992 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



comes from the shore of the bay. At the 

 left of the picture, near the top, you get 

 a g-limpse of the evergreens mixed in 

 with the beeches and maples. I think 

 no view of the woods is so inviting — I might 

 almost say entrancing — to me as one where 

 evergreens are sprinkled here and there 

 among the deciduous trees. All the soil 

 around that little cabin in every direction 

 is of wonderful fertility. Of course, weeds 

 spring up also, like magic; but where you 

 keep them down, and give the garden stuff 

 a chance, this new woods soil seems to be 

 equal to our old land in Ohio, even when it 

 has tons of manure added. I will now give 

 you some glimpses of cleared land. 



I wanted to get a glimpse of the little 

 folks — Jimmie and Gladys Hilbert. I meant 

 to have friend Hilbert also, who holds the 

 potato-fork; but in my desire to get the 

 children and the potatoes I did not get the 

 whole of him. By the way, I do not know 

 but I would 

 give quite a lit- 

 tle money to 

 have the read- 

 ers of Glean- 

 ings see Jimmy 

 and Glad3's, 

 and hear them 

 talk. They are 

 away oflf all 

 over the farm, 

 up to every 

 thing and into 

 every thing, 

 and they talk 

 like a couple 

 of magpies. / 

 can not tell 

 what they are 

 saying, but 

 they talk back 

 and forth, and 

 understand 

 each other 

 without a bit 

 of trouble. I 

 am learning 

 their language 

 now, however, 

 and can catch 



on pretty well. By the way. don't you think 

 those are handsome potatoes? This is the 

 crop I told you about on p. 914, last issue — 

 that one of 300 bushels to the acre. The 

 frost caught them or they probably would 

 have made more yet. It was about the fin- 

 est stand of potatoes I ever saw. There 

 was not a scabby one in the whole field of 

 between three and four acres. 



Here is a view of friend Hilbert and his 

 family — three girls and two boys. On the 

 right you see my little friend Alice I have 

 told you about so many times. She did not 

 want her picture taken ; but her father 

 made her come up and stand with the rest. 

 It was pretty cold weather, and by some 

 means she had got one of the boys' caps on 

 when I snapped the kodak. Friend Hilbert 

 and the two little chicks, I have already de- 



scribed. The young man leaning on his 

 potato-hook is Holly, aged 19, the boy who 

 dug 125 bushels of russet potatoes in less 

 than ten hours. The young lady standing 

 near the basket of potatoes is Miss Erna, 

 aged 14, who picked up the 125 bushels as 

 fast as Holly dug them. Now, don't you 

 think friend Hilbert ought to be a happy 

 man with that nice little family?* Thej' 

 are workers, every one of them, and I don't 

 think they ever ought to be scolded — that is, 

 not very hard, even if they are sometimes 

 forgetful, or do not feel like getting up as 

 early in the morning as might be desired. 



You see these potatoes are rounded up a 

 little: but they are in a deep oblong pit, so 

 they come but little above the surface of the 

 ground. A little straw is put on, and the 

 dirt is thrown over from each side a foot or 

 more in thickness. Some say six inches of 

 dirt is plenty above the straw — that is, if it 

 is located on a spot where the snow is pret- 



100 BUSHELS OR MORE OF RUSSET POTATOES READY TO BE BURIED. 



ty sure to be drifted over them during se- 

 vere weather. In order to hold the snow, 

 the potato-tops are usually spread over the 

 heaps. Friend Hilbert had something like 

 1000 bushels of those russets on a little over 

 three acres. I have explained that it was 

 done by turning under clover in the fall 



*It just occurs to me that we ought to have had Mrs. 

 Hilbert also. I do not believe any of the crowd will 

 feel Imrt if I suggest that she is the best-looking one 

 of the whole lot. There, hold on; I think I shall have 

 to except Gladys. Well, Mrs. Hilbert is not only a 

 very pleasant and nice-looking woman, but I tell you 

 she'is a hustler. May be friend H. does not know it ; 

 but if she had not been right by his side during these 

 years they have struggled from poverty up to very 

 comfortable circumstances, he never could have been 

 standing where he is now, financially and every other 

 way; and I wish to tell him once more that he should 

 thank God from the bottom of his heart for the great 

 blessings that are all round about hin\. 



