1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



223 



High-pressure Gardening. 



THE farmer's LA.MENT. 



A frieud sends us the following clipping from 

 a newspaper: 



I m sick and tired of hoeing-, ditchings. 

 And milking- cows witli tails a switching- 



In face and eyes: 

 There's little pay and lots of labor 

 In raising- corn ortaters, neighbor, 



And flg-hting- Hies. 



The farm and necessary fixtures. 



To me are not such pleasant pictures — 



Scythe, fork, and rake; 

 To tell the truth, 1 do not love them, 

 And, sojiring- far to realms above them, 



My leave would take. 



Oh for a season of refreshing-! 



Oh for a crop that's worth the tlireshing-! 



The farmers pray. 

 Until one's ready for his colBn ; 

 Their dying- words we hear so often: 



" Farming- doesn't pay I" 



Well, I do not quite agree with the farmer 

 who uttered the above lament. I am not tired 

 of hoeing and ditching, at all; but modern prog- 

 ress has made the hoe to be almost too slow to 

 be used very much. Our best cultivators, and 

 Breed's weeder. have rather thrown it into the 

 background. Of course, there is lots di labor 

 with the corn and "taters;" but just now the 

 pay is pretty good, especially on the " taters;" 

 and the scythe, fork, and rake are the very 

 things I do love; but the scythe, like the hoe, is 

 rather too slow. There is one line in the last 

 verse that rather redeems the poor old farmer, 

 after all. If he could have a crop " ivorth the 

 threshing." he might brighten up. And now, 

 dear friend, pray do not get "ready" for that 

 "coffin" just yet. I am sure there is lots of busi- 

 ness that will pay tiptop, just before you. 

 Why. just think of it! Our Medina people 

 wanted some parsnips. We usually dig them 

 almost any month in winter, here in Ohio; but 

 we have had a freeze-up ever since just before 

 Christmas; and those we put into the cellar 

 were gone long ago; so we sent to Cleveland for 

 a barrel, and they went off like hot cakes, at 

 5 cents a pound. The barrel cost us $3.00. 

 Neighbor H. said that, if any one would guar- 

 antee him a market, he would raise parsnips 

 for lOcts. a bushel. I am not sure that I could 

 do that; but I could, with very little trouble. 

 raise an awful lot of them on that creek-bottom 

 ground; and if parsnips, carrots, turnips, and 

 roots of every kind, are put into the cellar, and 

 covered with clean sand, they will keep almost 

 as fresh and nice as they were the day they 

 were dug, all winter long. Of course, the tem- 

 perature of the cellar needs to be so near freez- 

 ing that they will not sprout. Perhaps you 

 say that raising root crops is not farming; but 

 I insist that it is. If the towns around you 

 won't give :.'.'> cts. a bushel for your roots, they 

 are worth almost if not quite that price, to feed 

 out to almost any kind of stock. Just try your 

 horses and cattle with carrots and parsnips in 

 the spring, and see what they think of them. 

 Then if you should have a winter like this, and 

 everybody were ready to buy your crop at a 

 dollar a bushel, or 5cts. a pound at retail, how 

 would t/iat suit you, Mr. Farmer'? It seems to 

 me we have got a "season of refreshing" 

 right here now, in a good many commodities; 

 and there will always be a good market for 

 nice stuff carefully put away, until there comes 

 a season when somebody wants to buy. 



USELESS DOGS AND HOT-BED SASH. 



For years I have been paying a pretty heavy 

 bill of expense in consequence of breakage of 

 glass in our hot-bed and cold-frame sashes, by 

 dogs walking over them. Of course, I mean 

 dogs heavy enough to break a pane of glass. 

 With the slatted glass sash, which I think prom- 

 ises to be of great use at certain times of the 

 year, the dogs pretty nearly break up the busi- 

 ness. Even a small dog stepping on those two- 

 inch slats would break them. It is not alone the 

 hot-beds either, for I have had big dogs walk up 

 the sides of my greenhouse where the glass 

 came over near the ground. When I remon- 

 strated with the owners of the dogs, they tried 

 to evade the question by asking what in the 

 world the dogs wanted by walking on my sash. 

 The explanation is this: Many dogs in winter 

 time are not properly fed. In fact, a great many 

 of them show by their looks and actions that 

 they are half starved. Well, the rich compost 

 we employ in our hot-beds, and even in our 

 highly fertilized cold-frames, gives off an odor 

 thatmust be in some manner savory to the hun- 

 gry dogs, so they go nosing about the plant-beds 

 and walking over the glass, especially when 

 there is a little snow on the surface. If I were 

 the only sufferer, perhaps the matter would not 

 he worth bringing up; but I have heard several 

 complaints from different localities. The letter 

 below is right to the point: 



Mr. Root: 



Please send at on^e 1000 very earliest Jersey 

 Wakefield cabbage-plants, 1000 White Plume 

 celery. I hav(> had bad luck with my first early 

 plants owing to dogs breaking glass in my hot- 

 bed at night and letting them freeze, so 1 order 

 from you, as I believe you will send me none but 

 A 1 plants; and I will transplant under glass as 

 soon as they get here. S. H. Beaver. 



Seward, Neb., March 2. 



You may say. " Why not get a gun and shoot 

 the dogs'.'" Here in Ohio, and I presume likely 

 in other States, any dog prowling around with- 

 out his master may be shot according to law. 

 But you know this is not a pleasant thing to do. 

 The masters are often in the habit of going 

 along the sidewalk while the dog is gallop- 

 ing through the adjacent fields. It seems tome 

 the town council, or some official board, should 

 take the matter in hand, and, for the general 

 good of the community, thin off' the useless 

 dogs. Of course, the owners should be first no- 

 tified; then if they do not take care of their 

 dogs, they will have no reason to complain. 

 There are good and sufficient reasons why a 

 market-gardener should not go to shooting his 

 neighbors' dogs. The old adage says, " People 

 who live in glass houses should not throw 

 stones." A spiteful neighbor might come in the 

 night and smash more glass than his dog would 

 in a lifetime. Besides, that is not the way to do 

 business with neighbors, anyhow— at least, the 

 teachings of Our Homes and Neighbors in this 

 journal are not along in that line. I suppose, to 

 sum it up. the question presents itself something 

 like this: Which is of more importance to the 

 commonwealth— intensive gardening or the dog 

 business? 



ONION-SETS — HOW TO RAISE THEM. 



I suppose you have noticed that the prices of 

 onion-sets seem to be running higher and high- 

 er; and almost every spring— ar, least for some 

 years back — the demand has been greater than 

 the supply, even with the tremendously high 

 prices. Why. Peter Henderson, in his last 

 retail catalogue, quotes them at $2.50 a peck, 

 red, yellow, and white; potato-onions same 

 price. I have been thinking, season after sea- 

 son, that somebody would raise so many that 



