1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



berry plant that you can carry anywhere yon 

 wish, or plant anywhere yon choose, and no 

 danger of its dying in transplanting, even if 

 the weather is dry. .Vny of the little friends 

 can work with strawberries in this way, if 

 they should take a notion to. You know it 

 is pretty expensive to make a wiiole garden 

 very rich, especially if we use bone dust, 

 guano, or phosphate; but, a very few cents 

 Avill pay for the fertilizers we have, sufficient 

 to make a compost to fill these little flower- 

 pots. Some ground, made very rich with 

 line old stable manure, Avill do as well, 1 pre- 

 sume. Your father and mother can very 

 likely find something that will be suitable. 

 The pots can be bought at any florist's for 

 about a cent apiece, or less in quantities. 

 If there are no flower-pots around you, take 

 a section honey-box, andi)uta cheap bottom 

 on it. or a berry-box would do, although 

 both are pretty large. There is an advan- 

 tage, however, "in having tiiem large; you can 

 get a very large strawberi y jilant l)ef()re you 

 set them out. Well, suppose we get lots of 

 nice strawberry plants in these pots or 

 boxes, then wiiatV I will tell you what 

 we are going to do. We are going to wait 

 till the potatoes are dug, and then Ave Avill 

 ploAV the potato ground up just as fine and 

 nice as it can be. .Vfter this Ave are going 

 to cover it three inches deep with the best 

 stable manure Ave can find; after this it is to 

 be plowed and harroAved again, until it is 

 nice and deep and rich. Now, then, Ave turn 

 out thQ strawberry plants, dirt and all, into 

 this rich ground, and just make them 

 "■ climb.'' If the ground is dry, Ave Avater 

 them; and if they do not put in and groAv 

 to suit us, Avater them with guano' Ava- 

 ter, or something of that sort— make them 

 just boom. When the ground begins to 

 freeze, cover them Avitli straw. Do not use 

 straw that has rye in it. Get oat straAV, 

 and the Avinter Avill kill all the grain. Keep 

 them growing right under the straAV as long 

 as they will; and in the spring, when they 

 are ready to grow again, just push the oat 

 straw a "little to one side, so they can peep 

 out, and they v^'ill commence Avhere they left 

 off, and go along growing in the spring. 

 When the berries get ripe they Avill just lop 

 over and lie on the clean straw, ready to be 

 picked. They wall be literally straw berries. 

 Peter Henderson says they " get a quart of 

 berries to a plant Avhen they are properly 

 cared for in this Avay. 



Do you knoAV Avhat I said about so many 

 Avanting something to do? Noav, friends, 

 suppose a great lot of us should go to raising 

 strawberries. Did yon ever see a tiiii(> wlien 

 nice good strawberries, raised on a plan like 

 the above, would not sell at a good l)ig price, 

 right in your neighljorhood? If it should be 

 too late in your locality to start i»lants 

 from the runners, you cai'i buy nice potted 

 plants of almost any florist or nurseryman. 

 I?ut I think it is very much better to raise 

 them yourselves ; and you can get very nice 

 plants this fall, even if it is a little fate, if 

 you set right about it. Perhaps they Avon't 

 bear a full crop next year ; but even if they 

 don't, you Avill have the fun of learning how', 

 and I am sure you Avill be as happy about it 

 as I have Ibeen ; for God seems to have spe- 



cial blessings reserved for those Avho love 

 the plants and animals he has given us. 



What a Avonderfnl thing is vegetable life ! 

 We have just got some corn coming up that 

 Ave planted to furnish pollen for the bees. 

 To hurry it along I have been giving it a lit- 

 tle sprinkling of guano — or, at least. I have 

 tried a few hills that way for an experiment. 

 The other morning I moved a lump of dirt 

 aAvay from a little spear of corn. Under the 

 lump of dirt I saAV a great number of these 

 little white rootlets spread out like a brush, 

 almost, with little mouths greedily taking 

 in the food and guano I had fuinislied them. 

 What a Avorderful energy seeius locked \\]^ 

 in one little grain of corn', or the little plant 

 on a strawberry runner! How hard they do 

 Avork to get a start in life, and perchanc^ to 

 live and groAv! I love them, because they 

 are ( Jod's children ; and as I hope that I, 

 too, am one of his children, Ave are neighbors, 

 are Ave not? And by the way, little friends, 

 does not the same rule make yon and me 

 neighbors? Noav, Avhen you write yoiu' lit- 

 tle letters, please remember that Uncle 

 Amos Avill be eager to read any thing you 

 may have to tell him about potted striiw- 

 berries. 



THE MINISTER'S BEES, 



AND THE PHEDICAMENT LOANNIE AND HER FATHER 

 FOUND THEM IN. 



NCLE AMOS:— I will take the liberty ol' calling 

 you "uncle," as we hold you in the highest 

 esteem, and think you act the good part of 

 uncle with all those you have intercourse 

 with. I thank you for the interesting little 

 book you sent me for the poor effort I made in 

 writing you a letter, and also for your kindness to 

 pa, who has been sick all spring, but is now able to 

 resume work, as well as ever, and you may look for 

 a letter from him soon. One of the greatest lights 

 in our home is Gleanings. 



We had a jolly time yesterday at a good man's ex- 

 pense. I will tell you how it was. The Rev. A. L.Ames, 

 living on the opposite side of our town, came early 

 in the morning with his team to get pa and his ex- 

 tractor to go and extract his honey. He said his 

 hives were running over with honey. Pa opened 

 his eyes wide, and thought the good man must have 

 awful good bees, so much better than his own. I 

 got a chance to go with pa to assist him. 



When we got there we found four big Zimmerman 

 box hives, with capacity for 31 Langstroth frames, 

 with not over 15 frames on an average to the hive, 

 and those in the greatest chaos it is possible to im- 

 agine, 3 and .5 combs hanging to a frame. Pa 

 never saw bees and comb in such a horrible mix be- 

 fore; but the hives were running over with bees, 

 but not a drop of honey to spare. AVe were entirely 

 unprepared for ti-ansferring, or anj^ thing like the 

 job we had before us then; but we went to work 

 with a will, without proper tools, and after a hard 

 day's work in the hot sun we left them in beautiful 

 shape for the harvest of white clover, which is now 

 before them. AVe got home at dark, very tired, but 

 all happy, and feeling as if we had done a good deed. 

 Pa laughed at the good man, and told him he would 

 not charge him any thing for the use of his Novice 

 extractor for that day, but just for our work, and 

 advised him to spend a dollar, and take Gleanings, 



