1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



407 



on working the ground, plowing manure un- 

 der, and working old well-rotted manure into 

 the surface, but still it did not seem to amount 

 to much. Then I put on some cotton seed 

 that came to us with sweet potatoes packed in 

 them; put on poultry manure; then I gave it a 

 good dressing with lime, and finally it began 

 to respond and "smile." We put out Mar- 

 shall strawberries and other kinds that were 

 in good demand, and began to sell plants. 

 The results of my patient working and manur- 

 ing began to be apparent. We had great 

 lieautiful berries, wonderfully large and beau- 

 tiful green leaves, and then great runners 

 almost as large as slate-pencils in size. And 

 then what beautiful plants we secured to send 

 out to customers ! 



We kept working the ground with wheel- 

 hoes between the rows; and every little while, 

 when the plants got to getting out into the 

 paths, so it was difficult to cultivate, we would 

 stretch a string and take up all the plants out- 

 side of the string. Then just after a rain we 

 would run the hoes again until the ground 

 was fine, soft, and mellow. At one time I felt 

 a little fear that I was throwing money away 

 by putting manure and work on that piece of 

 ground. But it has given us beautiful plants 

 that have paid several times over for the 

 manure and labor, and the ground is in such 

 tilth now that it goes right ahead without any 

 manuring. In fact, it is the finest piece of 

 ground, I do believe, on our premises. Any 

 thing will grow there. You may say we get 

 our money back because we are selling plants 

 at good prices. But I think you will get your 

 money back for fixing up a piece of ground 

 like this, even if you do not sell a plant. In 

 the first place, you get fruit that "astonishes 

 the natives," both in quantity and quality. 

 If you do not sell plants, you probably buy 

 them, more or less. Now, have a piece of 

 ground like this ; and when new plants come 

 out that cost a lot of money at first, purchase 

 just one plant. If it does not become popular, 

 you are not much out of pocket; but if it does, 

 you can raise your own plants at a cost of less 

 than a cent apiece, when they may be worth a 

 dollar a dozen, or even two dollars, on the 

 market. 



There are three or four new strawberries 

 that command very high prices in almost any 

 market. The man who purchased only one 

 plant last year, and raised a lot of young 

 ones from it, is lucky. The Nick Ohmer, 

 Margaret, Carrie, and Darling are all plants 

 of this kind. Another thing, it is fun to have 

 a garden where you have a piece of ground 

 that just makes every thing boom. On our 

 clay soil, when we once get a piece like this 

 into high-pressure condition the effect of the 

 heavy manuring lasts •through a long period 

 of years. In the shade of our machine-shop 

 there are some beds that were fixed up several 

 years ago. They have had no manure for 

 several seasons. As they are so much shaded 

 we use them only for celery-plants. The 

 ground is fine, soft, dark, and rich ; and it is 

 a beautiful place to heel in stufT for a few 

 days, where we want it in the shade. The 

 quality of the soil seems to invite any plant to 



put out roots. In fact, we have been selling 

 the dirt to the people around town for their 

 house-plants, at 25 cents a bushel. Now, 

 every one of you, I am sure, can afford to 

 have a little piece of exceedingly rich ground 

 near your homes. I'*irst have it perfectly 

 underdrained; then either spade or plow it up 

 very deep. Let it freeze in winter and dry 

 out in summer ; then plow, pulverizing it at 

 just the right time after every summer shower. 

 Get out all the sticks and stones. If it is 

 heavy clay, put in some sand. Give it a coat- 

 ing of lime occasionall}-; and, above all, work 

 in lots of good stable manure ; and be sure 

 that you do not let it spend its energies in 

 growing great weeds after you get it up to the 

 high-pressure notch. Such a piece of ground 

 will grow weeds higher than the eaves of your 

 house in an incredibly short space of time, if 

 they once get a going. 



OUR HALF-ACRE STRAWBERRY-PATCH WITH 

 PI,ANTS TWO FEET APART EACH WAY. 

 Last fall I told you about this — see diagram 

 below. We are just now having fun 

 running the wheel-hoe through it after every 

 summer shower, cultivating it in all three 

 directions, as shown in the diagram. The 

 ground is getting so soft and fine that the 

 bo3's do not dislike the job of cultivating it at 

 all; and, in fact, it is but little work to keep 

 it clean, and the ground soft and fine. The 

 plants are grov\ing amazingly. The original 

 idea was, you may remember, to take off every 

 runner as fast as it showed itself. But a diffi- 

 culty presents itself right here. As this was 

 to be a trial patch of the different varieties for 

 hill culture, it contains some very high-priced 

 plants ; and to pull off the runners and throw 

 them away would be rather extravagant ; 

 therefore we have decided to let runners grow 

 on at least a part of these valuable plants, and 

 get them to take root in little pots of jadoo. 

 After the roots have started you can clip off 

 the runner and move the plants into a shaded 

 bed.' I do not believe this vdll rob the parent 

 plant of very much vitality. It will 'be keep- 

 ing off the runners, with this difference : we 

 allow them to commence taking root before 

 we "wean" them, or before we take them 

 away from the mother-plant entirely. But I 

 tell you it is fun to have a strawberry-patch so 

 you can run the cultivator all around every 

 plant, and do it fast. The matter is so much 

 of a success at the present stage that we 

 thought best to give you a cut once more. 



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Please note that the dotted lines show how 

 we run the three-tooth Cole hand wheel-hoe. 



