704 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



against us, as if to assure us we need not fear 

 him. Mistress Williams would always call 

 Towzer to go with her when she went to close 

 the, hen-house at night. He would go in with 

 her and quickly run around and look in every 

 corner and behind the boxes; and if any thing 

 was hidden there he quickly caught it or scared 

 it out. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Roseville, 111. 



[To be continued.] 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



A MATTER OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO ALL. WHO 



CUI.TIVATE THE SOIL WHERE HEAVY RAINS 



AND FRESHETS PREVAIL. 



After the tomato-book was all finished. I sub- 

 mitted it to friend Day, and asked him to make 

 an appendix of whatever he thought should be 

 changed or enlarged upon. The result is some- 

 thing that, my impression is, will be worth 

 millions of dollars to the farming people of both 

 north and south, and east and west. The fol- 

 lowing is a brief letter from him, introducing 

 the matter: 



when the plumb-bob hangs in the notch it is right. 

 The leg that is one inch the shortest should be car- 

 ried in front If you are going up hill; in the rear, if 

 you are running the way the water is to go. This 

 gives one inch fall to ten feet. We lay out a base- 

 line about every 100 feet, on a hillside, then the 

 rows can be filled in between. I will try to make a 

 drawing. 



We always have a plow to make a light furrow, 

 and follow right after the leveler. In laying out the 

 base-lines. Sometimes it leads you contrary to your 

 wishes, but it is always HyM. J. W. Day. 



Crystal Springs, Miss., Aug. 9. 



With the above came a diagram from which 

 the engraver has been enabled to make the 

 sketch below. 



You will ob.serv^e from the picture that we 

 have taken a piece of unusually rough country; 

 in fact, the engraver has given us tiie summit 

 of two quite sharp-topped hills. The hills are 

 so steep, that, should we attempt to plow and 

 enrich them for ordinary market-gardening, 

 the heavy rains that occur in most parts of the 

 United States at least occasionally, would wash 

 all of our fine rich soil, and a great part of our 

 fertility, clear down into the valleys, or off into 

 the rivers; therefore we commence clear up to 

 the summit, making open ditches. 



The-ie are to take the water and carry it 

 straight down hill, out of the way. Of course. 





4>.^^^%' 



FRIEND day's PLAN FOR TEHKACING AND FURROWING THE HILLSIDES, TO PREVENT WASH 



AND GULLYING. 



On page 5 you say, in circling my land I give one 

 foot in twenty. This is entirely too much fall, as it 

 will cause the land to wash. Now, I consider this 

 land-circling a great thuig to lead off the water 

 without washing tlie land, if it is done scientiflcally; 

 and I will say one inch in ten feet is enough fall. 

 Some use only one inch tosir(ct'» feet fall. Iherewith 

 send you a diagram of a clieap leveler. It is simply 

 a large compass made of tiiree tliin laths, about two 

 Inches wide by one incli thick. The two lower ends 

 should stand just ten feet apart, and the tops nailed 

 together. The cross-latli should be 1.5 Indies from 

 the ground, and a notch exactly in the middle, so 



the surplus op(Mi ditches come quite near each 

 other toward the summit of the hill. As we go 

 down into the lower ground, however, they get 

 further and further apart; and, in fact, they 

 nuiy be half a mile apart if the lay of the land 

 favors making the base-line ditches as long as 

 that. But these base-line ditches must all be 

 worked around the hillside, or uneven ground, 

 in such a way as to carry them almost at a 

 dead level— not quite dead level, however, for 

 they are to drop as much as one inch in twenty 



