1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



555 



ting rather particular. There is no berry on our 

 grounds with any nicer flavor than the old Charles 

 Downing; but they are light yielders, and easily 

 hurt by the frost, like the Sharpless. The Jessie is 

 good, and a fair yielder, but not up to the Bubach. 



Do you know I had to laugh when 1 read in 

 Gleanings that you were not guile certain that 

 farmers could not afford to grow potatoes in a 

 small way where they hadn't the machinery and 

 aids of the large grower? What do you suppose 1 

 had been doing that morning? Why, following 

 Breed's weeder, as a new tool is called, over seven 

 acres of potatoes. It was drawn by one horse, and 

 could hardly be called work for him or myself. 

 Now, what did it do? Why, in going once through 

 the field I stirred all the soil that I could with a 

 one-horse cultivator in going twice, and at the 

 same time moved every bit of soil in and around 

 the hills— hoed them. In the afternoon, wife and 1 

 took a ride. We saw a man with perhaps two acres 

 of potatoes, hoeing them slowly by hand, after hav- 

 ing cultivated them. We calculated that, at the 

 rate he was working, it would take him one day to 

 hoe half an acre (in drills), or over 15 days to do the 

 work I had done in the forenoon. Which can ride 

 out the most? which can get time to " fuss " with 

 berries best? Which can get the most time to do 

 his work promptly and as well as he knows how, and 

 can live and respect his calling instead of being 

 a drudge? 



But, enough. You know 1 love to accomplish 

 something when I work. Don't fear the overpro- 

 duction of potatoes. There are two sides to this. 

 When farmers get large prices, how many thou- 

 sands of poor people have to pay altogether too 

 much? Welcome cheaper production and only fair 

 living prices for farmers, for the sake of the great 

 number of poor people who will be helped. With 

 our machinery we made money last year on pota- 

 toes—did well enough. It hurt me to sell potatoes 

 to men who had hard work to make a very bare 

 living, for 75 cts. to $1.00 a bushel in 1881 and 1887. 

 To be sure, it was market price, but— well, I found 

 a way to ease my conscience, sometimes, when sell- 

 ing directly to individuals. 



Dr. Talmage says the Almighty will smite this 

 people if they do not stop inventing machinery to 

 take work from poor people. For himself, he says, 

 if I remember correctly, that he hopes there will 

 not be another tool invented in 500 years. But he 

 is all wrong for once. His head is out of level. 

 Flour and potatoes are cheaper to-day for the poor 

 man to eat than they wonld be without the binder 

 and the potato-planter; and there is work enough 

 for all, and better wages, than in anti-machinery 

 days. Then see the great saving to the farmers' 

 wives in the line of less help to board, less drudg- 

 ery and tavern life, and the nearer approach to a 

 perfect home. See how the farmer can now ac- 

 complish much without slavish toil. Welcome to 

 labor-saving machinery, I say. T. B. Terry. 



Hudson, Ohio. 



Well, I am very glad indeed, old friend, 

 to know tliat our ideas have been so much 

 in the same line. You will, of course, see 

 what I have said under the head of Our 

 Neighbors, in this issue. I do not know 

 that I quite get your thought in regard to 

 farmers raising small fruits. Where they 

 raise strawberries for sale, I think they 

 might devote more ground to this one crop 



than is profitable for that locality. Last sea- 

 son we had so many Alaska peas (and we 

 got them on the market before anybody 

 else had any also) that they could not be 

 sold without running the price down to a 

 point that did not pay expenses ; and even 

 when we loaded the wagon and sent them 

 off eight or ten miles to adjoining towns, 

 the wliole crop could not be sold at a profit. 

 I made a blunder by planting largely nil <<i 

 one time. This year I blundered the other 

 way, because I did not plant enough. For 

 three weeks we have been getting 50 cents a 

 peck for every pea as it ripened, and cus- 

 tomers quarrel as to who shall have them, 

 even then. We had only about half enough. 

 The remedv is to make successive plantings 

 every week or ten days, and be sure to have 

 enough, and not very many more than 

 enough. We can not do this, however, 

 with strawberries. If you mean, however, 

 that no farmer or anybody else who has a 

 little patch of ground can make a mistake 

 by planting enough to give his own family a 

 great abundance of strawberries, then I 

 heartily agree with you. Almost every spring 

 my health begins to fail by care and over- 

 work, just a little before strawberry time, 

 and for several years I have been looking 

 forward to fresh strawberries as a sure 

 means of "fetching" me up. This year I 

 was in such haste to receive the benefit of 

 the "strawberry tonic" that I ate a little 

 too freely of them when they first ripened. 

 I began to feel troubled for fear strawber- 

 ries would not work this season. I soon 

 found, however, that it was because dame 

 Nature did not want the new medicine too 

 abruptly. By increasing the dose daily for 

 a few days, 1 .soon found that I could eat 

 two large saucerfuls at a meal, and ever so 

 many more between meals, and grow fat 

 and happy on them. Of all the different 

 " cures " that have been invented in times 

 past, give me the strawberry cure. Well, 

 now, there is but little question but that 

 other people will be benefited just as I am 

 benefited. But they can not very well af- 

 ford the expense unless the berries are af- 

 forded cheaply ; therefore I am glad, as you 

 are, when strawberries (and potatoes) are 

 offered at very low prices. But I still think 

 that, where one wishes to get the very most 

 benefit from strawberries, he should raise 

 them himself, not only that he may enjoy 

 seeing them grow, but that he may feel that 

 the supply is unlimited— that he may eat 

 just as many as he has any inclination to, 

 without having his conscience trouble him 

 because he is extravagant. 



You speak about canning them. My wife 

 has often urged me to eat largely of canned 

 strawberries, to see if they would not bring 

 me up as well as the fresh ones do. They 

 have never yet tilled the bill very well, 

 therefore we have not been in the. habit of 

 canning very many. Our patch of Jessie 

 strawberries, mentioned by mv cousin, I). 

 E. Fenn, are planted just 8 feet apart, after 

 digging our early potatoes, as I have de- 

 scribed. They are 10 inches apart in the 

 row. We have not kept account of the prod- 

 uct, but I should say that they average per^ 

 haps half a pint to each plant, Next sea- 



