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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



which it is, and it does not matter) is sending 

 these out postage paid, without any hope of 

 benefit in any way except to spread the news 

 of God's kingdom. Well, now, 3'ou can do as 

 you choose; but / am going to have a hand in 

 helping to furnish postage-stamps for Brother 

 Cowles. Dear reader if you like the little 

 tract ; if it commends itself to you as it has to 

 me, send for some of them, and send along at 

 least a little to help pay postage, and then dis- 

 tribute them among your friends. Oh what 

 beautiful Christian men and women we should 

 have if we all followed that rule ! For some 

 time back — yes, for many 3'ears — rwhen I get 

 hold of a book or paper, as soon as it becomes 

 evident that it is not for godliness and Christ 

 Jesus, I begin to ask myself the question, 

 "Will the dear Savior be pleased to see me 

 reading such a book?" May God bless the 

 words of this little tract, and may he bless the 

 little message from your old friend to the 

 younger ones who have commenced marching 

 under the banner of righteousness, and who 

 have indeed enlisted for life. God help }'ou, 

 dear children, to be not weary in well doing. 

 Oh ! you do not know — you will never know 

 till the time comes — what it is you are going to 

 reap if you are only faithful, and hold fast to 

 the start you have made, perhaps in weakness 

 and many trials. 



GROWING POTATOES AND ONIONS ON THE 

 ISLAND OF BERMUDA. 



While it is no doubt self-evident that we 

 can not adopt the Bermuda plans, at least to 

 any extent, in growing potatoes by the acre 

 or by the hundred acres, I am sure that, where 

 land is quite expensive, say in our little towns, 

 or in the suburbs of our great cities, we can 

 adopt with profit some of their methods. The 

 gardens of Bermuda are little patches, from a 

 few rods square up to an acre, and some of the 

 largest gardens comprise perhaps two or three 

 acres. The largest part of them are from one- 

 fourth to one acre in size. Wherever there is 

 a place between the coral rocks, and enough 

 soil to make a garden, there a garden is locat- 

 ed. While the island is pretty well covered 

 with cedar-trees, these and various tropical 

 bushes make excellent windbreaks for the lit- 

 tle garden-patches. Besides the protection 

 from the trees and shrubbery, most of the 

 patches are inclosed with stone walls, varying 

 from three to four feet in height to eight or 

 ten feet, or even more. Many of the walls 

 seem to have been built years ago in order to 

 get rid of the stones. Where a piece of ground 

 has only an occasional rock sticking up, these 

 rocks are broken off or sawn off. A horse 

 and plow is seldom or never used on many of 

 the garden-patches ; so if they get the rocks 

 away so as not to come above ground, the 

 ground can be worked very well with a fork 

 where one is used to it. The gardens in Ber- 



muda are so similar in many respects to those 

 described by friend Merrill in our little book 

 on growing potatoes in the island of Jersey, 

 that those who have read this book will catch 

 on readily to the situation. Where the piece 

 of ground is large enough, and the rocks do 

 not come near the surface, a horse and plow is 

 often used. The plow is a sort of swivel 

 plow. The horse goes back and forth on one 

 side of the piece of ground, walking in the 

 furrow every time. While this plowing is go- 

 ing on, boys with common garden-rakes put 

 all the trash, weeds, coarse manure, etc., into 

 the furrow. As fast as the furrow is turned, 

 this trash is raked from both sides into the 

 furrow, to be covered up next trip. The con- 

 sequence is, when they are done plowing the 

 piece is level, soft, and smooth, and ready to 

 plant. 



Over half of the population are colored. 

 Slaves were once kept on the island ; but Eng- 

 land decided it was not quite the thing for a 

 Christian nation, long before we did. I am 

 told these slaves were set free in 1834. They 

 are very industrious, well educated, intelli- 

 gent-looking, and well dressed ; and some of 

 these colored men might well be called " light- 

 ning operators " in handling the fork, plant- 

 ing onions — in fact, almost every thing per- 

 taining to their gardening operations. 



Before undertaking to plant any crop, the 

 ground is made fine, soft, and light, either 

 with the fork or plow, as I have described. 

 The best test I know of as to whether the 

 ground is in the order it should be, is that you 

 push your arm, without any effort, down near- 

 ly to the elbow, or down to the rock if the soil 

 is not deep enough. 



When I suggested I could take their horse 

 and swivel plow and plant the potatoes faster, 

 one of the workmen stared at me as if he 

 thought I must be a stranger, and then said : 



" I know we can plant ever so much faster 

 by hand. We have tried it again and again." 



He was just fixing his strings, so I thought 

 I would wait and see how he worked. When 

 the ground is nice, smooth, and soft, two 

 strings are stretched on one side of the patch. 

 These strings are really good-sized fishlines. 

 They are stiff and hard, so they will not kink 

 readily, and strong enough so they will not 

 break. The potatoes are planted in rows from 

 20 to 22 inches apart, and from 6 to 9 inches 

 apart in the row. The planter deposits his 

 potatoes in piles, or in pails if he has pails 

 enough, on each side of his piece of ground ; 

 then he stretches his two pieces of string, say 

 20 inches apart. A 20 inch stick lies at each 

 end, to measure by. Then he takes a pail of 

 potatoes, and goes along very much as we do 

 when we are dropping by hand. Instead of 

 dropping them in the furrow, however, as we 

 do, he just plants them by pushing the potato 

 down about four inches. With a flirt of his 

 hand he fills the hole where his hand went 

 down ; and this flirt, applied each time, makes 

 a shallow furrow or mark right over the row 

 of potatoes. This serves to tell where they 

 should come up during the first cultivating. 

 After the ground is once made ready for plant- 

 ing, nobody is allowed to step on it. Even 



