276 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



that square piece right in the side of your 

 field?" 



" Why, that poor place there is where I grew 

 my onion-plants, and this ought to be the 

 richest ground of the lot ; but I did not have 

 enough fertilizer to go over that little spot ; 

 as it had been heavily fertilized when the 

 plants were started, I concluded it would be 

 as rich as the rest, anyway ; but it did not get 

 any fertilizer at the time we gave it to the 

 large bed while cultivating them. It was 

 planted just a little later than the others, but 

 that should not make the diflference in color." 



This little object-lesson illustrates clearly 

 that, at least in Bermuda, it pays to apply a 

 chemical fertilizer during the operation of cul- 

 tivating, when onions are partly grown. 



After the weeds are out they scatter the fer- 

 tilizer among the rows until the ground is 

 pretty well covered, or colored, you might 

 say, with the fertilizer. It makes the whole 

 surface of the ground look blue, in fact, or 

 whatever color the fertilizer may be. After it 

 is scattered it is stirred into the soil between 

 the rows ; then, when the rains come, the on- 

 ions have plenty of just the food they like 

 right where they want it, and at just the time 

 they need it most. 



They are having a good deal of trovible with 

 the onion-blight, and they are trying the Bor- 

 deaux mixture, copperas solution, and various 

 other chemicals. As with the potatoes, some- 

 times they seem to succeed, and at other times 

 they do not. In gathering the crop, only the 

 finest are put in crates for shipment. Sec- 

 onds, I believe, are mostly sold out and co«n- 

 sumed on the island. They have some trouble 

 with the scullions ; but I believe they make 

 no use of these — they are just thrown into the 

 compost heap. 



The business of selling onions bunched up 

 is almost unknown in Bermuda, and they 

 think it will not pay to ship to the United 

 States, because they are perishable, and the 

 market is so far oflF. 



We submit a picture of an onion -field where 

 they are sorting onions and crating them for 

 the markets. Timber is so scarce in Bermuda 

 that crating-material is all brought from New 

 York or from Nova Scotia. I believe freights 

 on lumber and such material are qtute low, 

 however, so the crates do not cost very much 

 more than they do here. 



Let me say, in conclusion, that I know of 

 no prettier sight than a whole family busy at 

 work near their home, among the potatoes 

 and onions. The people seem to be contented, 

 industrious, well dressed, and nice looking. 

 They have pretty dooryards, gardens, flowers, 

 and, with their neat stone houses, it makes a 

 picture of thrift and industry that we rarely 

 see anvwhere else. 



GARDENING FOR APRIL, 1. 

 Well, if you have not put in your first peas, 

 do so at once — some Alaskas, anyway. vSome 

 of the sugar peas are a little more apt to rot in 

 cold weather, but you might put in a few. 

 Then you want to get in your onion-seed as 

 soon as possible. Onions do better during 



cool wet weather, and the frost does not hurt 

 them, or very rarely hurts them, after they are 

 up. Onion-sets of every description should go 

 in at once. If you try to keep them out of 

 the ground they are very apt to sprout ; and if 

 you want to plant old onions to get top sets, 

 get them in also. 



Lettuce and radishes can also be sown now 

 in the open ground ; parsnips and vegetable 

 o}'sters as soon as you can get the ground in 

 good order. vSpinach had better be sown in 

 the fall ; but if it was not done, get it into the 

 ground in the spring as early as possible. If 

 you are dilatory, and the' hot weather catches 

 it, it will shoot up to seed, and not do much 

 good. If you want to plant pie-plant roots, 

 asparagus-roots, horseradish, or any thing of 

 that sort, get them in as soon as possible, no 

 matter what the weather is, if it is not too wet. 

 Onion-plants grown in the greenhouse can not 

 be put out quite as early as ovaou-scts and 

 onion seed — that is, unless the)' have been 

 well hardened off. You see, the shock is too 

 great, and hardly any plant will succeed if 

 much of a frost catches it just after it has been 

 transplanted from under glass. Now is an ex- 

 cellent time to set strawberry-plants. 



You had better get out a few extra early po- 

 tatoes ; and you might put them out on the 

 Bermuda plan, given in our last issue. 



Every season brings surprises; and the sur- 

 prise just now is to find ever}- thing almost a 

 month ahead of what it usually is. The grass 

 has made a fine start; wheat is looking splen- 

 didly; peach-trees are loaded with buds ready 

 to blossom; soft maple has been giving honey 

 for a week or two past when it did not rain so 

 the bees could not fly. Pie-plant in the open 

 air is almost ready to gather. Fruit-trees, 

 apples, and almost every thing else, are show- 

 ing the green leaf-buds, and no wonder ; for 

 there has been scarcely any frost or freeze 

 since the middle of March. I gather by cor- 

 respondence that this state of affairs is general 

 almost all over the United States. Now, if 

 Hicks had only said in his almanac that the 

 latter half of the month of March would be 

 just like what we usually have in the latter 

 half of April, what a boom it would have given 

 him! On the contrarj-, he puts out only 

 vague hints of storms and terrible cold waves 

 that will catch the farmer unawares without 

 having his stables battened, etc. 



Had it not been for the excessive rainfall we 

 might have made quite a little garden. In 

 fact, we did get out between showers to put in 

 Alaska and American Wonder peas, which are 

 now up bright and green. I wanted to get 

 out our onion seed and sets, especially the 

 latter ; but the excessive wet made it out of 

 the question, even on the most thoroughly 

 drained soil. Crimson clover is just a green 

 mat all over the ground, and I do not think 

 the frost could pull it out by the roots, even 

 if it tried ever so hard. Judging from the 

 seed trade there will probably be a vast amount 

 of gardening just as soon as the wetness is 

 over. During the last two weeks it has been 

 a problem to so arrange at least a little piece 

 of ground that it can be worked in spite of the 

 wet. A side hill with considerable slope, 



