THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Have a Garden, Poultry and a Cow.— Advan- 

 tages of Frugality and the Consumption 

 of Your Own Products. — A Picture of 

 Pioneer Life in Minnesota. 



B. TAYLOK. 



I T N the several arti- 

 ' X cles in the Dec. 

 j number of the Re- 

 [ VIEW on tiding over 

 I in poor years, I find 

 i uo remedy very defi- 

 j nately stated, and, 

 with the editor's 

 , permission, I will 

 continue the ques- 

 tion, by trying to 

 give a little more 

 definite inst rue - 

 tions ; and in so doing I will give my own 

 experience. I know of no better plan, and 

 I would adopt the same course if I were 

 commencing again at the start. 



A majority of young people that commence 

 bee keeping are in that stage of life's ex- 

 perience when they commence cultivating 

 "love in a cottage," and have a family to 

 provide for. I see that several of the writers 

 in the December number hint that a little 

 land to cultivate would be a good thing. 

 Well said, good friends. This thought is the 

 key to the best practical plan I know of for 

 a man of small msans to bridge over seasons 

 both good and bad, and is just the plan I 

 have used to keep the wolf from the door 

 through thick and thin. 



The second year after coming to Minne- 

 sota I lost in a great flood all the wealth that 

 I brought with me. I had nothing left but 

 four acres of land and lumber enough to 

 build a shanty. That was in 1857. I worked 

 out for others enough to get a few nails, 

 built my shanty, cleared and broke my 

 ground, and bought one swarm of bees. I 

 had previously had several years' experience 

 in handling bees, in Wisconsin. I increased 

 the one swarm to six the first year. The 

 second spring I placed my bees upon their 

 stands in good condition and planted my 

 land to corn, potatoes, beans, peas, beets, 

 squashes and other vegetables too numerous 

 to mention. I cultivated them in the clean- 

 est manner possible, and raised enough food 

 of all the substantials to more than provide 

 an abundance for the family. No famine 

 there that year. The same spring I procured 

 700 strawberry plants of the Early Scarlet 



variety, planted them in hills, and cultivated 

 them as a lover would cherish his sweetheart. 

 1 kept all the runners pinched off, so that by 

 fall each plant covered one foot square of 

 land : covered the plants with plenty of 

 forest tree leaves just as winter set in. I 

 gave them suitable attention in the spring 

 and before the tenth day of July we had 

 picked ten bushels of splendid berries from 

 them. The neighbors looked at the red 

 mass of splendid fruit on the vines and be- 

 gan to inquire what I would take for some 

 plants of that variety. I raised and sold 

 them some fine plants at a fair price. W'e 

 had more strawberries than we could eat, 

 sold some of them, and this furnished a little 

 money to buy clothing and other things. I 

 went to the woods the same year and dug 

 150 plants of the common wild black cap 

 raspberries, planted them in four rows of 

 thirty-seven plants each, cultivated them in 

 first class shape, drove stakes every ten feet 

 along the rows, nailed poles along the tops 

 of the stakes three feet from the ground, 

 trained the vines over them and picked 

 twelve bushels of splendid fruit from them 

 the second year. Friends and neighbors 

 wanted some of this tine variety of raspberry. 

 I raised the plants and sold them at a moder- 

 ate price and made many sales. I increased 

 my bees that summer to thirty-one colonies 

 and sold the honey for .|;175. 



1 forgot to say that the first year right 

 at the start I built a neat little house for 

 poultry, made it warm, stocked it with a 

 dozen or two of Light Brahma hens, provi- 

 ded them with suitable nests, fed them well, 

 kept the house scrupulously clean, and we 

 were never out of one of the best articles of 

 food, eggs, the entire year. 



The cow ^ Yes, I made some bedsteads 

 for a friend and exchanged them for a good 

 cow. I gave her warm, clean quarters, and 

 the corn fodder and other surplus raised on 

 part of my land supplied her with feed, and 

 we had plenty of milk and butter to go with 

 the strawberries and potatoes. 



The third year we moved one and one-half 

 miles to where I am now writing, where I 

 repeated my first plan. We have been here 

 twenty-eight years and have grown butter- 

 nut trees from mere whips three feet high 

 until a single tree produced twelve bushels 

 of nuts, and cast a shadow, at noon, forty- 

 two feet in diameter. And we have pines 

 raised from stock of which I carried twenty- 

 five in my arms at once. They will now 



