482 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



feet; in fact, he uses a horse to work up his 

 gf round, and sometimes a span of horses at 

 work under this g-lass structure. At one 

 time last winter he had ten tons of Grand 

 Rapids lettuce ready for market almost at 

 once. One of the three houses is covered 

 entirely with roug-h corrug-ated glass; and, 

 I am glad to say, so far it gives as good re- 

 sults, on the average, as the more expen- 

 sive clear glass. He says a crop of radish- 

 es grown during the shortest days of the 

 winter were just as good as those in the 

 other houses. The only objection he has 

 noticed is that the snow does not thaw 

 off quite as soon as with the other houses; 

 but the advantage of glass partly shaded 

 during the time when the sun is too hot 

 more than overbalances this. This glass 

 usually costs a third less than clear glass. 

 At this time of the year he is letting cu- 

 cumbers take the place of lettuce; and his 

 cucumber-plants are certainly, in point of 

 tropical luxuriance, ahead of any thing 

 outdoors, or anywhere else, for that mat- 

 ter. Why, I found leaf after leaf more than 

 a foot across, and there wasn't a spot or 

 blemish on these great leaves either. No 

 insect, either under ground or above ground, 

 can spoil his crop of "cucumbers under 

 glass." Of course, he has a hive of bees in 

 each house, and the bees were busy on the 

 blossoms at the time of my visit. Some of 

 the cucumbers were gathered ready for 

 market, and a new cucumber is soon to be 

 offered, of Mr. Davis' own originating — a 

 cross between our best White Spine and 

 the long English cucumbers. They are 

 beauties, I tell you, as grown by Mr. Da- 

 vis. See cuts of these greenhouses, page 

 474. 



OUR HOME IN THE WOODS, ETC. 



It is just four weeks to-day since Mrs. 

 Root and I were dropped once more at the 

 door of our little cabin ; and these four weeks 

 have been busy ones and (for the most part) 

 happy ones. The deer mice I told you 

 about were our first disturbance. On the 

 night of our arrival, just after we got to 

 sleep, they opened up for a "grand carni- 

 val." They were evidently determined to 

 investigate in regard to the contents of every 

 package brought from Ohio. Now, this rat- 

 tling and rustling of paper packages would 

 not have hindered wjv sleep; but Mrs. Root's 

 loud pounding, to drive them away, did. We 

 talked about poisons, but I declared we must 

 have a cat. Mrs. Root said a cat would get 

 homesick — only a kitten could be made to 

 stay, and a kitten could never handle the 

 "drove" that had evidently "occupied" 

 while we were absent. At a neighbor's, 

 \y2 miles away, a young lady brought me a 

 "kitten" in a bag. When I asked how 

 old the kitten was she said she guessed 

 "about a year." I carried pussy home on 

 my wheel, up hill and down, and through 

 the woods along my bicycle-path; and when 

 we let her out she was just about "frighten- 

 ed to death." We let her down through 

 that trapdoor into the "woodshed" under 



the house, and there she stayed for a week 

 or more, until one of the boys left the out- 

 side door open; but there have been no more 

 mice since her first night under our roof. 

 After we had mourned her loss for several 

 days, and given her up, she came back one 

 day and seemed very glad indeed of her 

 usual rations, and now she calls occasion- 

 ally, looks after the mice, and gets " a good 

 square meal" for old acquaintance' sake. 

 These mice are usually gray instead of 

 "mouse color," and I caught one that was 

 mottled with white and gray. They are 

 the quickest animal I ever saw; for, with 

 any sort of chance, they are off like a flash 

 of light. 



hilbert's chickens. 



Our neighbor Hilbert is the man who has 

 on his letter-heads, "Maple Syrup, Honey, 

 and Strawberries;" and he might add 

 quite a few other things and tell the truth 

 too, for he is a man of new speculations, 

 every little while, and he, by some hook or 

 crook, usually makes a success of them. 

 Two or three times in his life he has had a 

 craze for peach-growing on the hills of this 

 region, so specially adapted to it. Every 

 little while last season he would have spells 

 of talking about a 30 or 40 acre peach or- 

 chard; but I aways discouraged him, tell- 

 ing him he had already more "irons in the 

 fire" than he could look after ; and his 

 good wife rather sided in with me. By the 

 way, I have often told him if it were not for 

 "that wife of his" a lot of his specula- 

 tions would never have been the "success" 

 they were. 



One day, as we were going over the back 

 part of one of his farms, he showed me some 

 scattering peach-trees well laden with beau- 

 tiful fruit, standing away off by themselves, 

 on land apparently neglected. Said he: 



"Mr. Root, those trees have never had 

 any cultivation or care whatever since the 

 year they were put out, and just look at that 

 crop of fine fruit. Can anybody say this 

 isn't peach land naturally?" 



You see a lot of the trees were killed by 

 the climbing cut- worm, and he got discour- 

 aged and let the whole plantation go; in 

 fact, he hardly went near it. Now that he 

 had had more experience, and knew how to 

 manage, he reasoned that, if these hills had 

 produced such peaches by entire neglect, 

 what might 30 acres do, if properly cared 

 for according to the latest and most scien- 

 tific methods? 



Does somebody feel like sa3'ing, " Look 

 here, Bro. Root; this isn't a chicken story 

 at all; what do you mean by such a head- 

 ing, and then go to talking peaches in the 

 Traverse region, and nothing else?" 



Well, now, don't worry, friends. I'm run- 

 ning the story just now, and my head is 

 level too (like Mr. Hilbert's). Of course, I 

 couldn't answer his argument, especially 

 while I was breaking and eating those 

 beautiful and luscious Early St. John 

 peaches by the dozen ; and in spite of all 

 his wife and I could say he sent in the or- 

 der for 3000 peach-trees. When I got around 



