98« 



GLEANIJ^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



means of stakes on the outside. The roots 

 are then packed between the board and the 

 wall, until reaching the corner. The opera- 

 tor will get along faster by having a low 

 wooden box or stool to sit on. The boards 

 to hold the plants in place may be the cheap- 

 est kind of culled lumber. When one row is 

 finished, another board is put in, and then 

 more plants, until the inclosure is filled. 

 Nothing now is visible but the tops of the 

 celery, and this is a little below the level of 

 the sides of the pit. It is now covered with 

 straw, swamp grass, or something of that 

 nature, a little being put on at first, and 

 more as the weather becomes cooler, about 

 two feet being needed for a protection in 

 the middle of winter. Over this straw, or 

 poor hay, is placed a roof of culled boards, 

 to carry off the water and to aid in keeping 

 out frost. When the weather is very cold, 

 close all openings with boards and straw and 

 banks of earth, a place being left on one side 

 to get in at, to get out the celery as needed. 

 If you should find it covered with frost, and 

 looking as if it were entirely frozen, don't be 

 alarmed. It will thaw out and be as good 

 as ever, if not frosted too severely. In fact, 

 it is better to have a little frost, than to go 

 to the other extreme, and keep it so warm 

 as to rot. It rots very quickly, unless pre- 

 vented by a low temperature. We now get 

 8 cents per pound for our celery ; and al- 

 though our people thought at first they never 

 could like red or pink celery as well as the 

 white, they now prefer it 'above the White 

 Plume. Our best celery, however, owes its 

 excellent qualities to its rapid growth on 

 very rich ground, I think, more than to the 

 fact that it is either white or red. The lat- 

 ter, however, has a nutty fiavor. 



In regard to the time of putting the cel- 

 ery and cabbage into their winter reposito- 

 ries, if they have not done growing I would 

 let them stand as long as can be safely done 

 without injury from frost. There is also 

 much less liability of damage by rotting 

 when they are left out until rather late, or 

 until the weather is cool. In our locality, 

 from the 1st to the 1.5th of November is 

 about the time for putting them away. 

 Sometimes we have freezes hard enough to 

 do damage to them in the fore part of No- 

 vember, but not often ; and, again, where 

 the mild weather holds on until late, we may 

 often safely wait until the last of Novem- 

 ber. One needs to watch for the right kind 

 of a day, and then get out all hands and do 

 it up quickly, to do the work to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



BAKOMETERS AND THERMOMETERS FOR 

 FARMERS AND MARKET-GARDENERS. 



It occurs to me here to mention that I 

 have found a mercurial barometer a great 

 help in this matter of studying the weather. 

 Over and over again have I consulted the 

 barometer in the morning before starting 

 the meh and teams to their work. For in- 

 stance, we may have been waiting for i\ 

 rain, in order to set out a lot of plants. 

 When the barometer is falling, even though 

 there is every indication of fair weather, all 

 hands are set at work preparing the ground 

 for the plants. Freshly prepared eartlt 

 seems to answer much better for transplant- 

 ing. Sometimes we get at the work of put- 

 ting the plants out, before any rain has 

 come at all ; and then how nice it is to have 

 a good shower just as the job is finished I I 

 do not think the barometer has failed us 

 once this season in this respect. At other, 

 times the appearances are very strong for 

 a settled rainy day, but the barometer is 

 steadily rising. At such a time I start the 

 boys with the market-wagon, and the other 

 team to cultivating, telling them there will 

 not be rain enough to inconvenience them 

 long. Sometimes the change of weather is 

 slower in coming than I had expected, but 

 it always comes, sooner or later. When 1 

 am in a hurry I can tell which way the ba- 

 rometer is tending, by a Ititle discovery of 

 my own, but I have never seen it in print. 

 It is this : Give the woodwork of the instru- 

 ment a tap with your fingers, and the mer- 

 cury will almost always start either up or 

 down. This movement shows the tendency 

 of the atmosphere. In an hour, give it an- 

 other tap, and you can verify still further 

 the way in which the weather is tending. 



I have before spoken of the advantage of 

 having a thermometer also ; and of late we 

 have been greatly pleased with a self-regis^ 

 tering thermometer that tells just how cold 

 or how warm it has been, even when you 

 have not been near to look at it. This in- ' 

 strument sometimes helps me in this way : 

 Some potatoes or squashes may be left ex- 

 posed, and we are not yet ready to move 

 them. I look at the thermometer, and find 

 it stands 30- above zero. Now, I know this 

 will not hurt them, because I have observed, 

 a short time before, it went down during 

 the night at one time as low as 25 ; and as 

 the vegetables were uninjured, there is no 

 immediate need of moving them now. We 

 can not tell by our feelings how cold it is ; 

 but a very cheap thermometer tells us near 

 enough for all practical purposes. 



