1514 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C ULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



Cattle have an especial fondness for basswood 

 boughs and loliasie. so that the young trees must be 

 carefully protected from them. 



The plantation should be carefully guarded from 

 Are, and should be allowed to assume the character 

 of a forest as soon as it can. 



EUONYMUS VARIEGATA AUREA; A HARDY 

 ORNAMENTAL FOLIAGE EVERGREEN. 



Two or three years ago my daughter called 

 my attention to a plant that stood in the 

 Sunday-school room of our church. She said 

 it seerued neglected — that is, noljody seemed 

 to water it, and it was left in a room having 

 a freezing temperature. But its leaves look- 

 ed liright and glossy, even th(jugh covered 

 with dust. She ventured to clip off a little 

 twig, may be two inches long, and asked if 

 I could give the name. I told her I could 

 not: but 1 put it in the cutting-bed of the 

 greenhouse, and in a little time it put out 

 i-oots and made a plant. The leaves are of a 

 dark glossy green, smooth and shining as 

 the leaves of the rubber-plant. But, besides 

 this, a part of the foliage shows spots or 

 blotches of a very bright golden hue. A 

 good-sized plant presents an appearance that 

 makes you think the sun is shining through 

 the foliage overhead, and just striking cer- 

 tain leaves or parts of leaves. As the plant 

 increased in size it showed occasionally a 

 twig with whole leaves of gold, and other 

 leaves that were part gold and part green. 

 Our florist here did not know the name of it, 

 and nobody seemed to know what it should 

 be called; but while on a visit to our experi- 

 ment station at Wooster I saw the same 

 plant in the center of a bed of ornamentals 

 under the buildings. They said it was a 

 species of euonymus. During the severe 

 frost we had in the fore part of October all 

 tender plants in our dooryard were killed 

 outright; but the euonymus stood up as 

 bright and shining as it had been all summer 

 and through the fall; in fact, it rather seem- 

 ed to enjoy the freeze, and during the recent 

 blight days of Indian siimmer it has been 

 putting out new foliage. After my attention 

 w^as called to this beautiful plant I noticed it 

 in George W. Park's list of five-cent plants, 

 and sent for two — one named aurea and the 

 other argentea. The aurea, which' means 

 gold, seemed exactly like the one I grew 

 from the slip; but after I put them outdooi's 

 I got the two mixed so I can not tell wheth- 

 er the one I admire so much now came from 

 Park or not. It does not matter so much, 

 any way. The plant in question is about 

 two feet tall. It has a very pretty bushy 

 head, and the limbs seem inclined to grow 

 pretty nearly straight up. Very likely it will 

 winter outdoors; but it is so handsome I put 

 it into a ten-inch pot, and I am going to keep 

 it in the greenhouse. 



I have always been fond of ornamental 

 foliage plants. You see they are always in 

 blossom — that is, they are always showing 

 their l;)eauty. This one is so handsome I 

 think it wovild sell for a dollar almost any- 

 where: but I should not want to part with it 

 for several dollars. As I look at it and feel 

 happy, I wonder the hardy euonymus has 



not received more attention in the past. It 

 will stand neglect, and will keep alive better 

 than any other plant I ever saw. I have 

 now perhaps half a dozen plants, and I ex- 

 pect to leave them all outdoors except the 

 handsomest one. I wrote to our experiment 

 station in regard to leaving them outdoors, 

 and here is the reply of one of the professors: 



Mr. A. I. Root: — Your letter of inquiry regarding 

 hardiness of euonymus has been referred by Prof. 

 Thorne to me for reply. The sort which you enclose 

 is practically hardy. However, to prevent injury 

 from freezing and thawing it is well to give slight pro- 

 tection. This can readily be done by turning over 

 each plant a nail-keg or small barrel, after the plant 

 has had a small quantity of straw or grass packed and 

 wrapped about it. W. E. Bostrageb, 



In charge of ornamental planting, O. A. E. S. 



Wooster, O.. Oct. 22. 



I 



THE BLACK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA, CON- 

 TINUED. 



There are two different lines of railroad 

 running through the Black Hills — the Chica- 

 go & N()rthwestern on the east, and the Bur- 

 lington on the west. I found that, to take 

 in the Black Hills completely, I would need 

 to go up one route and come back on the 

 other. I had no transportation over the Bur- 

 lington; but it was only a hundred miles to 

 Spearhsh, close by the terminus of the North- 

 western. In the East we get transportation, 

 for 3 cents a mile, and even less; but here I 

 found it was something over $6.00 to make 

 that hundred miles. But I could get a round- 

 trip ticket for about $7.50. It seems to me 

 this is hardly fair to the traveling public, but. 

 very likely the railroad companies have their 

 reasons. ' When I came to see the curves and 

 turns, and the expense of building a railroad 

 through and over the mountains, especially 

 in a mining region, it occurred to me that 

 perhaps 6 cents a mile might not be too 

 much. But why didn't they charge some- 

 thing like that price both ways? 



I took along a list of our subscribers so as- 

 to call on bee-keepers as far as I could. .At 

 Edgemont I found we had a^ subscriber, 

 and she was a lady besides. When I arriv- 

 ed at Edgemont Junction, and found we wei'e 

 to wait there an hour or more, I began to 

 look around for bee-keepers; but there wa.s. 

 not a house of any kind in sight in any di- 

 rection. My attention was soon directed to 

 an enormous windmill — the largest one I 

 ever saw, and it was pumping water laljori- 

 ously. Next I saw near the windmill a tank- 

 car on a side-track, loaded with water. I 

 supposed this was medical water from Hot 

 Springs. It was allowed to drip down be- 

 tween the ties into an enormous cistern. 



