NOVEMBEE, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Well, I often think of tluit liyinn, and 1 

 fear I have been tempted to put the name 

 of dear Mrs. Root first instead of the Lord 

 and Savior. Well, if heaven means another 

 meeting with the dear wife, it would surcii/ 

 be '^heaven for wk;"; and if I am to hear 

 music such as that little girl produced on 

 that chime of bells, that too will be beyond 

 any joy I ever expected to feel here on this 

 earth. After she ceased and had gone back 

 home I could not get the memory of it out 

 of my mind; and my kind entertainer, Mr. 

 rianna, soon called her back again to play 

 Bonnie Doon o»ce more for your old friend 

 A. I. Root. Of course I asked q-uestions. I 

 wondered at the marvelous skill of such a 

 child, and inquired who taught her to play. 

 It was the manager's wife, and we had the 

 pleasure of meeting her too. She said Bon 

 nie Doon was the one piece that she learned 

 to play without written music. 



The next thing after the chime of bells 

 was a visit to a little chapel. Friend Sibley 

 has about 35 men working on his 1300 acres, 

 and most of these men have families, and 

 these families constitute quite a little vil- 

 lage about the chapel. In this chapel they 

 have a Sunday school every Sunday, and 

 preaching or some sort of address to the 

 people when a speaker can conveniently be 

 secured. 



On our way up the mountain I noticed 

 quite a few oil-pumping rigs in operation. 

 I have forgotten how many of them are 

 scattered all over the mountain. A "power- 

 house" conveniently situated operates the 

 pumps, and they are pumping up oil more 

 or less every day. When I inquired how 

 long these pumps had been working like 

 that, they said, about thirty yearfi. You will 

 notice in the above this is probably one of 

 the first localities in Pennsylvania to hear 

 of the great oil excitement in 1859; and this 

 oil is probably what furnished friend Sibley 

 the means to get on in fixing up this moun- 

 tain, and making experiments in the way 

 of agriculture and stock raising for the bene- 

 fit not only of Pennsylvania but perhaps for 

 the (jreat wide world. ■ 



The letter below explains itself: 



The Artichoke (or Big Thistle) of California. 



Dear Father: 



Your letter and article ahout the artichokes 

 came Saturday. It is odd, but I was very much 

 carried away by artichokes on our visit to Cali- 

 fornia a year asro last March. They were in their 

 prime then, and beins; plentiful and cheap around 

 San Francisco I used to order one every day. 

 Then cousin Amy served them every time we ate 

 at her honse. I thought they were the most de- 

 licious vegetable I ever tasted, but I find none 

 of the rest of the family shares my enthusiasm 

 for them. I like them boiled and then eaten 

 hot dipped into mayonnaise dressing or melted but- 

 ter. The leaves should be stripped back until 

 you find some which are tender and then one 

 leaf at a time should be pulled off, dipped into 

 the dressing and eaten as far as it is tender. 

 Toward the center of the artichoke the whole 

 leaf may be eaten, and then at the base, after all 

 the leaves are gone, is the delicious "choke." I 

 had not known enough to eat that part until 

 Amy's husband taught me that it is the best 

 part. 



They are grown to tlie best advantage around 

 San l'''rancisco where there are such frequent fogs, 

 but they are often seen here in private gardens, 

 iiltlio I do not think they are raised commercial- 

 ly. Mr. Dye had a great many plants, and I saw 

 the buds on them when they were all ready to pick. 

 They retail here for about 2.5c apiece, altho once 

 or twice tliey were to be found as cheap as 10c. 

 Wo bought a few once at the latter price, but that 

 is the only time we have tried them since coming 

 here to live. I believe they are much cheaper 

 around San Francisco. I think that article was 

 jirobably true in all details. I will ask the Dyes if 

 they cut their plants down at certain times of the 

 year, but I am quite sure they do. 



Constance Root Bovden. 

 1301 West Alhambra Road, Alhambra, Calif., Sept. 

 26, 1922. 



Artichokes a Pest, Etc. 



My good friends, I have devoted quite a 

 lot of space to raising artichokes, and it 

 would be no more than fair to give some- 

 thing on the other side, and so I submit the 

 following from my long-time friend (a man 

 who is surely awny up in the agricultural 

 world), the editor of the Rural New-Yorker: 



I am very sure that artichokes will become a 

 pest if put into the ordinary garden or field, and 

 given a fair chance. I got my first information 

 about it from John M. Jamison, who formrly lived 

 at Roxabell in your state, who was quite a well- 

 known farmer and writer. I visited his place some 

 years ago, and he showed mo how the artichoke had 

 chased almost everything off his farm. 



H. W. Collingwood, Editor. 



333 West 30th St., New York. 



In reply to the above I would say that 

 for almost 50 years they have been saying 

 the same thing about sweet clover; but now 

 it is acknowledged to be one of the best 

 plants, for filling silos for the dairyman, of 

 anything known. (In this issue there is a 

 report of 400 pounds of sweet-clover honey 

 per colony.) From what I saw of artichokes 

 at friend Sibley's place, for silage and for 

 hay, if it is bound to "chase everything off 

 the farm, ' ' as Collingwood has it, I would 

 say, let it chase.* 



Some years ago, through Gleanings I had 

 quite a little to say about the "helianti" 

 and artichokes; and in order to compare them 

 I had quite a patch of each; and I spoke 

 about them as honey plants because they 

 were so densely covered with bee's. When 

 we decided there were too few of the heli- 

 anti we gave them up. Of course they all 

 went to seed; and the seed and tubers, by 

 cultivation with the cutaway and other tools, 

 were scattered all over the garden. The 

 next spring I was greatly worried, and sup- 

 posed, of course, they would keep coming; 

 \>\\t when the excitement about artichokes 

 started up this season I searched my gar- 

 den over to see if I could not find a few 

 plants for a further test. Not a plant can 

 be found of either artichokes or helianti 



*Tn a letter from L. W. Lighty, of the National 

 Stockman and Farmer, he says: 



"I find all stock readily eat the ]>lants. and sheep 

 are very fond of them. It grows very readily and. if 

 the soil is fertile, the foliage will be heavy, but 

 in poor soil it will be very light. The plants left 

 are in full bloom now and have tubers seemingly 

 plentiful, but only on digging them will T know 

 iiow the vield is. "L. W. Lighty." 



Pittsburgh, Pa., Sept. 25, 1923, 



