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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



May 



One of the things that first struck me in his 

 early writings was his habit of close, keen 

 observation, and the enjoyment he seems to 

 take in digging out Nature's secrets. Will 

 the friends now pardon me for saying that 

 we have now devoted as much space to bum- 

 ble-bees as we can spare V The honey season 

 is upon us, and more important matters are 

 pressing. 



MORE ABOUT OUR CELLARS. 



TERRY ON THEIR CONSTRUCTION, VENTIT^ATION, 

 AND TEMPERATURE. 



fRTEND ROOT: -A correspondent thinks I was 

 somewhat mistaken on one point, in a late 

 letter about our cellars. 1 said, in substance, 

 that when the burning Are took air from the 

 rooms, more would have to come in trc>m 

 some quarter, and that, under ordinary condi- 

 tions, much would come from the cellar, right 

 through the loose inch floor-boards. Also that the 

 tighter the doors and windows were made with 

 weather-strips, etc., the more air would be drawn 

 from the cellar. Now, our friend thinks that, if the 

 doors and windows of the cellar were shut up tight, 

 as they are during the cold weather, little or no air 

 could be drawn into the living - rooms, as there 

 would be little chance for more to be drawn into 

 the cellar to fill its place. This depends largely on 

 circumstances. If the cellar wall was built of hol- 

 low bricks, and these bricks were made of sewer- 

 pipe clay, and glazed, and the doors and windows 

 shut very tightly, it would not be an easy matter to 

 draw much air into the cellar; still, there would al- 

 ways be some— enough so that it would be wise to 

 plaster the cellar overhead and keep it as pure as 

 possible. 



The writer's cellar wall is made of these hollow 

 bricks. But how many cellar walls do we find built 

 in this way? A very great many are built of com- 

 mon sandstone, through which the air will go al- 

 most as readily as thi-ough an inch board. Air 

 doesn't come through the mortar on the sides of 

 the living-rooms readily; and if the doors and win- 

 dows are made very close-fitting, you may be sure 

 that, with the ordinary loose inch floor and sand- 

 stone cellar-walls, a large part of your winter sup- 

 ply of air comes to you by way of the cellar. This 

 is bad enough; but what shall we say when a bank 

 of manure is put up around the cellar-wall to keep 

 the cellar from freezing? T wonder how many who 

 use manure for banking ever thought that their 

 breathing-air in the house would be tainted all 

 winter with that manure. Perhaps not one; but 

 still this would be found to be the case as a rule. 

 So we want to be careful and have the outside of 

 our cellar wall clean as well as the inside. 



The writer rode by a house thus banked up, last 

 winter. A hearse and a number of teams in the 

 yard looked as though there had been a death there 

 lately. I could not help but wonder if the condition 

 of the air they had been breathing had not hurried 

 some loved one away sooner than was necessary. 

 As one goes to the North he sees manure used to 

 bank up cellars much more than in this latitude. 

 It is handy, as every one, almost, has plenty of it; 

 but certainly no thoughtful husband would use it 

 outside of a sandstone wall, where the dear ones 

 lived in rooms over the cellar. Sawdust or even 

 dirt would be far better. But in our latitude there 



is no possible need of any banking. It looks badly 

 at the best. A banked-up cellar is very apt to be 

 kept too warm for the good of the vegetables. 

 Hang two thermometers up in the cellar at the cold- 

 est points. Early in the winter leave the windows 

 open on the south and east sides, until you get the 

 temperature down to 3.")° at least. When there 

 comes a cold night, and the thermometers show a 

 temperature close to freezing, light an oil-stove for 

 an hour or two, warming it just barely enough to 

 tide you over the cold snap. 



We never bank up our door or windows in the 

 least, and some 18 inches of wall are exposed all 

 around the house; but we never have any thing 

 freeze. I doubt whether we burned more than 10 

 cents' worth of oil during last winter. Perhaps 

 half a dozen times the stove had to be lighted for a 

 short time. We have plenty of choice eating-apples 

 yet. Very few rotted. I know many farmers who 

 kept their cellai-s banked up too warm, so as to 

 have them able to stand a cold snap. Their apples 

 were all rotten long ago. Some of them have 

 sprouted their potatoes already. A thermometer 

 and oil-stove, and a little thoughtful labor, would 

 change all this. And then the good wife would find 

 the oil-stove so nice to heat the irons or boil the 

 tea-kettle some hot day in the summer. Even if 

 one does bank up the cellar, the thermometer 

 would show him, oftentimes, that he was keeping it 

 much warmer than was necessary. A thermometer 

 costs but a few cents; but I venture to say, not one 

 farmer in ten ever keeps one in his cellar. 



A cellar kept down near freezing, all winter, 

 would make the living-rooms above colder, with 

 only a thin board floor between; but plaster it over- 

 head and put building-paper under carpets (the 

 best way to keep impure air from coming up), and 

 you will not be troubled with cold floors. 



A vegetable-cellar somewhere else than under 

 the dwelling-house would be better, perhaps; but T 

 have been trying to show in my two letters how we 

 could take cellars as we And them, and used as they 

 are used, and so manage them as to run almost no 

 risk to our health and still keep our vegetables in 

 the best possible condition. 



lam afraid you will say that I stopped too quick 

 again, so I will add that to-day, May 3, we have 

 bushels of Peck's Pleasant apples, not a late-keep- 

 ing variety by any means, that are sound and nice to 

 eat, in our cellar. And we have 50 bushels of pota- 

 toes for seed that have not sprouted to speak of, 

 and we hope to be able to keep them back another 

 week or ten days. Our earliest potatoes have 

 sprouted a little. As a rule we can keep them back 

 until this date. 



Friend Koot, when I wrote that letter that made 

 you "almost provoked because I stopped so sud- 

 denly," I looked up at the close and saw how many 

 pages I had written, and thought of what you said 

 in Gi-EANiNOS, not long ago, that friends must 

 make their letters short, or you would have to cut 

 them down, etc., and I just wound right upas quick- 

 ly as possible. I believe you were right too. We 

 are not hoard for our much speaking. This re- 

 minds me of a story my father used to tell: 



When he was in the theological seminary the 

 president once told the young ministers that if they 

 should take a hatchel (the younger readers of 

 Gleanings will have to ask their grandparents 

 what this Isl, and stuff it full of tow, cramming in 

 all they possibly could everywhere, they could 



