18M 



GLEANINCiS IN BEE CULTURE. 



813 



We have .just thrashed our rye. and all hands 

 were surprised to find 158 bushels when we ex- 

 pected ©nly a hundred or a little more. I can 

 not tell exactly the amount of ground, but I 

 think it was not altogether much if any more 

 than three acres. Some of it came from self- 

 seeding in the clover, and it was put in all 

 along after other crops were removed. Of 

 course, rye is not much of a crop for high-pres- 

 sure gardening, except that it occupies the 

 ground during the winter, and helps us to get 

 in clover. Just now, however, there is a good 

 prospect that crimson clover may take the 

 place of rye. All that we sowed during the 

 month of September is doing finely. There is 

 one little trouble that I have seen mentioned in 

 the papers elsewhere. When it is putting out 

 its third leaf, some sort of insect eats out a 

 portion or all of these third and fourth leaves. 

 The plant manages to grow in spite of this: 

 but it must be quite a drawback, this sort of 

 mutilation of the tender leaves. I have not 

 yet been able to discover what does it. 



I wish to mention an incident that occurred 

 while we were having the thrashers thrash the 

 rve. We wanted them to plant the machine on 

 the bridge of the bank barn, in order to put all 

 of the straw under cover in the mow and over 

 the tool-house. This arrangement, blocking 

 up one end of the separator, etc., took nearly 

 an extra hour with their four men. teams, and 

 expensive new machinery. Besides this, there 

 was a load or two of stubble, etc., that I 

 thought had grain enough to pav for thrashing. 

 The rye was so tall it was difticult to reap it 

 without setting the machine very high up. and 

 then cutting the stubble afterward with a 

 mower, and raking it up with a horse-rake. 

 The agreement was, to thrash it for three cents 

 a bushel, the same as they charge for wheat. 

 Other thrashers wanted four cents. The lot of 

 stubble, etc., yielded them only two or three 

 bushels of grain. It was a blunder of mine 

 having it put through. When we came to set- 

 tle, their bill was only 3 cents per bushel for 1.58 

 bushels. 14.74. When I told them to put in 

 what was right for the extra trouble of setting 

 up, and my blunder on the stubble, they laugh- 

 ed at me. One of them said good-naturedly, 

 " Why. Mr. Root, that is all right. It is true, 

 there was some extra bother and expense on 

 your job; but the next .job will probably be 

 enough better to make it all up. Where we 

 thrash by the bushel we have to take these 

 things as they come. There is no extra charge, 

 but we are very much obliged to you for your 

 liberal offer." 



This transaction occurred just after having 

 dictated my Home Paper in this issue; and I 

 do not know but my own sermon was ringing 

 in my own ears, so I insisted on paying them a 

 little something for the unusual bother I had 

 made them, although they would not consent 

 to take very much. But perhaps I hear some 

 one say, " That is all right, friend Root, when 

 you have plenty of money, to be liberal; but 

 were you pinched to make both ends mei't, and 

 were absolutely obliged to save every copper, it 

 would not be so easy a thing to do.'" ]\Iy reply 

 is, that the one who does business in this way 

 will have the wherewith to do it. "To him 

 that hath, shall be given;" " (Jive, and it shall 

 be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, 

 shaken together, and running over." And still 

 again, "Do good again, and lend, hoping for 



nothing again." May be you think the above 

 is away from the subject of high-pres«rure gar- 

 dening; but I am sure it is not. If you once 

 get a reputation for looking out keenly in re- 

 gard to the interests of those with whom you 

 deal, it will be worth morn than money in the 

 bank. When people discover that you wish to 

 pay for every blunder you make — that you are 

 careful, conscientious, and tender, in regard to 

 encroaching on the rights of others, in a little 

 time those who know you will be stirred by a 

 spirit of fairness and justice to do likewise, and 

 other people will be looking out for your inter- 

 ests as well as their own. Where it is clearly 

 apparent that you have, by a blunder or by 

 your peculiar needs encroached on the time or 

 property of another, show yourself a man— a 

 man created'in ( Jod's own image — by stepping 

 forward with cheerfulness and alacrity to make 

 good the loss to your neighbor. 



Cabbage seems to be plentiful everywhere, 

 the recent rains having pushed it forward so as 

 to develop the heads and cause many of them 

 to burst. Worse still, the early crop was held 

 back by the drouth, and it has pushed in all at 

 once along with the later crop. Everywhere I 

 go on my wheelrides. cabbage is offered at a 

 very low figure. Muskmelons are also very 

 plentiful and cheap. In some of the towns I 

 passed through. I saw them as low as a cent 

 apiece— great fine luscious nutmegs; and quite 

 good-sized watermelons were offered, two for a 

 nickel or five for a dime. Perhaps some of you 

 may say that nobody can live at such prices. 

 Well, in one sense it is pretty hard; but I think 

 it is better to sell at the above prices than to 

 leave them to rot on the ground. I have often 

 seen farmers sell wagonloads of pumpkins at a 

 penny apiece. Now, a wagonload of melons 

 would bring a great deal more than a load of 

 pumpkins: and on suitable soil it might not 

 cost much more to raise them. 



We just now have some very fine Premium 

 Gem peas: but the dry weather held them back 

 so that we have not nearly as many as I wish 

 we had. 



There is quite a little complaint that the 

 Freeman potato is not a good yielder. I con- 

 fess it has not been very good during the two 

 past dry seasons. We have, however, secured 

 something like 200 bushels to the acre, many of 

 them of very fair size, and they are surely the 

 best table potatoes in the market. The later 

 potatoes, however, that kept along until the 

 fall rains, are doing, or are going to do, very 

 much better. Our late Freemans are ju«t now 

 growing grandly. 



We have had no frost to do any harm up to 

 the present writing, Oct. 8. 



While cabbage is so cheap, one would hardly 

 think that people would care for spinach; yet 

 nice spinach sells readily at 5 cents per pound, 

 where the best cabbage brings only one cent; 

 and bursted heads are offered at half a cent a 

 pound. Hubbard squashes are also bringing a 

 good price, even though sweet potatoes are 

 about as cheap as Irish potatoes. 



If you have not already got Grand Rapids 

 lettuce under way, now is the time to do it. 

 l^lants will not need any heat for a month or 

 more, and it is a very easy matter indeed to 

 have a good supply of nice lettuce on hand for 

 Thanksgiving. 



CHAS. ISRAEL & BROS., 110 Hudson St., N. Y 



HONEY 



WHOLESALE 



DEALEBS & 



COMMISSION 



MEKOHAHTS, 



Established 



1875. 



BEESWAX. 



LIBEEAL 



ADVANCES 



MADE 



ON 



C0N3ION- 



MENTS. 



