1888 



GLEANlKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



91 



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



Continued from Nov. 15. 

 CHAPTER XLIV. 



Seek, and ye shall And; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.— Matt. 7: 



I believe the above text is generally under- 

 stood to refer to spiritual gifts ; but it seems 

 to me there can be no harm in applying it to 

 any thing that is praiseworthy, and pleasing 

 in the sight of our heavenly Father ; and 

 especially do I feel that it may apply to the 

 very important matter of investigating and 

 searching out the gifts he has provided for 

 us through plant and animal life, in the way 

 I have exhibited in the pages of this book I 

 have gone over. In Chapter XXXVI. I told 

 you of a visit to Mr. Frost's establishment 

 at Albany, N. Y., and I also gave you a pic- 

 ture of his asparagus-house. Well, in talk- 

 ing with Mr. Frost in regard to lettuce cul- 

 ture and kindred topics, he said that the 

 largest industry in lettuce-raising that he 

 had any knowledge of was at Grand Rapids, 

 Mich. More than fifty new greenhouses had 

 just been erected, specially for the growth of 

 lettuce. Daring the same trip I visited Pe- 

 ter Henderson, as you may remember ; and 

 while Iheie I called on Mr. John Hudson, a 

 neighbor of Peter Henderson's. In Hender- 

 son's latest edition of "Gardening for Prof- 

 it " he gives a picture of John Hudson's six 

 great greenhouses, built on purpose for let- 

 tuce-raising. Well, I found these six great 

 greenhouses occupied entirely with radishes. 

 Mr. Henderson explained it by saying that 

 the rot had attacked the lettuce so as to 

 make it a failure in their vicinity, and that 

 his neighbor Hudson was forced to abandon 

 it, even after those expensive greenhouses, 

 costing not less than ten thousand dollars, 

 had been erected. " Gardening for Profit " 

 also mentions this great difficulty in lettuce- 

 growing around the city of New York. When 

 I heard of it I at once wondered how it was 

 that the folks in (xrand Rapids manage to 

 avoid the rot. Well, at this session of the 

 Michigan State Horticultural Society, held 

 Dec. oth. Secretary Garfield made mention 

 that Grand Rapids had developed a gi"eat in- 

 dustry in lettuce ; that they were shipping 

 it, even during the winter months, by the 

 ton, and that their product went to all points 

 in the United States. When I asked for 

 some explanation as to why their lettuce 

 should be superior to any raised elsewhere, 

 I was told they had a better kind than was 

 to be found elsewhere in the world. I 

 thought at the time this was a pleasant 



joke, but determined to visit the Grand Rap- 

 ids greenhouses before I went home. I was 

 rewarded for my pains by seeing the most 

 beautiful sight, to me, that ever graced a 

 greenhouse, and you know, friends, that is 

 saying a great deal. I was indebted to Mr. 

 Henry Smith, a florist, for driving me out to 

 some greenhouses owned by Mr. Eugene 

 Davis. First we saw greenhouses contain- 

 ing little plants just bursting through the 

 soil. They came up so evenly, and looked 

 so thrifty, it was a beautiful sight. Further 

 along, the plants were a couple of inches 

 high. They had been transplanted into 

 rows ; and the even growth and the beauti- 

 ful white foliage giving promise of what the 

 mature crop might look like, brought forth 

 my enthusiasm. I was obliged to make my 

 visit after dark, in order to meet my train, 

 and we were shown through by our good 

 friend Davis, by the light of a lantern. When 

 he opened another one of his greenhouses 

 and showed us a great long bed of the let- 

 tuce, ready for market, standing nearly a 

 foot high, witli a sort of silvery whiteness 

 that almost made them shine in the dark- 

 ness, just beyond the dim light of the lan- 

 tern, it seemed to me one of the most beau- 

 tiful sights that I ever met. It was not only 

 the beauty of tlie plants contrasted with the 

 icy winter weather outside, but it was the 

 fact that friend Davis had conquered all the 

 obstacles in lettuce culture so as to be able 

 to show us greenhouse after greenhouse full 

 of plants that were absolutely perfect. I 

 felt like removing my cap and making my 

 best bow to the man who had studied the 

 habits of the little plants until he had the 

 whole thing completely under his thumb, as 

 it w^ere. He had been at work for fifteen 

 years in developing a variety of lettuce spe- 

 cially suited to the demand for winter. Be- 

 fore going further I want to digress a little 

 right here. 



We are constantly improving in fruits, 

 flowers, and vegetables ; in fact, we begin to 

 be surprised at the possibilities that lie be- 

 fore us in this line of work. It is just now 

 in this nineteenth century, or in the latter 

 part of the nineteenth century, if you choose, 

 that it begins to be apparent we can have 

 almost any thing we can ask for in fruits, 

 flowers, or vegetables, if we work hard and 



