642 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



placed over the sewage-pipe, as I expected to. 

 1 began to think it was pretty low down. A 

 week or two ago, however, along in July, I be- 

 gan to notice that the rows of tomatoes stand- 

 ing over the lower end of this sewage-pipe 

 were of a bright thrifty green, and greatly 

 overtopping the rest. The line of the sewage- 

 pipe is now plainly discernible by the extra 

 growth of pie-plant, tomato-plants, and every 

 thing else over this tiling. Three or four days 

 ago our good friend O. J. Terrell, of North 

 Amherst, O.. paid me a visit. After looking 

 over the garden, and talking about the drouth, 

 etc., he began examining my rows of tomatoes, 

 trained after the experiment-station plan, on 

 lath supported by a stout wire stretched be- 

 tween heavy posts. He gravely informed me 

 that I should get hardly a good tomato from 

 my whole plantation of several hundred large 

 fine plants unless I gave them tremendous 

 doses of water. And then he showed me a 

 rotten spot on the blossom end of almost every 

 tomato as it commenced to ripen. 



"Mr. Root, that is the effect of a lack of 

 moisture; and plenty of water is an effectual 

 cure." 



You may remember this has been suggested 

 several times. I think the Ohio Experiment 

 Station gave as their opinion that dry weather 

 produces this kind of rot around the blossom 

 end. But I rather maintained that the toma- 

 toes had water enough. If we gave them any 

 more on our rich grounds, they would all run 

 to vines, etc. Finally a thought struck me: 



"Oh I look here, friend Terrell. There is one 

 thing I forgot to show you. and it is right pat 

 to our discussion just at this minute." 



Then I told him the story of Ernest's arrange- 

 ment for his water-closet. Then we walked 

 over to the spot where those great luxuriant 

 hills stood. Lo and behold, they had grown so 

 rank and heavy with their load of green toma- 

 toes that they were pulling down the trellis. 

 Two boys were called, and with stout stakes 

 they pulled it up straight. Meanwhile friend 

 Terrell was looking those lusty hills over, with 

 the keen scrutiny of a scientist He got down 

 on his hands and knees; he crawled between 

 the bushes: he peeked in here and there. Fi- 

 nally he stood up with a triumphant look on his 

 face, and said: 



"Bro. Root, you have seen the rotten spotted 

 tomatoes all over your plantation, where I 

 pointed thf-m out to you. You have even seen 

 a bunch of pear tomatoes with a black rotten 

 spot at the blossom end of each one on the 

 cluster, and T told you your crop would be 

 ruined if you did not pour on water, and lots of 

 it. Now look here. I will give you a dollar 

 apiece — mind you, a dollar — for every tomato 

 with a rotten spot on it that you can find on 

 these bushes that stand over or very near these 

 five-inch tiles flooded with water, and some- 

 thing a little richer mixed in, say several times 

 a day." 



There, friends, you have got the fact. Ernest 

 and I figured up that perhaps 13 or 15 gallons 

 of water a day are flushed into those tiles. But 

 it does not cost a cent. It is a perfect automatic 

 arrangement. It is not only automatic in giv- 

 ing a tremendous crop of the handsomest to- 

 matoes you ever saw in your life, but it is also 

 automatic in disposing of all the sewage from 

 the household. The whole thing stands right 

 close by the street, and anvbody can come and 

 look at it who thinks I have exaggerated it. 

 Because of the rot in tomatoes that has made 

 such havoc, my loss for several seasons past 

 has been because of a lack of water; and the 

 remedy — at least one remedy — is sub-irrigation. 

 And I have told you very plainly just exactly 

 how to manage it. Somebody may suggest 



that these small tiles will in time fill up, and 

 will have to be taken up and cleaned out. 

 Well, even if they do we can afford to do it; 

 and very likely it will be as well or better to- 

 run the tiles a greater distance from the house, 

 say a hundred feet or more. I do not know 

 whether the roots of those rank-growing toma- 

 to-plants were down inside of those big tiles or 

 not; but I rather suspect they are. In fact, 

 that is where I planned to have them. The 

 tiles are so large I think it will be a good while 

 before they will be so filled up with roots and 

 trash that the water can no longer get through 

 them. Can any one suggest a cheaper way in 

 the long run to manage a water-closet ? And 

 just contrast the beauty and simplicity of such 

 an apparatus with that of an out-building with 

 a pit or vault under it, full of the most disa- 

 greeable mixture that can well be thought of. 

 Such things are a disgrace to the present age — 

 at least, after one has the means to do better. 

 And even if you have not the means, I would 

 adopt the plan they have in Florida— the same 

 one recommended by T. B. Terry— of having 

 galvanized iron pails to be emptied on the gar- 

 den whenever necessary. Do not. under any 

 circumstances, have a pit or vault in the 

 ground to endanger your wells and cisterns. 



FORCING VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 



The Cornell University Experiment Station 

 (Ithaca, N. Y.). has just given us some exceed- 

 ingly valuable bulletins on this subject. I speak 

 of bulletins Nos. 95 and 96. If thev are not 

 furnished free on application. Prof. Bailey will 

 surely tell you on what terms they can he had. 

 No. 95 tells all about raising melons under glass. 

 No. 96 discusses Grand Rapids and other kinds 

 of lettuce: cress, egg-plant, and peas. There is 

 also a chapter in regard to bees in greenhouses; 

 another on the controlling of pests by fumiga- 

 tion. But the most valuable part is the ar- 

 rangement of beds, glass, etc., for high-pressure 

 gardening. I have never yet succeeded in 

 growing nice celery in the winter in a green- 

 house nor even in a cold-frame. As it is so 

 easily wintered over until February any way. it 

 is not worth while to grow it under glass, to be 

 readv for use before March. During March. 

 April, and May. people can always be found 

 who will pay large prices for a nice article; and 

 this bulletin tells how to make a success of it. 

 The work is don e by Pro fs. Bailey and L ode- 

 man.*^ """'''^^'t.-.^, gJT p«r^:»^;^^ ■ ;t^ 



SWEEt!cI>OVER— IS IT A NOXIOUS WE ED ? 



In what is called the "Legal Department" 

 of a recent issue of the Ohio Farmer I see in 

 two separate places sweet clover mentioned 

 among the class of "noxious weeds" that 

 are under thj ban of The laws of the State 

 of Ohio. Now. I do not know how this came 

 about, but there surely is a great blunder some- 

 where. First, you can not call any plant a 

 noxious weed that is greedily devoured by 

 horses ana cattle when they can get at it. If 

 sweet clover ever grows in pasture-lots, espe- 

 cially where the pasture is short, I have never 

 yet met with such a case. It is true that stock, 

 a good many times, need to be educated a little 

 to like it; but our horses will now eat the dry 

 brush after thrashing out the seed. Second, 

 sweet clover has been for years past quoted reg- 

 ularly in the market, among other clovers. It 

 is at present quoted bv Nungesser & Co.. 65 

 Pearl St.,New York, at $14.00 to $16.00 per 100 ft s. ; 

 and there is a good steady demand for it at that 

 price. Do the seeds of noxious weeds have a 

 regular merchantable value ? Perhaps I should 

 be a little modest in speaking of the third rea- 

 son why it should not be called a noxious weed. 

 It is one of the recognized sources of some of the 



