per 3'ou just see what Avill happen." Well, 

 nothing did " happen," and I have done the 

 .same thing again and again ; and I do be- 

 lieve they are the most luscious watermelon 

 T ever tasted, m^en when unripei. Burpee 

 suggests in his catalog that they are just 

 right to serve like grapefruit, giNang each 

 guest lialf a melon ; but he says the average 

 guest would be pretty sure to want the other 

 half after he had finished the first one. 



DREER BUSH CANTALOUPE. 



When T saw by Dreer's catalog that they 

 had a cantaloupe that grows on bushes, it 

 made me think of the old couplet: 



Hail Columbia, happy landl 



Where the gold it hangs on bushes, 

 And the fish swim on dry land. 



DT'eer says that, on account of the bushy 

 habit, one can plant the mielons only three 

 feet apart; and I confess I rather expected 

 to see the melons hang on the bushes. They 

 did not do that, however; but just as soon 

 as the great sturdy plants began to branch 

 out, the little melons set so thickly as almost 

 to touch each other. They are not quite as 

 large as the babj' watermelons, but are fully 

 equal to any other cantaloupe we have ever 

 gotten hold of unless it is a cantaloupe that 

 was brought us bj' " Mel Pritchard." I 

 thinlv he said he got it of Kellogg, the 



strawberry-mani, of Three Rivers, Mich. 

 Ho said the seed cost something like a 

 dollar for a teaspoonful. This cantaloupe 

 is certainly one of the best; and it has such 

 a small cavity for the seeds that you 

 have a good lot of luscious melon. I do 

 not suppose the seed will cost so much an- 

 other season. 



THE POTATO-PENS AND THEIR OUTCOME UP TO 

 DATE. 



Tt seems tliis whole thing has turned out 

 even worse than I anticipated. Thl^i most 

 promising-looking pen in our vicinity — <one 

 that showed rank-looking vines over the top 

 of the pen, and to a certain eixtent over the 

 sides, did not give as many potatoes as were 

 plainted. Only thoae' on top or near the top, 

 and those close to the outside, made any 

 growth at all. Quite a number of inquiries 

 have come in in relation to this matter. 

 Below is onia of the replies I received from 

 Successful Farming: 



Dear Mr. Root Thank you very much for ad- 

 vising about the results produced by the potato- 

 pens. It seems that people will have to go along 

 continuing to use the level surface of the earth for 

 potato^growing instead of buildingi towers of Babel 

 or growing potatoes in the air. 



Successful Farming. 

 P. J. Wright, Ass't Adv. Mgr. 

 Des Moines, Iowa, October 20, 1917. 



There is a good wholesome mioral in this 

 whole thing. When yo'U are looking for ac- 

 curate information as to what is being done 

 in the farming busin:esS( or any thing 'else, 

 do not get your information fi'om the Sun- 

 day daily papers. 



Later. — I have just received one more re- 

 port which, perhaps, Ave may say is a little 

 more encouraging. A friend of mine made 

 a small pen and planted one peck of pota- 

 toes. He just reported digging three pecks 

 of very nice large tubers. But this friend 

 took great pains, even hauling rich soil from 

 the river-bottom two miles away; and h?' ha-; 

 actually succeeded in getting three times as 

 many iDotatoes out of his pen as he planted 

 — ^not very encouraging when we consider 

 that he ought to have had something like 25 

 pecks from the one peck if it had be':^!! 

 planted in ths good old-fashioned way. 



A report from the " HENDRICKS PEN." 



Dear Mr. Root: — I made a trip to Mr. Hendricks, 

 of potato-pen fame, whom I found at home. By the 

 way, I had known him for a number of years. His 

 pen, a small one, was a total failure. He says he is 

 not discouraged, however, and will profit in future 

 by his experience. In the first place he says a 

 fiiend brought him a load of fertilizer which caused 

 the potatoes to grow to vines. It should have been 

 a light soil with mostly sand and trash to keep it 

 loose. He also says " the excessive rains caused 

 the soil to pack and bake — should have had a cover 

 to shed off the rain." Some reports he received 

 v/ere a success, but mostly failure. I have seen 



