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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



CHAPTER in. 



And God said, Let there be light; and there was lig-ht.— Gen. 1:3. 



If you are going to grow plants for winter, 

 when they will bring high prices, they must 

 be protected against the weather. Heat 

 must be secured. It is true, that heat and 

 light come closely together ; and where we 

 get them from tlie sun, we get them both at 

 once ; but for all tliat, we will take up the 

 subject of heat first. Let us put it in large 

 letters— 



HEAT. 



There are several means of securing heat 

 for our operations. First, we have heat 

 from the sun ; then we have heat from old 

 Mother Earth, and artificial heat by burning 

 coal and wood. Artificial heat may be still 

 further subdivided into heat from hot-air 

 fines, heat from hot-water pipes, and heat 

 from steam. Then there is ■ another kind of 

 artificial heat from the decomposition of cer- 

 tain substances without combustion, such as 

 heat from fermenting manure, although the 

 last is now seldom used, I believe. Let us 

 take up first, — 



HEAT FROM THE SUN. 



There has always been something wonder- 

 fully fascinating to me about the heat of the 

 sun. I hardly.need tell you that scientists 

 decide that the heat from the sun is the 

 source of all force. The health-giving prop- 

 erties of the sun's rays have been forages 

 mentioned and made use of. In visiting the 

 great sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., I 

 was very much interested in visiting some 

 rooms clear up in the attic, where they put 

 diseased patients, close up to the glass sash 

 placed in tlic roof, much like the roof of a 

 greenhouse. They lie here on their beds, 

 partially uncovered, where they can receive 

 the benefit of the sun's rays. Neither plants 

 nor animals can amount to very much with- 

 out the direct benefit of the sun. In our op- 

 erations we want all the sun we can get. If 

 we can not do any better, let us use our win- 

 dows, instead of having the warmth of the 

 sini shut out by curtains and other artificial 

 devices. The windows of any room where 

 people live will do to commence plant-raising 

 on a small scale. When you get all the win- 

 dows occupied, and liave succeeded in utiliz- 

 ing every available inch of sunshine, you 

 will find a way to get more, I am sure. 

 " Where there is a will, there is a way." 



Probably your next step will be a few 

 frames of sash, such as are used for green- 

 houses. We shall have more to say in re- 

 gard to these further on. These frames of 

 sash that are so useful in raising early veg- 

 etables are just what we need for raising 

 early chickens, and for getting eggs in the 

 winter time. Of course, it does not do to 

 keep poultry too warm, any more than it 

 answers to keep plants too warm ; but we 

 propose to start out intelligently, and avoid 

 baA-iug or roasting any thing, plant or animal. 

 Too much heat can be utilized, just as well as 

 you can make use of a surplus of any thing 

 else. When we have secured all the sun- 

 shine we can, by the way of some sash, or a 

 little greenhouse, then we want to husband 

 it by cutting off the cold winds, wliich will 

 quickly rob us of our acquisition, if we do 

 not take proper precautions. A fence for 

 a wind-break, such as I spokeof a little while 

 back, is what we want. A great many times 

 you can make use of natural wind-breaks. In 

 a town or city you can often choose a loca- 

 tion where the prevailing winds are cut off 

 from the north and west. We want to cut 

 off the wind, but let in the sun, so that our 

 wind-break on the east and west must not be 

 too high, or we shall lose as well as gain. 

 Where you have ample wind-breaks, lettuce 

 and a good many other hardy vegetables may 

 be raised by proper precautions, without any 

 sash at all. A shed, closed on three sides 

 and open at the south, such as farmers often 

 use for their stock, is an excellent thing, only 

 we must look out about tlie covering over- 

 head, or it will take oil the light so as to 

 make the plants grow spindling. 



One cold wintry day I happened to go off 

 into a piece of dense woods, where a neigh- 

 bor was chopping wood. The trees were so 

 high, and the woods were so dense, that in 

 the little spot of clearing wliere he was at 

 work there was no wind at all. The sap 

 was running, and the bees were buzzing 

 about. I thought the weather had changed, 

 and wondered that it had so suddenly be- 

 come so much warmer. After I got out of 

 the woods again, however, I found that the 

 weather was not warmer at all. It was sim- 

 ply the effect of those great forest-trees in 

 breaking the force of the wind. Ever since 



