ISUT 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



345 



right here. It has given comfort and joy and 

 peace to manv a poor soul—poor, perhaps, in 

 this worlds goods, but rich in iroasures that 

 neither perish nor pass away. Here it is: 



Know, then, soul, 11i> full salviilion; 

 Rise over sin and grief and care; 



Joy to fltul iu every station 

 Sonietliiujr still to do or hoar. 

 One thing that has endeared this verse of 

 this old hymn to my heart is that about re- 

 joicing because that, no matter where we are 

 nor what our station, whether rich or poor, we 

 may every day lind something to " bear." And 

 if we bear it for Christ's sake we are rich in- 

 deed. 



CLEARING OFF THK BED^S WHEN A CKOP IS 

 NEARLY MATURE. 



There are a thousand things that need wisdom 

 and experience in high- pressure gardening; 

 and with a dozen boys to do the work, a smart 

 man can be kept just as busy as he can be, 

 directing the boys to work to the best advan- 

 tage. No matter how good his boys are (we 

 think we have some in Medina as good as there 

 are anywhere), they want their work laid out 

 and carefully planned. A good many times 

 the boss wants .somebody with rare wisdom to 

 plan and direct him in turn. Just one illus- 

 tration: 



Our plant-beds are now all made up of very 

 rich ground. The manure has cost so much 

 money, to say nothing of bone dust, ashes, etc., 

 that we can not afford to have a bed stand idle 

 for even one day. Just as soon as one crop 

 comes off. another must follow in its wake. 

 We frequently gather onions, lettuce, etc., 

 taking off, say. the space of three or four sashes 

 each morning. Well, this ground should be 

 raked and spaded over, and planted again right 

 off within an hour after the crop is gathered. 

 When some more stuff is gathered, commence 

 where you left off, and break up ground again, 

 and put in the crop. As a rule, our plants are 

 raised in the seed-bed, as thickly as they can 

 stand, until they get the third or fourth leaf. 

 Then they are transplanted, as I have said, to 

 where a crop has just been gathered. In trans- 

 planting, we use the transplanting-boardsl have 

 so often mentioned. We now have in use five. 

 The closest spacing-board is for celery-plants, 

 2 inches apart. The next is for cabbage-plants, 

 beets, onions, etc.. 3 inches apart. Then we 

 have one for stuff that is a little larger, or 

 wants more room, 4J^ inches apart. This is 

 used for twice transplanting, or tomatoes and 

 bushy plants for first transplanting. Then 

 comes the board with the points 7 inches from 

 center to center. This is just right for lettuce, 

 spinach, tomatoes twice transplanted, and a 

 variety of other stuff. The fifth and last one 

 has the points a foot apart. Of course, they 

 are all arranged hexagonally. so as to utilize 

 space that is valuable. This last board, that 

 spaces them a foot apart, is for strawberries 

 where the runners are kept off; for early cab- 

 bage-plants to mature under glass, for potatoes 

 grown under glass, etc. 



Let us now get back to gathering the matur- 

 ed crop, or nearly mature Before cleaning off 

 the bed entirely (say of lettuce, spinach, etc.), 

 we first cut out the lareest plants where they 

 seem to be crowding. With spinach we go over 



the bed in this way and keep out any that seem 

 inclined to shoot up to seed. This process can 

 be carried on until it is evident that all the 

 plants in the bed have plenty of room, and are 

 about as good as they will ever get. Then we 

 begin at one end, say wheie plants are the 

 largest and strongest, and will probably not get 

 any better by being left longer, and clean the 

 bed off entire. 



It is a great mistake to cut a crop when it is 

 half grown. Sometimes, however, it pays to 

 do this. In February a customer was very 

 anxious for some spinach. I told him if he 

 was willing to pay 20 cts. per lb. for it I would 

 cut some tliat was only half grown. This they 

 agreed to do. Now, when the plants are about 

 as large as they will be we get 10 cts. per lb. for 

 it. It is packed for retailing, one potind in a 

 clean new half-peck basket, and the demand is 

 beyond the supply. Why, friends, if this beau- 

 tiful plant can be really grown under shutters 

 instead of sashes it would be about the nicest 

 business in the world to grow it at 5 cts. per lb. 



J^or spinach the grouno must be exceedingly 

 rich — just such ground as we talked about in 

 our last issue, for the new celery culture. The 

 beds where it grows should be largely well-rotted 

 manure. If a part of it is cow manure, all the 

 better; then put on some bone dust and ashes 

 besides, and make the leaves take on that 

 strong rank dark-green appearance. If grown 

 in this way, spinach, like lettuce, will sell al- 

 most every day in the year; but on ordinary 

 soil, where the leaves look yellow and sickly, 

 your customers will tell you that they " don't 

 want any." 



Speaking of shutters reminds me that I have 

 never yet had a shutter that suited me, and I 

 have spent a good deal of time and experiment- 

 ing along that line. One of the heaviest ex- 

 penses in our market gardening is broken glass. 

 If the children do not break the glass in throw- 

 ing stones, somebody's dog will take a notion to 

 walk over the beds. Well, shutters made of 

 boards will do just as well as glass when the 

 plants are only to be covered nights, or, say, 

 during the most severe freezing weather. 

 These shutters are not broken like glass— that 

 is, if well made; and they ought to be so light 

 that one man can easily handle them. Friend 

 Cummings. of the Lake Shore Canning Facto- 

 ry, has grown nice tomatoes with only boards 

 for protection. The boards are only one foot 

 wide. Sometimes when the frost is severe he 

 uses a cloth cover with baards on top of it. 

 One man can pick up boards a foot wide, and 

 pile them up quite rapidly; whereas, to handle 

 sashes it usually takes two men. Well, now, 

 the idea' shutter should be exactly the size of 

 our sashes. It should be as tight as a sash, 

 and it should stand storms of snow and rain, 

 and the Intense heat of the sun, without shrink- 

 ing and swelling so as to roll up the lumber or 

 make the cracks large enough to let frost 

 through, and at the same time we want it light. 

 The board covering need not be more than % 

 of an inch thick, if the frame around the out- 

 side is made of something heavier to protect 

 the edges. If any of our gardening friends 

 have succeeded in producing a light shutter to 

 take the place of glass I should be very glad to 

 see one. I think there is a field here for in- 

 ventive genius. The ordinary way i<. I believe, 

 to use thin matched lumber in narrow strips, 

 for the narrow strips will not shrink and swell 

 as badly as the wider pieces; but ,?8 stuff, or 

 even X- >•'* very apt to get shattered and broken 

 unless it is well protected bv batten*. The 

 nails should be driven through and cliyiched. 

 Then the extreme end of the shutter should 

 have some protection as well as the edges along 



