1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



583 



only days but weeks of beautiful weather j 

 come and go, unimproved. As an illustra- ; 

 tion, during the winter I read up tlie matter 

 of early cucumbers, in our books and agri- 

 cultural papers, until I was impatient for 

 the time to come when I could start some in 

 coM frames ; and several hundred squash- 

 boxes, such as are sliown in ChapterXXIA"., 

 were made u]) in anticipation of the time 

 when they would be used for squaslies, cu- 

 cumbers, etc. Well, how many do you sup- 

 pose we used for tlie altove pinposeV Not 

 one. And how many hills of cucumbers do 

 you suppose we put in our cold frames, 

 where they could be protected from frost 

 when a cold night cameV Not one. We 

 started some cucumbers in the greenhouse, 

 it is true, and transplanted them outdoors 

 as soon ;is we could get the ground suitably 

 prepared ; but by this time there proved to 

 be no further need of the boxes to keep off 

 frost, and no further need of the sasli on 

 cold frames. We transplanted our cucum- 

 bers from the greenhouse into the cold 

 frames, intending to put on the sash ; but 

 there was not a night cold enough to need 

 the sash after we got around to doing it. 

 Well, at the same time we transplanted 

 these cucumbers we put a few seeds in the 

 open ground right beside them. This open 

 ground was in a cold frame, and very rich 

 with manure. The weather was so favora- 

 ble that the seeds came up almost as if by 

 magic, and this, too, without any sash over 

 them, remember. 1 didn't put on the sash, 

 because we had a succession of warm show- 

 ers ; and the seeds that were planted beside 

 the transplanted plants for cucumbers, gave 

 cucumbers exactly the same time as the lat- 

 ter, although the plants in the greenhouse had 

 three or four large leaves on them when set 

 out, and some of them even had a blossom 

 or two. But, my friends, even slipshod 

 management like this paid a big profit. A 

 cold frame the size of six sash gave a peck 

 of cucumbers a day in July, that sold for 5 

 cents each, or by the pound at a uniform 

 price of H) cents per pound, w^hich I think is 

 by far the better way. Even at this date, 

 all the cucumbers we get from the open 

 field bring 10 cents per pound right along ; 

 and in June they sold readily at 20 cents a 

 pound, in considerable numbers too. Of 

 course, the market may be overstocked in a 

 town the size of ours : and while they take 

 from a half to a whole bushel of cucumbers 

 a day, and pay good prices, if w^e were to 

 produce twice that quantity we should very 

 likely overstock the market, and in a little 



time people would get tired of them. To 

 avoid this you must have a variety. When 

 people tire of oiu' thing, give them some- 

 thing else. Something new is constantly 

 wanted ; and when it starts out you can get 

 excellent prices for it. Oui- first green corn, 

 put oil the market July is, brought 120 cents 

 per dozen. It is Ford's Early corn ; :ind al- 

 though the ears are very small, the quality 

 is so good that people don't mind paying a 

 good price for tlie lirst. By our blunder in 

 not having a crop of new peas for a week or 

 two, our people got (juite hungry for them ; 

 and when we commenced on the Stratagems 

 this week they went off at 40 cents a peck 

 quite readily, even when two or three bush- 

 els per day were put on the wagon. 



KAWS(>N"s S(iUASn-BOXKS, AND DO TIIEY 

 PAY? 



Now ill regard to getting the ground ready, 

 and trylny a few seeds, even before we have 

 reason to expect they will amount to any 

 thing. We did this with the peas pretty 

 well. We sowed our first in the latter part 

 of February. We fixed the ground the 

 best we knew how, and manured it lavishly ; 

 and although they started during March 

 they did not get ahead of some sowed a 

 month later, and both, the February sowing 

 and the March sowing produced peas fit for 

 the tahle only three or four days before 

 those put in with a grain-drill in April ; so 

 you see this year not much was gained liy 

 sowing them very early. "Witli cucumbers, 

 however, we did a very nice thing in sowing 

 a long row on the creek-bottom ground fully 

 two weeks before anybody would suppose it 

 W'Ould answer. The weather was so favora- 

 ble they did not need the squash-boxes at 

 all, as I have told you ; that is, they did not 

 need them on account of frost. They did 

 need them, however, on account of bugs. 

 One morning in May, one of my men told 

 me our squashes would have to be taken 

 care of or the bugs would destroy them. 

 The wagon was not ready just then to bring 

 the boxes out to the field, and so I didn't at- 

 tend to it right away. I had been through 

 the patch in the morning, and didn't see any 

 bugs, and therefore I began to conclude that 

 may be we shouldn't need to bring the boxes 

 out at all. I happened to pass through the 

 vines, however, about ten o'clock. Imagine 

 my surprise to find swarms of strijied yellow 

 Inigs all over the vines; and to my great 

 surprise, some of my beautiful squashes, 

 with the first leaf almost as large as your 

 hand (providing your hand is a very small 

 one) literally torn to bits by those voracious 



