624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Am. 



GOD'S GIFTS. 



NO GOOn THING WII.I- HK WITHHOLD KKOM THOSE 

 THAT LOVE HIM. 



^ AST September we sowed a great lot of 

 1^ Boston Market lettuce seed, in order 

 «l^ to have plants of good size to put into 

 ■'^ the greenhouse as soon as it began to 

 be frosty. Tliey were taken \i]) and 

 set in the beds by means of our transplant- 

 ing-tubes, as explained heretofore. They 

 started out and grew finely until the sun 

 began to get low down in the southern hori- 

 zon, even at noon day, as it does toward 

 Christmas, and then the plants came to a 

 sort of standstill. The soil was of the very 

 best, and the ground was kept watered just 

 enough and not too much. Still they did 

 not grow satisfactorily. The general con- 

 clusion was, that it was on account of 

 cloudy days and lack of sunshine. But why 

 couldn't lettuce grow with plenty of day- 

 light, proper temperature, plant-food, etc., 

 even if it didn't have the direct rays of the 

 sun? More of this anon. 



One day T noticed a small plant that seemed 

 to have leaves of milky whiteness instead of 

 the usual yellowish green. In a few days 

 it was whiter still, and the boys called my 

 attention to it. At first I decided the plant 

 had turned white because of the weak 

 growth and lack of vitality ; but at the same 

 time I wondered if there was not a chance 

 to get " White Plume " lettuce as well as 

 Wiiite Plume celery, which has made such 

 a stir in market gardening— thanks to Peter 

 Henderson. The plant grew slowly; and 

 when larger leaves appeared, some of them 

 were mottled with patches of green ; but 

 the clear white was so strange for lettuce 

 that we decided to tr^ to get it to produce 

 seed. In order to give it more room, it was 

 transplanted to our annex greenhouse, that 

 I have told you about, and no other plant 

 was allowed within a foot of it on any side, 

 although every foot of ground in the green- 

 house is precious. It started to grow, and 

 called forth not only the admii'ation of my- 

 self and the boys, but our occasional visit- 

 ors ; and 1 laughingly told several tliat I 

 called the plant worth a hundred dollars 

 just as it stood. Along in February, how- 

 ever, it suddenly ceased growing, and the 

 leaves began to rot. Everybody supposed it 

 had made up its mind to die ; and I discov- 

 ered, when the prospect was strong of los- 

 ing it, just how much my heart had become 

 set on that one lettuce-piant. I even thought 

 of pulling off one of the best leaves and 

 sending it to an expert man with cuttings, 

 to see if he could not get a plant, and after- 

 ward some seed just from the leaf. Why 

 should the plant diey Why do things die, 

 any way? Now, dear friends, I want to 

 confess to you right here, that I was foolish 

 enough — if that is the proper word to ex- 

 press it— to ask God to bless my efforts in 

 trying to make this little plant live. I didn't 

 tell anybody about it l)nt my wife, however ; 

 but I told her, for I felt as if it were one of 

 God's gifts, and a very precious gift too, 

 because, you know, lettuce has been such a 

 hobby of mine ; and if it were his gift, why 

 should he not be pleased to help me to keep 



it, and give it eventually to the rest of you 

 M'ho l(we lettuce and love God? After pray- 

 ing about the matter I began studying on 

 the old problem. Why can't plants grow, 

 with plenty of daylight and every thing else 

 except direct sunlight? What particular 

 virtue can there be in tlie direct rays instead 

 of having it filtered through cloudy mists? 

 In the summer time our plants have more 

 direct rays of the sun tiian they need, a 

 great many times, and we are obliged to 

 shade them. I dug down into the soil and 

 examined the roots of other plants in health 

 and in decline. I soon became satisfied that 

 the beds in our greenhouse, and in the an- 

 nex too, were too damp. The drainage was 

 not sufficient, and there was not movement 

 or motion enough in tlie air to dry out the 

 soil continually, as it does outdoors. You 

 know what 1 told you about trying to dry 

 corn in the greenhouse. I took a trans- 

 planting-tube and made a deep round hole 

 on three sides of my lettuce-plant. In 24 

 hours the ground, which had seemed quite 

 wet at the bottom of these holes, began to 

 dry a little on the surface, where it was ex- 

 posed to the air, even down in the holes. 

 The dull transparent white of the let- 

 tuce soon changed and looked fresh and 

 lively. The plant grew, and I learned a les- 

 son.* Well, the first seeds ripened by the 

 middle of July. One of our boys planted 

 them just as soon as they were firm enough 

 to germinate ; and a week ago the plants 

 were up. 



I wonder if any of you know how much I 

 have enjoyed watching these tiny bits of 

 vegetable life ; and do you know with what 

 nervous expectancy I have watched the lit- 

 tle leaflets? Will they be white like the 

 mother-plant, or only ordinary Boston Mar- 

 ket lettuce? I thought of asking our friend 

 Mr. W.J. Green, of the Experiment Station, 

 Columbus, the question. You know he has 

 written a good deal on this subject lately. 



Well, dear friends, I am happy to tell you 

 that the little leaves are white, much like the 

 mother-plant, although few if any of them 

 show as much white. They are mottled 

 with green, but they are very handsome. 

 In a few days more we shall select the finest 

 plants — that Is, showing the most white — 

 and push them as hard as we can to have 

 them make seed yet this fall ; and pretty 

 soon the White Plume lettuce will be in our 

 hands, God's own gift to his children, and 

 to those who love him. It seems to me I 

 never had any thing before so straight and 



*A good deal of discussion has appeared in the 

 agricultural papers in regard to just why cultivation 

 makes plants grow. It you watch in the spring, 

 when the water is drying out of the ground, you 

 will find neither weeds nor any thing else makes a 

 start until the ground begins to get dry and is ca- 

 pable of being pulverized— at least on the surface. 

 Wet ground dries out more quickly where it has 

 been cultivated than where it is not. Well, I am 

 satisfied that one advantage of stirring the soil is, 

 that it allows the air to pass through it and dry out 

 the superabundant or excessive moisture. This is 

 especially true in the greenhouse, where we do not 

 have the brisk circulation that we do outdoors. 

 Direct sunshine is much more important where 

 this brisk circulation is wanting, or where cultiva- 

 tion is wanting; therefore perfect drainage, stir- 

 ring the soil, or a brisk circulation of air, takes the 

 place, to a certain extent, of direct sunshine. 



