26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



time. This makes it very warm, for the only 

 place the frost can get in is through the glass 

 overhead. 



Below I submit two diagrams — one a bird's- 

 eye view, and the other a cross-section from 

 north to south. After what I have said I 



BedS-x^ZR,. 



Sunken PATrt /6in.Wide. 16 Deep. 



S£Dbx24Ft 



5ui^K £~ Path 20in Wide. 20 Deep. 



Beo by^24 Ft. 



Sunken Path 20 Wide. 30 Deep ,, 

 : Bed 5 X 32 Fir. (f.Stt'^'^' 



BIRD'S EYE VIEW SHOWING THE BEDS, ETC. 



think you will understand the whole arrange- 

 ment, without any further instruction. The 

 bed on the north side, as you will notice, is 

 below the level of the ground. This makes it 

 safe from frost. We have, until lately, drawn 

 water for watering the plants from the hot- 



VrTTY!? 



CROSS SECTION OF THE GREENHOUSE FROM 

 NORTH TO SOUTH. 



water pipes overhead ; but for several reasons 

 I dislike hard water, or even water that con- 

 tains much mineral of any kind ; therefore we 

 have put in cisterns made of a length of large- 

 sized sewer-pipe, so that one edge of it runs 

 under the south path. By raising a cover we 

 can dip rain water out of either of these cis- 

 terns when we do not wish to use the well 

 water from overhead. For showering the foliage 

 I very much prefer soft rain water. The middle 

 bed furthest north, 0X24 feet, now contains 

 2500 Grand Rapids lettuce-plants. They are 

 about 3 inches apart at the first transplanting. 

 At 40 cents per 100 these transplanted lettuce- 

 plants will bring an even $10 ; and we fre- 

 quently get from 85 to §10 for the crop on one 

 of these beds in 30 days. The secret of mak- 

 ing a greenhouse pay is to have every inch of 

 space fully occupied, and have every thing 

 work under "high-pressure gardening." The 

 house was intended for hardy plants only; but 

 this year, as I have told you elsewhere, we are 

 growing some tender hot-house stuff. I have 

 also told you that our house is warmed entirely 

 by exhaust steam from our factory. Well, the 

 day before Christmas the factory was not run- 

 ning because it was Sunday; and of course we 

 did not run on Christmas, so there were two 

 days without any heat ; and before we started 



up Tuesday morning the thermometer was 

 only 10° above zero ; and to save my tender 

 plants I set thtm down in the deep path on 

 the south side, and then covered the path with 

 newspapers. Not a plant was injured. The 

 lettuce-plants up in the beds showed some 

 frost, but not encuigh to do them any harm. 

 If you put your tender plants in pots, so they 

 can be set down in the paths during severe 

 nights, you can manage without being obliged 

 to keep up a fire all night. 



The house is warmed by exhaust steam run- 

 ning through stone sewer-pipe under the beds, 

 and by hot-water pipes overhead just under 

 the glass. But such a structure would grow a 

 great variety of hardy stuff without any heat 

 at all except that from the sun ; and further 

 south they could be used for wintering over 

 even tender plants, or any thing that is likely 

 to be injured by frost during extremes of wea- 

 ther. Of course, the structure could be warm- 

 ed by a flue, hot manure, or any of the meth- 

 ods usually employed to warm frames or green- 

 houses. In our case the exhaust steam runs 

 from east to west through the south bed ; then 

 it turns and goes back from west to east under 

 the next bed, and so on, in a zigzag way, from 

 one end of the house to the oiher, until it 

 comes out in the open air at the northeast cor- 

 ner. Plants that need a good deal of heat go 

 directly over the underground sewer-pipes, 

 while very hardy stuff does nicely around next 

 to the outside walls. 



Perhaps you may care to know what I am 

 doing with that pretty little greenhouse just 

 now. I will tell you. In visiting the various 

 parks I have often commented on the orna- 

 mental foliage-beds. Perhaps the finest show 

 of plants and flowers I ever saw anywhere in 

 the whole wide world was at Lincoln Park, 

 Chicago. I have seen more expensive places, 

 and many beautiful residences in Bermuda, as 

 well as the millionaires' gardens in California 

 and Florida. But money does not always pur- 

 chase things I enjoy most. Near Burpee's 

 place, at a little station in one of the suburbs 

 of Philadelphia, I saw a bed made of colei, 

 geraniums, and dusty miller — at least that is 

 what I call the latter — that filled my soul with 

 delight. I looked on it again and again, and 

 drank in inspiration and joy from just that 

 little bed of plants perhaps not more than two 

 or three rods square. Well, I am planning to 

 have something of the sort near the Home of 

 the Honey-bees. Of course, I am going to 

 have all of the honey-plants in handsome 

 shape, and then I am going to have a " posy- 

 garden " of my own. I have lately been tak- 

 ing down my books on flowers, and have read 

 with great delight Peter Henderson and Prof. 

 Bailey, as well as the books and catalogs of 

 our great florists. In potting strawberry 

 plants in jadoo fiber, as we have been doing 

 for two or three years past, I have begun to 

 think there are some special features about 

 the little cheap earthen pots that make things 

 grow ; but it was not until I was almost or 

 quite 60 years old that I paid enough atten- 

 tion to books on flowers to get hold of the 

 idea that many if not all plants could be made 

 to make astonishing progress by starting them 



