l'*09 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



69 



We fixed my overcoat and luggage so I could 

 curl down pretty comfortably ; but just as 1 was 

 dozing off I caught a glimpse of a face that seem- 

 ed familiar. It was the man I had been talking 

 to. He and his friend from the next chair, know- 

 ing I did not leave until nine, had come over for 

 a little motf counsel — that is, if I did not mind 

 giving them a little more of my time; and I was 

 fearing I had been laughed at. Vou all know 

 what the Master said to Peter — " O thou of 

 little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt?" 



Both were married; each had a boy; and be- 

 fore I finished both had given me their hands 

 with a pledtje to accept the Savior I had held up 

 to them. They also promised to go to the pastor 

 of their respective churches and tell him what 

 they had promised me. Tney said thtirwi\es 

 would be more than ready to go with them. In 

 fact, one wife was already a member. Both are 

 going to write me and report progress. 



Dear friends, it is a good thing to get people 

 interested in gardening, bees, or poultry; but 

 when you start the inmates of a home, as God in 

 his great mercy permitted me to start these two 

 young men, every thing else falls into insignifi- 

 cance. Our first tpxt tells the story. It is not 

 only "saving a soul from death," but — go back 

 and read that story about the "whisky-jug." 

 Think of the wreck and ruin it caused. Now 

 view the contrast, "shall hide a multitude of 

 sins " I want to see a report from one or both 

 of these men on these pages; and who knows but 

 we may, sooner or later, hear from that thirteen- 

 year-old boy.' One of these men lives near Geo. 

 E. Boggs, somewhere in North Carolina. If I 

 remember, friend Boggs is a Christian man, be- 

 sides being a \ery successful bee keeper. Will 

 not he give a little push on this ball I have start- 

 ed rolling.' Right here something makes me feel 

 that my good friend Geo. E. Hilton might have a 

 word to offer in regard to what I have been tell- 

 ing you. After these friends were gone Mrs. 

 Root asked if I had better not take my nap. To 

 my great surprise I did not feel sleepy at all, and 

 then I remembered that, after the Master had 

 talked with the woman at the well, his disciples 

 urged him to partake of the food they had 

 brought. Our second text tells us what he said 

 — " My meat is to do the will of him that sent 

 me, and finish his work." 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING. 



The letter below should have been given last 

 spring, but it was crowded out; but as it con- 

 tains facts of much interest to many of our read- 

 ers we give it place here: 



HUiH-PRRSSlTRB GARDENING IN FLORIDA. 



Mr. A. I. Riti: — As you are so much interested in gardenine I 

 think Tou should not fail to come up and visit the "Celery- City." 

 Biadentown and vicinity is a tame affair compared with this 

 place. I surely believe it would be time well spent for you, and 

 a pleasant surprise. I hid heard considerable about the celery 

 here, but had no idea it was grown on the scale it is. I think 

 tkere are more than 1000 acres here, and now is the height of the 

 harvest. If you wait fifteen days before coming, much of the 

 crop will be cut. 



One acre is yielding about 1000 crates, and sells at $2.25 per 

 crate. Celery land cleared, and ready to go to work on, is sell- 

 ing at from $1000 to $2000 per acre. W. W. Grim. 



Saoford, Fla . March 2. 



In fact, in a few days I hope to be able to give 

 a report in regard to celery-growing in Florida, 

 ri^ht up to date. 



Poultry 

 Department 



" NOTHING TO DO BUT TO GATHER THE EGGS," ETC. 



My seventy laying hens all seemed glad to see 

 me, as Mr. Rood suggested they would be; but 

 I found very soon there XL'rt.f something to do be- 

 sides" just gathering the eggs." Mr. Rood is so 

 busy just now gathering his strawberries that he 

 delegated the chickens to one of his helpers, a 

 very good man indeed, but not particularly a 

 chicken man. I found four hens sitting on china 

 nest eggs. One hen was laying in the incubator- 

 cellar, so near the edge of the shelf that several 

 eggs rolled off; but they didn't strike the cement 

 floor and break, for the tile drain had got stop- 

 ped, and they dropped into the /oo/ of ivater that 

 covered the floor. In a nail-keg under the porch 

 were 14 eggs, but evidently not "strictly fresh." 

 Under the Touse a lot of eggshells indicated « here 

 the skunks had dined " sumptuously. " My flock 

 of nearly 100 had been decimated by owls that 

 took them out of the pine-trees by night. These 

 owls kill their prey by striking their sharp claws 

 through the head of the chicken. Mr. Rood 

 frightened the owl away with his gun one night, 

 and had the chicken for breakfast. The day of 

 my arrival (Dec. 18) I got three eggs {xom the 70; 

 the next day four, and the third day five. I ex- 

 pressed my $5.00 male bird and a buff Orpington 

 pullet from Medina to this place at a cost of 

 $2.70. Both stood their three-days' trip in fine 

 shape, and the third day the pullet commenced 

 laying again. 



Last winter I told you of Mr. Rood's big crop 

 of lettuce when lettuce happened to be such a 

 drug on the market that I fed great wheelbarrow 

 loads of it to my chickens. Now listen. When 

 we left in April a fine crop of Irish potatoes had 

 taken the place of the lettuce. After the potatoes 

 were dug and sold he took from the same ground 

 a crop of hay (beggarweed, I think), and to-d ly 

 great stools of strawberries laden with green and 

 ripe berries are on that --very groutid. I confess I 

 can't understand it. He says the berry-plants 

 were set out in September, and now they are full 

 of fruit. This ground is not only heavily fertil- 

 ized, but it is expensively tiled, and under sub- 

 irrigation. 



I have told you about the wonderful mulber- 

 ries that grow in this region. Well, last winter 

 I bought of Reasoner Bros. (Oneca) half a dozen 

 little trees. I don't think they were over three 

 feet tall; but to-day their branches extend up 15 

 to 20 feet, and the trunks are as big as my arm. 

 They are on a strip of ground near an open ditch 

 in the poultry-yard, where I grew " sprouted oats " 

 all last winter. Mr Rood says they will likely 

 bear fruit before we leave in April. If they do, 

 there will be some wonderful berries, you may 

 be sure. Oh, yes! one of the four " sitting hens " 

 was iTiy "fighting mother" of two years ago. I 

 suspected it when I went to shut her up, and her 

 leg-band told the story; and on account of "old 

 scores"! took pity on her and " scraped up" 

 fifteen eggs and — let her sit. I didn't give her 

 the eggs that rolled off the shelf into water (as 

 fast as the hen hid them) either. 



