1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



29 



SELUNG RECIPES, OR INFORMATION HOW TO 

 GROW CROPS, ETC. 

 I find the following in a recent number of 

 one of my favorite agricultural periodicals : 



HUBBARD SQUASHES cumberl'fhe^ money'^nw"' 



ers easily raised by my method. Send one dollar for 

 instructions. He.vry M. Bro'U-n, 



Gen'l Del., Indianapolis, Ind. 



I sent a dollar right along promptly. After 

 something like two weeks I received the fol- 

 lowing, written with a pen, as the w-riter had 

 had some trouble in getting them printed in 

 time : 



HUBBARD SQUASHES AND EARLY OUTDOOR Ct'CUM- 

 BERS. HOW TO GROW THEM SUCCESSFULLY. 



I have spent a great deal of time and money exper- 

 imenting with these plants, in order to have cucum- 

 bers early, and also to outwit the bugs, which I find in 

 the patch early and late. All coverings for plants 

 which I have tried have some faults. Some are too 

 heavy and expensive ; others are too easily destroyed. 



I find the following to be as near perfection as any 

 I have tried ; and if the first cost is a little more than 

 some others it is economy in the long run, and the 

 frames can be closed when not in use, and will occupy 

 but a small space. 



I prepare a "tent" as follows, using pla.stering lath. 

 Take a lath, and saw through the middle full length ; 

 this will make 6 pieces S inches long and 4 pieces 12 

 inches long. Sharpen each of the long pieces at one 

 end ; lay two of these parallel with each other, about 

 8 inches apart ; take one S-inch piece and nail it across 

 and flush with the top of the two ; also one 8-inch 

 piece nailtd on S inches from the top. This leaves 4 

 inches to push into the ground. Thus you have a 

 frame 8x8 inches in width, and points 4 inches long. 



Make another frame the same size. L,ay them on a 

 .smooth surface, blunt ends together, and tack muslin 

 over these two frames. The muslin will answer for 

 hinges, that you may be able to bring them together. 

 Thus, to each tent 30U will have to make one piece of 

 muslin 9x18 and one ilxil inches .square, as a yard of 

 muslin will make these dimensions, and have the sel- 

 vage turn under to hold the tacks better. 



Cut the latter from corner to corner, and tack on the 

 ends of the frame, after bringing them together to the 

 desired width, to accommodate the three-cornered 

 piece of muslin. This frame is to put over your hill after 

 you have planted your seed. I plant .seed about the 

 20th of April. Don't try to raise cucumbers or squash- 

 es unless the ground is quite rich, especially for squash- 

 es, for, the thinner the soil the less chance you will 

 have for success. Prepare the soil well, and have it 

 fined down. I plant 4'2 feet each way. I desire to 

 plant this close, as the vines completely cover the 

 ground, and thus protect the cucumbers from the sun. 



Push the frame down into the ground over the hill, 

 and completely up to the frame, .so the bugs will not 

 get under. This arrangement will protect them from 

 bugs, frost, and cold winds, until all danger from 

 frost is over, which in this latitude is about the 20th 

 of May. 



Have your sq\ta.sh ground prepared, and from the 

 20th of May to the 1st of June^plant your .seed. Take 

 your frames off the cuciunbers, and put on .squashes, 

 and leave on until they outgrow the frames. After 

 you remove the frames from the squashes put tobacco 

 dust around the stems ; sprinkle with kerosene emul- 

 sion quite often, on the .stems, under and over the 

 vines ; and if you are diligent 1 think you will be suc- 

 cessful after following directions carefully. 



Indianapolis, Ind.'; iiiS^^^^HENRY M. Brown. 



Now, friends, not only readers of agricultu- 

 ral papers, but the editors, what do you think 

 of this kind of business? If the above had 

 been illustrated with appropriate cuts, and put 

 in an agricultural journal, it might have been 

 of benefit to ten thousand people — that is, if 

 they had never heard of the thing before ; and 

 it would not have cost these ten thousand peo- 

 ple a cent apiece. This Mr. Brown wants a 

 dollar apiece from each person. The dollar 

 ought to pay for quite a treatise on growing 

 squashes and cucumbers. Why ! Gregory's 



squash-book, that treats on every thing per- 

 taining to squash-growing, costs only 2-") cts., 

 and it is worth more than twenty essays like 

 the above. Let me suggest that a good editor 

 should write back and say, " Mr. Brown, what 

 is it you are going to furnish our readers for a 

 dollar ? Let us see it before we make our- 

 selves a party to this scheme of yours." Or 

 what is to hinder any editor from sending on 

 a dollar, and then giving the information to 

 all his subscribers, just as we have done ? 

 Like all other recipes offered for sale in this 

 wa}-, the whole thing is old, and comparative- 

 ly well known. A still better thing is the 

 squash-box that protects from frost as well as 

 from bugs ; and the wire-cloth bug-protectors 

 we have sold for years are more substantial, 

 and we think they are cheaper in the end, 

 than this rigging made of cloth and sticks. 



Right here I notice an item in that bright, 

 wide-awake little paper, the Philadelphia Farm 

 Journal. Here it is : 



We place Klondike get-rich-quick mining companies 

 along with die-slow-but-sure quack doctors, and reject 

 the advertisements of both. Our folks have no use 

 for either. 



You see, friends, there is somebody at the 

 head o. that journal who is a little particular 

 about (he kind of advertisements they put be- 

 fore their readers. 



CS'Jt THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS. 



Tlie writer of the letter below wrote me, 

 telling of their struggles to raise a debt on 

 their little church, and asked if I could find it 

 in my heart to help them a little. I replied 

 that calls had been so numerous for mission 

 work and for various similar purposes that we 

 had been reluctantly obliged to call a halt, but 

 that we would, however, donate to the cause 

 two copies of Gleanings for 1898 ; then if 

 she could find two bee-keepers or others who 

 were sufficiently interested in their church in 

 their neighborhood, who would take them off 

 her hands at .'?1.00 each, she would have .S2.00 

 to help them along. Below is her reply : 



Dear Mr. Root: — Inclosed find the address of two 

 .subscribers whom I had no trouble to get. I don't 

 know of any one in our neighberhood who takes 

 Gleanings except ourselves, yet it goes from house 

 to house, and even sometimes to the church ana Sun- 

 day-school and Epworth League. 



In behalf of the aid .society I do send you our sincere 

 thanks, and pray that those two copies will bring you 

 fourfold in blessing, both temporal and spiritual. 



Beallsville, O., Dec. 1.5. Mrs. A. P. D.\nford. 



It always does me good to know that our 

 journal is passed around from neighbor to 

 neighbor, even if it should result sometimes 

 in excusing people from subscribing them- 

 selves. I think we should ' ' do good and lend, 

 hoping for nothing again," even with our fa- 

 vorite family paper. 



In referring to A. T. Cook's catalog, in our 

 previous issue, I overlooked what he says 

 about tobacco. Well, here is what he says, 

 and I hope the officers of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture will read it: 



Don't ask for tobacco seed. I do not believe it right 

 to grow the vile stuff, to sell, or use it. 



