iiiual cih'pcvi 
f. ON RURAL EXPERIMENTAL GR OUNDS. 
A WORD ABOUT STRAWBERRIES. 
Owing to a severe drought in the vicinity of 
New York, the strawberry crop has been some¬ 
what light; still, in ground deeply cultivated 
and rich, a good show of fruit has been secured. 
The Wilson, as usual, yielded enough in num¬ 
ber, but averaged smaller than in more favor¬ 
able seasons. 
The Charles Downing was fully up to its repu¬ 
tation for good size, bright color, productiveness 
and most excellent quality, approaching more 
closely in flavor the little Scotch Runner than 
any other of the larger sorts we have tested. 
Sctb Boyden is one of the very largest vari¬ 
eties hi cultivation, but requires very rich soil, 
plenty of moisture, and to be kept in hills or 
narrow rows, in order to secure even a moderate 
crop of fruit, and this we may say is the general 
fault of all the very large sorts. 
Triomphe do fiand does not succeed very well 
on light soils; a heavy loam suits it beat, and 
then plenty of fertilizers may be applied without 
fear of injury in the way of over-stimulation. 
In fact, we have never as yet come across any 
land too rich for a naturally productive variety, 
provided the number of plants on a given space 
is limited so that there will bo no crowding. 
Ducbesse is another good sort, but we think 
not quite large enough to meet the popular 
taste. It is, however, a rank grower, and will 
succeed on light and moderately rich soils. 
Lennig’a White, although one of the most de¬ 
liciously-flavored sorts in cultivation, is too un¬ 
productive to bo worth extended cultivation, or 
even to be trusted for homo use by amateurs, 
therefore it is scarcely worthy of recommenda¬ 
tion. We liavo cultivated it for many .years, but 
shall now close our account with it and cast out 
the plants as an incumbrance of good ground. 
There are several other sorts, such as the Boston 
Tine, Hovey, Ac., which will keep it company 
among the “ cast-outs." 
Green Prolific still holds its own as a prolific 
sort, of fair size and flavor, succeeding well 
either in matted beds or in single rows. The 
berries are of medium size, round, and of a 
bright scarlet color, aud altogether quite a showy 
fruit. Ileuce they are quite popular in market. 
The Great American, and a score of other now 
sorts, promise well, but it is too early to decide 
bow they will succeed in various soils and cli¬ 
mates. 
THE STRAWBERRY FOR CHROREN. 
The old monthly Red Alpine is really the chil¬ 
dren's strawberry, on account of its perpetual 
character, the first berries ripening before the 
earliest annual sorts, ami continuing until cheek¬ 
ed by cold weather in the fall. Its size and the 
general character ol the plant, is shown in the 
accompanying illustration, and although no great 
amount of fruit can be obtained from the plants 
at any one time, still if put upon good soil, a 
moderate supply of fruit may be had every day 
during the summer. The berries arc of a mild 
flavor, and always an acceptable dish to children, 
with whom good fruit is “ always in Benson.” 
For twenty years we have kept our beds of Al¬ 
pine Monthly strawberries in order, and value 
them perhaps as much for old acquaintance's sake 
as for the fruit; elill, the latter annually affords 
us opportunities of giving the young folks, if not 
the older ones, many an agreeable surprise. 
There are four varieties of theeo Monthly Al¬ 
pines in cultivation—a red, and a white Bush 
Alpine, which produce no runners, and two of 
the same kinds, producing runners tire same as 
more common sorts. Near large cities and where 
the cultivator has facilities for irrigation, these 
perpetual strawberries might bo cultivated quite 
extensively aud with profit. 
During the hot, dry weather of July aud Au¬ 
gust, the berries are generally quite small, and 
not very abundant; but by applying water arti¬ 
ficially, this decrease would be avoided. An 
occasional application of liquid manure would 
also tend to increase the yield aud size; but all 
this is so woll understood by strawberry growers, 
that further remarks on the plant are probably 
unnecessary. 
-- 
BOGUS POTATO BEETLE. 
Fob many years we have had in our entomo¬ 
logical cabinet specimens of a beetle closely al¬ 
lied to the Colorado peat, which it was claimed 
would not eat the potato, although so nearly re¬ 
lated to the now common potato beetle. This 
peculiar species is known as the Ohrysomela 
juncta, while the Colorado potato beetle is the 
Uhri/xomda 10 •linmla ‘•ten-liner,'' or striped. 
Now the principal difference to the casual ob¬ 
server is simply that of a variation in the stripes. 
In the juncta the third and fourth line, (count¬ 
ing from the middle of the back) join, making, 
in a majority of specimens, one broad line in¬ 
stead of two. as in the ten-liner. To test this 
questions about whether it eatB potatoes we sent 
to one of our correspondents in Alabama for a 
few live specimens of the juncta, and several 
dozen arrived in good order, some two weeks 
since. With them were a few .also of the grabs 
or lanur with a quantity of their natural plant- 
food which, by the way, is the common Horse 
Nettle (Solatium Carolinenge) which also serves 
as food for the Colorado pest. But now comes 
the curious part of the story; for while both 
feed greedily upon the horse nettle, which also 
after I bad learned that cards had been changed 
from this strong one to a weaker one, and other 
cards which the weak bees could not protect had 
been received in the places of them, and were 
infected with moth eggs, which hatched just as 
well in the strong colony as elsewhere. 
An apiarian sometimes loses a swarm of bees 
by robbing, and has some empty combs which 
may be valuable, if properly taken care of, to 
ubc in building up now colonies; or if one wishes 
to take a card of honey where he finds it, an 
MONTHLY RED ALRINK bTRAWBKKRY. 
belongs to the potato family of plants, the 
Chryxomela juncta refuses to feed on the com¬ 
mon potato, while the ten-liuer prefers it to any 
other kind of food. 
For the past two weeks we liavo been t rying to 
compel the Bogus potato beetle to eat potato 
leaves and, although some of them did take a 
few bites of tho more refined food, they soon 
wandered off as if in search of their favorite 
nettle. This is but one instance of many which 
might be named where an experiment is much 
better than a theory. 
- . -- 
PECAN NUTS ROTTING. 
Will yon please tell me in the next number 
of the Rural, what will stop Pecan nuts from 
rotting before they ripen. I have a flourishing 
tree, that bears from two to three bushels every 
year, but have never got one lit to eat. By an¬ 
swering, you will greatly oblige— A Constant 
Reader, KemjmiUe, Va. 
We have no knowledge of any disease which 
would cause Pecans to rot before maturing ; but 
some of our readers may be more fortunate, and 
be able to throw some light on the subject. If 
the nuts fail this season, seud us specimens of 
those which come nearest to perfection. 
f lic Apiarian. 
REMARKS ABOUT BEES. 
On opening a hive of bees, it is not safe to 
suppose t,bo queen will be near the central cards, 
as she is sometimes found on an outside card, or 
even on the movable side of the hive. Hhe 
might, therefore, be easily lost, unless one is 
careful, as a queen is not likely to And her way 
back to the hive if she should once drop on the 
ground from a card as it is taken from the hive. 
To avoid an accident of this kind, there should 
always bo a transfer-hive or box for the purpose 
of receiving the frames as they are taken from 
tho liiveB for examination, which is often the 
case oven when they are not separated for the 
purpose of making new colonies. .Sometimes 
there aro moths to be searched for, as these are 
very destructive to young broods and combs, 
and should be carefully sought for in the months 
of May and June. This will save rnuoh time for 
the bees to gather honey in. As we have often 
beeu told, the best way is to have strong colo¬ 
nies, and this will secure us against the moths. 
1 onco found many mothB in a strong colony of 
bees, and knew not. how to account for it, until 
empty comb could take its place when honey is 
abundant in the field. If one fears the moths 
have impregnated tho combs, he should have a 
box large enough to hold the combs above, and 
burn sulphur at the bottom and effectually de¬ 
stroy the eggs in that way. This is quite im¬ 
portant, as we aro assured it takes many pounds 
of honey to make ouo pound of wax—some Bay 
twenty pounds. Aunt A. 
Maple Grove, June 2. 
--- 
HOW TO MANAGE BEES-SWARMING. 
Rev. Mr. Makin tells in the Bee World bow 
to manage bees during the swarming season. 
Much of success or failure depends upon the 
ability of the bee-keeper to control the swarming 
impulse. If increase of stock is desired, by far 
the better plan, in my judgment, is to make ar¬ 
tificial swarms. This may be done in several 
ways. If empty combs can be bad, a very good 
plan is to take about four combs containing 
brood aud adhering bees, aud put them in a hive 
on a new stand, giving them & queen, or a queen 
cell, and tilling the hive with empty combs. Such 
a colony would build up very rapidly. The bees 
may be all taken from ono hive, or from three 
or four, as the circumstances may dictate. An¬ 
other way, and a very good one, is to take one 
comb of brood from each of several hives, and 
thus fill the new hive. Tho bees that will batch 
out will make the new stock very populous in a 
short time. But empty frames, or frames con¬ 
taining combs, in the hives from which bees are 
taken. In this way, a very large increase may 
be obtained, and the stocks all kept strong. Care 
slionld be taken not to allow queenless stocks to 
build drono comb. 
If wo want to get the largest yield of comb 
honey, we do not want our bees to swarm at all. 
We want to keep the stocks strong in numbers, 
so that they may avail themselves of the honey 
harvest. And there ia no question of more im¬ 
portance than this How can the swarming im¬ 
pulse be restrained? In this, as in many other 
things, prevention is better than cure. Two 
things are necessary to prevent bees from swarm¬ 
ing. The first is to give them room for breeding 
and the storing of honey. If they become crowd¬ 
ed, and forage is plenty, they will be almost sure 
to swarm. 'The seeond thing necessary to pre¬ 
vent swarming, is the proper shading and venti¬ 
lation of the hive. The hive should be ventilated 
at the top, inside of the outer caps or covering. 
In hot weather, two or three inch-holes covered 
with wire-clotb, will be sufficient. Bees will 
rarely want to swarm if they have sufficient room, 1 
and the hives not too hot. When the swarming 
impulse once takes possession of a stock, it is 
not very easy to control it. 
Perhaps the best cure consists in the two points 
above named, and the romoval of the old queen 
and of all queen-cells but one. 
It is said that bees will be satisfied if allowed 
to swarnr, and they are put in a new place and 
their combs given to them, ail queen cells being 
first removed, I have never tried it, and cannot, 
therefore, do more than recommend it as an ex¬ 
periment worth trying. I have been successful 
by destroying queen-cells and giving abundant 
ventilation. 
I clip the wings of all the queens, to prevent 
their going to the woods. When the bees swarm, 
as they do sometimes, I take care of tho queen 
until they begin to return, and then if I want to 
hive them, I romovo the old hive aDd put an 
empty one in its place, and as the bees begin to 
enter I put the queen with them and let them 
hive themselves. 
To hive a swarm whon in an accessible place, 
is a very simple and easy operation, when one 
knows how to do it. Set the hive conveniently 
near, aud with a dipper, or any other convenient 
vessel, dip the bees up and ponr them down at 
tho entrance of the hive, This must be done 
very quietly and gently. One should uerer bo 
in a burry when handling bees. You will be 
likely to get tho queen among tho first bees re¬ 
moved from the cluster, as she is usually in the 
lower part of the swarm as they hang on the 
treo, or on whatever they have settled. 
If you get the quoeu into the hive, tho bees 
will be sure to follow. As soon ns the bees are 
all in, or even on tho hive, it should be removed 
to where it ia to remain before any of the bees 
have marked the location and gone away to the 
fields. To prevent the swarm leaving the hive, 
give them plenty of shade and ventilation. In 
all my experience, I have bad lmt one swarm to 
abandon its home after being hived, and it bad 
beeu left standing in full sunshine on a very hot 
day. I was away from home, or it would not 
have happened. 
Scientific ant) Useful. 
THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 
The Popular Science Monthly reports Sir 
Wyvjlle Thompson as saying, in a lecture to 
the natural history class at Edinburgh Univer¬ 
sity, that tho great stumbling-block, from the 
natural history tide of tho question, in the way 
of an acceptance of the evolution hypothesis, 
was, that any such passage from one species to 
another is entirely outside our experience. The 
horse has evidently been the horso since tho 
earliest hieroglyphs were engraved upon Assyr¬ 
ian monuments aud tombs, and the samo held 
for all living creatures. There was not a shadow 
of evidence of one species having passed into 
another during tho period of human record or 
tradition. Nor is this all. We have, in the fos¬ 
sil remains contained in the rocks, a sculptured 
record of the inhabitants of this world, running 
back incalculably further than the earliest chisel- 
mark inscribed by man — incalculably further 
than man’s existence on this planet; and, al¬ 
though we find from tho record that thousands 
of specimens have passed away, and thousands 
have appeared, iu no single case have we yet 
found the series of transitional forms imper¬ 
fectly gliding into one another aud uniting two 
distinct species by a continuous bridge, which 
could bo cited as au undoubted instance of the 
origin of a species. Mr. Darwin’s magnificent 
theory of “natural selection ” and “survival 
of the fittest ” has undoubtedly shaken the veil 
by pointing ont a path by which such an end 
might be attained; but it has by no means raised 
it. Still, even if we never found out the precise 
mode in which ono species gave rioe to another, 
there could be no further hesitation in accepting 
generally a hypothesis of evolution. 
-- 
TO PRESERVE THE NATURAL COLORS OF 
DRIED PLANTS. 
The following method of preserving the natu¬ 
ral colors of dried plants is given in a German 
pharmaceutical journal, aud will be of interest 
to botanists aud others *. 
Dissolve one part of salicylic acid in 600 parte 
of alcohol; heat the solution to the boiling point 
in an evaporating dish, and draw the whole 
plant slowly through it: prolonged exposure dis¬ 
colors violet flowers j shako oil any excess of 
liquid, dry between blotting-paper, aud press in 
the usual manner. A frequent renewal of dry 
blotting-pads, particularly at first, is desirable. 
Thus treated, plants are said to dry rapidly, fur¬ 
nishing beautiful specimens, which retain their 
natural colors in greater perfection than by any 
other process. 
--- 
Homer, who sang 3.000 years ago, alludes to 
razors; the Aztecs used razors of obsidian; the 
Tahitians use pieces of shell and shark’s teeth 
ground to a fine edge. 
