1SU4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



389 



a vvhoelbuiTow standing llicre could possibly 

 have been spirited away, goods and all. An- 

 other man stoutly insisted tliat he did not have 

 his foundation. After we had sent him another 

 package, he discovered the first one was in the 

 hive all right; but it fitted so nicely he con- 

 cluded it was a chatT-paeked division- board 

 that we had generously " flung in" the bargain. 

 Now. in what I have had to say, please do 

 not think I want you to be backward about 

 telling us when things are missing. Ey all 

 means, tell us about every thing that is not as 

 you expected it to be; but do it pleasantly and 

 kindly, and do not be in hasti^ to decide that 

 we try to cheat: and, on the other hand, dear 

 brothers and sisters, we will iry to have a big 

 lot of charity stored up ready for use, so we 

 shall not be tempted to think that yoii wanted 

 to cheat us. A. I. R. 



GARDENING MAY 1. 



Any step that we can take to secure good 

 crops without so much expense for labor is a de- 

 cided gain. Ever since Terry told about not 

 having cultivated his raspberries for three or 

 four years, I have been wondering if there were 

 not other crops that could be handled In the 

 same way, and I think I have found one. It is 

 a dozen rows of pie-plant, perhaps 10 rods long. 

 The rows are three feet apart, and the plants 

 are only a foot apart in the row. The conse- 

 quence is, that, when the demand for "pie ma- 

 terial " is not too strong, the foliage covers the 

 ground so that hardly a weed can get a chance 

 to grow. But to keep up this enormous growth 

 there must be heavy feeding: so we literally 

 cover the ground several inches deep with 

 coarse stable manure, not only between the 

 rows, but all between the plants. So far it 

 seems to be working nicely. Of course, the 

 ground was worked up very fine and loose be- 

 fore the plantation was started, and under- 

 drains were put through every 20 feet. The 

 only labor now needed, besides gathering the 

 crop, is to cut out the seed-stalks just as soon 

 as one can be discovered : and a small boy can 

 be taught to do this with a very little training. 



THE ST. MARTIN RHUBARB. 



Several are asking about the St. Martin rhu- 

 barb. Well, the truth is, our plants grown 

 from the seed showed such a diversity of char- 

 acter that I thought best to drop it; and several 

 old gardeners told me that the only way to 

 keep an exact strain of rhubarb was to increase 

 by dividing the roots. I have not had time to 

 satisfy myself in regard to this matter. I wish 

 the experiment stations would answer the ques- 

 tion. Is the St. Martin rhubarb raised from the 

 seed any better than the Victoria or Linnteus? 

 and is there any strain of rhubarb in the mar- 

 ket that will come true from seed ? 



STRAWBERRIES UNDER GLASS, HEATED BY EX- 

 HAUST STEAM. 



My experiment in this line is a decided suc- 

 cess; but I very much prefer strawberries in a 

 hot-bed where the sash can be taken clear off 

 whenever the weather will permit. It is a 

 very cold, hardy plant, and seems to be impa- 

 tient of hot-house treatment. Last fall we 

 put perhaps a hundred plants over our exhaust 

 steam-heated beds. This is the line that goes 

 over to the house ; and in order to keep the 



hot-water pipes up to the tem|)erature desired 

 it is too warm for the berries. As a conse- 

 quence, th(^ glass was off whenever we did not 

 have severe freezing weather. Th(!y blossomed 

 in December and January, and we had some 

 ripe fruit in February. Once they were frozen, 

 and at another time I forgot, to take the glass 

 off before going to church one sunny Sunday. 

 When I got back they were all roasUid, green 

 and ripe. They tasted a good deal like baked 

 apples ; but I do not believe I am decidcidly in 

 favor of baked strawberries. Well, tlu^y kept 

 on blossoming, and very speedily they liad a 

 lot more of green fruit, and now it is ripcining 

 up very finely. I do not think I ever tasted any 

 more deliciously flavored strawberries than 

 those ripened inider glass, with stram heat be- 

 neath. Before another winter I shall make a 

 different arrangement so as to have more bed 

 surface, and diffuse the heat so as not to have 

 it too hot in any one spot. The plants are now 

 literally loaded with berries, and, what seems a 

 little singular, there is but a very small amount 

 of foliage — not nearly as much as we have in 

 the open air. The treatment they have re- 

 ceived seems to provoke fruit-bearing rather 

 than the production of leaves. 



EARLY PLANTING. 



Like many of the others, we planted quite 

 considerably during the fine weather in the 

 fore part of March. In fact, the acre compris- 

 ing the swamp garden was all planted. The 

 largest part of it was put into onion seed for 

 early plants. Of course, this was all in the 

 open air. Then we put in cold-frame cabbage- 

 plants, cauliflower. Eclipse beets, carrots, pars- 

 nips, peas, potatoes, radishes, salsify, and spin- 

 ach. After the blizzard during the last week 

 of March I was afraid that nearly all my stuff 

 was killed. But, fortunately, very little had 

 got above ground, and now we have a good 

 stand of almost every thing. Even the pota- 

 toes, which were all covered pretty deep, were 

 not hurt at all, so I am decidedly in favor of 

 early planting— that is, such things as I have 

 mentioned above. If they get killed it is not 

 very much labor to plant them over again. 



ECONOMY IN PLANTING AND GATHERING THE 

 CROP. 



There is just one feature of the above that I 

 wish to allude to right here. Ever since Terry 

 advocated long rows clear through the lot, for 

 cultivating, most of us have been working 

 toward this. Now. in our market it is not 

 policy for us to plant largely of any sort of 

 garden-stuff. "A little and often " has to be 

 our motto, so we do not overstock the market. 

 Well, sometimes we put in a part of a row of 

 something. When we are asked to test certain 

 new things they must be put in a part of a row 

 —perhaps a single rod of row or less. Well. 

 this always makes trouble. If part of th(! row 

 is harvested, then there is vacant ground to 

 raise nothing but weeds. Of course, you can 

 cultivate half a row, and turn around and go 

 back again. But the horse stamps on the stuff; 

 and, unless I am present to tell where one row 

 ends and another commences, the man who 

 cultivates will dig up something valuable. I 

 have about decided that we must, have whole 

 rows of every thing planted. If we can not do 

 that, put it in plant-beds and give it hand cul- 

 ture. And now about gathering crops. I think 

 every spring, that, in spite of all I can do or 

 say, somebody will commence gathering pars- 

 nips and vegetable oysters — yes, and winter 

 onions— right in the middle of the row, and 

 perhaps that person will select a row in the 

 middle of the patch. I do not .see how anybody 

 can want to see a great hole gouged out of the 

 middle of a nice crop of anything. This year 



