GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



begrin planting strawberries to-day. My celery-beds 

 are fine, and prospects are good. 



Bradentown, Fla., Aug. 6. E. B. Rood. 



DASHEENSj SOIL FOR^ ETC. 



The letter below, from friend Reasoner, 

 of the Ro^'al Palm Nurseries, gives us some 

 good suggestions in regard to using suitable 

 land for dasheens. Mr. Reasoner is author- 

 itjf on growing almost any plant found on 

 the face of the earth. 



Dear Mr. Root : — Yesterday after dinner at Mr. 

 Rood's he and I walked over to see your dasheens. 

 They are looking well, but not so well as Mr. Ault's 

 are. His are 6 feet high, and immense. They are 

 on just such wet rich soil as they like. Yours lack 

 manure on the upper or drier ground, and appar- 

 ently a little cultivation. These plants grow best on 

 peaty (mucky) soil. You have a bauhinia north of 

 the house with a number of seed-pods hanging on, 

 yet quite green. I should like to secure these pods 

 when ripe. We are having delightful showers every 

 day. That has continued for about three weeks now, 

 being a late rainy season. It may, continue until 

 past our usual time, possibly into November. 



Oneco, Fla., Aug. 18. E. N. Reasoner. 



GARDENING FOR " PROFIT." 



On page 578, Aug. 15, I gave you a pic- 

 ture of the dasheens, and I told j'ou some- 

 thing about how I prepared the ground for 

 liig'h-pressure gardening. Well, just now, 

 Aug. 20, they are pretty nearly as high as 

 my head, and they cover the ground with 

 their great wide leaves. The sweet corn I 

 spoke of then is now, some of it, 12 feet 

 high, and the ears are the largest and finest 

 I ever saw. On most of the stalks there 

 are two large ears. By the way, each of 

 our five children has a garden — at least 

 they try to have a garden, and pay out 

 money enough, as a rule, to hired heljD to 

 have nice good gardens. Now, in our sev- 

 eral departments we have some excellent 

 men for making gardens or almost any 

 thing else. But in the spring time, when 

 it is time to start gardening, these expert 

 men are busy. Taking one out of his ac- 

 customed place in the factor}^ or in the lum- 

 ber-yard might result in interrupting busi- 

 ness, and, may be, delaying an important 

 order; so the good folks at Rootville do 

 what thej' can themselves, with the assist- 

 ance of a tramp who occasionally comes 

 along. Quite a little of our gardening is 

 done bj^ the women-folks; but the average 

 hired girl, at least in our neighborliood, 

 does not take kindly to gardening during 

 these latter days. Well, occasionally "grand- 

 pa" looks tln-ough their gardens and gives 

 advice. I usually tell them when there is 

 danger of a freeze, or when they need not 

 worrjf about frost. Some of these younger 

 folks, no doubt, tliink they know as much 

 about gardening as grandpa does. 



Well, this summer when I was planning 

 to grow dasheens and other stuff, 1 thought 

 I would give the younger ones an object- 



lesson just for the fun of it. I have told 

 you how I had my quarter-acre thoroughly 

 imderdrained, plenty of manure plowed 

 under, and cultivated at just the right time, 

 etc. I did all the hoeing myself. 



There are three ways in which I get in- 

 spiration for writing these Home papers: 

 First, plenty of sleep; second, good nour- 

 ishing food without any " frill." What I 

 mean by " frill " is cake, pie, and ice-cream 

 after I have had a good square meal al- 

 ready. The third way I get inspiration is 

 to get hold of that light hoe that is bright 

 and clean and go out and hoe in said gar- 

 den until the perspiration drops from my 

 nose. And I believe this last method of 

 getting inspiration is the best one of all, 

 but they will go prettj' well together. Now, 

 then, not only are the dasheens doing won- 

 ders, but the sweet corn just back of them 

 is astonishing. Of course, Mrs. Root and 

 I can not use more than a few ears a day, 

 even if we live on green corn, so I am en- 

 joying the fun of carrying samples around 

 to the neighbors. Years ago my friend 

 Peter Henderson put out a book called 

 " Gardening for Profit." That book has 

 helped the world. The " profit " the author 

 had in mind was the dollars and cents you 

 get for your crop. But the " profit " / have 

 in mind just now is the i^leasant feeling 

 that always comes from dividing with your 

 neighbors. Jesus once said, " It is more 

 blessed to give than to receive;" and I want 

 to suggest to a lot of old men — especially 

 those who no longer need to toil for their 

 dailj- bread — that these elderly people, espe- 

 cially if they are grandpas, devote their 

 time and remaining strength toward grow- 

 ing stuff to give away. If you have not 

 tried it, j'ou can not imagine how a little 

 gift like a dozen ears of corn, a little bit 

 before anybody else has any, will bring 

 about kind and neighbor^ feelings in al- 

 most any neighborhood. Suppose you have 

 a neighbor (and I do hope it is only a sup- 

 pose) who is always looking out for the best 

 end of a bargain. If jo\x know he has not 

 a very good garden, and j'ou can sur^Drise 

 him by something real nice, such as I have 

 mentioiied, you can not think, unless you 

 have tried it, how much it will do toward 

 softening his hard and suspicious disposi- 

 tion. Of course, our corn, string beans, 

 peas, and earh' tomatoes, are given mostly 

 to the children and grandchildren ; but even 

 there it tends to keep pleasant feelings all 

 around. You need not go to the newspa- 

 pers to be reminded that there are some- 

 times quarrels and jangles among the dif- 

 ferent members of a family. I once heard 

 of a father who would tell his own children 

 that he did not want them in the future to 



