788 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



Notes of Travel 



ON THE WHEEL — CONTINUED FROM OUR LAST 



ISSUE. 



By the time I had made a little circle with 

 my wheel through the streets of Wooster it was 

 so near dark that I found I should not be able 

 to reach any point to stay over night if I trust- 

 ed to the wheel alone; but as I had already 

 got started, and wanted to go somewhere, I 

 decided to take passage on a new railroad for 

 Lodi, Medina Co., O. This place is only ten or 

 twelve miles from my home, and close by the 

 town is the large Harrisville swamp I have 

 before alluded to. There is very nearly a square 

 mile now devoted to onions and celery. 1 told 

 the landlord I wanted him to explain to me the 

 manipulations of the lock on the front door, for 

 I wanted to take a run on my wheel through 

 the celery and onion grounds before breakfast. 

 I was accordingly out at the first gray streak of 

 dawn. But a fog had settled over the swamp, 

 so I could hardly see a rod before me. I enjoyed 

 my ride greatly, however, and investigated the 

 improvements they are making in their ditch- 

 ing, and arrangements for letting off the sur- 

 plus water better. This dry time gives ample 

 opportunities for doing many jobs in the way 

 of ditching or deepening ditches, that could not 

 well be done at any other time. I did not do 

 very much of the swamp, however, before 

 breakfast. I lost my way in the fog, but/o(i7i(7 

 an excellent appetite. After breakfast, when 

 the sun had got out a little, I made very much 

 better headway. I was greatly pleased to see 

 that men and women both were out in large 

 numbers, diligently clearing the weeds from 

 acres and acres of onions, even if they were 

 almost ready to harvest. It is quite customary 

 in many onion-fields to let the weeds go toward 

 the end of the season; but the different fore- 

 men Informed me here that the proprietors had 

 decided that weeds were a detriment, even 

 when onions were just linishing up; and an- 

 other thing, more or less of them would be 

 maturing seed almost before one knew it. Ac- 

 cordingly, the weeds were all deposited in 

 ditches — now dry ditches — between the beds. 

 They were afterward drawn out and spread in 

 the roadways. If they wanted to grow after 

 being tramped down and ground under foot, 

 they could do so. The White Plume celery, 

 with its plumes just surmounting the sharp 

 mass of black earth, was a most beautiful 

 sight to behold ; and as one looks over these 

 broad acres, extending off almost too far for the 

 eye to distinguish onions from celery, he won- 

 ders where they will find a market for their 

 immense crops. The managers, Messrs. Wean, 

 Horr, Warner & Co., decide that their present 

 crop will reach nearly 13.5,000 bushels. You 

 need not think there is a mistake in the figures 

 here. It is really 135 thousands and not so 

 \a?kny hundreds; and these people have learned 

 by experience how to dispose of such an enor- 

 mous crop as this, and at good prices too. They 

 have immense warehouses, something like 

 corncribs. The onions are carefully sorted, and 

 placed in these cribs to cure. After being stor- 

 ed a certain length of time they are sorted 

 again. Those that seem likely, to the experi- 

 enced sorter's eye, to decay, are disposed of 

 first; and as the winter advances the best ones 

 are moved into the buildings with more and 

 more protection. Nothing is ever lost by frost or 

 freezing, here on these grounds; and sometime 

 during the winter the very best specimens of 

 each kind of onions are sorted out for seed next 

 year. Most of the seed they sow is of their own 

 raising. They have learned by experience on a 



large scale what I learned about raising good 

 onion seed, as described in our last issue. 



I am naturally friendly toward the women- 

 folks ; but I was inclined to take exceptions, 

 even if it was not any of my own business, to 

 the way the women went to work on this special 

 morning in the great Harrisville swamp. They 

 seemed to be just standing around. Sometimes 

 one of thorn would pull a weed, and then hold 

 it in her hands a long while, and then another 

 would pull a weed, and then they looked this 

 way and that. If they were working by the 

 piece, of course it was their own business; but 

 I do not see how they could be doing this kind 

 of work by the piece unless they had, indeed, 

 the job of cleai'ing from weeds a certain bed or 

 field. 1 finally spoke to one of the men about 

 it, and he said they had " not got a going yet." 

 The dense fog had made the onions and weeds 

 very wet, and their clothing was such that it 

 would get wet and draggly. He said that, when 

 the sun got out so it was not quite so disagree- 

 able for them, if I took notice I would see that 

 they did about as much as the men, before din- 

 nertime. So you see we need to have charity. 

 Some of the small boys did not seem to think it 

 was the nicest kind of work in the world, so I 

 got down on my hands and knees and tried it 

 myself. Why, 1 think it is just beautiful work, 

 getting the weeds out of the way, and giving 

 such handsome onions a chance to do their 

 best. 



" Why, look here, friends; why don't some of 

 those several thousand men in the city of 

 Akron, only a few miles away, come here and 

 pull weeds ? They certainly can earn enough 

 to keep their families from starving while they 

 are out of employment." 



" See here. Mr. Root. We have had several 

 of those very chaps, and tried to get them to 

 pull weeds. What do you think they said? 

 Why, some of them, when they had just looked 

 at the job, and hadn't even tried it, went away 

 with oaths in their mouths to express their dis- 

 gust, and saying that they would not work at 

 that kind of employment for anybody.-^ 



Now, I do not know how true this story is; 

 but I am afraid there is at least some truth in 

 it. Pulling weeds by hand is no doubt tiresome, 

 back-wearying work; but before I would com- 

 plain, and ask for charity of the city, I would 

 weed onions, even if I did not get more than 25 

 cts. a day. 



The younger ones were very curious to see me 

 ride around on my wheel, and spring off, leav- 

 ing it standing of itself anywhere I chose to 

 stop. Several days after, I met a friend who 

 had come on a wheel all the way from J. A. 

 Green's, in Ottawa, 111. After he had seen me 

 leave my wheel right on the stone pavement 

 just where I left it, he spoke: 



" Oh, yes I you must be the chap they told of 

 when we were down in the swamp. They said 

 somebody had a wheel that would stand up of 

 itself anywhere he left it." 



I find the device very convenient, and per- 

 haps I had better give a cut of it in some future 

 issue. 



In one part of the swamp I saw some immense 

 red onions. They were almost as large as the 

 Spanish onions I told you about in our last 

 number. I asked them if they would sell me a 

 barrel of all big ones. They said they would if 

 I could afford to pay 11.50 a bushel. This I 

 very cheerfully agreed to do. I want to enjoy 

 the fun of holding them up before people'seyes, 

 telling them they were raised in some of the 

 worthless swamps (that is, swamps that used to 

 be called worthless) of Medina Co. For years 

 and years this ground was voted of no account 

 whatever ; and the present proprietors were 

 laughed at as a pack of fools for being so crazy 



