1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



29 



beds on the ground, and of using a foot or more of 

 soil, altliougii the best plan there, is not necessarily 

 so where sub-irrigation is practiced, as by this 

 method six inches of soil is sufficient. 



11. Lettuce flourishes best in the greenhouse from 

 midwinter until spring, and is usually most in de- 

 mand during that period; but late in spring it does 

 better in beds out of doors, after which time the 

 houses may be more profitably occupied wiih toma- 

 toes. 



13. The best plan of starting the small plants is in 

 flats, and these are best watered by placing in 

 shallow vats of water, so as to sub-irrigate. 



13. The plants should be transplanted as soon as 

 they show the second leaf, placing tliem 2x3 inches 

 apart for Grand Kapids, and twice that distance 

 lor heading sorts; 6x" inches for the former and 8x 

 •8 inches for the latter when planted in beds. 



14. Tne plants should he kept growinsr from the 

 start, but should not be forced in too high a temper- 

 ature; 50 to 60 degrees b.v day and 40 to 50 by night 

 being about right. A high temperature favors the 

 develonment of lettuce-rot. 



15. Ventilation is important or rot will appear. 

 The most critical time is in cloudy, cold weather, 

 because it is then not easy to ventilate. 



16. No rule can be given for watering; but when 

 •sub-irrigated the soil should appear to be ralher 

 ■dry on top, and wet enough below so that, when 

 pressed in the hand, it will not fall apurt when re- 

 leased, hut retain the shape given it by the hand. 



17. The plants may be sprinkled once when set in 

 the bed ; but alter that it is not necessary, and is a 

 waste of time; nor is there any need of sprinkling 

 the walks in order to introduce moisture into the 

 ail 



When the bed i'^ full of thrifty-growing plants 

 they will generally lake up the water so read- 

 ily that it will seldom do harm, even should 

 you by mistake fill the bed with water to satu- 

 ration. Prof. Green says he has never injured 

 plants in that way; lint, of course, they are 

 careful not to give their sub irrigated beds too 

 much water. I have been experimenting for 

 two or three years past: nnd I have about come 

 to the conclusion that, for real high-pressure 

 gardening, at least, to have it carried right 

 along thtough intense drouth and drying winds, 

 I want a water-tight bi d so I can let the water 

 In and lill it all up from one side to the other, and 

 from one end to the other, even if the bed be .50 

 feet long. When you are prepared to do this you 

 can smile at the drouth. Perhaps I should add, 

 that, in making strawberry cttttixys. we want a 

 <'loth covering to modify the intense glare of the 

 sun's rays, and especially in the case of cuttings 

 to keep the air over the plants moist as well as 

 to keep the earth beneath them moist. With 

 the water-tight bed and cotton sheeting above 

 the plants, then we are independent of the 



Surface of bed. 



Surface ofl 



o' 



■Q 



O 



Draui- 

 tile. 



liaust( Vt 



O 

 Draniajre. 



Drain- 

 tile. 



(H) 



DIAGRAM OF A HOT-BED HEATED BY EXHAUST STEAM 



.greatest heat of summer; and by n'placlng the 

 cotton with glass sashes, and having beds 

 warmed by exhaust steam, sent through tiles, 

 we are aNo independent of zero freezes. 



To-day. Dec. 18, we have been very busy in 

 introducing sub-irrigation into one of our fifty- 

 foot beds that lies over the steam -pipe between 

 our dwelling and tile factory. It is the one I 

 gave you a glimpse of in our is.>^ue for April 1. 

 1894, page 271. where I raised the strawberries, 

 you remember. Last winter, during the ex- 

 ceedingly cold weather, they were obliged to 

 ■send such a volqme of steam over to the house 

 that we had cooked strawberries grown in the 

 open ground. In the center of the bed, right 



over the steam-pipes, it was too hot, while the 

 outside edges of the bed were too cold; so we had 

 frozen strawberries and baked strawberries al- 

 most side by side. Well, this new sub irriga- 

 tion suggests a remedy. We have been having 

 two or three beautiful days after our young 

 winter; and I am improving the time by hav- 

 ing the dirt all dug out of the bed, clear down 

 to hardpan. The bed. you remember, is 6 feet 

 wide and 50 feet long. When this was done, I put 

 in some oak sills (2x3). running crosswise of the 

 bed, about every 3 feet. On these oak sills 

 were placed hemlock boards, 10 inches wide, 

 leaving room between them to shrink and swell. 

 A few months ago a tin roof was to be re- 

 placed. The old one was going to be dumped off 

 somewhere outdoors I had it put in one of 

 our spacious basements until it should be want- 

 ed; and when I read Bulletin 01. the old tin 

 roof struck me as being just the thing for the 

 bottom of my bed. Strips were cut from it 7^ 

 feet wide, and as long as we could get them. 

 This permitted turning no the sides, a little 

 more than 6 inches high. These tin sides were 

 tacked to the plank that supports the glass 

 sashes. As the tin roof was old, there were 

 some leaky places in it. To make it tight we 

 covered it all with about half an inch of ce- 

 ment made of three parts of sand and one part 

 of Akron cement, and two lines of tile wore put 

 the whole length of the bed, right along the 

 bottom, each line 18 inches from the outside of 

 the bed. This would make the two lines of tile 

 just 3 feet apart, so that the water has to go 

 only 18 inches through the joints of tile each 

 way. to saturate the whole bed. The tiles were 

 also laid in cement, the joints being cemented 

 half way up. Before filling the bed with dirt 

 it was all sifted to make it fine and loose, some 

 fine manure b^ing incorporated at the lime the 

 sifting was done. After the earth was put 

 back in the bed. then we dug down on the out- 

 side until we struck the ends of the oak sills be- 

 fore mentioned. This allowed the heat from 

 the center to work out each way along under 

 the tin. Then an extra side-board was put 

 along each outside, with a two-inch space be- 

 tween the original plank composing the bed 

 and the outer weather-board. This space per- 

 mits the hot air from beneath the bed to pa«!s 

 out each way and up around the sides of the 

 bed. protecting the sides from frost, and pre- 

 venting the center of the bed from getting so 

 much heat. The diagram below will help to 

 make it plain: 



C C represents the sub-irriga- 

 tion tiles resting on the tin bot- 

 tom; EE the air-space under the 

 tin bottom and up the sides of 

 the bed. The sashes are sup- 

 ported on the edges of the inner 

 bed E E. as shown in the dia- 

 gram. When a heavy rain comes 

 on the sashes, it would run down 

 into the air-space E. on the south 

 side. To prevent this wo have 

 fixed a strip of board just below the letter 

 E. put on a bevel over toward the word 

 " ground." The object of this board is to make 

 a sort of eaves to run the rain water oiit- 

 stc7.c of the bed. In every arrangement of this 

 kind there must be ample drainage. In fact, 

 exhaust steam can not do its work if the large 

 tile which conveys it should get flooded with 

 water during excessive ice-cold rains in winter. 

 To make sure this can not happen, we have a 

 line of drain tile, H H. These, however, should 

 be up high enough to be near the corners of the 

 bed, as shown in the cut. Besides these, un- 

 derneath the large, tiles to carry the exhaust 

 steam is another drainage tile. This also car- 



2 



o 



Iground. 



