936 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



My experience would indicate that the 

 above is much too high. The writer prob- 

 ably has a large machine that cost $1500 or 

 $2000, and will hold several persons; other- 

 wise his gasoline certainly would not cost 

 2 cts. a mile. Where we get the gasoline 

 by the barrel here in Medina it does not 

 cost us more than half a cent a mile for gas- 

 oline. With one who is an old hand with 

 the machine, and knows exactly how to use 

 it, like the man with the horse and buggy, 

 I do not think the repairs should exceed one 

 cent a mile — perhaps not more than half 

 that. As the cheapest machines cost, how- 

 ever, about $600 or $700, the depreciation in 

 value perhaps might make it a good deal 

 more than I have mentioned. 



The last item is tires. Three tires have 

 failed with our machine in traveling per- 

 haps 3000 miles. Two of them can be re- 

 paired so as to do a good deal of service 

 yet; but one was condemned by the manu- 

 facturers as fit only for the scrap-heap, but 

 was replaced as the guarantee had not ex- 

 pired. Perhaps we might say one tire, 

 worth $15, has been used up. This would 

 make >< ct. a mile for the tires only. But 

 a large number of people who have used 

 autos for long runs say my tires were not 

 what they ought to have been, or else they 

 have had very hard usage. A good many 

 tell me to use solid tires, even if I do get a 

 little more bumping. I have never tried 

 them on an automobile. The manufactur- 

 ers told me that nobody wants to ride with 

 a solid tire; and when we come to consider 

 that the automobile is the easiest-riding ve- 

 hicle in the world — that is, as we have it 

 now — I am afraid we can not consider sol- 

 id tires. My opinion is, tires ought not to 

 cost to exceed one cent a mile; and I think 

 our manufacturers and inventors will soon 

 give us easy-riding tires that will not cost 

 that amount. It is hardly fair to contrast 

 an automobile, that carries you with so few 

 bumps that you can ride 150 miles a day 

 without being wearied at all, with our best 

 metal-tired carriages. You could put metal 

 tires on the automobile, I presume, but it 

 might be a little harder because of the jolt- 

 ing of the machinery. As friend Doolittle 

 has an automobile, and has probably used 

 it quite a little by this time, I wish he 

 would tell us how much per mile it costs him 

 to run it. He will know, for he is a very 

 careful man. 



THE SLOR PLUM. 



Two or three years ago this plum was 

 mentioned several times, and we planted 

 three or four trees that bore quite a crop 

 last year, and a much larger one this year. 

 I have never seen one stung by the curculio, 



and they never rot on the trees. I consider 

 them one of the most delicious plums I ever 

 tasted, but perhaps many would not agree 

 with me. I suppose they are a variety of 

 the wild plum. I saw something very much 

 like them in South Dakota. They were 

 there in the market, and I have also fgund 

 them in different places. They are very 

 handsome, much resembling in shape and 

 color a beautiful cherry, only larger. They 

 ripen very late — about the first of October. 

 We find them very nice for canning. They 

 have a peculiar flavor unlike that of any of 

 the tame plums. I believe the same thing 

 has been sold by nurserymen under the 

 name of "Japan plum." There is a pe- 

 culiarity about them belonging more espe- 

 cially to most wild plums. The tree, if 

 allowed to, will send up suckers all 

 around, and these suckers commence to 

 bear when they are about as high as cur- 

 rant-bushes. If I am correct, the variety 

 is a constant bearer, producing good crops 

 every year ; and. as I have said before, so 

 far they are immune to both curculio and 

 the plum-rot. I presume the trees can be 

 furnished by almost any up-to-date nur- 

 seryman. 



LIPPIA NODIFLOR\, OR LIPPIA REPENS; 

 CARPET GRASS, ETC. 



The following we take from one of the 

 government bulletins: 



A LAWN-PLANT AND SOIL-BINDER FOR ARID REGIONS. 



The great value of a plant which will form a satis- 

 factory sward, and prove a successful soil-binder under 

 the conditions of the arid region, will be readily admit- 

 ted. The observations and experiments of the Arizona 

 station, supplementing experience in Southern Califor- 

 nia, indicate that these requirements are met to a great 

 extent by lippia,or fog-fruit (Libpia nodijlora). a plant 

 belonging to the same family as the lantanas and vtr- 

 benas. The plant is found in tropical and sub-tropical 

 regions, and occurs in this country in the South Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf States, and from Texas to California, prin- 

 cipally along sandy shores and watercourses " It is a 

 perennial, herbaceous, much-branched, creeping plant, 

 the stems of which root extensively at the nodes. The 

 thickened opposite leaves are an inch long or less, most- 

 ly blunt at the tips and rather sharply 'saw- toothed * 

 above. The roots become grea ly thickened below in 

 autumn, and this reserve-food supply undoubtedly en- 

 ables the pant to begin growth in the spring with lit- 

 tle or no rain, and also to maintain itself during long 

 adverse periods " It has practically no value as a for- 

 age-plant, because it develops a relatively limited veg- 

 etative growth, and animals dislike it ; but the obser- 

 vations of t he .\rizona station indicate that it can main- 

 tain a continuous layer of green with less water than 

 any other desirable p'ant known to that region. Dur- 

 ing the summer of 1902 it maintained itself for eight 

 months on th^- me.sa with less than two inches of rain- 

 fall. Not only is it a remarkable drouth-resister, but 

 it can endure without injury extremes of tempeiature 

 varying from 10 degrees to 110 degrees F. It is, how- 

 ever, only slightly resistant to alkali, a though it has 

 been found to thrive in soils too alkaline for loses 



The plant possesses special advantages a« a sand and 

 soil binder. "' When set two feet apart in favorable sit- 

 uations, it was observed that well-rooted plants of the 

 fog-fiuit covered the surface completely during only 

 one season's growth ; and there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that it will do equally well in moist sandy wash- 

 es, since it favors such locations " 



It will doubtless prove equally effectivein preventing 

 washing of reservoir and stormwater embankments. 



As a lawn grass for regions in which the ii.sual lawn 

 grass is grown with difficulty, if at all lippia seems to 

 have peculiar advantages, it is very easily grown, and 

 " forms a smooth carpet of green, interspersed with 

 many small capitate flower-clu.sters of rose-purple, va- 

 rying to nearly white. In general, it gives all the ef- 



