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GLEANINGS IN BEP: CULTURE. 



June 15 



that, after dandelions are past their season, 

 he gets his best crop of timothy hay right on 

 that very ground. During this cold backward 

 spring the bees have been bringing in more 

 honey and pollen from our acres of dandelions 

 than I ever saw them before; and it looks to 

 me now as if this plant that has been called 

 only a pest is one of God's greatest and most 

 precious gifts in making our Northern Ohio 

 clay soil "a land flowing with milk and hon- 

 ey," and both at the same time. 



Of course, I am aware that dandelions are 

 grown in the East, especially in the region 

 of Boston, for greens; but I have not heard 

 much about it of late yeai's. I think the doc- 

 tors have called bleached dandelions (such 

 as are grown especially for greens) a very 

 wholesome vegetable. Now, 1 wish some of 

 the milkmen would tell me whether our ex- 

 perience is an exception to the general rule. 

 Is that cow an extra cow? and is our locality 

 especially favorable for dandelions? or is the 

 present backward spring especially favorable 

 for the dandelions, for milk? 



After the above was dictated I found that 

 Ernest had also written an article in regard 

 to dandelions for bees, but it covers some- 

 what different grounds, and we give it here. 



DANDELIONS. 



Their Economic Importance, Especially this 

 Season. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



The dandelion in the vicinity of Medina 

 has made a most remarkable showing this 

 spring. The cold backward season has been 

 unfavorable for its growth; but during the 

 first few days of warm weather it came out 

 in all its glory. Our fields and our lawns 

 were fairly yellow with it. It came out just 

 in the nick of time. There was no fruit- 

 bloom out then, and the way our bees swarm- 

 ed upon it almost made us think of the roar 

 on the basswoods of midsummer. 



We have always regarded the dandelions 

 as a sort of pest on our lawns; but recent 

 authorities say that it is not a pest; that dan- 

 delion greens, dandelion roots, and even 

 dandelion iDlossoms, are beginning to have 

 some commercial value. Both the roots and 

 the plants are sold at high prices in Cleveland 

 to-day; and yet one of our great dailies, the 

 Cleveland Leader, has just come out urging 

 all schoolchildren in the city of Cleveland, 

 with a population of half a million, nearly, 

 to make war on the dandelion; and the chil- 

 dren did turn out as one big army to destroy 

 it, root and branch. Did they destroy it? 

 The more they fight it the more they will 

 spread it. Merely cutting off the plant an 

 inch or so below the ground will only be the 

 means of spreading it the more, for every 

 vestige of the root must be destroyed — a 

 thing practically impossible. 



The warfare against the dandelion seems 

 to be quite general. Governor Hoch, of Kan- 

 sas, has organized a crusade against it; the 



Ocm State Rural classes it as a nuisance on 

 the lawns in Idaho; the Pacific Rural Press 

 says it is gaining ground rapidly in Califor- 

 nia, and now the Rural New - Yorker says it 

 is very common in the East. But in no case 

 are the farmers complaining about the dan- 

 delion, for they realize its good fodder value 

 for all kinds of stock. 



As a matter of fact, the dandelion will 

 grow luxuriantly on dry hard clay soils when 

 the ordinary grasses would turn brown and 

 die; in fact, dandelion likes a rather dry soil, 

 and that suggests the means of its extermi- 

 nation, or, rather, we would say curtailment 

 of its gi'owth. A lawn should be frequently 

 manured, and then rolled thoroughly, and 

 seeded often with lawn-grass seed. This 

 process, continued with frequent watering, 

 will cause the dandelion to give place to the 

 lawn grass to a great extent; but the various 

 means used for cutting out dandelion do ab- 

 solutely no good. They rather spread them, 

 because, when the tops are cut oft", the roots 

 will divide up into more plants, making the 

 lawn more numerously covered than before. 



The editor of the Rural New - Yorker, Mr. 

 H. W. Colling wood, one of the best authori- 

 ties in the United States on agricultural sub- 

 jects, in answer to correspondents in the 

 last issue of his paper for May 18, asks, 

 "Why exterminate it?" and then adds: 



Even if the extermination ol dandelions in a given 

 locality were not hopeless, why try to accomplish it? 

 The plant has both beauty and utility. Tons of the 

 leaves, both wild and cultivated, are used in early 

 spring- as pot-herbs, or salad, and most toothsome 

 and welcome it is when properly prepared; the ex- 

 tract of the root and juice of flower-stalk are thought 

 to have value as medicine, and the ground dried root 

 has even been used as a tolerable substitute for 

 coffee. Of the attractiveness of the bloom, there can 

 be no doubt. Attentively considered, it will be seen 

 that it is a model of symmetry. One might almost 

 call it the one perfect flower. Nothing could be add- 

 ed or taken away without marring it. The only 

 trouble is, it is far too common and unvariable. 



The dandelion as a bee-plant is coming to 

 be more and more important. It yields both 

 pollen and honey at a time of year when they 

 will do the most good. They usually pre- 

 cede fruit-bloom, and help to give the bees a 

 stimulus that is very much needed just as 

 they come out of winter quarters. While 

 there is no such thing as dandelion honey on 

 the market, and probably never will be, yet 

 the little that is gathered, together with the 

 pollen, goes to make brood at a time of the 

 year when it counts. 



While we have no desire at all to sing the 

 praises of what may be regarded in some 

 quarters as a pest, yet a great many valuable 

 plants, as well as animals, have been con- 

 demned time and time again, only to find in 

 after-years that they wei'e really friends. 

 Sweet clover is an example of this; and in 

 the bird line we will mention that the crow, 

 once regarded as a farmer's enemy, is now 

 considered a real friend. He is a scavenger, 

 and a gatherer of injurious insects, while the 

 ever-present sparrow, also regarded as a 

 general pest, is not altogether a nuisance; 

 indeed, good authorities seriously question 

 whether it does not do more good than harm 

 in killing noxious insects, and acting as a 



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