740 



GLEANrNC4S IK BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



sight of a heap of boxes like the one shown 

 on the preceding page. 



As he was driving past tlie lieap of boxes, 

 I asked Lim to hold on a bit. 



" Will you please tell me what those boxes 

 with sloping sides are for?" 



" Why, that is a secret ; but as you have 

 got hold of it, I suppose I shall have to ad- 

 mit that they are what we use over those 

 squashes you saw. You seemed surprised 

 to see them so much in advance of the sea- 

 son. Well, those boxes are the things that 

 did it." 



These boxes are made of half-inch lumber, 

 and of such size that a pane of glass 8x10 

 slides easily in grooves, as shown in the cut. 

 The squash-ground is prepared in the best 

 manner, the seeds planted, then these boxes 

 are placed over the hills, banking the earth 

 around to make it tight. The sun shines 

 through the pane of glass, warms up the 

 earth, and starts the seeds two or three weeks 

 sooner than they would start without this 

 protection. When the vines get large 

 enough tlie lights of glass are slipped out, 

 and the box serves as u protection from the 

 bugs, as well as from the cold winds. Now, 

 the great improvement in these boxes is, as 

 yon will notice, that they pack one within 

 the other, so they can be nested and carried 

 about, or stored away in a small compass. 

 In fact, they are almost like solid lumber. 



Of course, their use is not restricted to 

 squashes alone. They can be used for cu- 

 cumbers, melons, cauliflower, or any thing 

 else that you discover by experience will 

 bring a good price in your market a little in 

 advance of the regular season. My opiniem 

 is, that they would pay well for forwarding 

 early potatoes. Our town of Medina won't 

 pay very much money for fancy vegetables 

 at high prices ; but they will pay from 40 to 

 50 cents a peck for early potivtoes, and they 

 will take a good mahy of them too. We are 

 planning now to use 400 or 500 such boxes, 

 to give our Early Ohio potatoes a big start 

 next spring. I have ascertained by careful 

 figuring, tiiat these boxes can be furnished 

 for 10 cents apiece, or 100 for about ,fs.50. 

 (ilass, 8 X 10, will cost you by the box not to 

 exceed ;5 cents per light. If you are careful 

 not to break the glass, it is worth all it costs, 

 almost any time. We have been using hand- 

 glasses with a gable end of clotli ; but they 

 are unwieldy, and ricketty to handle. The 

 boxes shown above can be moved about in a 

 wagon, to put in place, and the lights of 

 glass slipped in afterward, so as to avoid 



breakage ; that is, the glass can be liandled 

 by itself, antl the boxes by themselves. 



Of course, the matter of finding a market 

 for the stuff we raise is always before us, 

 and is always one of the great important 

 problems. While traveling, I took particu- 

 lar pains to see how largely vegetables and 

 garden-produce entered into the bill of fare 

 of our different places of refreshment. I 

 was so absorbed with what I saw and learn- 

 ed at Arlington that I could hardly take 

 time for my meals ; but I knew that it was 

 impossible for me to do good solid work 

 during the few hours I was to stay, in hunt- 

 ing up valuable facts for you, my friends, 

 without my regular meals ; and when I 

 waited in a restaurant for my dinner I 

 began wondering whether the Arlington 

 eating-houses would show on their tables 

 the good things I saw abroad in the fields. 

 Well, this first dinner consisted principally 

 of rolls bought from the baker's wagon. 

 The lady who kept the place went out to 

 the wagon and purchased them while I was 

 sitting at the table. Not a vegetable greet- 

 ed me. For supper I stopped at the only 

 hotel in Arlington. To get to the dining- 

 room I was obliged to pass through a whis- 

 ky-shop. The landlord explained that they 

 had just finished supper, but he guessed the 

 girl could And something for me. What she 

 " found " was bread and butter— botii bad ; 

 some greasy boiled ham — very bad ; not a 

 potato, not a vegetable of any kind. I con- 

 cluded 1 should have to make up for the lack 

 of other things l)y a piece of berry pie which 

 she shoved at me toward the close of my 

 meal. The berry pie was bad too, as well as 

 the coffee. The girl acted as if she felt in- 

 jured because I came in to supper after the 

 rest had supped. There v\'as one consola- 

 tion, however : It did not take me long to 

 finish my supper, and so I had the more 

 time for the gardens. I thought that per- 

 haps the landlord would name a moderate 

 sum, in consideration that there was not 

 much left after their regular meal : it was, 

 however, "A half-elollar, sir." I presume 

 likely his interest centered more on the con- 

 tents of the bottles behind him than in giv- 

 ing a customer a '• comfortable " meal. I 

 wonder if the Arlington people have not got 

 something like our Ohio Dow law by this 

 time. If they have, mine host has probably 

 gone out of the business, for he certainly 

 could not make a living furnishing such 

 suppers for half a dollar, for his. patronage 

 would soon be lost. 



