1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



439 



poor, and was just bpinji; made up, I told liim to 

 work poultry maiuire into that. The bed was 

 close to tlie gicrnhoust', mid I su<|)ec't it 

 got a pretty good share of yellow clay tliat 

 came out in making the deep walks inside 

 of the greenhouses between the b(^ds. Well, 

 they i)ut in periiaps two barrels of hen 

 manure in 50 feet of bed— beds (> feet wide, of 

 course. As soon as the bed was made up, and 

 they took rather extra pains in sifting this and 

 mixing it well, the boys set it out to Waketield 

 cabbage])lants. I told you in our last issue 

 that we were sold out of the Wakefield. The 

 plants had become rather spindling in the 

 greenhouse, and I was afraid they would not 

 grow: but the boys pushed them clear down to 

 the first leaves, in the soft soil, and we kept the 

 bed pretty well watered, and I was somewhat 

 astonished to find every plant taking hold; and, 

 almost before the last Gleanings had got into 

 the hands of its readers, we had a ?»af/»):/tcc?it 

 bed of Wakefield cabbage - plants. ' Several 

 summer showers helped them along, and now 

 they are abo\jt the handsomest bed of cab- 

 bages 1 ever saw in my \\U\ Other folks think 

 so as well as mys(Mf, for almo<t everybody who 

 goes by wants 10 cents' worth: and they are 

 almost always pleased to find that they get 2.5 

 for a dime. Somebody said that the cabbage- 

 plants they have up street at the groceries are 

 10 cents a dozen, and they are little spindling 

 things that had not been transplanted at that. 

 Well, these that grow over in the bed where the 

 poultry manure had been put in were the deep- 

 est and richest green of any plants I ever saw. 

 They were put out just two inches apart from 

 center to center, with that closest spacing- 

 board pictured on page 106. This spacing 

 gives a little more than 2'>0 plants to every 

 running foot of bed: and a bed .50 feet long, at 

 this rate, contains 12.50 plants, worth, at the low- 

 est wholesale price. ■'?2 .50 per lOOO— or, say. $25.00 

 for a crop that occupies a bed 6 feet wide and 

 50 feet long for only .'10 chiys. What do you 

 think of that? Do you say, " Oh I that is the- 

 ory: nobody can do that actually''? Hold on. 

 Last Monday I received $25.00 cash for the cel- 

 ery-plants that our boys took from beds just 40 

 feet long and 6 feet wide. These celery -plants 

 were started under glass, and occupied the 

 ground for perhaps 60 days. We were at the 

 expense of glass to cover the beds, and exhaust 

 steam to heat them a part of the time. But, as 

 I have told you before, our beds do not all earn 

 as much. It is because they do not get as much 

 brains. To take care of that quarter-acre 

 plant-garden, and make it do its hesU would 

 occupy about all the time I care to work: and 

 it would take, too, about all the brains I could 

 scrape up— that is. to have it do its best. You 

 may say. "Why don't you hire a competent 

 foreman ?" I do not knotn of any such individ- 

 ual. I doubt whether there is now one on the 

 face of the earth who could make every hed 

 boom every 24 hours as I know each bed miqht 

 be made to boom. But I expect to see quite a 

 lot nearly up to that standard, within the next 

 five years. They must be "made to order." 

 exactly as we grow the plants; namely, "grow" 

 the boys and girls: and while they are growing 

 in skill to handle God's treasures that come out 

 of the soil, they need to be taught to grow in 

 grace and in love— not only with the plants, 

 but with the great God above. 



I am getting so that I have no patience to 

 fuss with any kind of vegetation or fruits unless 

 I can have a soil like our plant-bed soil to work 

 with. The bed nearest, right before where I 

 write, contains those Timbrell strawberries. A 

 small boy has been kept pnnty busy picking off 

 the blossom-buds, and now runners are putting 

 out already in great profusion. It needs an- 



other boy a little older, and with more intelli- 

 gence, to take each runner and place it so as to 

 economize the room. Where the runners are 

 Itutting f)ui it would almost keep a boy busy. I 

 a.-ked Kred. a few davs ago, if we didn't g(!t 

 ever so many more strawbei'ry-plauts out of 

 our plant-beds than we did even from the rich 

 creek-bottom soil down in the flats. He replied, 

 " Oh, yes! to be sure we do— a ti-(!mendous sight 

 more plants, and ever so much larger and 

 strong(>r." Just yesterday we had 100 Parker 

 Earli' plants to go by mail; and, ev<'n after 

 pulling off the blossom-buds, and trimming the 

 plants about all we dared to trim them, the 

 package weighed more than 4 lbs. I do not 

 want to have you think that rr7( the plants we 

 have sent olT this spring were like these. They 

 have not been; but when I get my ideal plant- 

 garden to working better, we an-; going to try 

 to have them that way. And now it begins to 

 impress itself on my mind that not only straw- 

 berries but gooseberries, currants, and rasp- 

 berries, would give crops that nobody ever yet 

 heard of or pjerhaps dreamed of. if they were 

 managed on the plan we are talking about— 

 that is. grown in rich plant-beds. In the first 

 place, the ground around the bushes must be 

 soft, clean, loose, and rich— yes, and well 

 watered too; for with the big windmill we 

 never expect any thing to get dry in our plant- 

 garden; and nobody yet knows how much 

 water rank-growing crops can use in hot 

 weather. The Rural New -Yorker urged its 

 readers to get rich by selling water -that is, 

 the water that is contained in fruits, berries, 

 vegetables, etc. Your customers will not com- 

 plain— never fear. What they complain about 

 is, that we carry them fruits and vegetables 

 that are an imposition simply from a lack of 

 water at a critical time. Another thing, the 

 plant beds, properly managed, absolutely pre- 

 vent stamping the ground down hard all around 

 them. Sometimes when a new boy goes to 

 worR for ns he walks across the bed instead of 

 going around it. and thinks nobodv will find it 

 out. But he might as well hav" tried to walk 

 over a bpd of snow, almost, without leaving 

 tracks. When I get around, the boy who walk- 

 ed across the beds gets called up; and I almost 

 always find out who did it. Of course, we need 

 plenty of " bars," as we term them— strips of 

 light wood 6 inches wide and IK thick, just 

 long enough to reach from one side of the'bed 

 to the other. In transplanting the crops, and 

 in making up the beds, these boards are in con- 

 stant I'equisition. 



Do you sav these beds are used onlv a part of 

 the year? Why. bless you. tbev can be utilized 

 every day in the year. During the winter 

 time they should be full of cold frame plants— 

 that is. where von do not have anv stoam un- 

 derneath: and in the summer time, after the 

 call for cabbage and celery is over. evTv yard 

 of space can be utilized in growing strawberry- 

 plants. The strawberry-plant trade opens just 

 as the vegetable-plant trade slackens up: and 

 when there is not anv demand for plants, everv 

 foot of bed can be utilized in raising crops of 

 some kind. Radishes, lettuce, beet greens, etc., 

 will be purchased almost everv month in the 

 year, if people can get them. It is lots of work, 

 however, and it is lots of care. The pro[)rietor 

 needs to be constantly watching. Something 

 is getting too much sun, and needs shading. 

 Another thing does not have sun enough. 

 Sometimes, though not often, the plant-beds 

 are too wet. A thorough underdraining fixes 

 thi«. however. 



When a rainv day comf^s. it is often very 

 fatiguing to pull up the plants and put thern 

 np safelv. to he carried to the different homes. 

 I do not think I ever saw anybody who did not 



