602 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI 



STRAWBERRIES ON THE FLORIDA KEYS. 



The soil on our island is peculiar, and not 

 every thing succeeds on it. I was quite anx- 

 ious to see strawberries tried, and sent to 

 Hastings & Co., Atlanta, Ga., for 100 Ex- 

 celsior plants by mail. The plants were 

 good-sized roots, but they looked as if they 

 had been some time out of the ground, and 

 I did not expect very much of them. I plant- 

 ed 50 in my own garden, and let our neigh- 

 bor, Mr. McAuley, have the other 50. I was 

 surprised at the way the plants started to 

 grow, and let a few of them bear berries; 

 but mine were not of much account, and I 

 did not expect they would be, so soon after 

 planting. Well, you can imagine my sur- 

 prise when the little girls this morning (April 

 6) brought me about as fine a strawberry as 

 I ever saw, picked from the plants Mr. M. 

 put out the last day of February. They had 

 a few fair berries in just 30 days from plant- 

 ing, and quite a handful this forenoon, 36 days 

 from planting. Although I had kept track 

 of the plants pretty well I was so much as- 

 tonished I made tracks at once for his place. 

 I could hardly believe my eyes. There were 

 50 beautiful luxuriant plants full of bloom 

 and green berries, and sending out runners 

 in profusion. The great glossy-green leaves, 

 without a trace of rust or blight, made my 

 heart bound with the possibilities of "our 

 island." 



Mr. Shumard thinks, however, that this 

 may be a spot of soil especially adapted to 

 the strawberry, and that they may not do 

 so well on much of our ground; but the mat- 

 ter is one easily tested. The only fertilizer 

 used was a slight dressing of E. Painter's 

 vegetable fertilizer, rot over at the rate of 

 300 lbs to the acre. The ground is some of 

 the first cleared up on the island, and I be- 

 lieve it is true that the old land is better for 

 many things than the new. Had we plant- 

 ed one- fourth acre, instead of only 50 plants, 

 on ground all like this, there would have 

 been quite a picking of nice berries in only 

 five or six weeks after the plants were set. 



Things are so different here from the 

 North, a new comer is often tempted to say 

 this ground is "no good" for any thing; but 

 one who is watching for "God's gifts" will 

 often meet with " happy surprises " like the 

 one I have mentioned. 



of 5 ounces, breaking my own record of three years ago, 

 and the world's record by % of an ounce. A common 

 quart box holds 18 ounces. Good Candies and Brandy- 

 wines run from 25 to 30 in a box. Four of my berries 

 would have filled a box and almost two ounces to spare. 

 The weighing was witnessed by three officials at the 

 government pomological department, and the berry 

 photographed, and modeled in wax for their show-case. 

 It was 11 inches around, and 3Ji inches in diameter. I 

 will mail you a photograph of it. 



Arthur T. Goldsborough. 

 Wesley Heights, Wash., D. C. 



A STRAWBERRY ALMOST A FOOT IN CIR- 

 CUMFERENCE. 



Now, friends, this is not a fish story, but 

 it is an honest truth that comes from a man 

 who has a national reputation in originating 

 new varieties of strawberries. I have vis- 

 ited his place, and am personally acquaint- 

 ed with him. Read what he says: 



It has been a long time, Bro. Root, since we have had 

 a strawberry talk. I will fruit next June 900 seedling 

 strawberries. As each has a label, and six runners 

 taken off each, and separately described in a big book, 

 you can imagine the work, and no one helps me. One of 

 my seedlings took the first-medal award at St. Louis 

 last year. The judge said they were Jar bigger than 

 any others shown there, although the largest was not 

 quite 2^2 ounces. This year I had one within a fraction 



SWEET CLOVER; WILL IT GROW IN FLORIDA? 

 YELLOW SWEET CLOVER, ETC. 



In reply to Dr. Miller's Straw I would say 

 that I tried seeds of all of our honey- plants 

 in my garden on the island. Rocky Moun- 

 tain bee plant and spider-plant came up 

 promptly, and will probably do all right. 

 Sunflower grew very well, but borage was 

 the most luxuriant of the seeds in our cata- 

 log. Crimson clover seemed to start out 

 nicely. Sweet clover was sown outside of 

 my poultry-netting inclosure; but the little 

 chicks I have mentioned nipped it off as soon 

 as it came in sight. I tried some more, 

 fencing off the chickens, buti t was not up 

 when I left. Globe thistle started out lux- 

 uriantly; and, by the way, there is a com- 

 mon thistle covering a great part of the isl- 

 and, that grows larger than I ever saw any 

 thistle in the North, and the bees were all 

 very busy on it, getting both pollen ^ind hon- 

 ey, during February, March, and April. 

 While we are talking about sweet clover, 

 below is a letter giving one advantage that 

 yellow sweet clover has over the white: 



Please save me fO lbs. of the yellow variety of sweet 

 clover, and do not fail me. I see that the yellow variety 

 comes up first in the spring, and I have about four 

 acres of it. My cows and horses are crazy to get on it; 

 but as I want to save it for seed and earljr blooming I 

 do not want them on it. I also have about nine acres of 

 the white variety; but it is a little slower to start in the 

 spring. R. L. Snodgrass. 



Gordon, Kan., April 12. 



The above letter reminds me that we are 

 not only sold out entirely of yellow-sweet- 

 clover seed, but the constant call f'>r sweet- 

 clover seed of every kind is coming in from 

 every direction in a way we never knew it 

 before. It seems that the world generally 

 is beginning to discover that none of the 

 clovers should ever be called noxious weeds. 

 If there are horses or cattle anywhere that 

 have not learned to eat tender sweet clover 

 when it first comes up, they are certainly 

 lacking in education. 



SWEET CLOVER AND NITROGEN BACTERIA. 



The following from the Rural New- Yorker 

 explains itself: 



Mr. Jamison, of Southern Ohio, finds it hard to under- 

 stand why farmers in other sections should go to such 

 pains to get a stand of alfalfa. Inoculating, using lime 

 and fertilizers, and all the petting and fussing which 

 some writers advocate, seem useless to him, for in his 

 locality all one has to do is to fit the land and sow the 

 seed. In that section sweet clover grows in abundance, 

 therefore inoculation is not necessary. 



Where sweet clover grows, there is no 

 use in sending off for inoculated soil or inocu- 

 lating bacteria. Sweet clover does the busi- 

 ness, works for nothing, and boards itself. 



