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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



A DROUTH IN MAY. 



I believe the above is something I have never 

 known before. But there are many pleasant 

 things about it after all. And do you know I 

 rather enjoy these unusual features of the 

 weather the great Father has seen tit to send 

 us? Whenever any thing happens that the 

 oldest inhabitant has " never seen the like of 

 before," there are always many interesting 

 things about it for me. In fact, I al most al- 

 ways find new possibilities. For instance, dur- 

 ing this dry first of May there is no trouble in 

 pulverizing the ground just as tine and nice as 

 we would do in August. I have lold you a good 

 deal about our creek-bottom garden and Cham- 

 pion Brook. VVeJl, this brook is worth some 

 money just now. By the way, is there any sort 

 of brook running through your lot? If so, you 

 are lucky. If you haven't one, I would try to 

 make one in the lowest part of your ground — 

 some old natural watercourse. If you have 

 already got it well tile-drained, have some silt- 

 basins or little wells put along at convenient 

 distances, for dipping up water. 



Now I will tell you why you want a brook. 

 We are again sold out of strawberry-plants — 

 that is, we can not fill orders without tawing up 

 the plants that are to produce our fruit. But 

 we do this rather than disappoint our custom- 

 ers; and as a consequence ol being short we aie 

 making plants just as fast as we can by the aid 

 of this beautiful warm sunny weather. Per- 

 haps I should say we are making preparations 

 for plants rathei- than making the plants them- 

 selves, although we have runners started 

 already, where we have taken pains to pick 

 out the blossom-buds and ptts/i them for run- 

 ners. Well, our new sirawt)erry-plantation is 

 right alongside of Champion Brook. We plow- 

 ed the ground, fined it up, mellowed it, rolled it, 

 and marked it. Then as the plants were to be 

 moved only a few rods, we took tuem up with 

 a good chunk of dirt adhering to the plant, and 

 set them in rows parallel with the brook. As 

 it was Saturday (and no school), the largest 

 part of my Sunday-school class were helping. 

 Ordinarily I dislike to have a lot of boys trans- 

 planting, because they run about so much and 

 tramp up the ground; and if it is the least bit 

 wet, it gets stamped down so hard it bakes. 

 The ground is so dry now, that, the more they 

 stamp it with their bare feet, the more they 

 mash up the lumps. Every thing is dry, and 

 nice to work with. 



When the plants are all in, with a ball of 

 earth adhering, as explained above, then the 

 boys dip water out of Cnampion Brook and give 

 each plant about a pint, so it can start out 

 housekeeping in good order. To test the value 

 of a pint of water under such circumstances, 

 we left one row Saturday without watering. I 

 did this because there were indications of rain, 

 and I thought I would see how much difference 

 it made. vSunday, May n, was exceedingly dry 

 and hot — about 95 degrees in the shade, with 

 drying winds. The plants that were not water- 

 ed were most of them apparently dried up, 

 while the others were just as fresh and bright, 

 almost, as if they had not been moved. I went 

 over this matter when describing the use of 

 transplanting-tubes. We did not use tubes this 

 time, because we found we could take up a ball 

 of earth, with a narrow round-pointed ditching- 

 spade, almost as well as to use the tins; and it 

 is quite a little trouble to pick up the tins and 

 carry them back and forth. 



I do like to work soil that is dry enough so 

 you can pulverize it and level it off and mark 

 it out without having things stick. Then, as I 

 said before, the running and tramping about 

 does good rather than harm; and with water 

 close by, say only a few rods from the plants, 

 the whole length of the field, it is not a very 

 big job to do the watering. 



HOW TO TRAIX THE GAULT KASPBEKRY FOR 

 FRUIT. 



Friend Gault— at least when I visited him— 

 has never used any trellis at all for his rasp- 

 berries. The bearing canes go up into the air, 

 and then go down and root at the other end; 

 and this supports them pretty well from the 

 ground— that is, with the old canes. But his 

 berry-patch is pretty well tangled up; and if 

 you don't look out the vines catch on your 

 clothing, and get broken and in disorder. We 

 have just finished taking out the young plants, 

 and tnis left a great lot of long canes trailing 

 on the ground. It was a very ditiicult matter 

 to cultivate between the rows; and another 

 thing, the fruit would be sure to be down in the 

 dirt unless there were some son of support. 

 We got out some oak stakes, 2x3 inches, and 4 

 feet long. These were driven, with a big 

 sledge, at each end of the row, and some heavy 

 galvanized wire, such as is used tor grapevines, 

 was stretched from one end of the row to the 

 other. Then, to prevent the wire from drooping 

 clear to the ground in the middle of tlie row, 

 more similar stakes were placed, say about 

 every 40 or 50 feet. 



Now, then, we are ready to pick up these 

 long loose canes and tie them to the wire. But 

 I have found tyiug with strings to be slow 

 business, so 1 got some small galvanized wire, 

 about like that used for the lightest poultry- 

 uetiiug. I got a pair of tinner's shears, or snips, 

 from the tin-shop, and wound this light wire, 

 say a dozen timea, over one of the blades of the 

 snips. Then by shutting the shears together 

 we had a lot of oval rings open at one side. 

 They are shaped something like the letter U, 

 made of wire, but the ends were pretty close 

 togettier. The boys take a lot of these wire 

 loops, slip them around their suspenders so as 

 to have them handy when needed. With one 

 hand they lift up a raspberry-cane, and with 

 the other they slip a wire loop over both cane 

 and wire; then the loose ends of the loop are 

 twisted half a turn. Do not twist them any 

 tighter, because after the cane has done bear- 

 ing we shall need to open the loop so as to get 

 it out and put a cane of new growth in its 

 place. We spent quite a little money in tying up 

 raspberry-canes last fall with strings; but when 

 spring came, the motion of the wind sliding the 

 string along the wire had cut ott a great many 

 of them. With our Palmer and Gregg rasp- 

 berries we also found a good many shoots 

 winter-killed after we had been to so much 

 pains to tack them up to the wire. So far the 

 Gault raspberry has never winter-killed at all; 

 but every cane was fast at both ends. The old 

 root was attached at one end, and the new 

 plant at the other end. My experience is, a 

 raspberry-cane is much safer iiom winter- 

 freezing when both ends are well rooted in the 

 ground. So long as you want to raise plants, 

 the Gault raspberries may always be thus root- 

 ed at each end. 



Now, it is some work to put up stakes and 

 wire, and tie up the canes; but the straight 

 rows look very much better, the picking is 

 much easier, and then it is so much pleasanter 

 to cultivate raspberries that are tied up. While 

 visiting E. France I got the idea of tying black- 

 berries to a wire in the way I have described. 

 With the latter, however, you need taller and 

 stronger posts, and a much heavier wire; but 



