1887 



GLEANIJ^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



8o9 



notice the way we did it. We took some 

 clean new half-peck baskets out into the 

 field, and picked the very nicest specimens, 

 good sized, round and smootli. Then we 

 gave good plump measure— heaping the 

 baskets up well. The baskets were so nice 

 and clean, and the fruit so handsome, that 

 nobody hesitated to pay 25 cts. for a basket- 

 ful. The crooked specimens, or those that 

 were not so handsome, were put into peck 

 baskets, and these weie sold for 40 cts.; but 

 the little baskets went off faster than the 

 others. 



I believe we had tomatoes from about the 

 first of .July until the first of November ; 

 and we have a few in one of our green- 

 houses, even now. I iiave no idea of how 

 many tomatoes we sold ; but for a long time 

 we had some eight or ten bushels a day. I 

 tell you, it is fun to have a rousing crop 

 when there is no opposition. At one time 

 whep it seemed unlikely we could sell all of 

 our tomatoes in our town, I suggested to 

 the boys that they go a mile or two out in- 

 to the country, stopping at farmhouses. 

 As they ran the wagon only in the forenoon, 

 they could make these extra outside trips in 

 the afternoon, and they did tiptop. We 

 sold tomatoes at almost every farmhouse, 

 as well as other things. Several trips were 

 made to neighboring towns, within several 

 miles, and they did fairly well on these 

 trips. 



Our favorite tomato this year, as last, has 

 been the Mikado. It is true, the fruit is not 

 all perfectly round and smooth ; but it is so 

 much larger than any other kinds, and so 

 early, it gives us the most money. There is 

 no question but that we are in great need of 

 seeds saved from these finest specimens of 



the Mikado ; and to start the matter we 

 saved enougli ourselves to make perhaps a 

 <iuarter of a pound of this choice seed, se- 

 lected from the best specimens. It is a 

 pretty hard matter to take your very largest, 

 finest, and most beautiful tomato early in 

 the season, when they command a good 

 price, and sacrifice it for the seed it con- 

 tains ; but when you do it, you have got 

 some seed that will probably be worth some- 

 thing. In fact, I should dislike to take a 

 five-dollar bill for that quarter of a pound, 

 judging from our experience in tomatoes 

 this last season. Now, although almost 

 everybody else complained that they could 

 not raise tomatoes, we had an enormous 

 crop, M'ithout a bit of trouble whatever. 

 While tomatoes were rotting for everybody 

 else, ours did not rota particle ; and as they 

 were on that creek bottom that I have told 

 you about, they suffered comparatively lit- 

 tle from drought. There is one thing J did 

 that may have counted something in our 

 favor respecting freedom from rot. C^uite 

 early in the season, great whopping tomato- 

 worms made their appearance ; and they 

 came in such numbers all at once that I di- 

 rected one of the boys to make it his busi- 

 ness to go clear through all of our tomatoes 

 daily, and carefully pick off every worm. 

 The first morning, he got, I think, a couple 

 of quarts of these great horrid-looking crea- 

 tures. The next morning he got about a 

 quart, and so it was for so long a time that I 

 began to think there was no such thing as 

 getting them (ill. Finally, just before the to- 

 matoes came into bearing, the worms be- 

 came scarcer and scarcer; and when we 

 gathered our fruit there was almost not a 

 worm. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



The high hills are a refuge tor the wild goats, and the rocks tor the conies.— Psalm 104:18. 



The above text came to mind in connec- 

 tion with the matter of providing comfort- 

 able quarters for our fowls during the 

 winter-time. Although many times the 

 fowls seem to prefer to roost in the trees, I 

 am quite sure they gladly avail themselves 

 of a refuge when it is convenient for them. 

 It has always seemed to me as if the most 

 comfortable place for them would be inside 

 of the hills ; and since I have been studying 

 springs and rocks, the matter has come back 

 to me more and more. We don't all have 

 hills, however ; and the question suggested 

 itself of making a nice little hill, or mound, 



and having it grassed over. Where rocks 

 are convenient, no doubt one of the nicest 

 places in the world, not only for fowls, but 

 for their nests, would be in the recesses of 

 these rocks. Our friends in Kentucky, in 

 the region of Mammoth Cave, ought to be 

 happy in the facilities offered them, not 

 only for warm retreats for domestic ani- 

 mals under ground, but I think I should 

 like a house in a cave— that is, providing I 

 could get plenty of sunshine into the cave as 

 well. 



1 presume many of you have been deterred 

 from Icpopiii^- poultry, on account of the 



