cm 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



that ran into the ground and disappeared, 

 something the way they do in the region of 

 Mammoth Cave. When lie got home he con- 

 lided to friend Cole that it was his lionest 

 opinion that those trees were nothing more 

 than common redwoods; that their great 

 size was not owing to the species at all, but 

 to the simple fact of having a subterranean 

 stream under their roots, Id, 20, or may be 

 even 40 feet down, where they drank both 

 winter and summer, to their hearts' content, 

 like tlie cucumber-vines in the barrel that 

 friend Cole had when he was a boy. 



Well, liow about the live acres? how about 

 the wonderful crops? how about making the 

 steep and barren hillsides the choice.st 

 grounds for market-gardening? 



To tell the truth, I was mniorhat disap- 

 pointed in the crops on that hillside. A 

 great portion of it was devoted to straw- 

 berries, and the plants were really wonder- 

 ful— larger than any thing I have ever seen 

 in the way of strawberry-plants before. It 

 is, however, well known that the strawberry 

 luxuriates in plenty of water. The rasp- 

 berries were about such as we have here at 

 home— I think no better ; but it should be 

 remarked, that they have had a terrible 

 drought this season, and the ground where 

 they stand has had but little manure. I saw 

 plum-trees loaded with beautiful plums, and 

 found no trace of the cnrculio. Friend Cole 

 thinks this is owing to his reservoirs of wa- 

 ter beneath the trees ; but I can not quite 

 understand how it should banish the cnrcu- 

 lio. Ilis quince-trees are covered with beau- 

 tiful large fruit. Ilis peas, which I saw in all 

 stages of growth, from those just breaking 

 ground to those just ready to pick, were 

 equal to any I ever saw ; but I believe con- 

 siderable manure was used with them. Ilis 

 potatoes were fair ; but the yield where we 

 dug some for dinner was not extraordinary. 

 They were not nearly ripe, however. lie 

 has used very little manure — nothing like 

 what market-gardeners use ; and in view of 

 this his achievement is certainly wonderful. 

 Near the house an iron pipe comes right out 

 of the side hill. IJy opening a valve this 

 gives a stream of water at any time— the wa- 

 ter coming from the covered reservoirs. It 

 seems to me that great results are to be at- 

 tained by pumping liquid manure into the 

 upper reservoirs ; and if the sewage from a 

 village, town, or city, could be thrown into 

 these reservoirs, I think something wonder- 

 ful might be accomplished. Rank-growing 

 vegetation would consume and eat up all tlie 

 filth, in my opinion. 



After leaving friend Cole's I started for 

 the market-gardens in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton. As the newpapers have given us glow- 

 ing accounts of the work of Mr. Rawson, at 

 Arlington, in the suburbs of Boston, this 

 was my first iJoirit ; and for once in the 

 world I was abundantly satisfied. I have 

 mentioned before, that it is only mice in a 

 yrciit while that I see plants make a growth 

 to satisfy me. At Arlington, every thing 

 grew under the high-pressure principle. The 

 ground is a dark sandy loam, near the sea- 

 coast ; but manure has been put on it year 

 after year to such an extent that many of 

 the grounds seem more like a barnyard than 

 a field ; in fact, the smell of ammonia can be 

 perceived, even in passing along the streets. 

 Market gardening seems to be a matter of 

 course with everybody near Arlington. Ele- 

 gant residences line the streets on either side. 

 Well, at the back of these residences, and 

 often between them, vegetable-gardens were 

 always seen ; rows of celery, long enough to 

 satisfy even friend Terry ; Henderson's Ear- 

 ly-Summer cabbage, with heads so large it 

 would seem a good man is needed to lift 

 even one of them ; and the most interesting 

 part of it all to me is, that every foot of 

 ground produces something — not only a 

 plant, but a pyndiyiottfi plant. In Arlington 

 there are no fences, except, indeed, the tight 

 board fences made to keep off prevailing 

 cold winds, and these are not put up as 

 boundaries, nor to keep out intruders, but 

 simply for the piupose before mentioned ; 

 therefore I found nothing to hinder my go- 

 ing in and out among the vegetables where- 

 ever I chose ; in fact, well-beaten wagon- 

 tracks passed into the fields and gardens 

 every now and then, for the purpose of car- 

 rying manure and bringing out the produce. 

 As I passed along the street I caught a 

 glimpse of a plant showing wonderful luxu- 

 riance, and one which I thought was new to 

 me. A wagon-i'oad passed through at one 

 side of the grounds of this beautiful resi- 

 dence, so I followed it; and when I stood 

 among the plants I found they were simjdy 

 egg-plants— egg-plants certainly a yard high, 

 and more than a yard across. There was 

 perhaps half an acre of them ; and every 

 single specimen on that half-acre was a won- 

 der. The same is true of early sweet corn, 

 heads of lettuce, rows of celery, hills of 

 squashes, etc. They have not yet arrived at 

 such perfection as to liave a prodigious head 

 of cabbage exactly like its neighbor on every 

 spot where a cabbage is planted, but they 

 come pretty near it. Great wagons were in 



