1894 



GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



427 



arc arranged— three lines of stringers, in fact— 

 to hold ilie boxes of plants. The middle one 

 holds th<i ends of both rows of boxes; the other 

 two. oni" near the north and liie other near the 

 south side of the bed, hold the other ends of tlie 

 boxes. This gives a space under the boxes of 

 plants of nearly a foot; and in this space two 

 lines of steam-pipes may be run daring severe 

 weather. Above the plants when first trans- 

 planted is the cotton sheeting 1 have described. 



Now, with all the experience I have had in 

 plant-raising I learned quite a new trick in 

 just a few minutes. Perhaps I might explain 

 tirst that the women -foll<s had all heard of A. I. 

 R., even if they did not know him personally. 

 and in a little time we were chatting and dis- 

 cussing our work as if we were all blood rela- 

 tions. I suggested that our boys always use a 

 stick or wire nail for pressing the plants into 

 the ground, and I gave as a reason that it made 

 their lingers sore. One of the men slyly insinu- 

 ated that our A[('dina boys must be" soft-tinger- 

 ed." I defended them by saying that it was 

 the difference between their beautiful soft 

 swamp muck and our Medina clay soil, even 

 when the latter is softened by an abundance of 

 stable manure. IJut I told them, too, that, 

 although our boys might be .soft fingered — some 

 of the small ones — 1 vvas quite certain that 

 none of thum were tig/it- fingered or very likely 

 to be. 



I had to do so much talking with on(^ of the 

 bosses that he naturally forgot about his part 

 of the work until somebody called out, "' More 

 plants!" He took a tin pan and made haste to 

 gather some plants from one of the beautiful 

 plant-beds. Instead of taking them clean as 

 they went, he just thinned them out by taking 

 a pinch here and there. In our soil I fear he 

 would have pulled off the roots ; but not so 

 with this soft swamp muck kept slightly moist 

 by the sub-irrigation I have told you about. 

 After he had pulled out a panful one would 

 hardly notice that any thing had been taken 

 from the bed; and he said they had been doing 

 that for weeks. As fast as they made room, 

 little celery-plants were coming up underneath, 

 taking the places of those that were removed. 

 But some of the plants he took this time were 

 what we call long-legged. Tlie bed was pretty 

 well crowded, and I think some of them must 

 have had leaf stalks 3 inches long. Of course, 

 they could not hold themselves up; and as they 

 put them in the boxes they let the tops fail 

 down, all in one direction, towar<i the front of 

 the box. I asked the proprietor if he supposed 

 those long spindling ones would overcome up 

 in the world. You see, u'c have had some fail- 

 ures right along in this line. 



'■ Why, to be sure they will, Mr. Root, if we 

 manage them right. Come and see." 



Then we went outside to those cloth-covered 

 cold-frames. There the boxes of plants stood 

 in long rows. The plants just put m lay flat 

 down on the ground, as I expected they would. 

 .Some they had planted in the morning had 

 raised up a little. Tho?e planted :24 hours be- 

 fore were almost straight up; and where they 

 had been out 36 hours or more, every little stem 

 stood as erect and handsome as it did in the 

 seed-bed, and yet each plant had room enough 

 to stand up and put out its roots and grow. 



Now. I have made a big mistake in being in 

 too much of a hurry to give my plants a little 

 sunshine. These beds, as they have them 

 made, preserve a moist atmosphere, and heat 

 enough from the sun gets through the cloth to 

 warm them all they will bear. No wind or 

 current of air is allowed to strike them for 

 about two days. While the weather is mild and 

 the air still, the sheeting is rolled up nights so 

 as to give the benefit of the night air and the 



dew. Mr. Johnson agreed with me that a gen- 

 tle shower, or the dews of night, are better for 

 plants than any thing man has yet invented. 



Now, perhaps you may think I am making a 

 good deal of fuss about a simple matter; but 

 here I saw this whole matter of transplanting 

 from the seed-bed into boxes carried on with 

 mathematical precision and accuracy. Just :.'.") 

 CIS. per 1000 for transplanting, and every plant, 

 so far as 1 could see, grew. There were not any 

 vacancies nor any missing places to be filled 

 up afterward. Even during the month of May 

 they were still constructing more cold-frames 

 to hold more boxes of plants — not so much to 

 protect the plants from th(! cold as to protect 

 them from the sun and wind. Mr. Jordan says 

 the wind often does more mischief, if it is not 

 carefully kept out, than either sun or frost. I 

 did find a few boxes with an uneven stand in 

 them. Said friend J., "Shall I tell you what 

 made that break in these few boxes right here 

 at this corner'?' 



I signified my anxiety to know. Then he 

 stuck the toe of his boot toward a crack be- 

 tween the boards. This crack was hardly large 

 enough to notice ; but it let enough wind 

 through to kill the plants. Said he, " 1 wanted 

 these beds all made of matched lumber; but 

 they thought any thing was good enough for 

 this purpose, and now you see the result." It 

 made me think of the time when I lost plants 

 enough to pay for glass to cover them nicely, 

 during just one frosty spell of weather. Of 

 course, there are extremes both ways in this 

 matter of going to the expense of doing things 

 well. Sometimes rough pine boards will answer 

 just as well as planed and matched lumber; 

 but I am more and more convinced that hot- 

 beds and cold-frames should be made tight and 

 strong. The same operations that produced 

 these beautiful ceh^ry-plants will work with 

 almost any kind of plants; and boxes of beauti- 

 ful cabbages, tomatoes, lettuce, etc., attested 

 the fact. 



I suggested that it would be quite a saving in 

 fixtures if the beds could be filled right up with 

 soil, and the transplanting done right in the 

 beds; but Mr. Jordan took me to a part of the 

 premises where he had men putting out plants 

 in that very way. Of course, they could not 

 very well ask the women to get down on their 

 knees outdoors over the beds. Well, he said he 

 had carefully figured out the expense ; and 

 while? the work done by the women was much 

 more successful, the expense was very much 

 less, even when we counted the cost of. the 

 boxes, having a man to lill them with dirt and 

 another to carry them out to the beds, etc. 



The women had a very comfortable place to 

 work in. and, judging from their looks, they 

 enjoyed their work. I suggested to one of them 

 that I thought setting out plants was just as 

 nice as teaching school. Good transplanted 

 celery-plants are worth ^3.00 per 1000, or -?25.0O 

 for 10,000. And one great trouble is, chat, when 

 you pail for transplanted plants, you do not 

 always get them. Here were beautiful, strong, 

 well rooted and well-hardened plants; and you 

 can figure out the cost yourself from the ficts I 

 have given you. As the firm of Jordan & 

 Johnson are. however, planning to plant some- 

 thing like 7.") acres, they had not, at the time of 

 my visit, any plants to spare. 



i left Medina at 2 p.m. The distance of 12 

 miles I made in a little over an hour, and I 

 spent another hour gathering up the facts I 

 have given you above; but I was not ready to 

 go home yet.' I had had many invitations from 

 the "land of Canaan." from my good friend 

 Notstein, who had urged me to visit the " land 

 flowing with milk and honey." As it was only 

 about three miles further I soon made it on the 



