1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



445 



beaver. Sometimes by his quick movements he 

 will for a time do almost as much as a man — 

 yes, even if he has only a third of a man's pay. 

 Of course, you can not expect him to work as 

 many hours on a stretch as a man does; but if 

 you understand a boy. and boy nature, you can 

 do the boy good and he will do you good. Let 

 us now go back to the weeding. 



At first, when cei'tain boys began to loaf, and 

 loll out their tongues, or tell stories when I set 

 them to weeding. I reprimanded them, and made 

 up my mind they were not very good boys; but 

 when my very best boys began to get this sort 

 of "disease" whenever they were asked to 

 weed the beds, I began to think that, perhaps, 

 there was something about the work that we 

 ought not to expect the average boy to like. 

 Sometimes when they want work badly they 

 will go to work at the weeding with a very good 

 grace; but by and by they lose in ti rest and en- 

 thusiam. and get the same fashion they see 

 others around them following. One little fel- 

 low frankly admitted that he did notlike weed- 

 ing; but he said that, when there was no other 

 work to do, he would do the best he could at it. 



Well, I finally began to wonder if there were 

 not some way to get rid of weeding. You may 

 say, '■' Why. yes: have rich soil in your plant- 

 beds that does not contain weed seeds." But, 

 alas! if you use large quantities of stable ma- 

 nure, it is impossible to avoid getting clover 

 seed and grass, and ever so many other kinds of 

 less useful weeds. By the way. did you ever 

 see what a wonderful propensity a clover-plant 

 has to send its roots down in good soil ? On our 

 plant-beds a little clover-plant, with only three 

 or four leaves, and not over an Inch high, will 

 have a branching root almost as long as your 

 hand. Its first business seems to be to get away 

 down where it can pump up the moisture and 

 fertility. Well, since 1 have been using the 

 sand I have got hold of a plan which comes 

 pretty near being a remedy for weed-pulling. 

 Fix the bed as I have been telling you, and then 

 put half an inch of sand all over the surface. 

 Sow your seed in the sand, or just about be- 

 tween the sand and soil, and most of the seeds 

 will be up before the weeds are. There are no 

 weed-seeds in ray lake sand at all; therefore 

 the weeds have to get up through the sand be- 

 fore they are visible. The seed does not have 

 to send up its shoot so far, and therefore it gets 

 a little ahead. However, by the time your 

 plants begin to put out their second leaves, the 

 weeds will begin to get up through. It is best 

 to let the weeds and plants grow all together 

 until the plants are large enough to transplant 

 safely; then pick out the plants and leave the 

 weeds. These same boys who dislike picking 

 out the weeds will take up the plants and plant 

 them out in nice rows, and give you a perfect 

 stand of plants — that is, after they have been 

 trained a little. This transplanting with poul- 

 try-netting frames, or even with the notched 

 strips of wood shown in the tomato book, makes 

 the work a regular mechanical operation; and 

 when it is done it looks handsome and work- 

 manlike. After the plants are all out, dig the 

 beds all up and then run the weeds, dirtand all, 

 through the sifting-machiiie shown in the to- 

 mato book, and your weeds are all shaken out 

 of the dirt, and underneath the fine soil, where 

 they are worth as much, on a small scale, as 

 Terry's clover that he turns under; then put 

 on some more sand, and sow more seeds, or put 

 in plants. When the plants get big enough to 

 shade the ground, all trouble from weeds is vir- 

 tually at an end. If a few do get through, they 

 can be easily " yanked " out. 



You may say this is a i,^reat deal of trouble 

 and expense, making up tiie beds so often. Yes, 

 it is; but it is a great deal cheaper than weed- 



ing. And what dn you suppose we get for the 

 use of a pieceof ground, during this busy month 

 of May? Well, we of'en sell nice seedlings for 

 20 cts. per 100; for ouion-plants we get only half 

 as much; but I have frequently taken three or 

 four dollars for th(! plants occupying the space 

 of a single sash for 30 days: yes, sometimes 

 with favorable conditions 1 have, in 1.5 days aft- 

 er transplanting Wakefield cabbages, taken up 

 every plant and shipped them off. getting two 

 or three dollars for the plants that grew under 

 a single sash in only 1.5 days' time. To get 

 these prices, our plants must be nice ones. I do 

 not mean that they must have nice-lookingtop.s. 

 Good gardeners care a good deal more about a 

 big bushy root than they do about a fine-look- 

 ing top. A great big rank green top, with al- 

 most no root at all. is of little value. If you 

 make it grow it will be a long while before it 

 amounts to much. Some time in April we had 

 some tomato-plants in our greenhouse, once 

 transplanted, that were beginning to crowd so 

 I knew they must have more room somewhere. 

 I moved them out into a plant-bed to be covered 

 with sash, and gave them plenty of room. The 

 weather was so cold, however, and there was so 

 little sunshine, that they almost stood still for 

 pretty nearly a whole month. The foliage had 

 very much changed in color, it is true, and it 

 lost its light bright green look, and had assum- 

 ed a dark, tough-looking hue. It looked as if 

 they would stand fro.^t. and I guess they would 

 have stood a light frost without injury. I 

 thought likely they were making root at this 

 time; but when I came to take some up for a 

 customer, I was greatly surprised to see a great 

 mass of bushy roots, about the shape and size of 

 one's double fist. The little plants at the top 

 looked almost insignificant; but the roots were 

 new and thrifty-looking. Such a plant would 

 almost grow if you werw to throw it out on top 

 of the ground ; and with the most indifferent 

 planting it would take right hold and boom at 

 the first bit of sunshine in summer weather. 

 Such plants will build up a man's trade; but 

 long spindling plants, with all top and little 

 root, will disgust a prudent gardener. This de- 

 sirable result is secured by frequent transplant- 

 ing. When orders are rushing we can not well 

 get just what we want for customers; besides, 

 if we do not get a purchaser at about the right 

 time, the doubly transplanted plants will be 

 getting too big to send away. But I tell you, 

 there is a chance for somebody to build up a big 

 trade in furnishing nice plants every time. 

 With such a greenhouse as ours, with sufficient 

 capacity, and plant beds and sash to match, it 

 could be done, even with such a spring as we 

 just passed; and by frequent transplanting we 

 can get rid of weeding; and I do believe it is 

 cheajjer to transplant the whole bed, many 

 times, than to pull the weeds out. 



Some of you may say, " Why, look here, Mr. 

 Root, these chemical fertilizers you despise are 

 going to help you out in the matter. Get some 

 good soil that has not been seeded to weeds; 

 mix it with your lake-shore sand, and then en- 

 rich it with guano or chemical fertilizers, and 

 then you won't have any clover or grass seed, 

 nor aiiy thing else, to bother it; and for plant- 

 beds it would surely pay instead of using such 

 quantities of stable nuinure.'" Well, perhaps it 

 may. I hope so; but if it is guano that gives 

 the'chemical manures their value, I say guano 

 should have the credit; and it should be our 

 privilege to buy guano without the otht^'r. I 

 should like to see chemicals like nitrate of soda 

 produce a crop on ground that is too poor to 

 give any crop otherwise. I have some faith in 

 bone-dust; but that, too, is rather expensive 

 compared with stable manure at 50 or 7;5 cts. a 

 load— the price we pay here in Medina. 



