1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



drained ground, the currants were of im- 

 mense size, and bush after bush was bend- 

 ing with its beautiful load of fruit. Why, 

 I should not be surprised if they got almost 

 a whole bushel from some of the bushes. 

 They were far enough apart so that they 

 had "sun and air enough to ripen thorough- 

 ly. His crop of strawberries was about 250 

 bushels per acre ; but he plants the old 

 kinds, the Wilson and Crescent. 



With his soil and his method, the new 

 kinds do not answer so well. In talking 

 about underdraining, where you can get a 

 fall of only one inch in 100 feet, 1 asked him 

 if he had a scientitic engineer to lay out the 

 work. 



k .Not at all," said he; and he added, 

 lt whatever you do, do not ever get a scien- 

 titic engineer to help you Jay your under- 

 d rains." 



He manages a good deal as Terry does. 

 He gets down into the ditch, and lays the 

 tile himself; and. if I am not mistaken, he 

 pours water into all the ditches to be sure 

 that it will run off before he lays the tile. 



Of course, he keeps quite a number of 

 pigs to consume the refuse ; and I was very 

 much pleased to find that he had been keep- 

 ing cabbage refuse in a silo. All the leaves 

 left where the heads are gathered, and all 

 the poor or immature heads, are put into 

 this silo ; and he showed me a tine sow that 

 he said had had nothing else for months but 

 cabbage from the silo. This cabbage was 

 put away last fall. 



I do not remember now how many horses 

 he keeps ; but there are something like a 

 dozen. He also has some fine cows. His 

 stables are as neat and clean as any I have 

 ever visited. 



Green peas is one of his special crops ; but 

 when the market will not pay him a certain 

 price, the vines are cleared from the ground, 

 and peas, vines and all, are given to his 

 pigs, and so with almost every crop. In 

 order to have enough to supply the demand, 

 he often raises line crops to go into the com- 

 post heap or to the pigs. For instance, I 

 saw a hue bed of Henderson's New York 

 lettuce— beautiful, crisp, large-sized heads ; 

 but as lettuce is very perishable, and there 

 is no market for it just now, he said the 

 whole crop must go at once into the com- 

 post heap. Of course, such things do not 

 happen very often ; but it is better for the 

 market-gardener to have too much than not 

 enough. I shall in future touch upon inci- 

 dents of my visit, probably, quite often. 



July 39. — At the present writing, the Hen- 

 derson lima beans are making nice little 

 pods in great abundance. I am sorry to say 

 that two or three of the Kumerles are going 

 up the poles lively. The most of them, how- 

 ever, behave considerably like the Hender- 

 son bush lima. 



The boys sold all the berries at good 

 prices in my absence ; and now there is a 

 good demand for something for pies. A 

 currant-plantation, such as I saw at friend 

 Smith's would be a big investment in Medi- 

 na just now. We are getting 12 cents a 

 quart for blackberries, and the market is 

 not half supplied. We need four times as 

 many as we have now. Green apples for 



making pies would also be a fine thing if 

 we had them. 



Notwithstanding the repeated rains there 

 is an excellent demand for all kinds of gar- 

 den stuff. The Stratagem peas and wax 

 beans still sell readily at 40 cents a peck. 

 Where people once become acquainted with 

 Stratagem peas there will be a good demand 

 for them all summer long. This season our 

 Stratagems are true to name. We have not 

 found a bogus one among them. 



GARDENING FOR AUGUST. 



I have before mentioned the sad sight that 

 most of the gardens presented that passed 

 under my eye during my recent trip. Many 

 of the lawns and front yards were beautiful 

 to behold ; but the back yard and vegetable- 

 garden, whenever the railroad gave us a 

 view of them— oh my ! what a sight ! Fad- 

 ed, wilted, and useless crops; weeds; pea- 

 vines and potato-tops, and every thing else 

 that was displeasing to the sight, seemed to 

 be the rule. In a few places I saw the ref- 

 use cleaned up, and neat bright-green rows 

 of celery taking their place. But these were 

 the exception and not the rule. At Green 

 Bay, iu the vicinity of friend Smith's won- 

 derful work, there was a different order of 

 things. Such a man's example is conta- 

 gious ; and in front of the stores and grocer- 

 ies of Green Bay I saw the neatest assort- 

 ment of garden vegetables I ever saw any- 

 where. The sight would have done credit 

 to the market places of our great cities ear- 

 ly in the morning. 



Now, friends, it will pay you just as well 

 to make garden in August as it will to make 

 it in April and May. Let us see what can 

 be done with the ground now cumbered 

 with weeds where your early peas, pota- 

 toes, and other crops have been growing. 

 Celery is always in order under such circum- 

 stances. A nice straw r berry garden in -Inly 

 and August is a thing of beauty, and I saw 

 just such a one at Boscobel, Wis. It be- 

 longed to one of our bee-men, and I believe 

 he bought the plants of A. I. Root. If you 

 have water at your command you can put 

 out asparagus roots in August. You can 

 sow the seeds, any way. Purple-top Globe 

 turnips, or White Egg, are seldom without 

 a purchaser. JSow is the time to sow the 

 seed. Wax beans, in our locality, will give 

 a good crop if we have the usual amount of 

 rain. The Eclipse beets will also make nice 

 beets tor the table, and most markets will 

 use a large amount of them. If you have 

 very strong large plants of Jersey Wakefield 

 cabbage, if set now in the ground with 

 plenty of manure, thay will make nice heads 

 before winter. Early carrots also usually 

 do fairly when sown the first of August. 

 Corey's Extra Early corn mav make roast- 

 ing-ears, if we have plenty of rain and a 

 warm fall. If it does not, it will pay cost 

 for fodder for your cow. Cress usually does 

 nicely if sown "now. Cucumbers tor pickles 

 rarely fail when put in by the first of Aug- 

 ust, and you may fill your whole garden 

 with these and do well. Most kinds of let- 

 tuce will give a good crop late in the season, 

 if sow r n now. Onion seed for onions for 

 bunching, or onion-sets, if there is plenty of 

 rain, will also answer. If you did not get 



