APKTT. 1, 1913 



237 



on the roll -call with their votes, the entreaties and 

 Saiploring prayers of millions of country-serving, 

 jCrod-fearing, home-loving men and -women. This day, 

 (O men, we who hold high station can dedicate one 

 vote to liberty, country, God, and home, and re- 

 ir".edicate the Constitution to the people, and with- 

 raw it for ever as a bulwark for that conglomera- 

 tion of cormorants whod ebauch manhood, slaughter 

 W'omanhood, butcher childhood, and crucify baby- 



hood on *he cross of alcohol. — Representative Rod- 

 denberry, of Georgia. 



God grant this may be only the beginning 

 of " overriding " the voice of one man who 

 happens to fill a great office; and may it 

 prove a lesson and a check on these same 

 " gi'eat men " who presume to ignore the 

 demands of righteousness. 



High-pressure Gardening 



Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap. 

 — Gal. 6:7. 



Dear friends, I believe that Mrs. Root 

 has never given any thing, at least direct, 

 to the columns of Gleanings; but I am 

 going to give something that I got very 

 straight from her just a short time ago. 

 You may be a little surprised to know that 

 her first talk is going to be on " high-pres- 

 sure gardening." It came about in this 

 way : A few days ago she went over to visit 

 our near neighbors, Mr. Keller's people. 

 Mr. Keller had just harvested a very fine 

 crop of celerj', and in going up to their 

 home she passed very near the celery-field 

 that had lately been cleared off. She no- 

 ticed on the way quite a number of large 

 fine stalks of a dark-green kind of celei-y 

 that seemed to have been skipped and left 

 standing in the field. When she got into 

 the house, one of the first tilings was to in- 

 quire why these great beautiful roots of 

 celery were left when the rest was all taken 

 away. Mrs. Keller informed her that they 

 KQie a sort of sport that didn't bleach oui 

 like the rest ; and, as a rule, thej' Avere not 

 worth taking care of, and so were allowed 

 to stand in the field and go to waste. She 

 said, furthermore, there had been consider- 

 able trouble in getting seed that would pro- 

 duce new French Golden Self-blanching 

 celerj- without any sport or admixture of 

 this dark green and comparatively worth- 

 less sort. In fact, one man, I think he was 

 a newcomer, or, at least, new to the celery 

 business, procured some seed that he sup- 

 posed was all right, and planted several 

 acres; but when it came haiwest time so 

 much of it was of this green variety that 

 the crop was practically worthless — not 

 worth harvesting, in fact. The poor fellow 

 put up with his disapiDointment the best he 

 could, cleared off his celerj-, and planted 

 tomatoes. This, of course, was a year ago. 

 When his tomatoes came to bear they were 

 little bits of thing's, not larger than wal- 

 nuts, and, in fact, he secured nothing, or 

 ■practically nothing, worth harvesting in his 

 whole field of tomatoes of several acres 

 As he had procured his celery seed and to- 

 mato seed of one and the same firm he ap- 



plied to them for redress from his expen- 

 sive loss. They, however, disclaimed all 

 responsibility, and referred him to the 

 clause in their catalog as follows : 



While we exercise great care to have all seeds, 

 bulbs, and plants pure and reliable, we do not give 

 any warranty, express or implied. If the purchaser 

 does not accept the goods on these terms and condi- 

 tions, they must be returned at once, and the money 

 that has been paid for the same will be returned. 

 We can not afford knowingly to sell seeds doubtful 

 as to vitality or purity. We test our seeds before 

 sending out, and should they prove defective in 

 germination or purity when properly planted and 

 cultivated we will refill the order free or refund 

 the price paid. 



When she told me about it, I said, " Oh ! 

 that man wasn't posted." He ought not to 

 have undertaken it — at least, he ought not 

 to have undertaken to grow celery by the 

 acre without having more practical experi- 

 ence. He should have purchased his celei^ 

 seed the year before he wanted to use it, 

 and then planted a small area, and, if the 

 seed grew satisfactorily, use the same seed 

 to grow his plants the next year, and the 

 same with tomato seeds. He shouldn't have 

 thought of setting tomato-plants by the 

 acre until the seed had been thoroughly 

 tested the year previous, and until he knetc 

 it was exactly what he wanlcd. 



I gave her this ad\rce thinking that I was 

 able to supply a great amount of wisdom, 

 and that, if they had only applied to me, 

 how much could have been saved. 



After dictating the foregoing I conclud- 

 ed that I had better go over and see my 

 good neighbor Rood, who has several acres 

 of beautiful celen- almost ready for mar- 

 ket, and his celerj^ seems to be comparative- 

 ly free from these worthless sports of green 

 stalks. Now, just listen. 



Practically speaking, it is true that "what- 

 soever a man soweth, that also he may 

 reap;" but Mr. Rood, I am very glad to 

 say, was able to give me a piece of infor- 

 mation that makes it possible to grow a 

 crop very much better than the seed which 

 was sown. So it isn't always true that 

 " whatsoever a man soweth he shall surely 

 reap." Now, while giving you this great 

 secret in regard to growing celery, and per- 

 haps many other crops, T ^m going to illus- 



