1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIiE. 



219 



taking-, and with much of labor, aided by her hus- 

 band, succeeded in setting- upon our trenches, about 

 the middle of May, tlie first of our plants in blossom, 

 grown to a size in the bay-window, and " soul cart- 

 ing" the boxes day after day for two months on 

 every warm day till acclimated, and "harvested " 

 our first large, ripe tomato one week later than our 

 grreat strawbei-ry show; to wit, July 13th. At this 

 date, tomatoes had found their way to our town 

 from Charleston— pale, sickly - looking, and soft — 

 w)fit, in fact, for use, and yet finding ready sale at 

 ten cents per pound, retail, costing- our dealers 8 

 cents by the crate. Those from the Carolinas, as 

 well as my own, were of the " Early Cluster " variety, 

 earlier by two weeks than any other, and thoug-h 

 least valuable in fact, nevertheless sold readily in 

 all of the markets of our State, holding up to 

 prices from eight to ten cents per i)ound at retail to 

 about August 1st. 



I think I am safe in saying, that millions of 

 pounds of the Southern tomatoes were sold in this 

 State alone during the last half of July. Here is 

 where the oil cloth sold by Henderson will come in 

 to good advantage. A skeleton frame of wood, con- 

 sisting of stakes, open at top in the form of a clothes- 

 pin, into which connecting-bars may be dropped, 

 and pinned at their ends to prevent spreading, 

 would give you a row of tomatoes ripening- by 

 slightest surface pi-otecticn with the Henderson 

 oil cloth in the months cf May and June. You 

 might need sash during Fel ruary, but these could 

 be above your skeleton frame; and so scon as the 

 tomatoes arc where cloth iirotection will do the 

 work, the sash can be used elsewhere. 



Perhaps the better way would be to protect by 

 sash, exposing- on every sunny day, till the blizzards 

 have passed, and, when safe to do so, remove the 

 sash and substitute the skeleton frame and oil 

 cloth till all danger of frost is passed. 



Wliat I especially covet is about ten or twelve, or 

 possibly a score, of " Early Cluster " plants, and a 

 corresponding number of other varieties, to be sup- 

 plied me as far advanced as possible, that I may set 

 earl3', protect, and secure tomatoes as early as it is 

 possible to realize ripe ones in this latitude. 



I have had so much to do. and my resources have 

 been so taxed in all ways, that your beginning has 

 been a profound satisfaction. I propose to have all 

 ready in the fall, to push the hot-water feature my- 

 self next winter. In the meantime, yo?t>- success is 

 something 1 am watching with all-al sorbing inter- 

 est. I feel very sure— yea, morally certain— that, if 

 you will only buy good firm cotton cloth and dip it 

 in oil, thereby making your own oil cloth, the pro- 

 tection will be found comjilcte. Do not fail to pro- 

 vide me with the tcmato and squash plants. I 

 should like, also, a few very early and well-rooted 

 cabbage-plants. Write me as often as you can. 



Your friend, A. N. Cole. 

 Home on the Hillside, ( 



Wellsville, N. Y., March 9, 1886. C 



I have given place to friend Cole's letter, 

 because it shows ns what ma> be done with 

 large, strong, early tomato-plants. We have 

 just sold off the crop of lettuce from our 

 central bed in the greenhouse, where I got 

 on too many ashes, and we are to - day, 

 March 12, tilling the bed with tomato-plants 

 of the "Early Cluster"' variety, having 



their second pair of leaves well begun. We 

 are setting the plants out with the poultry- 

 netting frame, so as to have them come 

 about ;5 inches apart in the row, and rows 

 5 inches apart, for better opportunities for 

 cultivation. The plants will stand here 

 until they begin to crowd so much they 

 demand extra room, and then we Avill re- 

 move them to the ground over the reservoirs, 

 covering them as friend Cole suggests. We 

 have had a good opportunity of testing the 

 oil cloth furnished by Peter Henderson, but 

 it is altogether too light to in any measure 

 take the place of glass sash. I have, how- 

 ever, found an article that works splendidly, 

 and gives perhaps as much protection as 

 glass, but it does not give as much sunlight 

 in the daytime. This material is strong 

 cotton cloth, a grade that we term " Indian 

 Head.'' It retails in the stores for about 

 7 or Sets, per yard. When we needed the 

 glass sash for our newly transplanted celery 

 and cabbage plants, the sash were taken 

 from the cold frame as shown in Chapter 

 X.; and in their place Ave substituted cotton 

 cloth, as mentioned above. First we were 

 greatly troubled by the wind, and I found it 

 necessary to fasten a long strip of wood to 

 the edge of the cloth on each side. The 

 cloth was attached to the strip of wood 

 securely by nailing a strip f x ^ along its 

 whole length, with the cloth between the 

 two pieces. Some similar strips were 

 screwed up and down each gable end. We 

 now had it secure, but the frost went right 

 through it when the thermometer was down 

 to 10°. It didn't answer in the place of 

 glass at all. Finally I instructed our painter 

 to give it a coat of boiled linseed oil. It 

 took several days for this to dry, but the oil 

 has filled the pores in the cloth so that it 

 not only stops the wind and air, but it holds 

 water ; and down by the eaves we some- 

 times after a rain find a couple of pails of 

 water where the cloth has sagged between 

 the rafters. It now keeps out the frost 

 about as well as glass ; but we find it neces- 

 sary to bank coarse manure along the sticks 

 that hold the lower edge of the cloth. You 

 will see, by turning to Chapter X., that this 

 cold frame is 28* feet long. Well, Ave found 

 at the lumber-yard some long narrow boards, 

 this length, perhaps (5 in. wide, to hold the 

 edges of the cloth . Suppose, now, after a cold 

 freezing night, we have a warm sunny day, 

 and by 10 o'clock the plants Avould be better 

 without any coveriug at all. The course 

 manure is pushed from the stick on the 

 south side, and a man at each end will read- 



