GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JtlNE 1. 



Owing to the uaus^ual amount of wet weather 

 I did not get off for a wheelride this spring 

 until yesterday, May 18. Once more I passed 

 through that remarkable experience of a long 

 wheelride. For some time back I have been 

 troubled with my old chills. I have been wear- 

 ing my overcoat and fur cap. In fact, I debat- 

 ed some as to whether I should not take my 

 overcoat along when I started out for my ride. 

 For some days back I have been getting so 

 tired before noon and before night that I really 

 began to question whether I had strength 

 enough for a long ride. A good nap of about 

 an hour before dinner, and another one before 

 supper, had helped me to get along and look 

 after my appointed part of the work. Well, I 

 decided to leave my overcoat at home, even 

 though I felt chilly for the first four or five 

 miles. I not only felt chilly, but began to get 

 tired; and had it not been for my previous ex- 

 perience I think I should have turned around 

 and goce back home and given it up, thinking 

 I was too old and too much out of health for 

 any such bard exertion. After I had gone 

 about ten miles, however. I was singing my old 

 hymns, and thanking God for the "second 

 wind " that was beginning to thrill my whole 

 being. When the usual time for my nap came 

 I felt unusually wide awake; and in an hour 

 later I was in excellent trim for a good dinner 

 which I found at a hotel on my route. I rode 

 the last ten miles in my shirtsleeves, with my 

 coat tied to the handle-bar, and I wished sev- 

 eral times I had one of my summer hats instead 

 of the fur cap. I made about 30 miles easily, 

 and arrived home just in time to take charge 

 of the boys, and worked hard until supper-time, 

 with no thought of a nap, and then helped to 

 push some other work that needed to be done, 

 until well toward sundown. Then I slept a 

 good hour as only the tired laborer can sleep, 

 and had an excellent night's rest after that. 

 During the latter part of my ride I chose an 

 untraveled road because it was shorter, and 

 this threw me into a good perspiration. After 

 1 arrived home I drank as much water at inter- 

 vals (from that new soft-water well) as I drink 

 ordinarily in a whole week. Today I am feel- 

 ing very much better than if I had not taken 

 any ride at all. 



But most of my readers, I suppose, know all 

 about this. Wheels are now so common that it 

 is hardly worth while to go over such experi- 

 ences, and I have given this mainly for the 

 benefit of the elderly ones who think they are 

 getting to be too old, or that their health is too 

 poor for such youthful sports. Perhaps some 

 of you wonder why the craze for wheeling holds 

 out, and increases to such an extent. Well, I 

 suppose it is for the reason I have just given 

 above. 



At the Creston celery-farm I found my friends 

 all busy; and expert women were swiftly trans- 

 planting the little seedlings into boxes, on the 

 plan I have several times described. These 

 boxes were then put in the hot-beds outside. 

 And, by the way, this perhaps quarter of an 

 acre of hot-beds and cold-frames is a sight 

 indeed. I wish I might give you a photograph 

 of it. It reminded me of the chapter in our 

 tomato-book, about supporting a family on a 

 quarter of an acre. Mr. Jordan says this 

 quarter-acre \.ould keep a pretty good-sized 

 family busy several months in the year. Some 



of the beds are covered with cloth, and some 

 with the glass sashes. All of the glass is, how- 

 ever, whitewashed at this season of the year. 

 The greater part of the beds have pipes under- 

 neath them for steam heat; but this spring 

 they have added a new block without steam 

 heat. These answer every purpose a little 

 later in the season, or they will answer earlier 

 for hardening off plants that are pretty well 

 rooted. By keeping the beds damp with plenty 

 of water and a cotton-sheeting cover'ng, they 

 make them stand up from the day they are 

 planted until they are ready to go out into the 

 field. In fact, I saw one bed full of plants put 

 out only yesterday, and every leaf stood up 

 apparently full of life and health— no hurt from 

 the transplanting process whatever; and yet 

 when the plants are taken from the seed-bed 

 the soil all drops off, and nothing but the naked 

 roots are put into the boxes. This speaks well 

 for their compost of swamp-muck and well- 

 rotted manure. 



It seems to me I never saw such beautiful 

 beds filled with boxes of plants. These boxes 

 are lifted into a wagon made for the purpose, 

 and carried right out into the field; and their 

 arrangements were so complete that it did not 

 seem to me as if there was a missing plant in 

 ten thousand. Each plant has a great bushy 

 root, and in fact this bushy root carries along 

 a goodly lump of the compost contained in the 

 box in which it grew. This compost is swamp 

 muck, two parts, old well-rotted manure one 

 part, thoroughly commingled. 



Before I got in sight of the grounds I broke 

 forth in an exclamation of surprise. Yes, I 

 have done this a good many times at the beauty 

 of these newly plaiitpd celery-fields, but this 

 time there was a new juiprise. Off in the dis- 

 tance there was something more enchanting 

 than any thing I hud ever seen before. It was 

 a whole block of five acres devoted to the new 

 celery culture. The Jordan Brothers, however, 

 have modified the process somewhat, so as to 

 fit appliances of their own. The plants were 

 spaced at an exact distance of 33^ inches apart 

 in the row, and the rows were a foot apart. 

 This spacing is all done by appropriate machin- 

 ery. The rows run crosswise of the beds, and 

 they are just 15 feet long. Then between the 

 beds there is an alley or driveway wide enough 

 for a narrow-tracked wagon. This driveway 

 is to carry in the boards, and to afford a place 

 for the workmen to stand as they handle the 

 boards and place them up against the rows of 

 plants. It is the "new celery culture." but 

 they use boards for bleaching. They say they 

 do not get any real nice celery without the 

 boards. Now. with the rows 15 feet long, and 

 the boards 16 feet, a man in each alley can 

 place them without tramping on the plants at 

 all. You see they have my idea of plant-beds 

 so the ground need not be tramped down hard. 

 Tney use about 24 tons of good stable manure 

 to the acre, besides a large quantity of bone- 

 dus t, and ashes or potash in some ot her form.jj 



The variety used almost exclusiWiy^is the 

 Golden Self-blanching; and it was this golden 

 color that caught my eye. No flowering plants 

 ever grown by florist were so handsome to my 

 eye as that block of five acres. It looked as if 

 a gorgeous sunset had blazed down for a mo- 

 ment on that little square block of swamp 

 muck. What astonished me was to see each 

 plant so exactly like its neighbor; and there 

 they stood, thousands upon thousands — no 

 failures, no weak puny plants. Mr. Jordan put 

 down his hand and pushed away the muck to 

 let me see the great masses of snow-white roots 

 that were reaching out for food and drink. 



I took a new route home. In my wheelrides 



