2(58 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Al'K. 1. 



barrel when rotted down and mixed with the 

 manure. Leaves and horse manure, forked 

 over and composted with a third of their bulk 

 of clean sand, containing no weed seeds, will 

 make about as nice a material for growing 

 plants and seeds as can be scraped up. In fact, 

 I should like to see any mixture of chemical 

 fertilizers go ahead of it. For some purposes, 

 some composted sods would probably be a ben- 

 eficial addition.] 



HOT-BED AND fOl.D - FKAME SASPIES; HOAV 

 SHALL WE AHKANGE THEM SO AS TO PER- 

 MIT THEIR EASY RPLMOVAL AND RE- 

 FLAPING? SOME GENERAL REMARKS 

 IN REGARD TO HANDLING GLASS. 



Mr. Roof; — In your visit to H. R. Board - 

 man's, described on page 14.''.. I am reminded 

 of one important ilein we left out in building 

 our hot-bed frames, shown in tiic tomato book: 

 that is, the cross bars to si iili- 1 111' .^ash up and 



down on. Just give your friend Boardman a 

 hint of it, and he won't liave to lift tiic sash at 

 all. They will slide with very little strength. 



H 



CD 



short strip, lN:ix70 iiK-lifs; Icnij,' strip, IxlJ^xTl inches. 



This cross-bar should be made of 1 x 3-inch 

 lath, to tit tight crosswise of the frame; then 

 one lath 1 x P.^, set up edgewise on the slat 

 above named, and nailed tirmly. The ends of 

 13^ x 1 should project over r.' inches at each end. 



Crystal Springs', Miss.. Feb. •.':5. J. W. Day. 



[In order to consider the matter mentioned 

 by friend Day, I submit one of my Kodak views 

 from the tomato book, taken while I was in 

 Crystal Springs, Miss. 



You will notice the strips of wood, or rafters, 

 reaching from one side of the bed to the other, 



described by friend Day, on which the sashes 

 slide. We have one such bed in use on our 

 grounds. There are several reasons why I do 

 not like it. First, the sashes, when slid either 

 down or up. are in the way. But this is princi- 

 pally because we have only 16-inch paths be- 

 tween our beds. The ground where our plant- 

 beds stand cost something like $:.'(XK) per acre, 

 therefore every inch of it must be made to do 

 service. Second, when sashes are thus pulled 

 down or pushed up. they are in a very daiiger- 

 ous position, with the heavy March winds we 

 often have here. I very much prefer to have 

 the sashes piled up at the end of each bed, as 

 illustrated on page 104 of the tomato book. 

 Third, those rafters, or strips for the sashes to 

 slide on, are greatly in the way. As soon as we 

 have got off a crop we are in the habit of turn- 

 ing the dirt over thoroughly with a spading- 

 fork; and every little while we put some fresh 

 manure under the existing soil. In all this 

 kind of work the bars 

 will be a hindrance. 

 When our sashes are 

 off, we prefer to have a 

 clear bed for the whole 

 50 feet of its length. Of 

 course, circumstances 

 alter cases. On friend 

 Day's tomato - farm 

 land is cheap, and he 

 can afford ' plenty of 

 room to slide his sash 

 down or up as well as 

 not; and I hope they 

 do not have such fear- 

 ful blows in the spring 

 of the year as we do 

 here. If I wake up in 

 the middle of the 

 night, and hear the 

 wind blowing '" great 

 guns," I am very apt to 

 get uneasy unless I 

 know my sash are all 

 in such compact shape 

 that they will stand 

 almost any thing short 

 of a tornado. Where a 

 bed is completely cov- 

 ered with sashes, the 

 wind seldom picks 

 them up; but where a 

 part of them are oft' 

 and a part on. or where 

 they are slid back, or 

 even tilted, the wind is 

 apt to get hold of them. 

 Our present method of 

 handling is to let them 

 remain in their places 

 until the air gets so hot that the steain comes 

 out when a sash is lifted. If the weather is 

 frosty, and it is freezing in the shade, we give 

 ventilation by lifting every third sash by one 

 corner and swinging it so one corner rests on its 

 neighbor. If. however, the sun shines out clear, 

 and the weather is warm, so it thaws in the 

 shade, then we usually lift the sash oft' entirely. 

 Of course, much depends on whether you are 

 protecting onions and cabbages, or tomatoes 

 and cucum))ers. Whenever there is a warm 

 rain we want all the sashes oft", and we prefer 

 to leave them oft' all night if there is no danger 

 of frost. The Weather Bureau is just now 

 proving a great help to us. It often gives us 

 notice 48 hours ahead of what we may expect, 

 and thus enables us to save useless labor in 

 handling sash, very materially. Many thanks 

 to Uncle Samuel. 



The ouen buildir.g in the distance is one of 

 friend Day's packing- sheds. In these sheds he 



