AUGUST 1, 1913 



551 



go on their lonely drive, Mlrs. Keek insisted 

 on some sort of funei-al service over that 

 little new-made grave, and they read some- 

 thing from the Bible, or friend Keek did, 

 and then during those brief sad rites she 

 asked Mr. Keek to give her his promise 

 that he would read at least a little some- 

 thing out of that Bible, God's holy word, 

 every day. for one year, in memoiy of the 

 death of the little one so suddenly snatched 

 away. What father, under such circum- 

 stances, could refuse such a request? Of 

 course he gave his promise; and being a 

 banker, and a successful one, he kept his 

 promise sacredly. ^Yhat do you suppose 

 was the outcome? I hardly need tell you. 

 Before a year was up, perhaps long before 

 — I can not quite remember — that daily 

 Bible-reading made him a humble follower 



of the Lamb of God who taketh away the 

 sin of the woi'ld ; and he has ever since been 

 not only a professing Christian but a work- 

 ing one. So much for keeping a promise 

 to read the Bible every day. This was long 

 before, mind you, the Endeavor Society was 

 established with its " iron-clad " rules in- 

 cluding the one commencing, " I promise 

 to read my Bible every .day." 



Now, friends, how many are there who 

 will give me a like promise to read the 

 Bible every day — that is, where and when 

 circumstances will permit ? And if you will 

 give me that promise and send it to me on 

 a postal card, I am sure you will find the 

 other part of that second verse of the first 

 Psalm is also true — " But his delight is in 

 the law of the Lord." 



High-pressure Gardening 



FLORIDA AND OHIO CONTRASTED. 



One reason why I like to make garden in 

 Florida is because the soil moves so easily, 

 or at least in the greater part of Florida. 

 It is a sort of sand or light sandy loam; 

 and even if j-ou are old and feeble, you can, 

 with a very light hoe, move the soil and do 

 a lot of work without veiy much fatigniing 

 exertion. And it is the same way in spading 

 up the ground. If you do not want to 

 bother with a horse, by taking it easy you 

 can take out gi-eat shovelfuls; and if there 

 is any trash on top you can turn it under. 

 Now, after working in that sort of soil all 

 winter it is something of a jar on one's 

 ner\-es to attempt to make garden here in 

 this stiff yellow clay of Medina Co., Ohio — 

 at least the gi'eater part of this county is 

 that way. After the great floods, of course 

 the ground had settled down hard and was 

 uninviting to look at. Although there is an 

 abundance of underdrains under my quar- 

 ter-acre, the ground was about as hard as a 

 brickyard. We covered it pretty well with 

 manure and waited for it to dry off. But 

 the young people got in such a hurry to 

 have their garden plowed that they could 

 not wait to have theirs dry, and I reluc- 

 tantly permitted our teamster to plow my 

 garden also. Had it been ridged up in the 

 fall with good deep ditches between the 

 ridges, so the frost could work it up, it 

 would have been very much better ; but this 

 was neglected. We had it plowed and har- 

 rowed, and worked with a disk as well as 

 we could. And then we planted our pota- 

 toes, corn, beans, etc. ; and as the weather 

 grew warmer (or at least it ought to have 

 been warmer), we put in our lima beans, 



Hubbard squashes, melons, etc. Well, here 

 in Ohio we had, first, a remarkably cold 

 wet May. Finally the rains let up, but it 

 was so cold that we had a little touch of 

 frost on the 8th and 9th of June. Then it 

 stopped raining for about a month. Most 

 of the potatoes came up ; but the first plant- 

 ing of corn, even the Golden Bantam, only 

 about a half of it came up. In order to get 

 a stand of corn where it failed on account 

 of the cold and wet, we planted it over four 

 times in all; and then when we found a hill 

 was an entire failure we put in string beans. 

 Of course I am speaking of sweet corn. 

 The Golden Bantam stood it the best of 

 any; but th^regular sweet corn, or the big- 

 gest part of it, could not stand the cold 

 clods, for our whole garden (until almost 

 the first of July) was little but clods, thus 

 presenting a great contrast to our Florida 

 soil. 



Oh! I forgot to say there are no gravel 

 stones in Florida. In digging ditches or 

 making garden one never finds a pebble of 

 any size. That is one reason why we have 

 to purchase grit for chickens. There are 

 no aravel stones — at least not in our local- 

 ity.^ 



THE DASHEEN IN OHIO. 



I brought with me from Florida, about 

 the middle of April, fifty or sixty dasheen 

 bulbs. Then I got a big sheet-iron wheel- 

 barrow, almost as soon as I arrived here, 

 and filled it with rich garden soil and old 

 manure, about half and half. As it was too 

 cool to put these tropical tubers in the 

 ground I planted them in that wheelbarrow. 

 i wheeled them out when the sun shone, 

 and wheeled them back in the basement at 



