1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



257 



sowings make altogether the uicest heads, for 

 It is a hard matter to grow good cauliflower 

 durina hot weather. Plenty of water during a 

 dry time helps the matter very much; but as 

 for myself I never succeed very well unless the 

 weather is cool. Caulillower will stand a tre- 

 mendous amount of cold, especially in the fall. 

 In the spring we often have to sell nice heads 

 at the same price as early cabbage. People 

 won't give any more for it; and if it were not 

 for the expense of the seed we could raise \i 

 about as cheaply by the pound; but in the fall, 

 when it comes time to make pickles, there is 

 often a great demand for it. and none to be had. 

 We have seen women try to buy specimens on 

 exhibition at our county fairs, and they offered 

 big prices for it: but nobody had any to sell. 

 You want to have it head up so late that there 

 will be no trouble from insects, and no trouble 

 from the hot sun. Then you can get great 

 handsome heads; and those that peep up 

 through their beautiful green petals are ver- 

 itable "snowballs" indeed. Do not sow your 

 seed all at once Put in a little at stated peri- 

 ods as mentioned; and if you fail with one lot 

 you will probably succeed with some of the 

 others. Of course, we sell a very small pack- 

 age for .5 cts.; but if you are going to make sev- 

 eral sowings you had better have >§' or 3i ounce; 

 price, respectively, 25 and 40 cents. 



GRAND3RAPIDS0LETTT1CE. 



□ We are pleased to note that the low-priced 

 seed offered at 50 cts. per lb. gives just as good 

 plants, and as good a crop, as that which we 

 formerly sold at $1 50. This is indeed good 

 news to those who are obliged to purchase 

 seeds. The low-priced seed is, we are told, 

 grown in California, where they have Ions sea- 

 sons, and ground specially suitable. Well, the 

 friends who have been making a good thing 

 growing lettuce under glass will discover that, 

 at about this season of the year, the hot sun is 

 liable to turn the lettuce a darker green, and 

 make it toueh. Lettuce, like celery, should be 

 white and crisp. Perhaps you remember I told 

 you a vear ago about shading the crop from the 

 sun. Shutters instead of sashes will do it nice- 

 ly, but thev must not be kept on too long or the 

 lettuce will get so white and delicate that it 

 will wilt down when the sun touches it; and 

 about the very best thing to keep it just right 

 is the cloth covering. The cotton sheeting to 

 roll up on a pole, such as is described in the to- 

 mato book, is just the thine. Now. look out 

 and do not lose your nice trade in Grand Rapids 

 lettuce because'you let it get too much hot sun. 

 If the weather is cloudy, it is not so much mat- 

 ter: but do not let the sun turn it to a dark 

 green and make it tough. 



HOLTjAND or DANISH CABBAGE SEED. 



Perhaps the friends have noticed that the finest 

 cabbnge on the market— in fMct, the only real nice 

 cabbape on the market fornearly two months past- 

 has been the imported kind. It is quoted now at 

 from m to US' cts. per lb., wholesale. We retail it 

 on the wa^on at 2(4 to .3 cts., according- to quality. 

 Year after year the Hollanders succeed insetting 

 nicer Vi;ird cabbage than any thing we can prow in 

 the United States. What is the trouble? Is it their 

 superior so'l and mode of culture, or is it the supe- 

 rior strain of seed? About ten years iigo a corre- 

 spondent of Gleanings in Holland, or somewhere 

 over that way, sent me a paper of cabbag-eseed. and 

 told me to plant it by the side of our best American 

 strains, and let him know the result. Tiie seed was 

 of larg-er size than our cabbage seed ; tlie plants had 

 a rank, strong growth tliat I iiad never seen tlien 

 and lia vc not seen since. They seem to stand light 

 freezes better than our own, and tliey made the 



finest cabbage I ever raised in my life. In fact, you 

 can find a picture of a load of them in the back part 

 of our book entitled Winter Care of Horses and 

 Cattle. But It t us now get back to the seed. I have 

 been to considerable expense to obtain a limited 

 quantity, which I am as-iured is the seed that pro- 

 duces the nice hard cabb ige to be found now in our 

 city markets. I allude to the imported cabbage. If 

 you want some of the seed we can furnish it in five- 

 cent packages or for 20 cts. i er ounce, or f3 per lb. 

 I do not know whether tliis seed came directly from 

 Holland t)r not; but if we have a subscriber to Gle.vn- 

 INGS anywhere in the Old World, where this hard 

 firm cabbage is grown, that will keep clear up into 

 the winter and even into March, without a bit of 

 trouble. I wish lie would send me some more seed, 

 and give me an invitation to go over there and learn 

 how to raise Holland cabbage. I have long been 

 wanting to take a trip where high-pressure garden- 

 ing is the rule every day in the week, and where 

 they have great windmills, not to pump tiie water 

 on to the gardens, as we do, but to pump it off. 



MONEY LOST IN THE MAIL.S— WHO SHALL 

 STANDIT? 



On page 655 of our issue for Sept. 1, 1896, I 

 published a part of the correspondence of S. S. 

 Meeks, of Meeks. Ga., omitting the name of the 

 writer, and substituting X Y Z. Since that time 

 we have had more or less correspondence, but 

 have not succeeded in getting even one copper 

 for the three smokers we sent Mr. Meeks— not 

 even the 3i) cts. in stamps that we paid out to 

 get them to him. He finally said he would 

 stand a part of the loss if we would give him 

 legal proof that the money he sent never reached 

 our office. In reply to this we sent him an affi- 

 davit, sworn to by my datighter and Mrs. Root's 

 sister— these two women being the only ones at 

 the time who opened the letters sent us. We 

 claimed that, inasmuch as he sent the 8180 

 mailed in a common letter (contrary to our di- 

 rections for sending money to us), he should be 

 the loser for at least a part of the amount. 

 Thus far he stoutly declines to stand even a 

 part of the loss. In our directions for sending 

 money, which are on the back of every order- 

 sheet, and which order-sheet Mr. Meeks ac- 

 knowledges he had before him when he sent 

 the money, we say: 



If there is no liank, express office, or money-order 

 office near you, so that you can not use any of the 

 above methods, you may send by registered letter, 

 and we will be responsible; but if any of the meth- 

 ods first named are available, we will not be respon- 

 sible for money sent in any other way. 



Notwithstanring the above, he put the .?! 80 

 in a common letter. When he wrote, complain- 

 ing that he had not received the smokers, tell- 

 ing us the circumstances, we felt so sorry for 

 his loss, and thinking the use of them might be 

 worth more to him than the value of them, we 

 sent them right along. 



CRACKED WHEAT AND CRACKED RYE. 



Dr. Mayer, in his excellent work "Domestic 

 Economy," gives substantially all I have men- 

 tioned in reeard to the use of cracked wheat 

 for constipation. Furthermore, he says for ob- 

 stinate cases substitute rye in p'ace of the 

 wheat. We have been using it for a week or 

 two past, and find that it not only does all he 

 says, btit that it is a most luscious article of 

 food. Get some nice rye, and have it ground 

 and cooked exactly as described on page 170, 

 March 1. 



