THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



261 



&quot; And how long does the season last ? &quot; 



&quot; It will hold on for six weeks or more, until frost comes 

 sometimes.&quot; 



&quot; What do you do to keep the bugs off? I am always 

 pestered to death with bugs on my vines.&quot; 



&quot;That is pretty easily managed where you have so 

 many vines. Bugs might easily eat up a dozen hills in a 

 garden where they would more n have their mouths full 

 in a two-acre lot. I generally sprinkle on a little plaster 

 as soon as they get up in sight, and if this don t stop the 

 bugs I go over them once or twice more. The plaster is 

 good manure for em any way, and I s pose a pinch of gu- 

 anner in it would be better still. If I had hen manure 

 plenty I should jest as lives have that. I calculate to keep 

 the vines growing so fast that the bugs can t catch em.&quot; 



&quot; That s a good idea. I s posQ that accounts for the fact 

 that we don t see so many vines destroyed in wet seasons 

 as in dry. I never thought of that before. Now I should 

 like to know a little about marketing the pickles, and as 

 them apples are gittin rather low I ll let you rest.&quot; 



&quot; I ginerally make a market for em with some pickle 

 maker in the city or over on the North River. He agrees 

 to take em delivered at the depot at so much a thousand 

 assorted in barrels. We make three sizes. The big ones 

 are for eating fresh, and I s pose are sold in market by the 

 pickle men for that purpose. The other two sizes are just 

 the thing for pickles, and go to the factory. These are the 

 fellers you see in jars in all the corner grocery stores. We 

 pick all sizes together, and carry them to some convenient 

 place under a shed, at the edge of the pickle patch, and 

 there they are sorted and put in barrels and sent off to 

 market.&quot; 



&quot; How often do you have to pick em ? &quot; 



&quot; Every other day is the rule. But sometimes a rainy 

 day comes and stops the picking, which makes trouble. 

 The pickles git a great deal bigger and it takes about a 



