Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 44

Cut out apple twigs badly injured by the buffalo tree hopper and burn them immediately.

Watch for plant lice on lettuce in cold frames. To combat the insects the plants should be sprayed with nicofume liquid, one teaspoonful to a gallon of water.

BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN

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

COMB HONEY, EXTRACTED HONEY, AND INCREASE.

The practical beekeeper must decide at the beginning of the honey season whether he wishes to produce extracted honey, comb honey or merely to increase the number of his colonies. The manner of management of his apiary will depend upon such decision. At any rate a modern outfit, pure bred colonies in modern ten or eight frame hives, is required for successful beekeeping no matter in what line of bee industry he may feel inclined to engage.

For production of extracted honey the ten frame hive is to be preferred.

Bees are less inclined to swarm in a ten frame hive, and two ten frame supers as a rule will be required where three eight frame supers would otherwise be necessary.

In successful extracted honey production swarming may be reduced to a minimum if during the dandelion and fruit trees honey flow, and in the beginning of white clover flow, once a week an empty drawn comb be inserted into the middle of the brood nest. As soon as the brood chamber has eight frames of brood the queen excluder is added and an extracting super added filled with white extracting combs. If the beekeeper does not care to raise his extracted honey in snow white combs only, the excluder may be omitted, but the result will be that the queen will lay eggs throughout the whole hive, thus rendering extracting difficult on account of brood present. When raising extracted honey on a large scale two extracting supers may suffice for each colony. When the one next to the brood chamber is filled it is extracted at once, the top one taking its place next to the brood. The extracted super when empty is then given back to the bees and placed on top. When the second super is filled the process is repeated. This process of extracting honey requires a period of four or five weeks. All supers are removed at the end of the honey flow. The last full super, however, should not be extracted but saved for the feeding of light colonies in the fall and spring.

The easier way to produce extracted honey is to have enough supers, say three or four for each colony. The first is added during the dandelion or fruit blossom flow as soon as the colony is strong enough to readily enter into it. When this super is nearly full and the combs can be seen through the top bars to whiten, another super is added next to the brood chamber, and the partly filled super is raised. When this second super begins to get well filled, a third and a fourth super is added on top.

In the lat.i.tude of Minneapolis it is not advisable to insert a super next to brood chambers after July 4th, or two weeks before the end of the honey flow, because such procedure would result in a large amount of uncapped honey.

Comb honey should not be produced where the honey flow is slow and intermittent. Weak colonies will not produce comb honey profitably. In making up supers only A 1 sections should be used, with full sheets of extra thin foundation and three-eighths inch bottom starters of thin foundation. Care should be taken to fasten the foundation very solidly, else heat and weight of bees will cause it to drop. One or more bait sections should be used in the first comb honey super to induce the bees to enter into it more readily. Bait sections are the half finished, unmarketable sections of the previous season. One to four are used near the center of each super.

(To be continued in June No.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HOME OF THE LADY SLIPPER--MOCCASIN FLOWER.

THE MINNESOTA STATE FLOWER.]

While it is not the intention to publish anything in this magazine that is misleading or unreliable, yet it must be remembered that the articles published herein recite the experience and opinions of their writers, and this fact must always be noted in estimating their practical value.

THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST

Vol. 44 JUNE, 1916 No. 6

The State Flower and State Flag of Minnesota.

E. A. SMITH, VICE PRES. JEWELL NURS. CO., LAKE CITY.

The material in this paper has been gathered from several sources, part of which has never before been published. It is presented not so much in the spirit of criticism as it is in the spirit of making the best of a mistake which the writer believes occurred when the moccasin flower was designated as the state flower of Minnesota.

Last spring an acquaintance of mine was rambling through the woods and came across the Cypripedium, or the Moccasin flower, or the Lady slipper, the state flower of Minnesota. He sent me a few specimens.

Although I had lived in the state of Minnesota for a number of years, this was the first time that I had ever seen the state flower or known anything about it. The incident set me to thinking, and I went to work to find out what I could about this flower. I herewith present that information as briefly as possible.

There are forty-one states in the Union that have a state flower. Other states have the matter under consideration. This fact alone would indicate that a state flower is of some importance as an emblem, or it would not be so generally considered by the various states. In most instances the flower was selected by a vote of the public school scholars of the respective states. The vote was then submitted to the state legislature and a resolution adopted making the state flower legal. I submit to you the question: Are school children qualified to choose a flower as an emblem of the state? Do they understand the conditions required in the state and the purpose of the selection sufficiently well to enable them to select intelligently? Do the children in your school know what flower is common in the northern part of the state as well as in the southern part of the state?

In Minnesota, however, the state flower was not chosen by the school children of the state, but upon pet.i.tion of the Woman's Auxiliary Board of World's Fair Managers a resolution was introduced into the senate February 4th, 1893, by the late Senator W.B. Dean, providing that the wild Lady Slipper, or the Moccasin flower, Cypripedium calceolus, be accepted and the same designated and adopted as the state flower, or the floral emblem of the state of Minnesota. This resolution was also adopted in the house the same day. A few years later upon pet.i.tion of the Nature Club of Minneapolis the variety was changed to the Reginae or Spectabile, variety.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Lady Slipper--Minnesota State Flower. Somewhat under size.]

The mystery of the selection in this state is, why was a flower chosen which is not common to any part of the state? We therefore have a state flower, beautiful in itself, but without special appeal to the people because it is comparatively unknown.

There are about forty species of the Cypripedium belonging to the north temperate zone. Several of these species occur in the northern United States and Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains, which are found in the state of Minnesota. It is called the Moccasin flower because it resembles the Indian shoe. This plant grows preferably in cool and moist woods or in bogs. It flowers princ.i.p.ally during the months of May and June. The varieties differ in color, being deep red, pink, yellow, white and variegated. All of the species, however, are very beautiful.

The varieties more commonly found in Minnesota are, Acaule, rose purple; Candidum, small white; Arietinum, red and white; Parviflorum, small yellow; p.u.b.escens, large yellow; and Spectabile, description of which is as follows: Plants stout, leaves oval, acute; sepals, roundish, white; petals, oblong, white; labellum, white or pale pink purple. Very showy.

It is unfortunate that the Minnesota State Flower does not take kindly to civilization and cultivation, as it is very difficult to transplant.

About ten years ago at Lake City, Minnesota, we tried to propagate the moccasin flower. We dug the roots and transplanted them in ground especially prepared in a nearby grove where we could watch their development, but the plants were a failure.

A state flower should be one of the common flowers of the state, so familiar to all, that its name would suggest a picture of the flower itself. Probably not 10 per cent of the people of the state have ever seen it. On this account it is to be regretted that this variety was chosen as the flower emblem of the state. A state flower, like the state flag, should be accessible and familiar to everyone, and yet, probably, the state flag of Minnesota is a stranger to many residents of the state, for Minnesota did not have a state flag until 1893.

An emblem should mean something to the individual. The family coat of arms and the iron cross are distinctive emblems. The shamrock in sentiment is as dear to an Irishman as his native land. If an emblem means something to the individual, how much more it ought to mean to the state and nation.

The flag is an emblem of loyalty and patriotism. Men fight for it. They lay down their lives for it because it stands for home and country. I fancy if men did not know what the flag looked like, the fight would not be a very fierce one. Do you know what the state flag of Minnesota looks like? A description of it can be found in the Legislative Manual for 1915. This flag bears a wreath of white moccasin flowers (Spectabile) upon a blue background, in the center of which is the state seal. The design was chosen by a committee of six ladies. It is appropriate and beautiful, and was designed by Mrs. Edward H. Center, of Minneapolis.

The state should furnish an attractive picture of the state flower and the state flag to every high school in the state, free of charge. The influence would be good, creating a deeper loyalty to the state.

Wisconsin State Horticultural Society.

REMARKS AT ANNUAL MEETING BY SECY. F. CRANEFIELD, MADISON, WIS.

President Cashman: We have with us today, Prof. Cranefield, secretary of the Wisconsin Society. I am sure everybody will be pleased to hear from him.

Mr. Cranefield: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I thank you, Mr.

President, for your very kind introduction. I know you meant well when you introduced me as professor, but I really must plead "not guilty" to the charge. There was a time, long ago, when I was connected with our Agricultural College, in a minor relation, that I was not in a position to resent it, but I have reformed since, and as secretary of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society I am trying to live down the past.

It goes without saying that I am glad to be here. I want to come as long as you will let me come. We of the Wisconsin society are watching you closely to see if we can by any means learn the secret of your success, and to that end we are here in considerable force. Our president is here, and the managers of two of our largest co-operative fruit s.h.i.+ppers a.s.sociations also.

Frankly, we want to beat you if we can. You have the biggest and the best society in the country, and we have the second biggest and next best, and we are striving for first place.

Having now disposed of the usual compliments befitting the occasion I will aim to tell you of a few things we are trying to do in the Wisconsin society.

The efforts of our society during the past ten years have been directed quite largely to the development of commercial fruit-growing in the state. While we have not overlooked nor forgotten the home owner we have been working to take commercial orcharding out of the hands of the farmer and put it in the hands of specialists, and we are succeeding. We have today about thirty thousand acres of purely commercial orchards in Wisconsin and more coming. We discourage by every means at command the planting of fruit trees by the man who is engaged in general farming except sufficient for his own use.