840 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



As regards bee-keeping, there is a great abun- 

 dance of fall flowers, especially goldenrod, which 

 seems to cover the prairies; but as they have 

 no while clover, basswood, nor alfalfa, I do not 

 think it would pay to keep many bees in a 

 place, thei'efore it is not a country for bee- 

 keepers; but for gardening, stock-raising, and 

 fruit-growing, I think it is fine, and in time it 

 may become a fair bee-country. 



If there is any one who has boys' and girls' 

 clothing, or a dollar to spare for a worthy Chris- 

 tian work, I would say both are much needed 

 here now. They talte in. feed, and educate the 

 little destitute Indian orphan boys and girls, in 

 order to make Christian men and women of 

 them. It is a great undertaking, as there is so 

 much expense connected with getting the nec- 

 essary buildings up and the farm open<»d. All 

 this has been undertaken on ihe plan pursued 

 by George Miiller, of Bristol. England; but in 

 time it may be made self-supporting to a great 

 extent, as they have 1.500 acres of fine land on 

 which are water, wood, good building stone, 

 and a coal-bed. With all these natural advan- 

 tantages. and a fine climate, where is there a 

 better place to establish such an institution ? 



Vinita, I. T., Oct. 31. H. Lathrop. 



RAISING LETTUCE IN WINTER. 



BY E. C. GREEN, OF THE OHIO EXPEIMMENT 

 STATION. 



li'rf.eH'? -Root;— In reading your book, " What 

 to Do and How to be Happy While Doing It," 

 I find there is a great deal said about growing 

 lettuce in the winter; and while the rules laid 

 down in that book were not followed, and, in 

 fact, I had never read them carefully, yet the 

 plan or way of raising lettuce given there, 

 especially the one by Mr. Davis, is so similar to 

 what wehave hit on that it seems to me they 

 might be called the common sense of lettuce- 

 raising. There is no great secret about the 

 matter — not much more than there is in raising 

 a crop of corn, if the conditions are right; but 

 there is the trouble. If you have flues that 

 smoke, and glass that lets in but half of the 

 light, and such drawbacks, you will not be able 

 to raise a good ci'op of lettuce any more than 

 you would a good crop of corn on poor worn-out 

 land, with no manure to put on it, and bad 

 weather to contend with. 



We started this winter with a house that was 

 almost as light as outdoors, the glass being KJx 

 24 inches. We heated with hot water, so there 

 was no smoke, dust, nor fumes of any kind to 

 injure the young plants, and the soil was as 

 good as we knew how to make it; and, as Mr. 

 Davis says, "the better care and attention 

 given the crop, the better success you will 

 have." To illustrate what care and careful 

 attention will do, I will say that, during the 

 first part of the winter, by close watching we 

 succeeded in keeping our greenhouse almost 

 free from that pest known as plant-lice, by tSie 

 use of tobacco dust; but as we grew more let- 

 tuce, and had more work to do, our vigilance 

 relaxed somewhat, and the little plant-sucker 

 multiplied until now we are well supplied with 

 them. But now they are attacked by a disease 

 that bids fair to exterminate them, the disease 

 being a fungus which is similar to the one we 

 often see on house-flies, and called by scientific 

 men Empusa inuscw. They have not been so 

 bad as to show any efl'ects on the crop, however. 



Starting in with favorable ciroumstances, 

 and being able to control the plant-lice, we 

 have been able to grow a large amount of let- 

 tuce, which brought fair prices, and to catTy 

 on a number of interesting experiments. Our 



first was on the different distances apart in set- 

 ting the plants in the bed. Our conclusions 

 were, that six inches was the best, all things 

 considered; less than that crowds tjhe plants; 

 and more puts too few plants on a given space 

 to be profitable. 



Our fertilizer experiment was not very sat- 

 isfactory. We made several tests with the 

 nitrate of soda: but in no instance could we see 

 any good done by it. I have seen results from 

 other stations where it has been used, and it 

 does not seem to increase the crop, but makes 

 the plants rot worse. I should have liked to 

 try guano, but it was not included in the fer- 

 tilizers that we tried. 



Our experiment with sub-irrigation was one 

 of the most interestiuff that we have tried, and 

 it showed the mo<t decided results; but we 

 have not come to any definite conclusion on the 

 subject, for it has not been tried in enough dif- 

 ferent ways to speak with certainty; but I 

 believe, from what I have seen, that this meth- 

 od of watering, combined with a good mulch 

 on top of the bed, will do more to help keep the 

 rot in check than any other way. The rot. or 

 lettuce mildew, has been one of our serious 

 troubles in the work, and there seems to be 

 complaint from other sources. I was in one 

 house this winter that had nearly ten thousand 

 plants in it that were nearly ruined by the rot. 

 I hope something can be found that will pre- 

 vent it in a measure. E. C. Green. 



Columbus. O. 



fThe communication above was sent us over 

 a year ago; hut by some blunder it did not get 

 into the journal. Prof. W. J. Green, brother of 

 the writer of the above, visited us a few days 

 ago, and he said this matter of sub-irrigation 

 was giving some most encouraging results with 

 other crops than lettuce, both in the greenhouse 

 and in the open air.] 



IRRIGATION— RAISING WATER FOR BY EN- 

 GINES, WINDMILLS, WATER-WHEELS, &C. ' 



SOMETHING TO THE POINT, FROM ONE OF OUR 

 FRIENDS IN THE IRRIGATING REGION. 



Friend Root: — Your correspondent who wishes 

 to know something about power to raise water 

 24 feet to irrigate a two-acre garden should not 

 invest in a wheel. It would take an iraiuense 

 wheel to lift the water so high, and the expense 

 with a wheel is sometimes quite heavy. Of 

 course, this depends somewhat on the charac- 

 ter of the stream and the floods that may occur. 

 Our first settlers, acting independently of each 

 other, used wheels; but now that there is coop- 

 eration in securing a water supply, wheels are 

 seldom used. 



There is no patent on the old-style wheels; 

 but a new one, to rise and fall with the stage 

 of water, has been patented. What its real 

 merits are I can not say. Looking at the ques- 

 tion from this distance I think your correspond- 

 ent would best use a windmill. Perhaps instead 

 of a tank he has a good location for a small 

 reservoir. In this case a reservoir might be 

 preferable. 



It would be difficult to make celery ground 

 too wet. The ground could lie kept constantly 

 wet from the windmill while running, without 

 danger from following rains. If the windmill 

 should stop running, the crops would not suffer 

 for ten days or two weeks, even if there is no 

 rain. 



If the "new celery culture" is followed .(that 

 of close planting so that the plants do not need 

 banking), a great deal of water will be required; 



