218 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



plants, and 30 plants in a row, so it took 25 

 boxes, with 800 plants to a box, to contain 

 just what grew in one single seed-box. The 

 engraver has done his job pretty well ; but 

 nothing can equal, to my mind, the sight of 

 these 2o boxes when the sun comes through 

 the fleecy clouds during some March day, 

 and lights them up as they stand soi;th of 

 the factory in their respective beds. Of 

 course, we put sash over them at night when 

 we have freezing Aveather. Do you object 

 because this costs money? The boxes cost 

 us about 10 cts. apiece, and I think they 

 could be furnished without any trouble for 

 8 cts. apiece, in the flat ; and it is just fun 

 to nail them up on stormy days or winter 

 evenings. Each 3 x 6-ft. sash covers 4 of 

 these boxes, giving a little room to spare, so 

 as to handle them easily. Do you object to 

 this transplanting as a great deal of trouble? 

 With the poultry-netting frame, almost any 

 boy or girl whom you could pick up will 

 tease to do the work when once shown how, 

 and I think the transplanting can be done 

 in almost any neighborhood for 10 cts. a 

 thousand. You can let the plants grow in 

 these boxes until they make a perfect mat. 

 If it is too early to set them out, cut off the 

 tops with a pair of shears, and in a few days 

 they will be all out green again. The clip- 

 ping-off makes a stout, thrifty, strong root. 

 When you want to plant them outdoors, 

 carefully slip the box off from this mat, and 

 cut it up into little squares with a long 

 butcher-knife, as I have before mentioned. 

 If all the neighbors who see them don't 

 M'ant these little plants, with their strong 

 mass of roots, your community is different 

 from ours. What do you suppose the 7500 

 will bring during nice showery weather in 

 May or June? They ought to bring readily 

 $2.60 a thousand ; or if sold in hundreds, 40 

 cts. a hundred. You will notice by the 

 prices in the seed - catalogues, that they 

 charge a great deal more — some of them go- 

 ing as high as $10.00 a thousand for good 

 strong celery - plants early in the season. 

 Suppose, however, you do not sell the plants, 

 but set them on good soil. At 5 cts. per 

 stalk (and good celery rarely retails for less 

 than this) your crop would bring you $375. 

 And this is all the proceeds of one little box 

 of seeds. 



The same thing may be done with cab- 

 bage-plants, and, to a certain extent, with 

 lettuce-plants. We sold a barrel of heads of 

 lettuce last week at 25 cts. per 11)., giving 

 us about $8.00 for what grew on perhaps 8 

 feet square of ground in the greenhouse ; so 



the first crop from our greenhouse brought 

 us 121 cts. per square foot of ground. Well, 

 when the lettuce was thinned out we put 

 radishes between the rows, and the radishes 

 are now selling for quite a little sum. After 

 the lettuce was all out, tomato-plants were 

 put between the radishes, and they are now 

 making good growth, and will have all the 

 ground as soon as they can use it. The 

 ground in these beds was made perhaps one- 

 fourth part stable manure. Guano was aft- 

 erward dug in between the rows. In fact, 

 it was manured up to the highest point, in 

 order to have it bear continuous cropping; 

 that is, we have the groinid constantly full 

 of roots, and the surface of the ground al- 

 most constantly covered with foliage of some 

 kind. Instead of taking the crop entirely 

 off, we take out every other row, and some- 

 times every other plant, and then some other 

 plant goes right in between. You see, brains 

 are needed in this work ; and who does not 

 feel happy to have his brains all employed in 

 something useful ? Sometimes people em- 

 ploy their brains and their waking moments 

 in thinking of a quarrel with a neighbor. 

 What a contrast ! Well, I have told you 

 what can be done with a little bit of ground 

 in the way of lettuce and celery. When 

 these get so they can go outdoors, we want 

 to give the space under the glass to tomato- 

 plants, and others of a tender nature. We 

 are putting tomatoes now in the place of 

 lettuce and radishes, and shall soon have 

 our greenhouse almost entirely filled with 

 tomatoes, while these other things grow 

 outdoors. Now, in regard to what may be 

 done with tomatoes, pushed along in ad- 

 vance of the season, I will let friend A. N. 

 Cole, from his " Home on the Hillside," 

 speak. Perhaps I should explain, before 

 giving his letter, that our beds outdoors are 

 warmed by letting the exhaust steam, after 

 it has warmed our factory, go into those 

 stone reservoirs, just above the water-line. 

 The steam warms up the stones and the 

 water, and the ground for several feet each 

 side of these reservoirs, so much that it seL 

 dom freezes, luiless the temperatiu'e goes 

 pretty nearly to zero ; and when it does 

 freeze it is only a little crust over the top, 

 which thaws out very quickly. With the 

 aid of steam, it forms a veritable hot-bed, 

 Well, I had corresponded with friend Cole, 

 in regard to this, and he alludes to it in the 

 following letter: 



RAISING TOMATOES BY THE NEW AGRICULTURE, 



Dear Brother Root:—l confess to uneasiness in re- 

 gaj-tj to tomato-plants. Mrs, Cole, by great pains* 



