w 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



tember, which I put on empty combs, and they very 

 nearly tilled their brood-chambers with honey, and 

 have an abundance to keep them through the win- 

 ter. I also had plenty of drones flying- the 1st of No- 

 vember, and I think they would fly yet if it were 

 warm enough, as I am confident that a part of my 

 colonies have not killed their drones yet. Is not 

 this very unccftnmon as late in the season as this? 

 William Hutchison. 

 Benton, Ills., Nov. '„'9, 1888. 



Friend H., we are glad of your report in 

 regard to exhibits at fairs, as well as of your 

 late comb honey. If the winter is as mild 

 with you as it is with us now (Jan. 12), it will 

 be nothing strange if the bees should keep 

 the drones until spring. 



MAKING GARDEN IN JANUARY. 



HOW MUCH OF IT CAN WE DO PROFITABLY? 



ELL, friends, the field of operations 

 for winter gardening is broadening 

 and enlarging year by year— not only 

 in Florida and California and other 

 favored localities, but right here in 

 the North. The list of seeds and plants, so 

 far as my knowledge extends, may be sum- 

 med up as follows : Asparagus, early beets, 

 early carrots, celery, cress, cucumbers to 

 some extent, lettuce, onions (especially the 

 Egyptian, or winter onion), parsley, rad- 

 ishes, rhubarb, and last, but by no "means 

 least, spinach. Asparagus requires consid- 

 erable preparation beforehand. We must 

 get good strong roots by growing them in 

 the open ground, and then by the first of 

 January, or earlier, put our sash over them 

 right where they stand. Beets, spinach, 

 onions, kale, and other like hardy plants, 

 that will grow at a very low temperature, 

 can be started from the seed in cold-frames 

 or cold greenhouses. If your locality is 

 sheltered, and you have straw mats and 

 shutters to cover the sash, quite a growth 

 may be made in January, without the use 

 of fire heat at all. As handling sash, mats, 

 and shutters is laborious work, I would by all 

 means, as soon as I could afford it, have a 

 cold greenhouse. With the usual appara- 

 tus for raising the sash, one man can raise 

 and lower one whole side of a greenhouse 

 11x30 in three minutes, and without work- 

 ing hard either. During this present win- 

 ter we have been using three machines, 

 .made by Hitchings & Co. These machines 

 cost about S10.00 each, and I never enjoyed 

 any work more than I do raising and lower- 

 ing the sash to control the temperature. I 

 do not have to call in any boys to help me, 

 and I can leave the sash at any angle I 

 choose, and there is no danger from being 

 blown down by the wind, even if we have a 

 very high one, for each one of the sash is 

 held rigidly by means of iron rods, just 

 where I leave it until I come around and 

 choose to move it. 



Under these sashes, without auy fire heat 

 at all, spinach, beets, and radishes have 

 come up and made a very fair growth, and 

 that, too, during the very shortest days in 

 the year. I am especially pleased with the 

 behavior of spinach under glass. It is 

 about as hardy as winter rye, and seems to 



grow all the time, when the ground is not 

 freezing, even outdoors. Our main crop of 

 spinach was planted out in the open fields, 

 in September ; and although it has had, up 

 to the present date, Jan. 10, no mulching at 

 all, the great bushy clumps of foliage are al- 

 most perfect. Some of the larger leaves 

 have been frosted a little. Whenever the 

 ground is not frozen we just go out and cut 

 the roots off below the surface of the 

 ground, throwing the heads into a large 

 basket. It is then washed, and the poorest 

 outside leaves pulled off, and then it is 

 ready to cook. Cook it about as you would 

 green peas, and I think it is almost if not 

 quite equal to asparagus. We are retailing 

 it in our town at 10 cts. a pound, and it is 

 now selling at a very satisfactory rate. 

 You may ask why I take the trouble to put 

 it under glass, if it flourishes so well out- 

 doors. Well, we are usually able to have it 

 in nice order outdoors from Jan. 1 to the 

 middle of February. After that, the fre- 

 quent freezing and thawing often spoils it. 

 By having a fine crop under glass, you can 

 get it at any time when you can"t get the 

 other, and we are sure of it clear along in- 

 to March. 



Kale is raised and cooked very much like 

 spinach. You can use your plants right 

 from the cold-frame where they are grown, 

 or you can have large heads started in the 

 summer time, to be out during winter, from 

 the open ground. 



The Early French forcing carrots will 

 stand about as much cold as lettuce, there- 

 fore in our locality it must be raised under 

 glass. It is sold in little bunches, and is 

 used for flavoring soups. 



Now is the time to plant seeds of celery 

 for your first crop. We prefer the White 

 Plume ; but we are this year making a test 

 of the Golden Self-blanching. A good 

 many ask why we commence so very early. 

 My reply is, because we want to have the 

 first in the market. Celery in Juue will 

 generally command a good price, and I have 

 never found the plants too large to put out 

 in the field. Last year we had one bed of 

 transplanted plants that were not called for 

 when the plants got to be a foot high, and 

 perhaps as large as your wrist. I feared 

 they were too large to stand transplanting, 

 but concluded to try them. When the cele- 

 ry was dug and put away in November, 

 these plants had produced the finest stalks 

 we had in the field. They bore the trans- 

 planting, and started right out to grow, 

 quicker than any of the small on^s ; audit 

 has been the case so invariably that we ex- 

 pect this season to do quite a trade in ex- 

 tra-early and extra-large plants It is true, 

 there has been some trouble with White 

 Plume celery running to seed, when started 

 very early.' Here is a letter right to the 

 point : 



Mr. Root:— In a seed and plant circular received 

 from you, you speak of offering for sale celery- 

 plants from seed sown in January. Now, suppose 

 a person were to purchase a quantity of these 

 plants, and they were all to run to seed. A friend 

 had his early planting (consisting of about 7500 

 plants) go to seed for two years in succession, 

 while that from seed sown in the middle of March 



