64 



(CLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



not dreamed of bees, and made things lively 

 for awhile.— The plant you spenk of is 

 called by some heart's-ease, and by others 

 blackheart. Its botanical name is Polygo- 

 num persicaria. As it always comes into 

 weedy corn-fields in the West, I presume 

 there is little need of cultivating it as a 

 honey-plant. 



THAT FLOWERING JTIAPLE. 



HOW TO PROPAGATE IT BY CUTTINGS. 



^j^|\ N page 31, Jan. No., E. Edmunson writes about 

 11^ the abutilon yielding honey. I have known 



— for several years that there are two or three 

 species of them that are secreters of honey of fair 

 flavor, but I never owned any of them myself. You 

 also aslied if some of the " sisters or other womens " 

 won't tell how to propagate them by slips. Well, 

 I am no "sister," nor "other womens'" sister'; but 

 "I iz a man that noze how 'tia dun, so I'll tell you 

 awl." 



A number of years ago I worked with an expert 

 gardener in a large greenhouse, and there learned 

 the principles of the art of propagating plants in va- 

 rious ways. But not having a propagating-house of 

 my own, I have many times used its substitutes, one 

 of which 1 will try to make plain. 



Take a deep goblet, tumbler, or a fruit- jar, or a 

 bottle with the top broken off. Put some good-sized 

 pebbles, pieces of coal clinkers, or any thing else ia 

 the bottom, to fill the article within 3 inches of the 

 top. Now put some smaller ones in to chink up the 

 cracks in the top of the pile, so that there will be 

 nothing but small crevices left, and yet all beneath 

 this top layer needs to be kept just as open as possi- 

 ble, to make a space for water. 



Now take some good rich garden soil (not chip 

 dirt), and the same bulk of sand, — I like river or 

 clean road sand best, — and till up the rest of the 

 glass with the mixture. Be sure to mix the sand 

 and dirt thoroughly. Wet it till the water runs 

 through and nearly fills the spaces full among the 

 rubbish in the bottom of the glass. If your job is 

 properly done, very little if any of your soil will 

 wash between the pebbles. 



You are now ready for the cuttings. They should 

 be the young tender shoots at the tips of the branch- 

 es, from two to four inches long. Stick these tiglit 

 to the glass, and as close together as you have a mind 

 to, all around the glass; then set the glass close to 

 the window, in the full blaze of the sun, only water- 

 ing often enough to keep some water in the bottom 

 of the glass. Don't be afraid the things will die, if 

 they do wilt some; nor if the soil looks dry on top, 

 think they must be watered; but just make up your 

 mind that, as long as you see water in the bottom of 

 the glass, the water must evaporate through the 

 soil. If your cuttings are good, and it has been 

 pleasant weather, in 10 or 15 days you will see tho 

 roots start. When they arc an inch or two long, 

 make the soil quite wet; then carefully pull out the 

 best-rooted ones and put them Into small pots in 

 good garden soil, and give a good watering. Set in 

 the shade for two or three days, then give them a 

 strong light. Small pots, or even spice-boxes, are 

 good; but to put one of these young plants Into a 

 large pot or box is like feeding an infant with food 

 needed by a strong hard-working man, and it would 

 do as well. 1 have put nine cuttings in a goblet that 



had the bottom broken off, so I hung It by three 

 strings to a nail in the top of a window-case. Foli- 

 age-plant cuttings, with only two leaves, being a 

 single joint of young growth, have rooted in one 

 week for me by this treatment, and I have taken 

 three batches of plants from a glass, all well rooted, 

 within five weeks. 



In 18f^3 I had a piece of a choice foliage plant 10 in, 

 long, with four pairs of leaves and two small leaves- 

 I cut off each of the three pairs of large leaves to 

 make a cutting; thus I had four good cuttings. The 

 two pairs of oldest leaves were split in the center of 

 the stalk, leaving a leaf and perfect bud on each 

 piece, with about Hi inches of split stalk below each 

 leaf. I then had six good cuttings. All of them 

 lived, and in two weeks were all rooted and in sepa- 

 rate pots. This was done the last week in March, 

 and furnished me six good plants for the border, 

 that surpassed any of the ten-cent plants from the 

 florist. 



Verbenas, heliotropes, petunias, and all of the 

 bedding plants, as well as many of the choice green- 

 house plants, are easily raised in this way. I have 

 tried the plan for twelve years, and know it's good. 



Woodbury, Ct., Jan. 19, 1883. H. L. Jeffrey. 



DON'T SF:LIi YOUR HONEY AVITHOUT 

 KNOWING AVHAT IT IS AVORTH. 



MRS. HARRISON TELLS US SOME OF HER TROUBLES. 



■f^EE-KEEPERS tread on my corns oftener in the 

 JOfi way theydispose of their honey than In any 

 ^'^^ other. Dealers say that they never saw hon- 

 ey so plentiful in Peoria before as during the last 

 State fair. W'e do not wish our fellow-craftsmen to 

 think that we claim a "patent right" on this mar- 

 ket, for all have the privilege of selling where they 

 can do the best. The hurt is not in coming here to 

 dispose of their honey, but in forc;^ng it upon the 

 market at a price less than the cost of production. 

 A groceryman remarked to us yesterday, " If these 

 men who brought their honey here during the fair 

 had worked up their own locality, they would have 

 realized much more money. But they would say, 

 " I have the honey hei-e, and I must sell it; I don't 

 want to take it home; name your price." 



It takes some time for people to be willing to pay 

 a fair price for an article after they have purchased 

 it so cheaply. This cheap honey, though, has its 

 mission: it will create a demand where it never ex- 

 isted before, as many persons bought it who would 

 not have done so, if it had not been cheap. And 

 they learned what they probably never knew, that 

 honey "is good." These bee-keepers (in a small 

 way, no large ones are ever guilty of such folly) 

 paid dearly for thus educating the people. 



There are few country neighborhoods where the 

 product of fifty colonies of bees could not be sold to 

 advantage. We once visited a bee-keeper who lived 

 five miles from any town, who had an apiary of 

 about 50 colonies, well cared for, and run exclusive- 

 ly for extracted honey. He said, "I sell all my hon- 

 ey at home, to the neighboring farmers, and I could 

 sell much more if I had it, but I could not nearly 

 supply the demand." 



The products of large established apiaries find no 

 difliculty in finding a market; but that of small api- 

 aries is different. The market must be worked up. 

 The best way to sell in towns or large cities is to 

 leave the honey at home and canvass with sam- 



