714 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



acb, and every thing that grows in the garden! 

 Just now, however, garden-stufif is very low in 

 and around Toronto. Nice pototoes are retail- 

 ing at 2.5 els. a bushel; tomatoes about the 

 same. Green corn has been hawked about the 

 streets for 4 cts. per dozen; string beans. lO cts. 

 a pecii; cucumber pickl^^s, 15 cts. per 100. The 

 recent rains, you see. have sent every thing 

 forward all at once. P'riend Grainger admitted 

 it hardly paid for picking: but somehow it 

 seemed easier for the men and horses to go 

 through the motions than to stand still and 

 give up. Besides, if they give their patrons 

 great bargains just now when every thing is so 

 plentiful, they will hold the trade, and may 

 expect said patrons to turn around and give 

 them a lift when prices are higher again. 



The Graingers have a way of fixing their 

 hot-water pipes that may not be new, but it 

 was new to me. They use four inch pipes with 

 bell-shaped coupling, and the .joints are made 

 with Portland cement and water — nothing else. 

 They told me, however, that, to get the best 

 results, put the pipe together, put in your 

 cement, set every thing as you want it, leaving 

 a little opening on the upper side of each 

 joint. After the cement sets hard, and you are 

 ready to put in the water, then cement up these 

 openings, or vent-holfs, the very last thing. 

 When put up in this way he says he has never 

 had a leak. The hot water never disturbs the 

 Portland-cement joints. 



After we had looked around the home garden 

 and admired the great masses of bloom, we 

 took the horse and buggy and went further 

 into the suburbs. Most of the soil round about 

 Toronto is just the thing for market-gardening 

 — a sandy loam — and a great deal of it quite 

 rolling. The rolling land is just right for fruit. 

 In one twenty-acre lot we saw apple-trees with 

 the limbs just breaking down with the most 

 beautiful, smooth, clt-an, handsome fruit. Be- 

 tween the trees was a rank, thrifty crop of 

 sweet corn: and between the rows of sweet 

 corn were great quantities of Hubbard squashes 

 — three crops on the same ground. But 1 sup- 

 pose the secret of it was the great qnanliti(^s of 

 manure drawn from the big city. This twenty- 

 acre piece contained a great variety of crops of 

 all kinds; but the owner had not yet learned 

 the importance of having the stuff in long rows. 

 He had square beds of one thing and then 

 square beds of something else. 



Oh! I must not forget to mention the beauti- 

 ful Prizetaker onions. Some of them looked 

 like little cabbage-heads. They were piled up 

 in front of the groceries all over Toronto. 

 Friend Grainger tells me they are transplanted 

 onions, and are now produced all over Canada. 

 He said he believed he started the thing tir.-t, 

 and he got it from the Home of the Honey-bees. 



Before getting around to the bee-keepers' 

 convention I was treated to a glimpse of the 

 trial grounds of Steele Brothers, of Toronto. 

 There we saw all of the late and much-talked- 

 of tomatoes, each one trained on a handsome 

 wooden trellis, all in full bearing, the first of 

 the tomatoes getting dead ripe, and not a 

 tomato yet picked. As I told you, the Ignotum 

 holds its own in Canada about as well as any 

 other, only that it rots more in dry seasons 

 than some others. Livingston's Buckeye State 

 may. perhaps, be preferred by some; hut the 

 Fordhook Early, from Atlee Burpee. I think 

 showed the best for an extra-early tomato. Oh 

 what a beautiful place that was to test gar- 

 dening! The only trouble — if it could be called 

 a trouble — was, that the ground was so rich 

 that almost every new vegetable showed to ad- 

 vantage. Why, their trial crop of cabbages 

 was the finest cabbage-field I ever saw In my 



life anywhere. I should hate to be obliged to 

 load some single beads, leaves and all, into the 

 market-garden wagon. But then, you see I 

 am on beefsieak diet just now, ana that may 

 have a bearing on the case. 



On our way home my companion asked me 

 how much I remembered of him. I replied 

 that we had corresponded more oj' less for 

 many years about greenhouses and mushrooms, 

 transplanting onions, etc. "'But." said he, "I 

 don't believe you know even now just who it is 

 who is riding by your side. Do you remember 

 that, years ago. a boy wrote you to the effect 

 thai" iie was working foi' a man who was a con- 

 firmed skeptic; and, noiwiihstanding what 

 Gleanings >aid, it seemed to him, this boy, 

 that Christians were not as honest and upright 

 in deal as people who make no profession, or 

 skeptics, if you choose." 



I did recollect some such letter away back in 

 the past. He went on: 



"Just about the time my parents were la- 

 menting that I was straying away from the 

 faith, I got hold of a single number of Glean- 

 ings, and it gave me a glimpse of the real worth 

 and value of true religion as a force or motive 

 power in the business world I had never got 

 hold of before. To be brief. I dropped my un- 

 believing employer, and, through the influ- 

 ence of the Home Papers. I chose Jesus Christ, 

 and commenced the Christian life. Along with 

 my Christian sentiments I took to gardening 

 and greenhouses. You have seen the outcome, 

 or. at least, some of it. At lirst my wife did not 

 take much interest in Gleanings, thinking it 

 was ganiening, bees, and such things, out of a 

 woman's line. One evening, however, I picked 

 out an old number and asked her to read a little 

 of A. I. Root's talks. She asked for the next 

 and the next, and I could hardly get her to go to 

 bed that night: and in a very short time she 

 had read the Home Papers up to date: and now 

 you know why I was urgent in my invitation to 

 have you make one of our little household. In 

 the evening I was pretty tired and asked to go 

 to bed early. 



Oh! I almost forgot to tell you there is a 

 baby in that household. Of all the beautiful 

 flowers that the greenhouse and all outdoors 

 combined can show, there is none brighter or 

 prettier or sweeter than that baby; yes, and I 

 might include as well another one that is a little 

 too old to be called " the baby " just now.; 



After bidding them all good-night, baby in- 

 cluded, I went up to my room. I wonder if any 

 body else knows what dainty, pretty, tasty 

 sleeping-rooms there are in "our neighbors' " 

 homes all over our land. In fact, /should not 

 know it, if I did not get around among my 

 neighbors now and then. On the dainty little 

 stand with its pretty spread I foun3 the latest 

 thing in the way of a handy Bible. Tired as I 

 was, I selected one or two of my favorite pass- 

 ages. By the way, for weeks back every now 

 and then there has been welling up from my 

 heart the words. 



Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 

 and as the sweet strains of music came up from 

 the room below, I joined my prayer with their 

 praise. Friend Grainger loves music as well as 

 flowers, fruits, and vegetables. He is a leader, 

 or something of that sort, of their Sunday- 

 school choir. The yonng people of the neigh- 

 borhood had gathered in with violins and vio- 

 loncello; the sweet voices accompanied the 

 piano in practicing for the next Sunday morn- 

 inff service, for this was the regular night. I 

 laid my tired frame in the soft sweet bed. and, 

 with the blinds thrown wide open, until the 

 pure fresh air came right across my face, I lost 

 consciousness with praises to God upon my lips. 



