GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING IN THE TRAV- 

 ERSE REGION OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN. 



I have told you alreadj' of the fertile soil 

 where I cleared up my g'ardeii-patch in the 

 woods. Well, at this date, Oct. I7th, every 

 thing- is still growing- unharmed by frost, 

 although we have hadseveral nights when the 

 thermometer went below freezing". I am told 

 this is the rule in this locality with so much 

 water around iis, and, in fact, I have seen 

 it during two falls. We have had snow and 

 ice, but no frost; and our beans, tomatoes, 

 and all tender things, are still unharmed. 

 In Ohio I have learned to expect frost when 

 the temperature is 50 or below at sundown 

 — that is, if the night is clear and bright 

 starlight; but here it is 40, or still lower, 

 night after night, at sundown, with the 

 brightest starlig^ht I ever saw, and no sign 

 of such frosts as we have in Ohio. 



You may wonder what "gardening" I 

 have been doing here in October. To be 

 exact, it has been rather getting- ready for 

 g-ardening- next j^ear, or, perhaps we had 

 better say, farming. Our 40 acres is not 

 quite all woods. About 22 years ago four 

 or five acres were cleared and broug-ht un- 

 der cultivation; but since then nothing has 

 been done with anj' part of the 40 unless it 

 was to pasture it to some extent. The 

 cleared part was soon covered with a dense 

 and heavy sod of June grass, and, later, su- 

 mac has proceeded to make a most luxuri- 

 ant growth, pvishing out further and further 

 every season. Well, the "hig-h pressure" 

 work we have been doing this fall is cutting 

 off the sumac with brush-scythes, and then 

 turning- the sod with a strong team and a 

 heavy plow. Besides the sumac, little ma- 

 ples (and, worst of all, elms) we found 

 scattered here and there. It looked to me 

 tilmost out of the question to get rid of elms 

 6 to 8 inches through, so as to do a good job 

 of plowing-; but we have got it done. They 

 were chopped oft" about 4 ft. from the g-round, 

 the big roots were grubbed and cliopped off, 

 and then with a chain hitched to the top of 

 the stump, by alternate pulling and more 

 cutting- of roots we got tliem out. We are 

 g-etting- the land ready to sow rye, at the 

 rate of two bushels to the acre. This rye 

 is to be turned under next June when in 

 bloom, and potatoes planted on the "Bal- 

 lasch" plan. 



You may be surprised when I tell you 

 there are no land-rollers around here. The 

 farmers say they have no use for them, for 

 there are never any lumps to be crushed. 

 The harrows used here, especially for new 

 land, are the spring-tooth, and it was one 

 of my "happy surprises" to see what just 

 "once going over" did in the way of mak- 

 ing a nice seed-bed. The ground was not 

 only comparatively level, but it was fine 

 and soft, without a lump of any kind — 



nothing to be crushed, nothing to be made 

 finer. Mr. Hilbert uses a "float" to make 

 the ground smooth and level for his straw- 

 berries; but farmers rarely use any thing" 

 of the kind here for their g-rain crops. Now, 

 this g-round is not sand, mind you. It is a 

 sort of loam, and the new virgin soil (like 

 that in our garden) is a sort of black loamy 

 "woods dirt." Of course, the old experi- 

 enced farmers around here are, as a rule, 

 prepared to teach me ; but I have taught 

 thei-n a few things, and compelled them to 

 own up. To get a team and man to do this 

 heavy work of breaking up new ground I 

 had to pay $3.50 per day, and it took anoth- 

 er man at $1.50 to cut the brush, burn up 

 the trash, etc. Now, when you are paying 

 $5.00 a day, or 50 cents an hour, it pays tO' 

 avoid false moves. It is expensive business- 

 turning- a 30-hundred team clear around 20- 

 or 30 times a day when it isn't really neces- 

 sar3^; yet few farmers, so far as I can learn, 

 seem to be aware of this. On this account 

 I urged for long- straight furrows. But 

 several other things must be taken into ac- 

 count. First, it is always desirable to turn 

 a furrow down hill unless the ground is- 

 quite level; and when there are roots and 

 trash to make the plowing- extremely diffi- 

 cult, then it is most important that no fur- 

 row be turned the least bit up hill. Our 

 land is quite uneven, much of it made up of 

 quite steep hills. Now, there are several 

 waj^s of avoiding the necessity of turning- 

 any furrow up hill. Of course, there are 

 sidehill plows; but these are complicated, 

 not as strong, and they do not, as a rule, do 

 as good work as the best common plows. 

 Now, then, how can we manage so as to 

 plow hilly land with a common plow, and 

 not turn any furrows very much up hill? 

 First, if the hill admits we can commence 

 at the bottom and plow around it. Second, 

 if there is a ravine between two hills we 

 can run up one side and down the other. 

 This works all right until you get part way 

 up the hill on each side. How shall you 

 cross over from one side to the other? We 

 might g-o "empty;" but if you are g'-oing to 

 wtiste your own time and the strength of 

 the team in drawing an empty plow, why 

 not plow your sidehill by turning a furrow 

 only one way, and going back "empty' ? I 

 do not like this way of plowing, even if Mr. 

 Terry, in the "Potato-book," does give it a 

 sort of sanction. You can cross over from 

 one side of the ravine to the other by turn- 

 ing- around on a curve when crossing- the 

 bottom of the ravine, so that 3'our strip of 

 plowed ground will be oval-shaped, or at 

 least oval, or egg-shaped, across the ends. 

 Third, if you have level land, or nearly lev- 

 el, turn one furrow up at the bottom of the 

 hill, and back-furrow against it, curving 

 the ends egg-shape as before, so that you 

 turn a furrow down hill, even when going 

 across the ends. If the top of the hill has 

 some level land on it, or nearly level, do the 

 same with the top of the hill and one of the 

 sides. (In luy case the opposite side of the 

 hill belongs to my neighbor. ) In this case 



