So8 



r^LEANENGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



es, lilled with soil, and care for them until 

 they are tit to sell, is a great deal of trouble, 

 as you may know, if you have tried it. Be- 

 sides, the plants do not have the bushy roots 

 that transplanting gives. The very cheap- 

 est way of raising plants is to sow the seed 

 broadcast in a seed-bed, for you can water 

 and care for a great number at once. Well, 

 raise your plants in just this way : When 

 they have got so large that they are just a 

 little crowded, push your tube over half a 

 dozen or a dozen. Set it in the berry-box 

 and put your fine compost all around it, in 

 the corners, etc.; slip out your tin, and 

 there you have it. Pint boxes will do nicely 

 for five plants, and the quart boxes for ten, 

 and you can sell them by the half-dozen or 

 dozen, if you still prefer to stick to the old 

 plan of selling by the dozen instead of by 

 tens. Now, as the plants cost but little you 

 can afford to put in one or two extra — say 

 seven or eight plants, and call it a half-doz- 

 en. This will be charging enough for the 

 smallest ; and this way of doing business al- 

 ways pleases, as you may know. If these 

 boxes are set close together, they can be 

 watered and cared for with almost as little 

 trouble as in the seed-bed. If the plants 

 get so large they crowd before you sell them, 

 separate the boxes three or four inches 

 apart, then fill in between them with some 

 soft peaty soil that will hold moisture nicely. 

 Put them out in front, where everybody who 

 passes along the street will see them, and 

 you will have no trouble in making sales. 

 If the plants are nice, you should get five 

 cents for a pint box, and ten cents for a 

 (piart box. You may say this is not really 

 furnishing transplanted plants. Well, this 

 may be the case in regard to those in the 

 central part of the berry-box ; but if they 

 are tolerably thick in the seed-beds, you can 

 fill out the central ones, and leave a half- 

 dozen in a circle, near the edge of where the 

 transplanting-tube slipped down. This will 

 give you the nice strong vigorous roots we 

 so much want. The larger size of tube 

 would probably be better for the quart 

 boxes. 



MARKET GARDENING DURING A SEVERE 

 DROUGHT. 



You will remember, that in Chapter 

 XXXVII. I spoke of the prices we were 

 getting for many kinds of produce during 

 this season of drought. Well, we have had 

 an experience that we never had before. It 

 seems that cabbages have been scarce, and 

 hard to raise, everywhere ; in fact, I have 

 not seen a nice head of cabbage this season 



at all— no, not even in our large cities. They 

 are small and soft. On our own grounds we 

 had some nice cabbages, but they were of 

 small size. They were the Jersey Wake- 

 field. In fact, our best ones were those 

 raised so early in the spring that nobody 

 else thought of having any. We thought 

 then that 5 cts. a pound was a good price ; 

 but during the drought in August we actu- 

 ally sold all the cabbages we could scrape up, 

 for 10 cts. a pound. Just think of it I a dol- 

 lar for a single head of cabbage ! We didn't 

 have any that we got a dollar for, it is true ; 

 but real nice hard crisp ten -pound heads of 

 .Jersey Wakefields. such as we had in abun- 

 dance a year ago, would have brought a dol- 

 lar each, without any trouble whatever. I 

 do not suppose there were any who would 

 have given us a dollar right out for one head 

 of cabbage ; but by cutting them into quar- 

 ters we could easily have retailed a good 

 many at 10 cts. a pound. A year ago last 

 spring, by cutting a ten-pound head into 

 quarters we sold it so as to get 30 cts. for it, 

 and we thought that was wonderful. This 

 year farmers came in from the country and 

 wanted cabbages. We told them the price 

 was 5 cts. a pound ; but they replied that it 

 did not make any difference — they must 

 have them. Now, it has been my opinion 

 that, by preparing the sc»il properly, and ir- 

 rigating with judgment and wisdom, we 

 could have raised ten-pound cabbages dur- 

 ing this great drought ; but some way or 

 other we didn't succeed in doing it. Some- 

 times I was tempted to think that there was 

 some mysterious agency at work to prevent 

 the cabbage and turnip tribe from amount- 

 ing to any thing ; for our ruta-baga turnips 

 acted just as contrary as the cabbages did. 

 The strangest part of it was, they did not 

 get any good cabbages in regions where 

 they had plenty of rain this year— at least, 

 that was the case to some extent. Now, at 

 10 cts. a pound we could raise cabbages in a 

 greenhouse, and make it pay well ; that is, 

 if they would head up under glass ; and I 

 am just now very curious to know if such a 

 thing has ever been done. We could sell 

 nice little heads of Jersey Wakefield, even 

 now, at 10 cts. a pound if we had them. 



Last season, when our tomatoes wouldn't 

 bring more than -50 cts. a bushel, we canned 

 them. This year we made preparations to 

 run our canning establishment again ; but 

 to our great surprise, Mr. Weed informed 

 us that we could get two dollars a bushel for 

 all the real nice tomatoes we could scrape 

 up. It may be interesting, however, to 



