520 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



just perfection for raising strawberries. It is 

 new land. In fact, these berries are the second 

 crop since the woods was cleared off; and the 

 woods dirt has been mixed Ihoroughiy with the 

 natural sandy loam; and through it all there 

 is a sprinkling of gravel — just enough to pro- 

 duce the kind of soil that strawberries revel in. 

 1 do not know why he sticks to the Crescent 

 when we have so many other new pistillate 

 varieties; but I notice that a great many of the 

 veterans are sticking to the old Wilson and the 

 Crescent. 



Mr. White has been putting in some under- 

 drains recently; and he was full of enthusiasm, 

 as well he might be. As we walked along he 

 told me how he had been thinking for years 

 that he could not afford tile drains; and in one 

 place he drew in a hundred loads of soil to till 

 up a catswamp; but as tliis did not get rid of 

 the wetness he finally put in tiles; and now he 

 says he just fooled his time away when he 

 carted in that dirt. His man (the one who 

 called me a locomotive) was cultivating the 

 beriies with the new Planet Jr. twelve-tooth 

 harrow; and when I began to object that he 

 was running the outside tooth too deep, so close 

 to those thrifty young strawberry-plants, he 

 and his employer both insisted that it did no 

 harm. Said friend W., "Mr. Root, you (always 

 plant your strawberries with a spade, do you 

 not?" 



I told him I had used the spade a few times, 

 but our boys did a good deal better where the 

 land was marked out so as to make a furrow of 

 just the right depth so as to spread the roots 

 and then pull the dirt around ihem. But Mr. 

 White declared he could set plants ever so 

 much faster by setting a spade in and then 

 spreading the roots of the plant out tan-shaped; 

 and, furthermore, by the latter plan they could 

 cultivate within an inch of the plant and not 

 tear any roots, even if they went down to a 

 considerable depth. I was obliged to own up. 

 By the way, is it not funny that each man has 

 a plan or system of his own, and that each one 

 manages so well by his own fashion of doing 

 things? At the end of the row of newly set 

 strawberries were some rows of blackberries. 

 Now, the mau who was cultivating, instead of 

 going clear through the blackberries to the end 

 of the lot, turned around when he had got to 

 the end of the strawberry rows. 1 do not know 

 that liis horse stepped on the plants, for he did 

 nice work with his cultivator; but yet he turn- 

 ed his horse around in the middle of the lot 

 when there was more cultivating to be done, 

 right ahead of the horse. Now, it may be that 

 people have good reasons for their own methods 

 of management; but when I looked out of the 

 car - windows that morning and saw little 

 patches of fruit and various kinds of garden- 

 stuff right out in the middle of a lot, I could not 

 help thinking that, notwithstanding the. multi- 

 tude of agricultural papers and agricultural 

 teachers, the mass of our farmers have not yet 

 seen the figures given so often in regard to the 

 amount of time it takes to turn n horse around 

 and go the other way. Why, if you have a 

 quarter of an acre of strawberries in a square 

 patch, it takes nioi'e time to tuin your liorse 

 around than to do the cultivating; and why in 

 the world do so many persist in having little 

 square patches wluui they miglit have their 

 berries and eveiy thing else in long rows the 

 whole length of the lot? In riding 40 miles 

 that morning, I do not believe I saw crops of 

 any kind put in in rows as long as the field 

 would permit them to be made. In fact, I saw 

 one man cultivating a patch of potatoes that 

 was perhaps three times as long as wide, and 

 he had short rows running croasivise, and was 

 ■cultivating back and forth, and tramping up 



ever so much grass at each side where he had 

 turned around. I confess it looks rather bad 

 for me to criticise friend White's management 

 and methods when he has a better showing of 

 a good many things than I have. But 1 wish 

 he would tell why he did not plant his rasp- 

 berries, blackberries, and strawberries, in long 

 rows instead of having so many square patches, 

 and not any of them the whole length of his 

 long Hi'Ids. We had so much to talk about just 

 then that I did not mention it. 



I began to tell him 1 was going over to see 

 friend Gault's new raspberry; but we had to 

 look at this thing and then at that thing, and 

 then questions were to be asked; and just as he 

 went to hitch up his great stout young hor?e, 

 that he and I might visit while we went over to 

 friend Gault's, he told me there was one more 

 thing 1 must see. It was a patch of American 

 Wonder peas. I think they were the finest I 

 ever saw— a perfectly even stand, and very few 

 "rogues" among them, or tall peas sticking 

 away up above the dwarf Wonders. He had 

 such a good-sized patch that I said at once, 

 " Look here, friend W., you paid out a big lot 

 of money for that American Wonder sect?, this 

 year, when it is so high, did you not ? " 



" Why, no, I did not, Mr. Root. The high 

 price did not affect me at all, for I raised the 

 seed myself." 



"And did not have any bugs among them ?" 



"1 did not have a buggv pea in the whole 

 lot." 



"Well, what did you do to get rid of the 

 bugs ? " 



'• Well, I didn't do any thing; but I had some 

 seed that was not buggy, and I planted it about 

 the first of June, thinking that, if put in so late, 

 I should probably escape the bugs, and I did. 

 One reason why 1 wanted to raise my own seed 

 was, that I wished to see if I could get rid of 

 those occasional tall peas, by picking those out 

 and using for the table, letting only the dwarf 

 Wonders ripen for seed." 



Now, friends, what is the use of sending away 

 off to Canada for our seed peas, in order to get 

 them free from bugs, and paying $(>.0U a husliel 

 (as we did this year) in order to get genuine 

 American Wonders — that is, If we can grow 

 them in our locality, free from bugs? i believe 

 we can do it, and 1 for one am going to try it. 

 Perhaps, if we get the hang of it, it is after the 

 same fashion that Wilbur Fenn manages to 

 avoid bugs and blight with potatoes. 



I left my wheel at the depot somewhat reluc- 

 tantly, and we started for friend Gault's. 

 Neither friend W. nor I had figured on the 

 amount of time we had spent in visiting until 

 he asked what time I must be back to get my 

 train home. I told him I must be back at half- 

 past two. He pulled up his horse, saying: 



"Why, my dear fiiend, it is 7 miles to Mr. 

 Gault's, and 7 miles back again. My horse, 

 with these rough roads, would only just about 

 make it if we did not stop to visit at all, and 

 you have not had your dinner." 



VVe were in a fix, sure; but I told him I could 

 make it on my wheel, and have tim.e for dinner 

 and quite a little visit besides. 1 did so in spite 

 of the bad roads, and stayed an hour and a 

 quarter at friend Gault's, getting around to the 

 depot five minutes before :.':.'5(). When 1 got 

 there, sure enough there was friend White 

 waiting for me, and as I wheeled up he said: 



" Well, now, I felt so sure you could not make 

 it, even with your wheel, and would miss the 

 train. I came up with the horse and buggy to 

 take you back to stay with me over night." 



Well, he slipped up on his generous plans for 

 my comfort and entertainment. But there is a 

 moral right here. Don't you see, friends, that, 

 by the aid of this new Aladdin's lamp in the 



