1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



571 



patch until they looked about like celery-rows 

 fixed up for bleaching. We might have done it 

 a great deal quicker with thi' Planet cultivator 

 and horse, but I presume he fairly ached to get 

 at it with his hoe. and do it up in the olrj-coun- 

 try style. He worked hard and did an honest 

 job; but the potatoes wilted down right away, 

 and there was not nearly lialf a crop. Now, 

 mind you, there is a good deal to be explained 

 about this matter of raising potatoes on the 

 level culture. If you plant in the old-fashioned 

 way, with a dozen big stalks in a hill, they will 

 burst the ground open so something has to be 

 done. If, however, you have only one good 

 stalk in a place, and these good stalks just 

 about the right distance apart, you will get 

 just as many potatoes, or more, and have them 

 nearly all of a marketable size, and not have 

 them sunburnt either. 



Since the big ditch has taken the surplus 

 water away, friend Terry has been doing some 

 more underdraining. and, like the rest of us, 

 he is having some puzzling problems to work 

 out. While looking at ihe water as it was run- 

 ning away from the black mucky swamp 

 ground, I began to feel thirsty. When riding 

 the wheel at the rate of thirty or forty miles a 

 day one wants a good drink every hour or two. 

 When I a-^ked if there were not some springs 

 somewhere that furnisVied nice drinking-water, 

 my friend said at once, '"Oh, yes! come this 

 way." At the foot of a gravelly hill a bubbling 

 spring burst forth, and on the brink was a glass 

 fruit-jar used as a drinking - cup. Was any 

 thing ever before so grateful and delicious as 

 the water from that jar? I did not drink a 

 whole quart, but it seems to me I came pretty 

 near it; and it just made me feel clean and 

 bright and strong. Now, there is one thing that 

 I like when I go to friend Terry's. If I want to 

 rush off in an hour or two, just as I enjoy rushing 

 around through the world, I am perfectly free to 

 do so. I told him I wanted the privilege of com- 

 ing quite often, and therefore I proposed to make 

 my visits short; and after having some more of 

 those canned Sterling strawberries, with that 

 beautiful nice bread that Mrs. Terry knows so 

 well how to make — hold on! it may be that the 

 bread was made by one or both of those bright 

 and accomplished daughters who make them- 

 selves useful in so many ways around that 

 pleasant home. How I did enjoy my wheel 

 again after the roads had dried so as to be firm 

 for rubber tire ! I wanted to visit Matthew 

 Crawford, the great strawberry-grower; and if 

 I were to get off right away, and make things 

 fly, I might reach his place in Cuyahoga Falls 

 before dark. 



Oh, yes! there is another thing that I must 

 mention before I bid good -by to the Terry 

 homestead. Let me digress a little first. I 

 suppose that, for the present, it is wisdom to 

 keep our barns and out-buildings locked up. 

 Why, within only a few days back, even here 

 in our moral town of Medina, there has been a 

 great deal of chicken-thieving. One of our 

 neighbors, who hatches chickens successfully 

 with an incubator, has had toward a hundred 

 choice chickens, of valuable high-priced breeds, 

 taken from his yards. Only last night a couple 

 of dozen of his choice pullets were carried away. 

 At present, locks and keys seem to be the only 

 alternative. May be locks and keys do not 

 bother yon at your home, but they are a fearful 

 nuisance here at our place The warehouse 

 will be locked up, and one of the men will 

 have the key with him in his pocket. The one 

 who has the key will, may bf, stay away half a 

 day (to hill up his potatoes, or something of 

 that sort), and nobody can get into the ware- 

 house. Three or four expensive men will be 

 standing around the door, mt^ditating what to 



do. Sometimes they get an ax and break the 

 lock; and the consequence is, that, when the 

 warehouse should be locked up, it is not locked 

 at all ; and when it ought to be open it is locked 

 up, and the key lost or gone. I have sometimes 

 said that I would about as soon have my pos- 

 sessions stolen every once in a while as to have 

 such fearful bungling and losses of time with 

 locks and keys. Well, Mr. Terry has met this 

 same problem and solved it. He finds it policy 

 to lock his barn and tool-house; but instead of 

 a lock with a key he has a combination lock 

 that costs about a dollar. All the family, and 

 even the hired man. understand the combina- 

 nation. You just take hold of the knob and 

 turn it, say. three notches one way, one back, 

 and two ahead, and the door is open; and one 

 who is accustomed to it will open the door as 

 quick as with any latch. But to a stranger it 

 is perhaps the most secure lock that can be de- 

 vised, and yet the price is only about a dollar. 



I shall have to tell you about my pleasant 

 visit at fi'iend Crawford's in my next. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



GARDENING IN THE SHADE, ETC. 



When I had the mania for sub-irrigation, on 

 friend Cole's plan, several years ago. I spent 

 considerable money in making reservoirs of 

 stone, covered with earth; and the earth cover- 

 ing was made of mixed soil and manure for two 

 or three feet. The development of our business, 

 however, necessitated putting a new machine- 

 shop right where this garden stood; and the 

 consequence is, my nice beds that cost so much 

 money are in the shade the greater part of the 

 day. Some of them, in fact, almost never see 

 the sunshine. Some way I could hardly bring 

 myself to the idea of taking the earth out of 

 those beds, and giving up what cost so much 

 money. By a little experimenting I found that 

 celery would do just as well, or a little better, 

 in the shade ; therefore this whole series of 

 plant-beds is now devoted to celery-raising. 

 A couple of hydrants furnish abundance of 

 water, so that the little plants may be kept 

 constantly wet until the roots get down so deep 

 that they don't mind the drouth. Well, this 

 ground, after having great quantities of ma- 

 nure applied to it year after year, has finally 

 become the richest and nicest soil I ever saw 

 for (tny thing. Some of the beds that I have 

 had in use longest seem almost perfection in the 

 way of soil. This reminds me that, when I 

 asked friend Smith, of Green Bay. Wis., if his 

 land got worn out with such constant cropping, 

 he replied, " Why, nothing of that sort; in fact, 

 it is just the other way. Here! come and look 

 at the first acre of ground that I ever owned." 

 Well, the soil on that one acre looked and acted 

 a good deal like the rich loam in my first plant- 

 beds. Besides the stable manure that has been 

 put on, I drew many loads of muck from the 

 swamp, and I have also put on quite a little 

 sand with bonedust, more or less, at different 

 times. Well, when we were crowded for a cer- 

 tain kind of celery we transplanted into this 

 particular bed. I can not tell how long it takes 

 for the seedlings to get large enough to ship ; 

 but it seems to inc only just a f(^w days. Then 

 the bed is wdikcd over, smoothed down, and 

 another lot o! plants go in, and they in turn 

 take hold of the l)lack earth so vigorously that, 

 almost befori' wr know it, they an' ready to go 

 out. This on.' l)ed holds about .''.000 plants; and 

 even at the hjw .st 10,0(K) rates, we get .?7.50 for 



