514 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



STKAWBERKY TliME. 



Now is the harvest time for garden stuff and 

 small fruits. The latter part of June is gener- 

 ally the height of the strawberry season in our 

 locality. Mrs. Root has several times worried 

 about strawberry time, for she said it would 

 make us so much business that I would over- 

 work again. It is not only the pickers that 

 have to be looked after, but the folks who do 

 the selling; and as we have a larger area of 

 strawberries than ever before, it looked quite 

 likely that there would be difficulty in selling 

 the whole product. Of course, we might ship 

 them off: but my experience has been so unsat- 

 isfactory in shipping strawberries that I have 

 decided to sell what we can at home, and let 

 the rest go. To-day, June 22, we are right in 

 the midst of the battle. The town is full of 

 berries, and loads are coming in from every 

 direction: and the report comes, that, even 

 though they offer them at 5 cts. by the bushel, 

 they do not sell. I knew by past experience 

 just what was needed — more energy and care 

 all around. Of course, we have been having 

 excessive rains, and many kinds of berries are 

 soft. The pickers, too, where they pick by the 

 quart, get eager to fill the boxes, and quite a 

 few that are soft on one side, and sometimes 

 rotten, get in. I went down among them ray- 

 self, and told them that we could not sell our 

 berries unless they were more careful. Some- 

 times, through false economy, they picked ber- 

 ries too small to be of any account; and every 

 little while some new hand would be getting 

 them before they were fully ripe. A little kind 

 exhortation made quite a difference in the looks 

 of the products. Then the market was watch- 

 ed, just as we watched the barometer. By ten 

 or eleven o'clock, if sales were dropping, pickers 

 were stopped, each one being directed to make 

 a mark in his row just where he left off, so he 

 could find it when he commenced again. As 

 they began work at five in the morning, and 

 sometimes earlier, they did not much mind 

 resting from ten till two or three. If the folks 

 on the wagon sold out sooner, of course we 

 started to pick earlier: and when sales were so 

 close on the heels of the pickers that they had 

 to wait for berries, there is quite an advantage 

 in being able to tell purchasers. "There, these 

 berries have not been oft' the vines an hour." 

 If any stock began to get poor or old, the direc- 

 tions were to let it slide for any decent offer. 

 They were also directed to keep the berries out 

 of the sun. For several days I have been sta- 

 tioned in front of our factory, where the berries 

 are stored on the north side of our fruit- house, 

 right out upon the walk. To save myself steps, 

 half a dozen small boys are across the stn-et in 

 the plant-gardens, weeding, picking peas, ch^an- 

 ing the walks, or doing something to keep them 

 busy until I need them. If a message comes 

 from the wagon, half a dozen of them can pick 

 peas, go to the berry- patch and help the berry- 

 pickers, or bring in berries on the Daisy wheel- 

 barrows. Monday we picked 10} .1 bushels; yes- 

 terday (Tuesday) we picked QJo. A heavy rain 

 broke in upon us in the afternoon. This morn- 

 ing the wagon started out with an unusually 

 heavy load; but by nine o'clock they had sold 

 out. In the meantime I had done a lively busi- 

 ness on the sidewalk, selling by the bushel 

 where I had a chance. The price had been 

 running from .5 to 7 cts., till one of the boys 

 brought in a basket of Parker Earles. These 

 went oft' so quickly at 8 cts., that, when another 

 boy came in with some very choice Edgar 



Queens. I put the price at 10 cts., and they sold 

 without a bit of trouble. Both of the two above 

 varieties are wonderful acquisitions. The 

 Beederwood, spoken of in our last issue, have 

 ripened up better than I supposed they could 

 ripen; but the vines were so overloaded that 

 the largest part of them are necessarily small. 

 While speaking of varieties, I wish to say a 

 good word for VVarfield No. 2. It is not a large 

 berry, but it is of the deepest red of any beriy 

 that comes in market: and with this bright 

 attractive color comes the most fascinating and 

 dainty tart flavor, and that makes them my 

 favorite berry. It is also quite firm; and when 

 the weather is so wet that the others are in 

 danger of mashing down in a heap, the Warfield 

 is firm and solid. The Haverlands, on very rich 

 soil, and with a superabundance of rain, are 

 rather too soft to be handled. In fact, the 

 Haverland and Bubach both, many of them, 

 taste watery, and they sometimes begin to spoil 

 before they are fully ripe. The matter may be 

 remedied somewhat by i)lanting them in single 

 hills instead of matted lows; and this giv-es 

 still larger bei'ries; but it is quite expensive to 

 mulch where plants are. say. a foot apart. In 

 the matted row, very little mulching keeps all 

 the berries out of the dirt. We have lost bush- 

 els and bushels of beautiful berries this season 

 because the excessive wetness and lack of 

 mulching made them too muddy to bring even 

 half price. I should not forget to add, that, 

 when all other resources failed to get rid of a 

 great quantity of berries, the cook in our lunch- 

 room has disposed of many bushels by making 

 them into strawberry jam. 



The lettuce-beds I spoke about in our last 

 issue have done nobly; but when strawberries 

 crowded on us at n cts. a quart, lettuce had to 

 come down. In three days it fell from 20 cts. to 

 5 cts.; and then a great lot of it reluctantly (so 

 it seemed) commenced to push up seed-stalks 

 because we could not find a purchaser. Please 

 notice that our management (i. e., scanning 

 closely each plant every day, and, as fast as 

 one showed symptoms of wanting to shoot up 

 to seed, taking it promptly for market) results 

 in leaving in the seed-bed only those heads that 

 are the very last to go to seed ; and by taking 

 our seed each season from those, we expect to 

 get a strain that will make immense heads 

 before shooting up. Very rich soil contributes 

 to this. 



We are still getting 10 cts. a quart for early 

 peas. The first planting has been marketed, 

 and the ground planted to something else; ditto 

 the second planting, and we are now commenc- 

 ing on the third. 



Cauliflower is easier to get into market with 

 us than Wakefield cabbage; therefore we are 

 selling cauliflower and cabbage now at the 

 same price — .5 cts. per lb. 



A week ago I feared that, owing to the wet- 

 ness of the season, we should never get rid of 

 more than a small part of our cabbage-plants, 

 tomato-plants, and celery-plants; but in just 

 two days, after people could get their gardens 

 made and ready for planting out, our plant- beds 

 were cleaned out at such a rate that they look- 

 ed almost like a ruin. But I tell you it is pleas- 

 ant to tell every customer that we have plenty 

 of nice plants, large or small, just as each one 

 may prefer. Two men were kept busy from 

 early in the morning until late at night taking 

 up plants, and a great deal of the time a third 

 one assisted, besides what I did. The way we 

 put up plants now is this: An a«sortment of 

 good stout paper bags is kept atdift'erent points 

 where the plants are to be taken up. If the 

 ground is not already very wet. with hose and 

 sprinkler the ground is thoroughly soaked 

 first. Then with a trowel the soil is lifted, roots 



