510 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



keeping out the weeds, and that patch of 

 strawberries is going to make a show before 

 winter comes, I tell you. 



We have Bubach and Haverland also, 

 fruiting. They are much like the Jessie, 

 only the Bubach is still larger both in fruit 

 and foliage. In fact, it is immense all 

 around. You know the Bubach is said to be 

 the only successful rival of the Jessie. I 

 expect to sell plants this fall. The Haver- 

 land has a better shape, but it is hardly as 

 large. Both are exceedingly strong grow- 

 ers. I have just got four of the plants of 

 the new Miami, introduced by our old friend 

 J. D. Kruschke, one of the bee-fraternity, 

 and a contributor to Gleanings some years 

 ago. The Miami plants were very small, 

 feeble ones, received late in the fall. They 

 are now making an excellent growth, and 

 the berries differ from any thing else I have 

 seen, by ripening all over at once. There is 

 not any red side where the berry is exposed 

 to the sun. It is a beautiful red on all sides 

 at once. 



ALASKA PEAS. 



We have succeeded in having a fine crop 

 of peas by the first of June, when nobody 

 else has any anywhere about. For several 

 years I have been planting peas in February 

 and March, but they did not mature any 

 earlier than those planted a month later. 

 I finally decided that some poorer ground 

 might give us peas sooner. Well, the poor- 

 est piece of ground we have on our planta- 

 tion is a little knoll facing the south. It 

 looks and acts as if the surplus soil had been 

 removed for some purpose years ago. In 

 fact, it would not even raise grass ; but the 

 dry clay was visible the year round. I 

 thought this would be poor enough for early 

 peas, so I turned under some old well-rotted 

 manure, applying it in the fall. This 

 spring, before the frost was out of the 

 ground, and as soon as the clay was dried 

 out hard enough so it would rake up on the 

 surface, I put in five rows of peas. As I 

 supposed they would make only a feeble 

 growth, they were planted only 18 inches 

 apart. They came up as I expecte J , very 

 quickly, on account of the sunny spot they 

 occupied, sloping toward the south. When 

 they were six inches high, 1 purchased five 

 rolls of poultry-netting, with H-inch mesh, 

 and only one foot wide. A stake every 25 

 feet held the netting just so the peas could 

 reach the lower selvage edge. They 

 " caught on " very soon, and my little patch 

 of peas has been all the spring a pleasant 

 thing to visitors. By the way, we can now 

 furnish a strip of poultry-netting of the 

 above dimensions, 150 feet long, for only 

 50 cents. Can you get any thing cheaper 

 for early peas ? We have picked about 

 three bushels from this little patch, and 

 there will certainly be six or seven bushels 

 more. AVhat do you think of it V Ten bush- 

 els of peas from a piece of ground about 10 

 feet wide and 150 feet long ! The first of 

 them sold for $2 00 per bushel ; but now we 

 get only 40 cents a peck. As soon as the 

 peas are cleared off I am going to try the 

 early strawberries on this poor, hard, clay 

 soil. They probably will not make very 

 much growth, but I suppose they will bear 



berries quite a little ahead of our highly ma- 

 nured plots. 



PYgELF ?ip PY ]\[EIGflB0^. 



Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and 

 your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting- 

 covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. 

 —ISA. 5".: 3. 



@NE Sunday morning our pastor changed 

 places with a brother-minister in an 

 adjoining town. I think I have be- 

 fore told you that I have a particular 

 love for preachers. I believe I love 

 all humanity ; I love my fellow-men. I 

 love to be with them, and I especially enjoy 

 getting acquainted ; but if there is any one 

 class of people I love particularly it is God's 

 ministering servants. I know they are 

 criticised and found fault with ; but never, 

 since my conversion, has it ever been my lot 

 to find a minister of the gospel who did not 

 have a good deal that was lovable about 

 him. Some of them have queer, odd ways, 

 just as you and I have, and it may take a 

 little charity for a man to get right well 

 acquainted with them ; but the single fact 

 alone, that they have given themselves, 

 heart and soul, to the cause of Christ, has 

 never failed to draw me toward them. 

 Well, when this new minister stepped into 

 the pulpit I of course began to get acquaint- 

 ed. In his opening benediction I got a good 

 deal acquainted. It was different from any 

 opening service I had ever heard. I decided 

 at once that the man was original. It made 

 me feel as if we were a great family of 

 brothers and sisters having family worship 

 at home, around our own fireside. You 

 may be surprised to have me say that I can 

 not remember his text ; and as our good 

 brother has not furnished it in the follow- 

 ing paper, I have had to substitute one of 

 my own. 



There were several points in the sermon, 

 that interested me so particularly that I 

 begged him to let me have that part of it ; 

 but although he had some written manu- 

 script before him, he told me that the part I 

 wanted had never been given before, and he 

 was afraid he should never be able to give 

 it again just as he did that morning. You 

 see from this statement how much help it is 

 to a speaker, and especially to a preacher, 

 to have a good-sized, intelligent, and appre- 

 ciative audience. He, however, promised 

 to do the best he could, and here it is. 

 Now, he wrote one page specially to A. I. 

 Root, that he did not intend to have put in 

 print ; but I am going to take the liberty of 

 printing it with the rest, just because it 

 helps you so much to get acquainted with 

 him. It is something a little aside from the 

 sermon, and sounds like a few kind words 

 spoken after he had got down among the 

 audience — or, if you choose, just as he was 

 shaking hands with A. I. Root and family. 

 Now, I want to tell you, dear friends, that 

 A- 1- Root and family— yes, clear down to 

 six-year-old Huber— are found, as a rule, 

 occupying a seat close by the pulpit. I do 

 not know how it comes that we always sit 

 there ; in fact, I do know that my good wife 



