76 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. i: 



pounds; cream tartar, 80 graius; essence of roses, 

 24 drops. Mix the above in a common kettle, let 

 boil five minutes, take it off, add the white of two 

 well beaten egg-s, and when almost cold add two 

 pounds of bees' honey. If made for family use, 

 only a small quantity may be made at a time. Keep 

 in cool place. 



This honey is equal in every respect to that made 

 by bees and costs only one-third. 



Honey suitable (or every-day use is made as fol- 

 lows: Good common sugar, 6 pounds; water, one 

 quart; gradually bring it to a boil, skimming well; 

 when cool, add one pound bees' honey and four 

 drops of peppermint essence. If you desire a bet- 

 ter article, use white sugar and one half pint less 

 water, and one-half pound more honey. If you 

 wish to give it the ropy apitearance of bees' honey, 

 put into the water one-fourth ounce of alum. 



have, say, half a dozen seeds on every square 

 inch of surface. Sift a little more fine din over 

 them so as to cover the fine seeds. And now if 

 you can get it I would put on some fresh horse 

 manure from the stables, without any straw or 

 bedding. Pound it up fine with a strip of board 

 or piece of lath. Sift this fine top dressing all 

 ever your boxes. One seed-box will be all you 

 will need, and you will probably have seedling 

 plants to sell to your neighbors besides. Sprin- 

 kle the surface with water; set the box in the 

 window, and keep them at a temperature of 

 from 40 to 70 degrees. Lettuce is very hardy; 

 and even if the ground should be frozen a little 

 over night it will not hurt the plants. When 

 they get the second and third leaves on, then 

 you are ready to transplant. I would have a 

 spacing-board like the one shown below. Prick 



STARTING GRAND KAPIDS LETTUCE. 



Now is the season for sowing the seed and 

 transplanting the plants. If you have a green- 

 house or hoi-bed, and are interested in garden- 

 ing, I would say, sow some seeds, at least in 

 the house. Get some trays or shallow boxes by 

 cutting common grocery boxes in two in the 

 middle, or nail them up, as you choose. If you 



SPACING BOARD. 



out the plants and put them in boxes like the 

 first, so as to be 2 inches apart from center to 

 center. When the plants get to crowding 

 again, then they must either go outdoors in a 

 hot-bed. or be set still farther apart in a box 

 with soil a little deeper. Below is a picture of 

 some boxes of lettuce ready to go out into the 

 larger bed. 



SURFACE WATERINCJ AND SUB - IRRIGATION WATERING IN CONTRAST. 



expect to work with hot-beds and greenhouses, 

 you had better make them of a size so that a 

 certain number will go under the regular sash; 

 3 ft. X 16 in. is a very good size. Two inches of 

 dirt is enough to start small plants, and we have 

 got along very well with only an inch, and a 

 half. The latter makes them lighter to handle. 

 Get some fine old well-rotted black manure, 

 some sand, and some good garden soil. Some 

 swamp muck is very nice if you can get it. 

 Mix all together by passing through a sieve, 

 and fill your boxes. Pat it down with the board 

 so as to be level and smooth; then sprinkle the 

 seeds over the surface of the soil so you will 



The way we sub-irrigate boxes of plants like 

 the above, is to simply set them in a larger box 

 having, say. an inch or less of water in the bot- 

 tom. The bottoms of the plant-boxes, of course, 

 are to be made of narrow strips of wood with 

 cracks large enough to let in the water. The 

 watering is done by setting box and all right 

 down into the shallow box of water till the 

 water has soaked up through to the surface. 

 Never water the foliage at all. The above cut 

 is from Lettuce Bulletin No. 61, mentioned in 

 our last issue, and shows the advantage of sub- 

 irrigation over ,the ordinary way of sprinkling 

 or pouring the water on top of the plants. 



