Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Part 23

Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society

Edited by MRS. E. W. GOULD, 2644 Humboldt Avenue So.

Minneapolis.

_Cypripedia_, by Miss Clara Leavitt.

The showy lady's slipper (C. hirsutum) is found in swamps and rich meadows. Old settlers tell of gathering the pink and white "moccasin flower" by the bushel, to decorate for some special occasion. Today we are trying to s.h.i.+eld a few in their last hiding places. The draining of swamps and cutting of meadows has had much to do with their disappearance. The picking of the leafy stem by the ruthless "flower lover" cripples the plant for a season or more and frequently kills it outright. Attempts to transfer it to the home garden have succeeded for a year or so but rarely longer, perhaps because its native habitat is very difficult to duplicate.

The small yellow lady's slipper (C. parviflorum), found in bogs, and the large yellow (C. parviflorum var. p.u.b.escens), growing on hillsides and in rich woods, as well as in swamps, are the most widely distributed and best known of this genus. They have often been transferred from the wild to the home garden. Where they have been given their native soil and environment the stock has increased and seedlings have developed. They have even been brought into conservatory or window garden and forced to flower in February.

The crimson stemless lady's slipper (C. acaule) is found in drier woods and on the stump knolls of swamps in certain locations. It has with difficulty been established in a few gardens.

The small white lady's slipper (C. candidum) occurs locally in boggy meadows. It is a very dainty plant. It grows in at least one wild garden.

The ram's head lady slipper (C. arietinum) is very rare and local. It is a very delicate and pretty thing, purple and white in color.

All of these species are to be seen in season in the Wild Garden of the Minneapolis Park System.

Committee on the protection of Cypripedia: Mrs. Phelps Wyman, chairman; Miss Clara Leavitt, Miss M. G. Fanning, Mrs. C. E. C. Hall, Mrs. E. C.

Chatfield, Mr. Guy Hawkins.

Our plant exchange should be of great benefit to our members, such a fine beginning having been made last spring. Send a list of the plants you have for exchange and those you would like to receive to our secretary. These will be posted upon the bulletin board at our meetings, where exchanges can be arranged between the members.

March 23. Public Library, Minneapolis, 2:30 p.m. Meeting of Garden Flower Society. Program:

Our Garden Enemies.

Cultural Directions for Trial Seeds.

Distribution of Trial Seeds.

Minnesota Cypripedia. Have they responded to Cultivation?

BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN

Conducted by FRANCES JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University Farm, St. Paul.

IMPORTANCE OF GOOD QUEENS.

The government census of 1910 gives the average of honey production per colony for the State of Minnesota at five pounds per colony. Allowing for mistakes which were made in making up this census, there is no doubt that the average amount of honey produced by a colony is not nearly as high as efficient beekeeping would make it. When some well known beekeepers will average year after year fifty, seventy and even a hundred pounds per colony, there must be something wrong with those who fall far below this amount.

There are many causes responsible for this failure of honey crops. Bad management, no management at all, antiquated or impossible equipment, locality, etc., are all factors contributing towards a shortage in the honey crop, but poor queens are the most universal cause of disappointment. The queen being the mother of the whole colony of bees, the hive will be what she is. If she is of a pure, industrious, gentle, hardy and prolific strain, the colony over which she presides will be uniform, hard working, easy to handle, easy to brave the inclemency of the weather and the severity of our winters, and populous in bees. The bees partake of the characteristics of the queen.

The fact of the matter is, that more than 90% of our Minnesota queens are either black Germans or hybrids, neither of which lend themselves to pleasant and profitable beekeeping. Having been inbred for years will make them still less valuable, and most of them have been inbred for generations.

Among many things in which the beekeepers of Minnesota should begin to improve their beekeeping possibilities, the necessity of good queens comes first. With a new strain of pure, gentle, industrious, leather colored Italian bees, their love for beekeeping should receive a new impetus, leading them to better equipment and better management.

It was with this point in view that the University of Minnesota has secured the best breeding queens obtainable from which to raise several thousands of queens for the use of beekeepers of the state.

These queens will be sold each year during the months of June, July and August at a nominal price of fifty cents each, and not more than three to each beekeeper. The University is ready to book orders now. There is such a demand for these queens that last year only one-quarter of the orders could be filled. Given three pure Italian queens to start with, a beekeeper may easily re-queen his whole bee-yard in the course of a year. Detailed printed instructions how to proceed will be sent out to all buyers of queens free of charge.

Time has come to start bee-keeping on a more profitable basis, and the first step towards better success should be a new strain of queens.

ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES

By F.L. WASHBURN, Professor of Entomology, University of Minnesota.

RABBITS; RABBIT-PROOF FENCES; FIELD MICE.

Probably the thoughtful orchardist has before this date visited his orchard and trampled the deep snow down around his young fruit trees for a distance of two feet on all sides of each trunk, thus preventing rabbits from reaching the trunk above the protected part, or from eating the branches in the case of low-headed trees. Even at this date, this should be done where the snow lies deep. Frequent tramplings about the young trees also protects the trees from possible injury by field mice working beneath the snow.

This leads us to speak of our experiences with so-called "rabbit-proof"

fencing. In the summer time, when an abundance of food is everywhere offered, these small mesh fences are generally effective barriers, but, in the case of the low fences, drifting snow in winter permits an easy crossing, and in the case of the higher fences which have the narrow mesh at the bottom, gradually widening toward the top, it is possible for a rabbit to get his head and body through a surprisingly small s.p.a.ce between the wires. The writer was astonished, late last autumn, previous to any snowfall, to see one of these pests, which had jumped from its "nest" in his (the writer's) covered strawberry-bed, run to the inclosing fence, which was provided with the long, narrow mesh above alluded to, raise himself on his hind feet and push his way through a s.p.a.ce not more than three inches wide. It would seem, therefore, that one should accept with some reservation the a.s.sertion that these fences are actually "rabbit-proof."

PREPAREDNESS FOR (INSECT) WAR.

However one may regard the agitation for or against preparing this country for (or against) war, we are doubtless of all one mind as to the desirability of being prepared to successfully cope with the various insect-pests which are sure to arrive during the coming spring and summer to attack shrubs, fruit trees, berry bushes, melons, cuc.u.mbers and practically all of our vegetables. The Entomologist has every reason to be thankful that, early last spring, he laid in a supply of a.r.s.enate of lead, Black Leaf No. 40, commercial lime-sulphur, tree tanglefoot, tobacco dust, also providing himself with an abundance of air-slaked lime and a spraying outfit suitable for use in a small experiment garden and orchard at Lake Minnetonka. All gardeners, particularly those who cannot quickly purchase such things on account of distance from a supply, should take time by the forelock and obtain materials now, that they may be ready at hand when very much needed.

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN ENTOMOLOGY.

An item of importance, and quite far-reaching in its significance is the fact (as reported at the recent meeting of entomologists at Columbus) that the odor in stable manure which attracts house flies, has been "artificially" produced, if that expression may be used, by a combination of ammonia and a little butyric acid. A pan of this, covered by cotton, attracted hundreds of flies which deposited their eggs thereon. The possibilities of making use of this new-found fact are most promising, and the discovery is especially significant in that it opens an immense and practically an untried field in entomological work; that is, the making use of different odors to attract different species of insects. A series of experiments in this direction with the Mediteranean fruit fly, also recently reported, have been most surprising but too extensive to permit of discussion here.

Nurserymen intending to import currants or gooseberries from Europe will be interested in learning that there is a possibility of a federal quarantine on shrubs of this genus grown abroad.

State Entomologist Circular No. 36, issued in January, 1916, and ent.i.tled the "Red Rose Beetle," by S. Marcovitch (ill.u.s.trated), is available for distribution. Application should be accompanied by one cent stamp.

SECRETARY'S CORNER

PLANT COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS.--It is well established that in certain localities at least in the state commercial orcharding is on a safe basis, offering reasonable financial profits if managed by those who take pains to inform themselves on the subject, and are then thorough going enough to practice what they know. This spring will be a good time to plant such an orchard. Orchard trees of suitable size were never more plentiful in the nurseries, and undoubtedly the sorts which you wish to plant can be readily purchased. Ask some of your nearest nurseries for prices as to 500 trees, either two or three years old, whichever you prefer.