1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



655 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOING IT. 



Continued from July 15. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.— Psalm 34: 1. 



Many kind comments liave come in regard 

 to the former chapters of this my book on 

 gardening ; and one or two have complained 

 that I have not given sulliciently the dark 

 side of tlie matter. Well, although I have 

 touched upon it all along, perhaps I have 

 not given it enough in detail ; and the past 

 few weeks have given me an opportunity of 

 writing a good chapter on the dark side. 

 iTp to -July 1st we had hardly enough of any 

 thing in the way of garden-stuff. IJut after 

 that, lirst lettuce began to be somewhat of a 

 drug on the market. We wrote to the city 

 markets, but we were told that it could not 

 be used at all. Then green peas began to be 

 produced in larger quantities than we could 

 make use of. A trial shipment of ten bush- 

 els was sent to Cleveland. They brought 70 

 cts. a bushel, and it cost 25 cts. a bushel to 

 pick them and put them on the cars. After 

 paying freight, but little was left. For a 1 

 time we thought beets were always a great 

 staple, and there seemed to be no such thing 

 as getting enough. Now we have, however, 

 perhaps 50 bushels, and no one wants them ; 

 that is, we have not yet found a market for 

 them. None seem to be spoiling, however, 

 and we are inclined to think the people will 

 want them again after a little while. 



The most discouraging article, however, 

 has been early cabbages. As no such thing 

 has ever been raised in Medina County, I, 

 contrary to the advice of some of my helpers, 

 planted largely. I expected to compete with 

 the Southern trade. Well, my cabbages 

 have done tinely. I think that fully 90 per 

 cent of the plants have made beautiful hard 

 heads. We started them tirst on the wagon 

 at 3 cts. per lb.; $2.50 per 100 lbs., or $40.00 

 per ton ; and, by the way, I wish to say right 

 here that it seems to me the only just and 

 fair way of selling such stuff is to sell it by 

 weight. We now sell cucumbers l)y weight, 

 |;omatoes by weight, cabbages by weight, 

 and I begin to think the proper way would 

 jbe to sell celery, bunch onions, and bunch 

 }3eets, at so much a pound. 



Well, when the cabbages didn't bring o 

 jcts. per lb. readily, we reduced the price to 2 

 jcts. per lb. ; $1.75 cts. per 100 lbs., or $30.00 

 per ton. This gave them another start ; but 

 for all that, I found we were not selling one- 

 fourth as many as wfiru getting uiutuiy. 



S jme heads bursted open, or snapped with a 

 report, while we held them in our hands. 

 Others began to show symptoms of decay. 

 Two of our best salesmen started for a large 

 town 20 miles distant, with a two-horse load 

 of cabbages. They did not sell enough to 

 pay for their own time and the team. Final- 

 ly we sent some to Cleveland on commission. 

 They reported that the city was full of cab- 

 bages, and that they could hardly dispose of 

 them at any price ; and linally they were 

 sold for just enough to pay freight and com- 

 mission. At the same time that cabbages 

 were getting to be so plentiful in our town 

 they could hardly be given away, potatoes 

 dropped rapidly from a dollar to 75 cts. ; 

 then 00 cts. ; then 50 cts. ; and a day or tw^o 

 ago I bougJit a load of them for 35 cts. per 

 bushel. AVe can never raise potatoes on our 

 grounds for 35 cts. per bushel ; that is, it 

 does not seem to me that we can. Apples 

 have hardly brought 50 cts. a bushel at any 

 time in our market ; and yesterday I bought 

 a load of nice picked apples for only 10 cts. a 

 bushel, the owner saying he would rather 

 sell them at that price than carry them home 

 again. The total receipts of our market- 

 wagon, many days, would not pay for the 

 help on the wagon and on our ten acres, to 

 say notliing about the cost of tools and ma- 

 nure. To add to the difficulty, others are 

 bringing in produce without finding sale. 

 A man wanted to sell us some "Jersey 

 Wakelield"' cabbages. I asked him how he 

 came to have them so early. He said that 

 he raised them from plants he bought of us, 

 of course. When urged to have us take them 

 off his hands at some price, I asked him if 

 he had been to the neighboring towns, and 

 he said he had supplied them with cabbages 

 in every village and town within ten or lif- 

 teen miles of where he lived. What is to be 

 done y I thought of reducing the wages of 

 my helpers; but as I considered them one 

 by one, I felt as though 1 hadn't the heart to 

 ask them to work for less wages than they 

 were already receiving. Our poor and inef- 

 ficient help has all been weeded out. We 

 have jione but good men and good boys; 

 that is, in theji.- respective lines. The trou- 

 ble js, ttia-t peace and plenty reign through- 

 out our land, f^nd everybody has an abun- 

 aajjce of every tljijig without buying very 



