1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



449 



he did not go to the penitentiary. I have 

 never heard of his doing a thing of the kind 

 since. Now, dear friends, I do not know just 

 what is right and proper in such emergencies. 

 May be hundreds and thousands of those who 

 spend long weary years in the penitentiary 

 might have been good and useful citizens if 

 some good Samaritan had happened around 

 just in time to prevent the havoc it makes in 

 any community to arrest a man for crime. Of 

 course, it is true that, if no one were punish- 

 ed, criminals would soon get an idea that 

 there was not very much risk any way ; but I 

 would suggest right here that, when a man or 

 boy commits his first crime, it is well to err 

 on the side of charity. Do not be in haste to 

 think any person has gone over to Satan, body 

 and soul, because he has been entrapped for 

 the first time during one evil hour. At the 

 same time, let us beware how we ignore law 

 or permit our laws to be trampled under foot 

 as a dead letter. 



I have not said any thing in this talk about 

 the disposal of the tares at the final harvest. 

 God's angels will execute judgment, and 

 take care of those who are willfully and delib- 

 erately and persistently wicked. I have only 

 touched on that part of the text that treats 

 particularly of our responsibility in the mat- 

 ter, and to urge upon you all to deliberate 

 carefully, when you undertake to root out the 

 tares, what the ultimate consequences may be; 

 and if what appears to be tares to us at the 

 time may ultimately result in something that 

 bears good wheat at harvest, then let us take 

 courage while we work and pray; and let us 

 remember the reminder of that old saint in 

 our teachers' meeting — "Jesus died for him ;" 

 and when we are called upon to pay a debt 

 that we ourselves never contracted, in order 

 to save somebody else from ruin, let us remem- 

 ber how the dear Savior, in a like manner, 

 " paid it all, and made v&free.''' 



I.EVEI, CUIvTIVATION AND DUST MUI,CH. 



The following, from the Farm and Fireside, 

 agrees so nearly with my experience that I 

 have thought best to give it entire, with re- 

 marks and suggestions of my own all the way 

 through : 



I wish to talk of the importance of so planting seed 

 in the ground as to admit of level cultivation through- 

 out the season. All plants vyhich under the old system 

 required " hilling up " should be started in trenches, 

 the depth varying with the different sorts, so that 

 when summer tillage is fairly under way the whole 

 surface of the garden or field is as nearly as possible 

 flat ; thus the rake or cultivator can be brought close 

 to the stalk of each plant. 



T. B. Terry says in our potato-book that the 

 hilling-up fashion might be all right if we 

 could get nice mellow dirt enough from some- 

 where to fill in between and make the ground 

 level. That is, it is an excellent idea to have 

 the potatoes down so well in the ground that 



they will not get sunburnt. But it is a fearful 

 thing to run a shovel-plow through the pota- 

 toes, and pile the dirt up almost as straight as 

 you can get it, just before a prolonged and se- 

 vere drouth ; so you see the suggestion of 

 starting things in trenches is all right ; but I 

 should say you want your ground first thor- 

 oughly underdrained, and worked up and en- 

 riched clear down as low as you need to put 

 your trenches. 



It is very well understood nowadays that many lat- 

 eral roots of certain crops — notably those of corn — 

 grow so near the surface that they are often seri- 

 ously injured by the plow and hoe as they were for- 

 merly used. But this is not the subject of my present 

 communication, which is about the conservation of 

 moisture by surface cultivation. Readersof the Farm, 

 and Fireside are familiar with the arguments ; but re- 

 sults of personal experience, recorded by a careful ob- 

 server, are never without value if on a subject of gen- 

 eral importance. 



I use my garden somewhat as an experiment station. 

 I test theories, and am nearly as well satisfied by fail- 

 ure as success ; a false theory can not be exploded too 

 promptly. I have tested the theory of dust mulch for 

 three seasons under conditions which made the test a 

 severe one. The garden is on the crown of a small 

 hill, the ground sloping away in three directions. 



Here is another point I would emphasize. 

 Not all of us can have our garden ground right 

 on the crown of a hill ; but we all can, by 

 taking a little pains, have the ground so there 

 are no hollows where water can stand during 

 a severe rain — I do not mean so as to kill 

 plants, but it hurts things to have it stand 

 long enough to make a hard crust ; and in our 

 clay soil we wish to avoid, if possible, having 

 the ground ever get so wet that the water 

 stands in puddles, and then dries down hard. 

 To prevent this we have open ditches clear 

 around the outside of almost all of our fields ; 

 and we try to have the ground slope toward 

 these open ditches. Every time the piece is 

 prepared for a crop we do a little in the way 

 of grading. When we have tremendous rain- 

 storms so that every thing is too wet, we want 

 the surplus water to run away as soon as pos- 

 sible in the surface ditches and channels we 

 have prepared for it. The success of the dust 

 mulch depends very much indeed on having 

 your ground properly arranged, not only with 

 under drains but surface drains, and then hav- 

 ing all the hollows filled up where water might 

 otherwise stand. 



It is hot when the sunshine pours upon it, and there 

 were days last summer when the leaves of all the suc- 

 culent plants lay flat upon the ground, and even those 

 of the bush beans hung wilted on their stalks ; yet 

 with an abundant supply of water having a strong 

 pressure, and hose with which I could reach all parts 

 of the garden, not a pint of water was used through- 

 out that almost rainless summer. I had pursued the 

 same course the two previous seasons to some extent, 

 but my resolution had given way at times, with not 

 beneficial results, I thought. Last summer I stood 

 firm, and there was not a day when the roots of the 

 plants were not in damp soil, and not a crop suffered 

 serious disaster. 



I had had a lesson which prepared me for dust 

 mulch. The first season I worked my present garden 

 I used the hose liberally, causing the ground to be 

 well wetted when there was no rain. This required a 

 good deal of time — for which I had to pay — to keep 

 the ground moist ; but the garden looked well and 

 gave good promise. 



Right here is the greatest objection to irri- 

 gation. I presume many a man, like myself, 

 after he has got his tanks, piping, and engine 

 ready to pump the water, has found out it cost 



