783 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



ON THE WHEEL. 



My weight has finally been reduced lo 110 

 lbs. To lest the matter in regard to whether 

 one loses strength by a corre.>- ponding loss of 

 flesh, I decided to tal^'e a wheelride on the 

 morning of Sept. 21 — the hot Saturday you re- 

 member so much has been said about in the 

 papers. Alter eating a whole pound of sirloin 

 steak as a starter 1 rode 33 miles, perhaps easier 

 than 1 ever did it before. There is certainly a 

 big advantage in reduced weight for wheel- 

 riding, although it may not be as true for dif- 

 ferent kinds ot hard work. I now weigh from 

 30 to 35 lbs. less than my ordinary weight. 

 Sometimes in doing eirands it becomes neces- 

 sary for me to carry some 10 or 30 lbs. on my 

 wheel, and I find it makes a vast difference 

 when 1 finish my errand and leave my burden. 

 Now, is it not possible that thousands of people 

 are carrying around with them day by day a 

 useless amount of avoirdupois? I do not refer 

 especially to those people who are over- fat. 

 My normal weight is from 130 to 135; and I con- ■ 

 fess 1 find it a great relief, especially on a hot 

 day, to feel that I am 30 or 35 lbs. lighter, and 

 yet no loss of strength and energy. By the 

 way, is there any better way of reducing llesh 

 than by the Salisbury treatment? 



A few days later I started out to visit friend 

 Gault. I wanted to see his raspberries during 

 the last of September. The Weather Bureau 

 said "fair weather;" but the barometer said 

 ■'rain." I had my work all fixed, and I was 

 in just the mood for a wheelride; so 1 started 

 out in defiance of the barometer. 1 made eight 

 or ten miles very easily, and with much enjoy- 

 ment. Then it commenced to sprinkle; but as 

 it did not sprinkle enough to make the dust 

 stick to the rubber rims, and as I had on some 

 very light thin clothing, 1 kept on in the rain. 

 The rain was at first a sort of uamp mist. But 

 it kept getting wetter and wetter. Pretty soon 

 I experinced the delicious sensation 1 have 

 mentioned before, of breathing great breaths of 

 water-laden air. I wonder if anybody else has 

 enjoyed this while riding the wheel. It is 

 much like drinking when you are thirsty, but 

 you drink through the lungs, i enjoyed it so 

 much that I kept on until I was pretty well 

 wet through. Catch cold? Not a bit of it. 

 When you weigh only 110 lbs., and your muscles 

 are all solid lean meat, something like dried 

 beef, perhaps, you can not very well catch 

 cold. I kept on enjoying it more and more 

 until finally the roads began to be too soft for 

 wheeling. Then I was obliged to invade a 

 little home by the wayside. 1 was permitted to 

 help myself from a tea-kettle of hot water on 

 the stove. Then I talked with the six-months- 

 old baby, and got acquainted with the rest of 

 the household, and put in an hour until the 

 rain stopped, very pleasantly. By getting over 

 to the nearest station I reached New London 

 after 9 o'clock at night; but as the rain had 

 spoiled the wheeling I got up at five o'clock 

 and found the way over to our friend Dan 

 White's just as the hired man was getting out 

 of the back door. As soon as Mr. White was 

 informed that A. I. Root was on the premises 

 he hustled on his clothing quickly, making 

 some apologies for getting up so late on a rainy 

 morning. After we had shaken hands and 

 talked over matters a little he commenced: 



" O Mr. Root! You are just in time to see the 



neatest thing in the way of a strawberry-patch 

 there is out. Just come this way." 



If our readers will now turn back to page 71, 

 Jan. 15, they will find some diagrams in regard 

 to setting out strawberry plants. Well, friend 

 White's patch was a moaification of this idea. 

 In the first place, he marks out his around in 

 the spring ofthe year so as to put, the rows 4 

 feet apail; then the plants are carefully set 18 

 inches apart in the row. As soon as they send 

 out runners, one new plant is made lo grow 

 half way between the original plants. That 

 leaves them 9 inches from center to center. 

 Now the next step is to put a plant 9 inches off 

 on ( ach side of every plant in the row. The 

 diagram below will make it plain. The large 

 stars are the original plants, and the small ones 

 where the runners are put down. 



DAN white's system OF GROWING STRAW- 

 BERRIES. 



You tvill notice that the above arrangement 

 makes the plants 9 inches apart from center to 

 center; each old plant is to furnish thiee young 

 ones. The row of plants is 18 inches wide, the 

 path 31., feet wide. Well, after you get these 

 three rows, plants 9 inches apart, then you are 

 to pull off every runner. Go over the ground so 

 often that not a weed gets a start, and not an- 

 other plant gets a start except the three rows 

 as given above. The effect is to make each 

 plant, by the time frost comes, a strong bunchy 

 cluster. It is several years since we first prac- 

 ticed taking oft' all the runners so as to get 

 strong bushy plants; but I am firmly convinced 

 that in no other way can we get such large fine 

 berries. 



The next question is. What variety shall we 

 use? Dan White's model strawberry-patch is 

 Gandys— nothing else. You know there has 

 been a complaint that,the Gandy does not bear 

 very much. Some large strong plants, for in- 

 stance, will not bear a single berry— at least, 

 not the first season. Well, friend W. savs it is 

 because the plant has not grown to a sufficient 

 size. He says if you take the tirr-t Gandy run- 

 ners that set in June or July, give them good 

 cultivation, and stop oft' all the other runners, 

 you will get a plant by fall big enough to give 

 a good crop of fruit next year, and I believe he 

 is right. Our Gandys always did better the 

 second season from planting. 



This patch of strawberries on friend White's 

 premises is, I believe, the handsomest, and the 

 most of a model patch, of any thing I ever saw 

 anywhere, unless it is those of Henry Young» 

 Ada, O., that I looked at last winter. There are 

 ab.solutely no weeds in it. There was a plant 

 wherever there should be one, and no extra 

 ones. And I tell you, friends, it is a grand 

 thing to have a full stand in raising any crop. 

 This reminds me that I forgot to say that T. B. 

 Terry's potato-fields were absolutely a full 

 stand. There were no missing hills — at least, I 

 did not see any. But his planting was all done 

 by hand. Since digging his Freemans he tells 

 me that, on his best ground, they ran as high 

 as 195 bushels per acre. Now, for the season 

 we have had, especially the severe drouth in his 

 locality, and for a potato of such fine ([uality as 

 the EYeeman, this is certainly doing pretty well, 

 especially where a whole farm, as it were, is 

 planted to potatoes. But, to come back to 

 friend White's. 



It is a big lot of work to set each runner in 

 place by hand, and to pinch off all the super- 

 fluous runners. But, there is no excellence 



