570 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



beautiful, smooth, handsome tomatoes. They 

 were grown from a paper of Burpee's Match- 

 less. The other half were crooked, twisted, 

 ungainly things, hardly worth taking as a gift, 

 even when ripe. These latter were grown from 

 a paper of seed furnished by the United States 

 seed department. Of course, they were a free 

 gift; but on a single row of tomatoes it cost my 

 relative a dollar or more for taking a paper of 

 seeds as a gift instead of buying them from a 

 responsible seedsman. The government seed- 

 shop had labeled them Lorrilland; butthey were 

 certainly nothing like the Lorrilland. but the 

 poorest and most worthless strain I think I ever 

 saw in my life. 



I found my cousin Wilbur Fenn with the 

 ground all fitted, ready to plant about nine 

 acres of potatoes. These were to be put in the 

 5th of July. When I inquired what condition 

 his seed was in he took me to the cellar and 

 showed me over 100 bushels of Monroe Seed- 

 lings, scarcely sprouted at all, and almost as 

 hard and firm as when they were first put in. 

 It was a surorise to me. as it was the 4th of 

 July, and after the most severe hot dry weath- 

 er we have had in any season, to find potatoes 

 in such excellent order as this. Well, it is 

 somewhat owing to his good cellar for the pur- 

 pose, and somewhat owing to the fact that the 

 potatoes are regularly shoveled over about 

 once in two or three weeks. He has learned 

 the trade of keepine potatoes in good order, 

 and he does it every time. This is a part of his 

 system of getting good crops from potatoes 

 planted in July. Yes. and we must not forget 

 that the late-grown potatoes are the only ones 

 that could be kept hard and firm, like these. 

 The cellar is pretty well down in a gravelly 

 loam. Then the earth is banked up all around, 

 clear up to the woodwork of the building. The 

 windows are tight, and covered with carpet- 

 ing, so as to exclude light, and also to exclude 

 the summer heat from the outside. In fact, it 

 was so cold down there on the 4th of July that 

 it almost made me shiver. His neighbors and 

 others keep saying, " Well, you hit it this time, 

 but some time you will be caught out by an 

 early frost— see if you don't." Well, he has 

 been caught repeatedly by early frosts and 

 freezes; but he gets his potatoes into that cel- 

 lar, by some hook or crook, notwithstanding; 

 and such late-grown potatoes are worth more 

 in the spring, for table use, planting, or any 

 thing else. All things considered, he finds the 

 Monroe Seedling the best for his special system 

 of any. Of course, he has other potatoes jjlant- 

 ed earlier: and we looked over a whole potato- 

 field of Freemans. Six Weeks, Craig Seedling; 

 and last, and probably looking best of all, Mon- 

 roe Seedlings that were pretty nearly a foot 

 high. 



Then we adjourned to the berry-patch. I 

 think I never saw so many nice raspberries on, 

 say, a quarter of an acre of ground before in 

 my life. They are the Hillborn. But his 

 gravelly loam is specially adapted to small 

 fruits, and almost all other kinds of fruit gen- 

 erally. In going to the house we passed the 

 strawberries. He went over to Matthew Craw- 

 ford's after he had pretty well sold out of 

 plants. But friend C. said he could give him 

 some good plants of the Barton, Beverly, and 

 Beder Wood. All are imperfect except the 

 latter. I made quite a fuss over the rast)ber- 

 ries; but I uttered more exclamation"? of delight 

 over that strawberry-patch on the 4th of Jnlv. 

 The whole family had used all thev wanted, 

 and there happened to be more beautiful largp 

 berries, dead ripe, than even "Uncle Amos" 

 could manage. Now, I do not know whether 

 it was the varieties mentioned; that beautiful, 

 gravelly loam where there had been a garden 



for a good many years, or whether it was cousin 

 Fenn's special treatment; and especially I can 

 not understand why he should have great per- 

 fect strawberries so late in the season when 

 everywhere else they are dried up and gone. I 

 have noticed that friend Crawford gives the 

 Beverly a big recommend; and perhaps the 

 excellent varieties have something to do with it. 



By the way, I must not forget to mention 

 that, while I was at friend Terry's, I was treat- 

 ed to a generous dish of his inimitable vSterlings, 

 and on the 4th of July too. You know I once 

 decided to drop the Sterling; but that beauti- 

 ful rich tart taste, when once tried never to be 

 forgotten, made me decide that the one row of 

 Sterlings that still remains on our grounds 

 shall be kept there after all, as so many people 

 prefer the Sterling for a late canning berry, 

 and one that will stand the frost as well as or 

 better than any thing else. On the way to the 

 house a group of five bright interesting children 

 claimed mv attention. 



"Now. Uncle Amos, you must come and see 

 our garden before you go home." 



Sure enough, there was the children's gar- 

 den. It was not much larger than a dinner- 

 table — perhaps the size of two dinner tables. 

 It containpd two monstrous hills of potatoes. 

 Of course, Wilbur Fenn's children would have 

 potatoes in their garden. Then there was one 

 row of peas ready to pick, and a sprinkling 

 here and there of other vegetables. And then 

 I told them about Ruber's garden. He prom- 

 ised his Sunday-school teacher to plant, five 

 cents' worth of seeds, and give the crop to mis- 

 sion work. He was going to take a five-cent 

 packet of radish seed; but I suggested he should 

 go to our seed-woman and get an ounce for the 

 five cents, as he did not have to pay any post- 

 age. After planting his bed full (the bed being 

 about as large as a good big dinner-table) he 

 had some seed left which I told him he might 

 take back. He took back three cents' worth, 

 and paid two for what he planted. In about 30 

 days he sold 29 bunches at 3 cts. per bunch, 

 making 87 cts.; but it was on one of our highly 

 fertilized plant-beds. With another five cents 

 he bought half a dozen tomato-plants. They 

 are trained up on the most approved plan, 

 taught by our Ohio Experiment Station, and 

 they are now loaded with green fruit. That 

 reminds me that we put our first picking of 

 tomatoes on the wagon to-day. July 8. They 

 were from the Fordhook Early, planted in a 

 deep bed so they could be covered with sashes 

 during the May frosts. They are now trained 

 on poultry-netting, and stand perhaps four feet 

 high. 



At Willis Fenn's (another cousin) I found him 

 spending the Fourth getting his ground ready 

 for seed corn. Hay is worth from S30 to S25 a 

 ton. and it behooves a progre-^ssive farmer to 

 save every bit of it if possible. His plan of 

 "cultivating" potatoes just before they come up 

 pleased me so much that I want to describe it 

 here. He uses the same clod-crusher described 

 in the Potato Book, page 181. See cut below. 



Cloil-crvisher and Leveler, made of 4x4 Soantlinp:. 



It is simply six 4x4 hard-wood scantling, 8 

 feet long, put together with bolts, with the cor- 

 ners down. This is drawn over the field so as 

 to mash lumps, level the ground, and scrape 

 the very daylights out of every thing in the 

 shape of weeds just starting. It leaves the 

 gravelly loam almost as level as a brickyard; 

 and when the potatoes come through they look 

 remarkably pretty, and the ground is in just 

 the right shape for the Breed weeder a little 

 later. 



