586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



came from the same seed that had lain in the ground 

 a J ear. This year I planted a larger quantity of 

 seed, but not a plant has cnmc. I think next spring- 

 I shall try setting the plants. Now, Novice, ynu 

 have had perhaps more experience than anj- one in 

 trying to raise this plant, and have told us a good 

 deal about it from time to time; I believe you would 

 hardly do a better service to the fraternity than to 

 tell us just how you wouM now go about getting an 

 acre of figwort to growing. At what price will you 

 furnish us plants next spring? how far shall they be 

 set apart? what soil is tiest? how prepared? how cul- 

 tivated? You say the self-sown seeds have come up 

 by the million on your plantation. If I should sow 

 the seeds this fall, would they not come up next 

 spring the same as j'our self-sown seed? What is 

 the seed worth per pound? 



I got a peck of melilot, and am sowing it aling 

 the road-sides, and I wonder if it would not pay me 

 to sow some in drills to be cultivated. 



I notice that catnip prows spontaneously along 

 fence and hedge-rows, and in partially shaded places: 

 and 1 have been pulling off the seed-heads and scat- 

 tering them where none were already growing, in 

 shady places. 



I planted Spider-plarit seed in open ground in the 

 spring of 1880. It came up well, and S( If-sown seeds 

 from those plants came up this year; but some seed 

 that I saved from the same plants, and sowed this 

 spring-, did not come up. What shall I do to get an 

 acre of Bpider plants growing? and what will the 

 seed cost per pound? Can any one tell us whether 

 the golden-honey pl^nt spoken of so highly by Dr. 

 Tinker is as valuable in other localities? 



Were the figwort seeds that came up in the potato 

 patch (p. fiBT), this year's or last yf ar's seed? 



Marengo, 111., Nov. 8, 1881. C. C. Milt.ek. 



I agree with yon, frienrl M.. that I would 

 rather hH\e an' acre ot (igwort than of any 

 othi r plant yet lirought lorwanl. Althoufjh 

 we have had perhaps two acie.s in bloom this 

 season, it is pretty hard to tell the ijuantity 

 of honey it ])rodnced, where between three 

 and fonr hundred eoloiiies wern at work on 

 it; but the fact that it was, durintj about 

 three months, suclt a i)erfect roar of bees as 

 to aslonii-h everybody, bee-men or not, tells 

 pretty strongly in its Yavor. If I could have 

 a single acre, say on some isolated spot, and 

 then plant only about ten colonies of bees 

 near it. I think we would huve comb honey 

 from it in sections for a good long spell. 

 Who ^vill make this experiment V Another 

 thing : This tigwort seems to be wonder- 

 fully plastic in "the hands of one who will 

 love nature enough to study its pecularities. 

 I liave before mentioned an early variety 

 that blooms even before white clover; and 

 its great hardiness, and habit of pu'iiiing up 

 its sti'ong green shoots, even before the 

 snow has ^oue at times, seems to promise 

 that it may be made to yield the very first 

 honey of the season, as ^vell as the last. We 

 have already had bees at work on it in May 

 and November, and every intervening month. 

 Another thing : lu picking my way through 

 the field one day (our patch down on the 

 sandy creek bottom was a little roaring 

 swamp, for the plants were higher than a 

 field of tall corn), I found one stalk, or root, 

 rather, bearing flowers of at least twice tlie 

 ordinary size, and 1 at the time proposed to 



tie a blue ribbon around the stalk so as to 

 save seed from it. It seemed to have honey 

 in proportion to the size of the flower, and 

 the bees seemed to like the large blossoms, 

 as it was so much easier to get into them. 

 In my mind there isn't a question but that 

 this plant of the woods may be so cultivated 

 as to enlarge its blossoms, just as much as 

 our garden flowers have been enlarged over 

 the wild plants. It should, how^ever, be 

 borne in mind that it is large globules of 

 honey, rather than lara:e showy blossoms, 

 we are after. Y ellow bands are very pretty, 

 but honey-gatherers are prettier, to the bee- 

 man who is in debt in the fall. I really do 

 not know whether I can Hnd that plant now 

 or not. When it stops raining I w^ill see. 

 Possibly the seed-pods are enough hirger for 

 identification. 



There seems to be something funny about 

 the failures in geltingr the seeds to grow. It 

 may not be so funny after all, to those who 

 have fussed and failed. If you get some 

 woods dirt and sand, perhaps half and half, 

 and sow the seeds in a box, and keep the 

 temperature right, with the air moist, I 

 think you can raise them by the million, 

 without fail. As a sash put over them keeps 

 a moist air over them, I think it may be 

 well, even indoors. They must not have too 

 much sun. A soil that will bake over the 

 top will not do at all. and there is where I 

 think so many fail. Our creek-bottom sand 

 seems to suit them exactly. This matter of 

 improving the plant by selection, requires a 

 great deal of time and care ; aad with all my 

 business it is almost out of the question for 

 me to attenipt it. Will not some of our 

 boys and girls attempt it ? The sale of seed 

 from improved i)lants will pay you well for 

 the labor. I would set the plants exactly as 

 corn is planted, and then give thpm corn 

 treatment, and nothing more. Our plants 

 almost invariably blossom the first season, 

 with any sort of "ordinary corn care. Those 

 that were self-sown in the potato patch, 

 from seed tliat I think ripened this season, 

 are in blossom now, this 18th day of Novem- 

 ber. With such ground as that, I would 

 simply itrepaie and mark out the ground ex- 

 actly as for corn, and sow the seed, say one 

 or two dozen seeds in a hill. Cultivate, hoe, 

 and weed ; and if some hills fail entirely, 

 cany i)lants from those having many. This 

 would save, in a great measure, the grievous 

 task of setting out an acre of plants; and I 

 tell you it is a grievotis task, as I well know. 

 The most I should fear wotdd be the hot stm 

 on the young plants ; but if the seed was 

 sown in April or May. I think it could be 

 managed. Von might have some plants in 

 a hotbed, to "fall back on," as the woman 

 said of her sewing-machine, if she failed in 

 making her boarding-house "pay." The 

 plants that I sold at 25 cents per hundred, 

 last spring did not pay me very well, nor 

 our customers either. I am sure somebody 

 in the plant business could make it pay, and 

 send thein without trouble. I can not pos- 

 sibly " spread " myself over so many things, 

 and" have them all do well. I often, of late, 

 think of the poor old hen that tried to sit on 

 69 eggs (if that was the number). If I rec- 

 collect rightly, there were some of them that 



