648 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOR A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



A VISIT TO J. M. SMITH, OF GREEN BAY, WIS. 



aEAK friends, since I last wrote you I 

 have made a visit to J. M. Smith, of 

 Green Bay, Wis., the great horticultu- 

 rist and market gardener of the State. 

 All that I saw that was interesting to 

 me during that half-day would almost make 

 a book. Friend Smith has 40 acres of land 

 under the highest state of cultivation, and 

 now covered with wonderful crops of vege- 

 tables and small fruits. He keeps an accu- 

 rate account of his daily receipts, and these 

 have been averaging for the past few weeks 

 just about $100 a day. Of course, he em- 

 ploys a large amount of labor— perhaps 30 or 

 40 full grown men ; then there are enough 

 boys to make quite a little Sunday-school, 

 especially if we include- the girls also, who 

 were picking berries. Friend Smith first be- 

 gan on a single acre. His growth and prog- 

 ress were, as it usually is, by easy steps. 

 When he made a single acre produce great 

 nice crops, another acre was added to it, 

 and so on. His first step was to thoroughly 

 underdrain his ground. His soil is not nat- 

 urally good — not as good, perhaps, as yours 

 and "mine ; but it was all he had, and he 

 started out to make the best of it. His 

 ground is so near on a level with Lake Mich- 

 igan that he can not, by doing his best, get 

 a fall of more than one inch to every hun- 

 dred feet of tile ; therefore you may be sure 

 the underdraining was carefully done. 



Now, besides the careful underdr&mmg I 

 was agreeably surprised that friend Smith 

 lias decided just as I have done, that we 

 need surface draining also. The underdrains 

 are about two rods apart, and right over 

 them he has surface drains through all his 

 40 acres. This makes his ground in beds 

 about two rods wide. These beds are high- 

 est in the middle, and slope gradually to- 

 ward the surface drains. The surface drains 

 are so shallow the cultivator or loaded wag- 

 on crosses them without difficulty. During 

 the present season, when we have had such 

 excessive rainfalls, I knew our ground was 

 injured by becoming so saturated with wa- 

 ter that it settled down just about as hard 

 as it was before it was plowed. It was 

 worth my whole trip to Green Bay to satisfy 

 myself oh this single point of surface drain- 

 age as well as underdrainage. Of course, 

 the crops were all in long rows parallel with 

 these surface drains. 



( 'onsiderable has been said about cropping 

 ground continuously, without seeding it 

 down and turning under the sod. Even Pe- 

 ter Henderson recommends that market- 

 gardens be rested occasionally. Now, friend 

 Smith does nothing of the sort. In fact, he 

 says he could by no manner of means spare 

 his expensive highly manured ground for a 

 crop of clover only to be turned under. Al- 

 though his season is so much shorter than 

 ours, be gets two and often three crops on 

 the same ground every season. For in- 

 stance : On his first acre of ground (which 

 was so mellow and rich one could kick his 

 foot down six inches or more, almost any- 



where) I found young currant-bushes just 

 commencing to bear. Between these, on- 

 ions had been grown, and the boys had just 

 pulled them, piling them in these shallow 

 surface drains so as to be out of the way. 

 Let me say. these shallow surface drains 

 also make convenient nai row roads, or by- 

 paths, for gathering the crops. Well, the 

 great white onions were piled here in long 

 winrows, where they could dry out ; and 

 just as soon as they were up, the ground 

 was manured again, the manure cultivated 

 and worked in with modern tools, then the 

 celery was planted. 



Friend Smith plants celery or cabbages 

 when he gets ready, no matter whether it 

 rains or not. The hottest day I have expe- 

 rienced this season was Thursday, July 18; 

 and during this day, friend S. with his boys 

 set out about two acres of cabbage-plants. 

 While I was wondering that they dared to 

 set them out during such a fierce heat, one 

 of the boys came up and suggested that it 

 would be only a waste of time and shoe 

 leather to replace what cabbages had died. 

 None of them died worth speaking of. I ex- 

 pressed a curiosity to see how it was done. 

 While friend S. has never had facilities for 

 irrigation to any great extent, he has a tank 

 and windmill. The tank would hold per- 

 haps 200 barrels. In different places on his 

 ground are hydrants covered by square 

 wooden boxes. When transplanting celery 

 or cabbages during very dry weather, a com- 

 mon iron pipe, perhaps 200 or 300 feet long, 

 is attached to the hydrant, and carried along 

 these surface drains. Then a hose, perhaps 

 100 feet long, is attached to the iron pipe. 

 By means of the iron pipe and hose, barrels 

 of water stationed all along the paths (or, 

 rather, surface drains) are readily filled with 

 water. Then the small boys, by means of 

 watering-cans, put a pint or quart of water 

 in the hole where each cabbage-plant is to 

 be placed. The plant is then put in, then 

 some soft dry earth pulled over the wet sur- 

 face, to prevent baking. In this nice, rich, 

 highly manured soil, cabbage-plants take 

 right hold, and grow, rain or no rain ; and 

 the same way with celery. Wagon-roads go 

 through the grounds at intervals, and bas- 

 kets and wheelbarrows bring the products 

 along the paths 1 have mentioned, to the 

 wagon. 



Another thing about these surface-drain 

 paths : I was told that I could hardly find a 

 weed on friend Smith's whole 40 acres. Our 

 good friend was obliged to own up, how- 

 ever, that, during the past season, the ex- 

 cessive rains had made the ground so wet 

 many times, at the same time making the 

 weeds grow so fast, he had got behind, like 

 many of the rest of us. The weeds, how- 

 ever, were being rapidly cleaned out. They 

 were all thrown into these surface-drain 

 paths, then pitched into carts and carried to 

 the compost heaps in various parts of the 

 grounds. I did not see any weeds going to 

 seed, and I presume that none were allowed 

 to mature. On one piece of ground I saw 

 about 3000 currant-bushes. Each bush was 

 an extra-fine one, about like a few you have 

 seen and can remember. 



On this extra highly manured and well- 



