GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. ]; 



GARDENING DURING THE LATTER PART OF 

 JANUARY. 



Of course, all our gardening in our northern 

 States in the middle of the winter will have to 

 be done under glass, and mostly in a green- 

 house. Hot-beds can be prepared and worked 

 in during occasional pleasant days. Uut with 

 a greenhouse, evon a little cheap one, you can 

 put in the time very profitably, and I think 

 very pleasantly, unless, indeed, the business is 

 overdone in your locality; but that is not often 

 the case, especially if you are near some town 

 or large grocery — the larger the town, the 

 better. 



We have spoken on another page about grow- 

 ing lettuce: but if you have room, a great va- 

 riety of seeds may be planted. Asparagus- 

 roots may be placed under the benches. 

 Bush beans have always paid us well for the 

 space they occupy. Beets may be sown quite 

 thickly, and transplantpd when they have the 

 second or third leaf. We have always found 

 early beets, started under glass, profitable; 

 that is. there is always somebody who will 

 want them. If you have no cabbages in cold- 

 frames to winter over, now is the time to sow 

 your Jersey Wakefield cabbage seeds Make 

 the ground rich with old hen manure pounded 

 up fine and sifted in. and then sift slacked lime 

 over the bed and rake it in. This will ward off 

 clubfoot, and give your young plants a tremen- 

 dous boom to start with. When they start out 

 strong and rank they make big plants, and 

 head up quickly to good size. My experience is 

 that you can not give cabbage too much ma- 

 nure. A few forcing carrots may he profitable. 

 Start cauliflower the same as cabbage; and 

 whatever you do. start some White Plume cel- 

 ery. Don't put in very much so early, for there 

 is danger of its running up to seed unless it is 

 watered well and kept growing just right. 

 Start corn salad if your customers like it, and 

 don.t forget watercress. This is about the 

 easiest plant to grow under glass, if you give it 

 water enough, of any that I have ever worked 

 with. 



You can try a few cucumbers if you like; but 

 you have got to have a warm house, and you 

 will have to learn the trade before you make a 

 success of it. The same with melons. Onions 

 are easy to grow: and if your house is poorly 

 heated, and everything freezes up. it will not 

 hurt the onions. Onion-sets of all kinds grow 

 nicely with any sort of protection; but the 

 American Pearl brings the biggest price. Of 

 cour=e, you want some parsley to mix in to set 

 off other things, and for flavoring. 



American Wonder peas are as hardy as the 

 onions. You can grow them when vou can not 

 grow any thing else. Just for the fun of it you 

 might put in a few of the new flowering peas, 

 Burpee's Cupid. They can be grown in pots, 

 and will often blossom when up only four or 

 five inches high. Peppers are so sensitive to 

 cold that you had better not start them until a 

 little later unless you have excellent protection 

 from the cold. 



Get in your Thoroughbrpd potatoes which 

 ynn got as a premium, if they are not already 

 planted and up. Tf vou can gf't some big old 

 roots of rhubarb (take them ut' with a good big 

 lot of dirt adhering) vou can have somf doli- 

 cious pies from now fruit along in Fehruarv. 

 Put thpm under tho bonchps wirh the aspara- 

 gus; but you can raiso it profitahlv in almost 

 any cellar, without having any greenhonse at 

 all. Just plant thp root* in the warmest place 

 you have. Give them watpr. and it will not 

 make much differenfp whether vou give them 

 any light or not. Thev will shoot out great 

 long brittle stems of a beautiful reddish pink, 



as handsome as a peach, and almost as delicious- 

 when properly cooked. 



Radishes are the easiest thing in the world to 

 raise, and freezing up does not hurt them much- 

 Wood's Early Frame and Scarlet Gloi)e are the 

 kind you want to grow in the winter. If you 

 have customers who will pay you a cut apiece 

 for all you can raise in Feluuary, yen can get 

 rich spiling radishes. Spinach is also (exceed- 

 ingly hardy. It will oftentimi-s Ixingas much 

 per pound as lettuce. Last, but not least, start 

 some tomato-plants. You want a J'<'w nice ones 

 to show to visitors. If anybody wants to give 

 you a nickel for thp plant, pot and all. let them 

 go. We get that price for a good many extra 

 nice large plants just by putting them out in 

 sight where the people see them as they drive 

 by, say during a nice warm day in April or 

 May. You see, if the plant is already routed in 

 the pot you can set it outdoors pleasani days, 

 and carry it in nights; and one extra large 

 early tomato-plant will give a family quite a 

 taste of tomatoes a week or ten days before any- 

 body else has any. 



Now. all these things I have mentioned can 

 be started profitably in the month of January — 

 that is, start just a few of each. If you haven't 

 a greenhouse, have some boxes in the window. 

 Tf you cannot afford to keep a fire all night, car- 

 ry them down cellar when it is very cold. With 

 a little pains you can fix up a small window in 

 the cellar so as to let them have the sun in the 

 middle of the day. and still be secure from frost. 

 Have the window fronting the south, and have 

 a door to shut over it during very cold nights. 

 You can fix a door something like the hatchway 

 of a cellar; or if the hatchway of your cellar 

 fronts the south, just have a sash made to fit in 

 the hatchway right under the regular wooden 

 door. When it is very cold, let down the wood- 

 en door over the glass sash; but whenever the 

 weather permits, swing this wooden door open 

 to give your plants light. Such a hatchway, 

 with some sort of little second-hand stove, back 

 a little inside of the cellar, will make quite a 

 pretty little greenhouse for one of the girls or 

 iaoys to play with. I have not said anything 

 about flowers; but you see if the women-folks 

 do not "catch on" and get some enjoyment ai- 

 so out of your "winter gardening." 



Special Notices in the Line of Gardening, Etc> 



By A. I. Root. 



CELERY UNDER GLASS. 



We are petting- beautiful celerv in our green- 

 houses, on tlie plan given on page fi42. Aug. 15, 1805. 

 bleacli'ng by simply wrapping bi own paper around 

 the stalks, said paper being held in place by very 

 light rubber bands. The bands streU'Ji as fast as 

 the r-elery grows. It sells readily at l."> ets. per lb. 



BEST OF ALL BE.\NS. 



After traveling extensively through Florida, and" 

 conversing with bean-growers, 1 find these are, as a 

 rule, given the preference for green beans for ship- 

 ping to the Northern m;irl<ets. We offer for sale 

 seed of our own raising, true to name, and sure to- 

 germinate, nt tho following low pricps: Eighteen 

 cents per pint. 30 els per quart, bv mail, postpaid; 

 bv freight or express. $1 per peck; fS.iiO per bushel: 

 5 bushels, fl5; 10 bushels. $2.5. 



BURPEE'S EXTRA EARLY POTATO. ETC. 



In onr last issue we gave the price of this potato 

 at 7.5 cts. per bushel. As nobody has at this date, 

 Jan. 9. taken up with our offer we hereby advance 

 the price to SI. 00 per bushel, the same as the Sir 

 Wilbatn. We aiitice Burpee's price, by his new cat- 

 alog, is SP3.00, and we have not seen any quotation 

 any lower. By the way. Carman No. 1 is also listed 



